Introduction

If the Bible were full of good people it would be singularly unhelpful and probably rather boring. The scriptures Paul urgently commends to us, though, are teeming with deeply flawed people who struggle in faith, but with whom God can do remarkable things. God even uses unpleasant people to teach us about him. This Bible journey from Adam to Jesus, and ever deeper into the discovery of God, is good news for all of us who are embarrassed by our past and worried for our future. The unsettling thought, though, is that God may yet have good things to achieve through people we think are really awful! She may ask us to be part of the answer to our own prayers.

 

Context

Persistent calls for justice for Hillsborough bore fruit after twenty five years. Now there is a petition to investigate police behaviour at Orgreave during the 1984 miners’ strike.

Charlotte, North Carolina, finally quietens down, but black Americans still have to persist in calling for just treatment by the Police and the justice system.

It has been the ugliest week yet in the American presidential campaign, and we may marvel at the persistence of two deeply flawed candidates whose past keeps catching up and embarrassing them. What good can come of it?

 

Reflection

It’s worth remembering why Jacob is alone on the river bank (Genesis 32.22-31). He’s afraid of his own past and afraid of the future. Having deceived his brother Esau horribly, to steal his father’s death-bed blessing, he is now seeking reconciliation but, rather like the prodigal returning to his father, it’s not obviously out of penitence. It seems more to be self-interest. He has sent lavish gifts of livestock in groups over to his brother to soften him up, but still fears a violent reception. He is alone. Indeed, the sin of theft always leaves a person very lonely, hunted and afraid. His titanic struggle with the stranger-God is a kind of prayer. It is impressive, mysterious and moving, yet is a kind of pointless-seeming wordless turmoil that leaves him vulnerable, limping out of the early morning mist. Not for the last time, a troubled human has a sleepless night, their own mistakes wrestling with their frightening consequences. This primeval encounter is an early stage in the Hebrews’ discovery of what it is like to know God. This clumsy man, whom God will make a father figure to a whole nation, wants to pin down the divine figure with a name. The name is not given but, rather, Jacob’s name is changed to ‘Struggles with God’ (Israel) and that name will stick for millennia, applying to the whole nation of his descendants. Moses will again ask God for a name and get a half-answer (Exodus 3), but will also go on to struggle with God year after year, alone, caught as intercessor between God and Her people.

Paul acknowledges the Christian persistence, the exhausting ‘utmost patience,’ required to be an intercessor and teacher between the world and God, making Christ known when it’s gladly heard and when it is out of season (1 Tim 3.14–4.5).

By the time Jesus introduces us to the widow in Luke, then, we’re primed to admire her powerless persistence and to see its distinct quality. She may or may not be good. She is not interceding but pleading for herself. If she does win her case, though, it could be a new beginning for all women in her position. If she were a young black man in America today seeking equality before the law, or a woman seeking justice for sexual harassment in an America led by ‘President Trump’, we could see the prophetic power of her tenacity. After we have dwelt on this parable about prayer, then, Jesus perhaps wants us to reconsider our own behaviour towards each other. If we grumpily, selfishly do the right thing sometimes, how few frustrated prayers would be needed if we were as open-hearted with each other as God is with us.

Jesus insists that God hears and responds more eagerly and generously than the heartless judge. To this day we may question Jesus about this confident assertion. It is hard to trust. The difficult good news is that struggle is near the heart of faith, not a mere side effect. Then the very difficult good news is that God can use our least favourite people to do His greatest work. There may be a few apparently good, serene individuals who at least remind us not to be self-indulgent (Psalm 121), but somehow our connection with God is in the wrestling, the exhausting patience and the hammering. No wonder St Paul warned it would not always be well received.

 

Prayer

A deliberately inconclusive prayer provoked by today’s three readings, naming some big issues out there, then folding back into our own lives.

As we watch Jacob struggle, we wonder how President Assad, President Putin and the authorities in Saudi Arabia can sleep at night. Are they struggling, God? Wrestle them down until they see what they have done, and how terrible the future if they persist…but are we implicated? Should we be struggling, too?

As we watch the widow banging on the judge’s door, we wonder how anyone finds the strength to keep praying in Aleppo, in Yemen, in Haiti. Open the door, heartless God, and answer! Bring them justice! Comfort them…or is it we who should open the door of our hearts?

As we hear Paul’s stern injunction to speak of you, we wonder at the courage of those who have given their lives for the gospel. Protect the persecuted! Look after your own people who struggle with you!... But (dare we pray?) stir us to speak of you. Show us what it means to convince, rebuke and encourage with the utmost patience in our time and culture.

A more spacious, searching prayer time could be opened up, inviting people to bring to mind the public figures they find most difficult at the moment, asking God what good may come of their life, and what God has to teach us through them.

 

Questions

Jesus teasingly casts an ugly, unkind character in the parable to represent God. This does two things.

• First, it admits how frustrating prayer can be. How would you encourage someone who prays and thinks God is not listening?
• Second, this horrible judge illustrates the kind of irritable god the Pharisees’ mean attitude points to. From the point of view of a stranger who has not yet heard the gospel, what kind of god do you imagine the church’s demeanour witnesses to?

 

Action

In a deft move to undermine Jeremy Corbyn (former chair of the Stop the War Coalition), Boris Johnson asked why the Coalition is not demonstrating outside the Russian Embassy. An intriguing suggestion coming from him, perhaps, but, as the unjust judge did the right thing for the wrong reasons, is there any wisdom in his suggestion? Might we find ways of publicly demonstrating our concern about conflict through powerless persistence?

 

Young people

Have a look at the government website and see the promise that the government will at least ‘respond’ to a petition with 10,000 signatures and will hold a parliamentary debate on any that reach 100,000. Click on ‘Start now’ to access the petitions currently open for signatures, or to start one of your own. Are there any you wish to sign? We feel powerless as individuals, but can have some influence if we are persistent, and especially acting together.

 

 

David Warbrick is Vicar of All Saints Kings Heath. He says he needs a ‘Vicarage’ sign inside his porch to remind him not to be grumpy when anyone bangs on the door.

 

Hypertext links to other websites are for the convenience of users only and do not constitute any endorsement or authorisation by ROOTS for Churches Ltd.

 

PostScript is also available via Twitter and facebook

ROOTS publishes weekly lectionary-based worship and learning resources online and in two magazines.