I totally and utterly forgot to record either the children's talk or the main service. Apologies.
Children's Talk
I wonder if you’ve ever noticed how many names end in “el” –
I’m thinking of names like Daniel or Joel or Michael or Gabriel.
These names usually have meanings, and the meaning is often something
about God. Michael, for instance, means “Who is like God?”, and
Daniel means “God is my judge”.
The thing is, the word
“El” in ancient Hebrew, was used for God. El was actually one of
the gods in Canaan, but the Israelites used it to mean just God. So
names ending in “El” all have something to do with God. In our
reading, we have Jacob fighting the angel, and the angel gives him
the name “Israel”, which means “One who struggles with God,”
And when Jacob realises that it is God with whom he has been
fighting, he calls the place where it took place “Peniel”. This,
apparently, means “The Face of God”.
One thing to
notice about the story, apart from the names, is that Jacob refuses
to let the angel go until he blesses him. Jacob is wounded and in
pain from his hip, but he will not give in. He persisted. And
we’re going to hear a story that Jesus told, in a minute, about
someone who persisted. And we’re told that we, too, should persist
in prayer.
Prayer is a funny thing, isn’t it? We know
that God knows what we need even before we ask. And often, we aren’t
even really asking anything specific, especially when it’s
intercessory prayer – prayer for other people. We’ll say “God
here’s this person with this need, could you do something?” And
sometimes God says, yes, here’s this person with this need, what
are you going to do about it?
We can’t, of
course, make someone feel better if they’re not well, but we can
text them and say we’re thinking of them;
if new children come
to your school who don’t yet speak much English, you can befriend
them, show them what they need to know –
where the toilets
are, for instance, or where to go when it’s lunchtime.
If
someone’s being bullied, you can help them report it, or just stay
with them so the bullies can’t get at them.
That sort of
thing.
And the grown-ups will have their equivalents, too.
It’s
important to be open to what God might be asking you to do. You
don’t have to be BFF with the new kid in your class – but you do
have to be helpful and friendly! And you might get a new friend out
of it, who knows? But even if you don’t, what you will get is help
from God to be nice! So don’t stop asking!
---oo0oo---
Nevertheless, she persisted
You know, I think Jesus must have a terrific sense of humour. It’s
not always easy to find his parables funny, as we are so used to
hearing them read in a solemn “I’m-reading-the-Bible” voice
that we don’t hear the light and shade in them. But I wouldn’t
be in the least surprised if he meant his story of the unjust judge
to be funny.
I mean, there is this judge, who seems to
like nobody but himself – he doesn’t serve God, and rather
despises his fellow-humans. And the widow, who has a cast-iron claim
against someone else, who is demanding justice. And not getting it.
And the judge keeps on telling her to push off, probably putting it
rather more strongly, and yet she keeps on coming back, and keeps on
coming back, and finally he gives in and does what she asks.
I
am reminded, reading the story again, of the phrase “Nevertheless,
she persisted”, which became fashionable a few years ago when they
tried to shut up a woman senator in the USA who was saying things
thought to be inappropriate – unparliamentary, we would call them
in this country. The then Senate majority leader explained, “Senator
Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the
rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she
persisted.”
And “Nevertheless, she persisted”
became a rallying cry among women of all ages, nationalities and
classes. Particularly, I think, in the USA, where women’s freedom
is under threat in many ways, although not, of course, as badly as in
Afghanistan. And this woman, this widow, is the absolute archetype
of someone who persisted, even though she was told to go away and
stop being a nuisance. And in the end, she got her way, purely
because of her persistence.
We call the story “the
unjust judge”, but really, it’s about the widow, isn’t it?
Widows, back in the day, had very little status. They may well have
been living in absolute poverty, totally dependent on charity. Mind
you, it was part of God’s law that widows, orphans and “aliens”
or immigrants be looked after by those who had it to spare. In the
book of Deuteronomy, indeed, chapter 27 and verse 19, you are cursed
if you do not look after the alien, the widow or the orphan. These
people have no male protector to look after them, so it’s your
job!
You can’t really equate the judge with God, nor the
widow with us, although it does feel like that sometime. One source
I read when researching this sermon pointed out that it’s really
about a flea biting a dog.
It’s amazing how disturbing a
small irritant can be. Think of what it’s like when you get a
mosquito in your room, and you can hear it whining and whining, but
you can’t see it – nor, indeed, feel it until next day when you
have one or several itchy bites on your person! As the song says “A
flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome!”
