WEBVTT - This file was automatically generated by VIMEO 0 00:00:05.800 --> 00:00:08.500 I read recently. Someone said 1 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:11.700 don't do one-off God botherings, but 2 00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:14.300 enter into a long-term relationship of being 3 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:16.500 bothered about God's concerns. 4 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:21.300 For Luke - it was important that Christians did not lose heart. 5 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:25.500 The immediate context for Luke was the fact that Jesus had 6 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:27.200 not returned to claim his own. 7 00:00:28.900 --> 00:00:31.900 That the world remained a difficult place for God's people which 8 00:00:31.900 --> 00:00:34.400 good seem to be overcome all too easily. 9 00:00:35.900 --> 00:00:38.500 Like all Parables this one tells a 10 00:00:38.500 --> 00:00:40.100 seemingly ordinary story. 11 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:43.600 in this case one of judicial corruption 12 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:47.700 and a determined plaintiff who badgers the judge into 13 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:51.100 acting in order to make his, the judge's own 14 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:51.500 life easier. 15 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:53.200 But there is more. 16 00:00:54.500 --> 00:00:55.600 The Supreme judge. 17 00:00:56.500 --> 00:01:00.300 In this story, of course is God who is 18 00:00:59.300 --> 00:01:01.500 just and merciful. 19 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:05.600 The contrast between the two judges could not be clearer. 20 00:01:06.600 --> 00:01:09.100 The judge and the parable is far from 21 00:01:09.100 --> 00:01:10.700 being in the image of God. 22 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:16.300 But it also reminds us that the experience of prayer is 23 00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:16.600 complex. 24 00:01:18.100 --> 00:01:19.000 Prayers are prayed. 25 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:21.600 But outcomes can be difficult to identify. 26 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:24.000 Does God listen? 27 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:28.500 Is the role of the one who prays to persuade 28 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:29.500 God into action? 29 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:33.600 Prayer is a complex aspect of faith. 30 00:01:34.300 --> 00:01:35.700 But here is the nub of the parable. 31 00:01:37.800 --> 00:01:39.400 Prayer is an Act of Faith. 32 00:01:41.100 --> 00:01:44.700 Just as the woman in the parable has faith in justice and 33 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:47.400 this works out albeit after a struggle. 34 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:51.200 So too is prayer part of the struggle of faith. 35 00:01:53.500 --> 00:01:56.200 Furthermore it may be a struggle, but that doesn't mean 36 00:01:56.200 --> 00:01:57.000 God is not listening. 37 00:01:58.100 --> 00:01:59.700 Nor that God does not pay attention. 38 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:02.100 if God is just 39 00:02:03.100 --> 00:02:04.700 then God's actions will be just. 40 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:08.800 God does what God says. 41 00:02:09.700 --> 00:02:12.000 And is what God does. 42 00:02:15.100 --> 00:02:16.400 It's also important to note. 43 00:02:17.100 --> 00:02:18.800 That the plaintiff is not only a woman. 44 00:02:19.700 --> 00:02:20.500 She's a widow. 45 00:02:21.700 --> 00:02:24.200 As such in that culture she would 46 00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:27.100 be an outcast especially if she was childless. 47 00:02:28.500 --> 00:02:31.200 Once again, God's focus is upon the 48 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:32.000 marginalized. 49 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:35.700 The people who are overlooked by conventional power. 50 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:41.800 This Parable may be described actually as an anti-parable. 51 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:47.000 The whole point is that God is not like the unjust judge. 52 00:02:48.200 --> 00:02:49.000 God is just 53 00:02:50.200 --> 00:02:52.400 God doesn't answer prayers because we badger. 54 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:56.200 Nor out of a feeling of guilt, nor just to please 55 00:02:56.200 --> 00:02:57.200 us nor to get rid of us. 56 00:02:58.700 --> 00:03:01.600 Jesus addresses our reasons for giving up in 57 00:03:01.600 --> 00:03:01.900 prayer 58 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:05.000 We have the wrong idea of God. 59 00:03:06.200 --> 00:03:09.700 Who actually is eager to help us and doesn't have to be ranted 60 00:03:09.700 --> 00:03:09.800 at? 61 00:03:12.100 --> 00:03:14.700 Behind the question of answer to prayer 62 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:16.700 lies a deeper question - 63 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:20.500 the relationship between the two parties. 64 00:03:22.600 --> 00:03:26.200 The Widow could do nothing else except badger 65 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:26.600 the judge. 66 00:03:27.700 --> 00:03:30.100 Because his character prevented her relating to 67 00:03:30.100 --> 00:03:30.300 him. 68 00:03:31.700 --> 00:03:34.100 He said in verse 4. I have no respect for anyone. 69 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:37.200 By contrast 70 00:03:38.200 --> 00:03:39.400 God cares deeply for people 71 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:42.900 and prayer proceeds not as a series of complaints, 72 00:03:43.700 --> 00:03:46.400 but as an ongoing conversation of mutual concern. 73 00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:50.900 Prayer is not a matter of coercing God to do my will. 74 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:55.600 Rather as a conversation with God in which I discover 75 00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:57.600 God's care and God's will. 76 00:03:58.300 --> 00:03:59.800 And I get behind what God wants. 77 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:04.300 My prayer may be answered by God changing the 78 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:05.500 world as I ask. 79 00:04:06.500 --> 00:04:09.300 Or it may be answered by God changing what 80 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:09.800 I ask for. 81 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:13.800 Part of the essence of prayer 82 00:04:14.600 --> 00:04:16.500 that we often see in scripture as wrestling. 83 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:21.700 A relationship cannot grow unless the party's 84 00:04:21.700 --> 00:04:22.600 explore their views. 85 00:04:24.700 --> 00:04:27.700 Jesus wrestled with God In Prayer at Gethsemane 86 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:31.300 and He came to accept God's will that He drink the 87 00:04:31.300 --> 00:04:31.600 cup, 88 00:04:33.200 --> 00:04:34.800 only at the end of three hours in prayer. 89 00:04:37.400 --> 00:04:39.100 Jacob's experience in Genesis 90 00:04:40.500 --> 00:04:41.300 is similar 91 00:04:42.900 --> 00:04:43.800 wrestling with God 92 00:04:45.900 --> 00:04:46.200 and 93 00:04:47.200 --> 00:04:48.600 walking away changed 94 00:04:49.500 --> 00:04:50.400 but blessed. 95 00:04:53.900 --> 00:04:56.200 A rock climber always test a rope by swinging on 96 00:04:56.200 --> 00:04:56.300 it. 97 00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:57.700 So I've been told. 98 00:05:00.900 --> 00:05:01.900 It all links together. 99 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.600 Christian prayer is not simply submission. 100 00:05:05.400 --> 00:05:07.900 But it's also wrestling and testing. 101 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:13.300 The challenge in this reading is whether God finds us to be those 102 00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:14.900 who will be open and persistent. 103 00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:17.700 Ready to beat on the doors of Heaven. 104 00:05:18.700 --> 00:05:21.400 But also ready to be invited to sit and 105 00:05:21.400 --> 00:05:22.200 eat with God. 106 00:05:23.100 --> 00:05:24.500 Getting to know God's will better. 107 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:28.800 Will we be people who believe in God's infinite love? 108 00:05:29.700 --> 00:05:31.800 And live it in our prayer lives.