St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
October 16, 2022
Year C, Proper 24: The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8
Answered Prayers
Today is Outreach Sunday when we are blessed to hear from leaders of some of our truly amazing ministry partners – people who are out there serving others, week after week, year after year.
I’d like to say just a few words about the parable that I just read – what’s often called the Parable of the Persistent Widow.
Although we don’t know much about the two characters in this parable, they’re both vivid and memorable – and they may even remind us of people we know!
We’re told the judge “neither feared God nor had respect for people.”
And, while in Scripture and elsewhere, widows are often depicted as weak and defenseless, this particular widow is a tough customer. We might say that she even harasses the judge, relentlessly demanding justice – a word that in this case can also be translated as “vengeance” – which kind of changes things, doesn’t it?
Well, the judge finally gives in, out of exhaustion or even fear. He says that he’s concerned that she will wear him out. But the original Greek can also be translated that he’s afraid she’s going to punch him in the eye!
Jesus uses this strange and unsettling parable as an opportunity to encourage us to pray persistently.
I’m all for praying persistently.
And, in fact, I believe that prayer is and has to be the foundation of the renewal that we see happening here at St. Thomas’ – it’s why this fall we’re reading a book called Learning to Pray and why we’ve added a weekly service of Morning Prayer, with even more opportunities for prayer coming in the months and years ahead.
So, I’m all for praying persistently.
But during the last few days leading up to Outreach Sunday, I’ve been thinking about the people all around us who have already been praying persistently. People like the clients at Paul’s Place and the Community Crisis Center, praying persistently that they will have enough food to feed their families, enough diapers to keep their children clean and comfortable.
People like the parents, teachers, and administrators of Owings Mills Elementary School, praying persistently that their school will have enough resources – praying that their children will be safe, that they will learn and grow, and build lives of meaning and prosperity.
People like the refugees who have fled war, oppression, and poverty, praying persistently for a warm welcome - praying for peace, freedom and opportunity.
And here’s the thing: I believe that God invites us to help answer the persistent prayers of these people and others.
Not out of exhaustion and certainly not fear, but out of love and gratitude.
In fact, I wonder if we shouldn’t change the name of “Outreach” to “Answered Prayers!”
As it happens, yesterday was the Feast of Teresa of Avila, the 16th Century Spanish nun, mystic, and reformer.
And I’ll conclude with her words, which, now that I think about it, could be the mission statement for “Answered Prayers” -
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Amen.
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