This parable about persistence reveals that the point isn’t to always work hard. The point is that faith can demand it.
For Sunday
Proper 24C
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
From Luke 18:1-8
“Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”
Reflection
In this gospel story, we get a parable of persistence. And I have a feeling that it feels really instructive.
It is a short parable. But it is a masterclass in connecting with the audience’s need to find enough confidence to persist. There is no doubt that the hearer comes away ready to storm into the bosses office to go get that raise!
But…Jesus isn’t teaching us about persistence in general. He’s talking about persistence in faith. Specifically when it all feels like too much.
Just like two weeks ago, when the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith—we’re receiving this gospel passage after something dispiriting has been said. In that case, Jesus said that they would need to keep forgiving the repentant and their response amounts to Well, Jesus, to do that, we will surely need more faith than we have!
After last week’s cleansing of the ten with leprosy, Jesus speaks of dark times ahead: a time of division and death. But he also speaks of persisting in the midst of it. Keeping faith during the dark hours.
Persistence
This parable about persistence in prayer is not about the general sense of persistence. And it isn’t even really about the prayer. It’s about our relationship with God when we feel most lost or abandoned.
I speak a lot about context precisely because this parable reads completely differently when we read the preceding verses about the days before Noah entered the ark, remembering the lesson of Lot’s wife, and how we will feel when people vanish from our lives. This isn’t about persistence itself. It’s about persistence when we think everything is unraveling.
The pandemic brought these sensations to many. And just as many have felt relief in simply “getting on with things.” But that sense of unraveling didn’t begin in March of 2020. Nor does it feel new, if we’re being honest.
And yet, keeping faith today in light of our circumstances is certainly the point. That dark times are not proof that should lead to unfaith. It is the quintessential time for keeping faith. For showing boldness and inventiveness and persistence in pushing for what is most needed.
Persistence, not only in prayer, but in God’s justice, is the only true response to tumultuous times.