The
Cathedral Church of the Nativity
Sunday
October 16, 2016
The
Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Genesis/Luke
18:1-8
The scriptures today in the Old Testament and in the
Gospel call us to fight. Yes, I said fight. They call us to mix it up in the
ring of prayer and relationship, Faith and Life.
I
don’t know how you decide what you are willing to fight for or how it is your
conditioned when it comes to fight or flight, but the stories in our scriptures
today of Jacob’s wrestling with God and the vulnerable widow persisting with
the unjust judge is an invitation to roll up the sleeves and rumble in the ring
of faith.
These
stories are wonderful. They are about contending with God, God’s character, and
the nature of our faith life. I hope to say a word about each of these
elements.
First,
about contending with God. That is this wonderful reminder that like all
relationship that hold their worth, our relationship with God is worth our
time, effort, persistence, resilience, struggle, fight! Just like those we love
most in flesh and blood, isn’t it worth mixing it up, sorting it out,
struggling to come to love deeper, better, more faithfully? So it is for Jacob and God, Jacob’s struggle
to understand himself, Jacob and God struggling for Blessing, Jacob thinking he
needs to steal it. Or the widow in her
vulnerability and powerlessness, understanding she has little shot at actually
being heard or treated fairly in the system she lives in, choosing to persist,
to struggle, to use any means she can to pressure, persuade.
Second,
about God’s character. Isn’t it terrific what we learn about God here. Jacob is
a creep. Jacob is creepy! Jacob is hiding out because he has behaved woefully
and awfully- thinking he needs to “steal” a blessing, he finds himself in the
struggle of a lifetime with the God who shows up in his creepiness, ironically,
literally wrestling with him to deliver the very blessing Jacob thought he was
stealing. Isn’t that the way God is. Showing up, struggling through, being
willing to wrestle with creeps like us, so that we can be blessed.
And
for the widow who wrestles with the creepy judge. He doesn’t care about such
pity, powerless, worthless folk like her. Yet she persists. She wares him down,
threatening really that if she is not heard he will end up with a black eye
(maybe literally, certainly publicly).
Jesus
in this parable says, so even if this creepy scoundrel can be worn down by this
widow’s persistence, just imagine how much more God will grant, by your
persistent prayer, faith, action. For
the Love of God, Roll up your sleeves
and get in it!
Finally
about our Faith- Look, I don’t know how your conditioned to be in relationship.
I am guessing there are times in your relationships you don’t feel like you
have the time, energy, passion, or conviction to fight your way to deeper
places of love and understanding. You may at times feel despair, you may not feel
like you are being heard even, but hear the scriptures today, particularly when
it comes to your relationship with God who calls you to be faithful actors of
love in the World! Persist! Roll up your sleeves! Get in the game and fight on!
Say your prayers, even when you think they aren’t being heard, by golly just
ask Jacob how his hip feels! Or better yet, take gander at a black eye on
the face of an unjust judge who has been
worn down and worn out by some poor Christian demanding, screaming, lamenting,
persisting for justice.
Keep
the faith, say your prayers, get in the fight. You know the interesting thing
about us…..we want to know who wins right?
Who wins the fight? Jacob? The widow?
God? What do you think?
Contending with God
The Character of God
-God mixes it
up, Shows up, in the struggle
-(How much
more…… If vulnerable, powerless, woman can even wear this creep down, How much
more you can expect God’s justice/satisfaction)
(Even when we think God is silent….contend…contend…)
Nature of Christian Faith
-Longing of
Faith, Activism that is stoked in the
faith
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