Let us pray: O God of persistent, loving care, inspire our faith, enkindle our hope, and assure us of your love through these words. All this we ask in the name of the Holy and undivided Trinity, one God. Amen.
Faith, hope, and love. This is the trinitarian theme of our pledge campaign this year and our recent adult education series. Over our three-week session, we gathered for Evening Prayer, a simple shared meal, and explored faith, hope, and love in art, cooking, bible study, or story sharing. Over the past few Sundays, Bingham’s sermons have talked about faith. Last Sunday we heard about the faith of the one leper who returned, whose faith had made him well, he trusted in God, returned and gave thanks. And the Sunday before, we heard about the apostles’ request of Jesus, “Increase our faith!” and we were reminded that what little seeds of faith that WE have are enough, that WE are enough, and that our loving God will grow these seeds in community and love. Now, I’m sure that ALL of you very carefully and attentively read, marked, and inwardly digested the spiritual letter that is the basis for this year’s pledge campaign. No? Well, just in case you need a quick refresher, here it is. In this letter Bingham and I invited you to consider your pledge as a spiritual practice, as a way to help grow your faith, deepen your hope, and expand your love. Through trusting in God and joining together in the good work of our St. Mary’s faith community, we participate in bringing about God’s dream as we join together in faith, and with hope, to bring God’s love to our world.
In today’s parable we see these same themes on display. In the story of the persistent widow, we are invited to consider our communication with God, our prayers and requests, and the ways in which God responds. We have two main human characters in this parable, the judge who “…Neither feared God nor had respect for people.” Later named the “unjust judge”, a bit ironic, but a very real possibility. And we have a widow who keeps coming to him asking for justice. It seems that she somehow got through to him, she wore him out with her persistent requests. Jesus then compares this judge with God. If even this terrible judge finally granted this woman justice how much more will our loving God listen to our pleas, and quickly answer our prayers, granting us justice? Now, this brings up a big question for us. The question of unanswered prayers. God doesn’t always give us what we want, the way we want, when we want. At least, that hasn’t been my experience. In many cases we pray and pray, and hope, and cry out in despair, and terrible thing still happen to us and to our loved ones, and terrible things keep happening all around us in our world. What we pray for isn’t always what we get, BUT…God ALWAYS hear us, and because of God’s goodness and lovingkindness toward us, we DO get what we need to somehow make it through. What we receive is what will sustain us—a loving sense of God’s presence. God hears. God knows. God cares. And God offers us the strength we need to persevere, to survive. By continuing to pray, by trusting in God’s goodness, believing and hoping, we move forward knowing God is with us. As we seek to live in this hope, we do what we can to partner with God to strive for justice and peace in our world today. Justice for those who, like the widow, have no voice or power in the world today. Peace for those who are hurting, hungry, and feeling alone. Love for those who are feeling unworthy, unlovable. And in this very act of OUR persistence, OUR crying out to God for justice, we partner with God to share hope and bring love to our hurting world. God IS acting in our world, in us and through us and with us, to bring about the dream of beloved community. This is our work here at St. Mary’s. And the many ways that we do this work rely on your support, on your sharing of time, talent, and treasure.
Our hope in God, our faith, our trust and desire to partner with God and our Saint Mary’s community to seek and serve Christ in everyone we meet, to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being, these
are the reasons we make our pledges--to empower the ministry of God at work here in this community. Now, if you are a first-timer or a visitor here today, I have no expectation whatsoever of you filling out a pledge card and letting us know how you will step out in faith and hope to share God’s love today. Of course, I DO encourage you to give to support YOUR faith community or other charity doing good work for the healing of our world. But as for the rest of you…I am asking you all, here and now, if you haven’t yet completed your pledge card, please do it today! Join with us, in faith, trusting in God’s goodness and abundance, and in hopeful expectation of the many ways that God’s love will be shared this next year thanks to your generosity. And so, my siblings in Christ, let us be persistent in our prayers, confident in the knowledge that God hears us and joins with us in bringing love and justice to our world.
Amen.