Women
persist. Women always have persisted. As American writer Valerie
Schultz put it: “We women persist. Isn’t that our job? Throughout
history, we have persisted in our quest for respect, for justice, for
equal rights, for suffrage, for education, for enfranchisement, for
recognition, for making our voices heard. In the face of violence, of
opposition, of ridicule, of belittlement, even of jail time,
nevertheless, we have persisted.”
And because of our
persistence, things have happened. Women, in most countries, can now
vote – in the UK, universal suffrage only became a thing in 1928,
less than a century ago, and in many countries it didn’t happen
until more recently. It’s only since 1975 that women can open a
bank account or take out a mortgage or even a credit card without a
male guarantor – 1975. That’s only 50 years ago! Well within
many of our lifetimes.
But in theory, at any rate, women
have equal rights with men in this country, although there are still
visible pay gaps in certain industries, and for many, other factors
such as race come into play. I’m well aware that I’m speaking
from a position of White privilege – and a privileged background,
at that! I went to an all-girls’ school, and there was no nonsense
about girls not being good at STEM subjects, or anything like that.
Sadly, though, in many countries women do not
have equal rights, particularly in Afghanistan, and
many of my American women friends are afraid that their rights are
being eroded.
But back to our parable. It’s not an
allegory, you can’t just equate the judge with God and the woman
with us, but it is about prayer. God is not an unjust judge –
God’s greatest delight, after all, is to give us more and more;
remember when Nathan confronted David after he’d had an affair with
Bathsheba and got her husband killed? God said to David, through
Nathan, that had what he already had not been enough, God would have
delighted in giving him twice as much!
Prayer is an odd
sort of activity, isn’t it? Especially what’s called intercessory
prayer, which is when we ask God for other people, and for ourselves.
You would think God would know people’s needs before they ask –
and of course, God does! But we are told to pray; it seems in the
Bible that it’s absolutely indispensable. Jesus assumed that people
prayed; you might remember that he said “When you pray....”
rather than “if”. Yet God already knows people’s needs. Like
when you see on social media that a friend is poorly or something,
and you stop what you’re doing and say a little prayer for them,
even something like, “Dear God, please look after them and help
them feel better.” God already knew they didn’t feel great....
I
don’t know why we are told to pray, but we are. It seems as if
prayer creates a condition, an energy if you like, that enables God
to work. I do know that when we pray, things change. We change. The
more we pray, I think, the closer we come to God, and the more we are
enabled to see things from God’s point of view. We aren’t telling
God what to do, although it might start off feeling like that; we are
barely even asking, other than to say here’s this person with this
need, can you do something about it? And, as I said to the children,
sometimes God says, yes, here’s this person with this need, what
are you going to do about it?
That’s
the thing, isn’t it? We are very often called to be the answer to
our own prayers. We can’t make someone feel better if they are ill
– but we can make them feel loved and appreciated by visiting them,
or sending flowers or a card or a tiny present of some kind. We can,
and indeed should, welcome new people into our churches and
communities, telling them about local activities and community groups
or sports clubs they might like; as I said to the children, at school
they can help newcomers, especially those who don’t speak much
English.
It’s more difficult when it comes to bigger
issues, though. We can often help our family and friends, and I do
think that it’s always right to name their names before God and to
ask God’s blessing on them. I think, too, we need to do the same
for our leaders. I know it feels counter-intuitive to pray for
someone whose views are not our own, and which, indeed, we may find
abhorrent, but we are told to pray for our leaders – and, indeed,
for our enemies.
Having said that, of course, we must
never sit down under injustice, and must protest it wherever we find
it, whether it’s someone at work or college being bullied or
treated unfairly by a superior, or whether the government is about to
propose something we find unjust or hateful.
Don’t
forget, of course, that we don’t have to do any of this in our own
strength. The one who calls us will enable us! God delights, as I
said above, in giving us what we need and more than that! One of the
best things we can pray for is for more of God’s good gifts, which
he gives us for his delight, but which do, incidentally, enable us to
serve him better.
We seem to have got away from the
persistent widow. But she is our example. God is not an unjust
judge, but we still need to persist in prayer, and in doing what we
can to bring about the answers to our prayer, if it’s something
obvious we can do. Because, you see:
God is not an unjust
judge.
God is never going to tell us to go away and stop being a
nuisance!
God is always going to listen to us when we pray,
although sometimes the answer will not be what we expect.
God
loves us and delights in being generous to us!
Amen!
