Luke 18:1-8.

In this parable told by Jesus, an unjust judge ignores the pleas for justice from a very persistent widow. He finally grants her justice because her persistence wears him down.

Is Jesus telling us to nag God like the unfortunate widow? The longer and louder our prayer, the better we can bargain with God? When Jesus talks about God's people crying out to God day and night I see this in the context of community lament. It is a cry for justice, for peace, for fairness and it is political.

This parable is not a general teaching about intercessory prayer and how you can get your prayer for a better job answered. It is about yearning for change so the world can be more like the world as God intended it to be. The cry of the people of God is unceasing and loud and it pours out of millions of people.

We live with the affirmation that God does care even though solutions are often slow in coming, and we find ourselves sustained in our waiting by the faith communities we belong to. In the church, we support each other in our waiting and hoping so we never give in to despair.

On Sunday at Trinity we will be welcoming some new members into our congregation. I will be saying to them and all the members that through the heartaches of life we support each other and through that support, we find God faithful and we find we are not alone. Faith and hope are possible no matter how bad it gets.

Rev. Chris Howard
19th. October, 2007