How do we endure in an unjust world?
A sermon for the twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, from Fr Greg Davies
As I watched on our TV screens last week, the relief, excitement and emotions of the people of Israel welcoming home the hostages from Gaza, and also those in Gaza welcoming home prisoners from Israel, in light of the recent cease-fire agreement: I could not help but wonder how those involved on both sides of this awful conflict could endure over these past two years – how could they hold on to their faith or cause in the midst of such injustice, pain and suffering? I could help but ask myself – would I have been able to endure in such circumstances?
Our readings this morning perhaps can go some of the way in helping us as followers of Jesus, answer that question as they all are about faithful endurance in the midst of conflict.
In our first reading from Genesis, we hear the familiar story of Jacob wrestling with a stranger (although at the end of the story Jacob believes he has wrestled with God). The context is that Jacob is about to be confronted with his brother Esau – of whom he has good reason to be afraid, given the history between them as Jacob took his birthright through trickery. So, he sends his company ahead to somehow appease Esau with a present. In the wrestling with the stranger, Jacob ultimately wins a blessing which he gains through his own pain and effort, and which results in him receiving a new name and identity – a new sense of value, albeit at the cost of a permanent limp. The main point of this story is not so much who won (and we don’t really know that in any case), but that Jacob, we are told, did not give up – even when he was hurt. Jacob persists in this struggle and in so doing is rewarded.
Faithfulness and persistence, we also see in our second reading when Paul urges his audience to persist in proclaiming the gospel that they have received irrespective of the circumstances – be they favourable or unfavourable. Clearly, it seems the times were not favourable, but again Paul is urging his community to persist and endure, no matter the challenges they face, as people so often are only open to hear what they want to hear, or to have their own positions affirmed. We see this is increasingly the case in our own public discourse today, in the media or online where any view or perspective that is different from what someone believes is immediately rejected and labelled ‘fake news’.
The parable in our gospel continues with this theme of persistence and endurance as Jesus teaches his disciples in this entire chapter of Luke – the most appropriate way for them to pray during the challenging time of waiting for the full arrival of the kingdom.
On a first reading of this parable it would seem that we are being encouraged to pray to God in a way, that like the woman did to the judge and try to wear God down to grant our requests or pleas. But actually, on the contrary, the parable highlights the true nature of our God when in verses 6 and 7 we read: And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? In other words, using the kind of logic that says: if the unjust judge will at long last, albeit through self-interested motives, grant justice to the woman, how much more certainly will the God of all goodness grant justice to his disciples who pray or cry out to him day and night?
Here I believe is the basis or foundation of why as disciples of Jesus we can endure – we can persist in our prayers and actions for justice in our world, because of our faith in a God who has our best interests at heart and reassures us that our cries, pleas, needs and prayers are heard, especially during times when we may feel we are up against a brick wall, so to speak, and nothing is changing.
It is not surprising given the context in which Jesus is telling this parable and the significant resistance that he has to confront to his proclamation of the Good News – that he ends the parable with the question about faith. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
As individuals this challenge to endure and persist in prayer and action to our God can seem daunting. After all I am sure we have all had times when we feel we cannot pray – I am overwhelmed or I cannot find the words – or it all just seems pointless. Yet we need to remember that this call for persistence in prayer is not only to us as individuals but to us all as community – as the church. It is as much, if not more so, a call for the church to be faithful, persistent and enduring in its prayer, that in turn can carry us as individuals, especially when we cannot carry ourselves. So, when you struggle to pray, call upon your church and all its resources – such as the Daily Office, and here at St Peter’s our daily Mass together with all the resources that can be found in our book room or online and even more importantly just from one another.
When we as Christians come up against a world that is so unjust, unfair, discriminatory and violent in so many ways, persistent and enduring prayer surely has to be central to our response – to our way of life that empowers us not to lose hope but remain confident in the nature of God that our Lord Jesus reveals. This means giving ongoing attention to our prayer life – it needs to be intentional and regular, it needs to be nurtured, it needs to change and grow so that we can persist and endure - and that the Lord will indeed find us faithful when he comes.