So, way back in the last century, in 1997, Robert Duvall starred in a movie called “The Apostle.” It's about a Pentecostal preacher named Sonny Dewey, who, for reasons I won't go into, becomes a fugitive, ditches his old identity, rebaptizes himself, and becomes a new man, the Apostle E. F. It's a pretty good movie with really good acting by Duvall and Farrah Fawcett among others.
I bring it up because there is one scene where Sonny, haunted by his past, tired of running and lying, and burdened by the sleazy life he's finding himself leading, falls to his knees one night in his room and prays, “Lord, give me peace. Giveittomegiveittomegiveittomegiveittomegiveittome!!! Gimme peace.”
Spoiler alert: Sonny doesn't get that peace.
I think we've all found ourselves in this position. Right? So often so many of us find ourselves alone at night, with our eyes squeezed shut tight, so tight you can hear a rush inside your ears. And all our focus is on our need. And we are just shouting in silence. Giveittomegiveittomegiveittome.
And then we stop, and we open our eyes, and...nothing. Or at least it seems that way.
In our gospel today, Jesus is telling a story to his disciples to get them to try to understand how to pray, as Paul would say, “unceasingly.” The story of a judge and the woman who kept pestering him until she got what she wanted. And there you have it. Bother God, and God will relent. Right?
Now, y'all, we know that if that were all, Jesus would've probably just said that. So the fact that he gives us a parable means he probably wants to plant a few seeds in our heads and let the story live with us for a while and see what grows in our souls. Because even though it's a short parable, it's very rich in the picture it paints.
First off, the judge has no fear of God or respect for people. This is such an important detail that Jesus tells us twice. So while we often think of God as a judge, he's not this one.
This judge is as far away from God as can be. He doesn't even keep the great commandment that has been passed down from Moses through Jesus: love God; love your neighbor. In this judge, there is no hope for justice.
Second, the woman is a widow. Lowest of the low. She has no status in society regardless of Moses' command to care for the widows in your midst. This woman has no hope. None whatsoever.
We don't know what happened to the woman to bring her to this point, but it was enough to drive her to do this hopeless act – appear before a corrupt judge to ask for justice when she has no reason to believe justice will be forthcoming.
She's just standing there, day after day, saying, “Giveittomegiveittomegiveittome.” And, lo and behold, she gets justice. But again, we don't know what that means. Because justice can be a verdict against you just as easy as it can be a verdict for you.
In other words, when God answers a prayer, that answer might very well be “No.”
And for some reason, THIS is how Jesus tells his followers to pray. What gives, Jesus?
Y'all the more I think about this, the less I think this parable is a story about results of getting God to give in. It's more a story about how prayer connects us to God, even if we DON'T get the results we desire.
Like I said, we don't even know what result the widow got, only that she was finally recognized as a person and dealt with accordingly.
I mean, when we pray, by that very act, we believe that God will act. If there is anything to learn from this widow it is her confidence that eventually the judge will respond.
Prayer is not about bringing God a "to-do" list of things we want, believing that somehow if we ask in faith and perhaps even have others agree with us in their own prayers, it will be done. God does not hand out gifts based on what we want, and God is not a magic trick.
Instead, prayer is about putting ourselves in a place to receive what God offers. Prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you cannot imagine. It is putting your soul out there in the world for God to use.
So don't lose heart; don't give up. Because of who she was and where she found herself, this widow had no other option than to keep beating a path to this judge.
One of the frustrating things we all come face to face with at some point in our lives is the apparent delay in receiving answers to our prayers. But that's not really the point.
Because God is not like that judge. Our God is filled with love and compassion, with wisdom and justice. Continually coming to God provides an chance for God's grace to refine us so that the arc of our prayers are bent more and more toward Jesus. We keep knocking and asking and seeking. Or as Julian of Norwich says: prayer "is yearning, beseeching, and beholding" until finally we see God face to face.
And then Jesus goes and makes this connection between prayer and faithful living as a way of nudging us to align our lives with God's love and compassion and mercy, kinda like we nudged that giant asteroid to change its path.
It is important for our souls to be engaged in persistent prayer, but it is also important to be nudged to live faithfully as a result of having been the recipients of God's love, mercy, and grace.
But we must also remember that, as the canticle says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.” Or in the words of the great philosopher, Mick Jagger, “you can't always get what you want, but if you try some time, you might find you get what you need.”
Ultimately, I reckon, prayer is an act of trust, of faith in God, which changes our priorities and helps us to see and to live into a different future that we might not have imagined when we started out to pray “giveittomegiveittomegiveittome.”
In a world filled with fear, injustice, hatred, violence, prayer trains us up to live faithfully, boldly, and stubbornly as people of faith who work for God's Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. And when we do, we might just find that we have the power of prayer to make a difference in our lives and to help shape a different world. We might just find, indeed, that we get what we need.
So, let us pray.