Let us pray. Open our hearts and minds to your Word today, O God. May my reflections open your Word to those who hear and may you speak to each of us in your own way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I don’t know if any of you were Lone Ranger fans, but I certainly was. I listened to the radio with my Dad. Later we watched on TV and then with my daughter Heather, we watched reruns of the reruns. I remember one scene involving prayer that has always stuck in my head. The scene is a Spanish Mission with the Lone Ranger and Tonto on their horses facing a monk with a tonsured haircut wearing a coarse brown robe girded with rope. His hands are folded in front of him. He looks meek and unworldly. Scout and Silver are straining, ready to leap forward and gallop away while the Lone Ranger and Tonto seem very determined.

The monk says something about going with them.

“You are a brave man, Father,” says the masked man, “but it may be dangerous. You had better stay here where it’s safe.”

“But I want to help,” pleads the monk.

The strong, kind eyes of the masked man fasten on the man of God. “You can. You can pray.”

The great white horse rears up, and with a wave of his hat a hearty “Height-Ho-Silver—Awa-a-a-ay!” the Lone Ranger and his faithful companion gallop off to the danger that awaits them.

The camera of the imagination doesn’t follow the monk into the church to pray, but chases after the horsemen as they disappear into the desert. That’s where the action is.

Let’s face it. In spite of all the reverence surrounding it, the importance it has in the Bible, prayer suffers from a poor image. Many people think of prayer as a weak alternative to practical action, an alibi for doing nothing. Offering to pray for someone is often nothing but a graceful way to excuse ourselves from an awkward situation--it is a convenient exit line. It’s something for the more delicate saints to engage in while those who get the job done are out getting the job done.

Yet, I would like to state that prayer is not a substitute for work, or merely preparation for work. It is work.

Prayer is a serious business—which seems to make it one of the most intimidating words in the Bible. Perhaps you’ve heard of David Brainerd who prayed in knee—deep snow so long and vigorously that the snow around him melted and he caught pneumonia and died. Then there’s Martin Luther who said, “I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Then there’s old “Camel Knees,” the apostle James, who spent so much time praying that his knees resembled the calloused knees of a camel.

This mental picture of prayer can drive many of us away--this “no pain, no gain” attitude can end a prayer life.

But then we discover that prayer is not a religious exercise—it is a human necessity. In one way or another humans have always prayed because we have a need for something outside ourselves, something beyond our reach, to feel there is someone out there who takes notice of our predicament.

Prayer means I never have to say, “There’s nothing I can do.” I can always do something, something great, as great as Jesus did. I don’t have to just stand there—I can pray something. We don’t pray by default—because there’s nothing else we can do. We pray because it is the best thing we can do.

To illustrate the power of prayer, Jesus told a parable—the story of the unjust judge and the unfortunate widow who comes to him seeking justice.

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth.”

In the ancient world, before Social Security and Medicare and other charitable programs, a widow was the most helpless of all creatures. She was the symbol of all who were poor and defenseless. When she lost her husband, she lost her provider and her protector and her property—she was thrown out to fend for herself. She had no money to bribe the judge, or any influential people to speak up for her.

A rabbi once said the New Testament was not a Holy Book. His friend assumed he was offended by some of the anti-Jewish sections of Matthew, or by Paul’s view that Christ was the end of the Law. The rabbi said, “No, I can understand these things in the first century context; the real problem is that the New Testament has no humor in it!” Today’s Gospel lesson offers a little of that seemingly rare humor. Our current translations mask the humor of the parable. Only the whimsical mind of the unique Jesus could come up with this story. Let’s look at it in some detail

This unjust judge could perhaps better be called a scumbag judge. He is greedy and cares only for himself. Goodness is defined by what pleases him. “Though I fear neither God nor have regard for people,” he said. In other words: “I don’t give a expletive about anyone else, not even God.” Yes, a real scumbag judge!

Another bit: what we read as: because this widow keeps bothering me,” is literally: “Because of continual blows under the eye”. Isn’t that a great turn of phrase? This was probably an old Aramaic expression very similar to ones that we use today. For example, if we are being pestered we might say, “Get out of my face!” They said, ”continually whacks me in the eye.”

Perhaps we could translate this this way: “Hear what the scumbag of a judge says: “Though I don’t give a tinker’s cuss for God or man, because this woman keeps getting in my face, I will rule in her favor. Otherwise she will give me a black eye by her unwillingness to give up.”

Here is a woman fighting for her rights pummeling a complacent and fearless judge like a faltering boxer.

”Colorful language? Yes, for sure. But the language of Jesus was the colorful language of the common people.

But is Jesus then telling us to nag God like a child wearing a parent down until he or she finally gives in”? No, of course not. Jesus tells the story for a purpose all of its own: to be persistent and not to lose heart, to never give up. Sure, disease, injustice, and the absurdities of life do have a habit of seeming to win much of the time, but persistence survives. Persistence is more than simply keeping on keeping on. This widow yearns for what is right so much that her actions bring it forth, one way or another. This is not a prayer of the “quick fix”—it is a persistent prayer.

We are called to persevere in prayer, to have an attitude of prayer which approaches all of life as prayer. Sometimes it is like persisting in prayer until we understand the answer God has for us.

This is the kind of prayer we as individuals and as our church congregation need right now—persistent prayer about our church. In this time of transition, of study, of visioning-we need to open ourselves more than ever to God’s will for us and our future as a church here in Ashland.

Our Mission Study group met yesterday to begin the task of leading our congregation in a process of discernment of who we are, what we want to be, and our visions for the future. We ask that you keep us in your prayers as we carry on this journey. As we are all asked to participate in small groups or large groups or individually, I hope that we remember that prayer should be the first step in our own individual discernment. In persistent prayer, we open ourselves to listen—not for immediate results, but for the working of God within us.

Our God is not like this unjust judge—thank Goodness!

But how do we see God as compared to this unjust judge? We see the huge contrast. If this scumbag judge will finally give in to answer the widow’s prayer, how much sooner will God answer ours? The meaner the judge, the better our God! If this sorry scumbag will grant the request of the troublesome widow, how much more will the heavenly Judge, perfect in love and righteousness, hear our cry and vindicate our cause?

Then Jesus ends with the question: And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The construction of the question implies the answer “Not likely”.

But it is a certain kind of faith that he will be looking for when He returns. In the Greek text, the word faith carries a definite article that points to a specific kind of faith, literally, “this kind of faith.” When Jesus returns will He find on earth the kind of faith that prays without ceasing, faith like the widow who refused to lose heart and by her “continual coming” seized the prize?

This is not a parable about how we can bend God’s will to align with ours. It’s not about nagging God into submission! It is not a parable to explain why God does not seem to answer all our prayers. It is a parable to remind us that we can approach God again, and again, and again with our cries of anguish, with our pleadings, and with our prayers and God will hear us because God can be trusted. We can be pesky and persistent in our prayer life because our God is a gracious, trustworthy, loving God.
I’d like to close by telling you about a “Prayer Path”.
In one region of Africa, the first converts to Christianity were very diligent about praying. In fact, the believers each had their own special place outside the village where they went to pray in solitude. The villagers reached these “prayer rooms” by using their own private footpaths through the brush. When grass began to grow over one of these trails, it was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much.
Because these new Christians were concerned for each other’s spiritual welfare, a unique custom sprang up. Whenever anyone noticed an overgrown “Prayer path,” he or she would go to the person and lovingly warn, “Friend, there’s grass on your path!”

Is there grass on our paths or are they well worn down with use?

Amen