Our Persistent Lord

There is a dangerous sidetrack here, though, that might lead us to conclude that if we keep at it in prayer and in good works, then god will surely grant us whatever we want.

Or, said even more starkly:

By what we do, we can force God to produce what we want.

The warning bell goes off here for any good Lutheran who will immediately sense that this is not right.,

So, we'll back up and go at it from another direction.

Of course there is a place for our persistence, but it is in the second place, not the lead.

The proper focus in the lessons is, rather, on the persistence of God!

The Jacob story is full of twists and turns:

--He cheated his twin brother Esau and angered him so badly that he had to flee for his life.

--He had very sharp dealings with his father in law.

--He hastily abandons his father in law taking with him all his possessions that he could carry.

And all the while, God is molding him to be far different than he had been.

Bit by persistent bit, God changes him from the irresponsible hothead into the father of tribes and nations.

Remember how we heard about God's persistence in last week's First Lesson also.

Naaman throws a sulking fit when the prophet Elisha refuses to come out of the house to meet him, and fumes even more when he is instructed by the prophet to go wash in the Jordan.

A just God would have said, “Well, you had your chance,” and would have given up on him.

But God does not give up, but gives the gift of truth and boldness to a servant in the Syrian's retinue, a girl who dares to speak to the commander and to urge him to follow the instructions from the prophet even if it seems nonsense to him.

Such a strong faith!

In Jesus' story of the woman and the unjust judge, what we are to note is the contrast between the unjust judge and God.

Now we are arriving at the point of things.

God does not compare the unjust man with God, he contrasts him.

God is not at all like the rascally judge, he is the opposite.

God hears people immediately and judges in their favor, and will vindicate them speedily.

Now we see that the parable is good news for us.

--We don't have to badger God in our weakness, despair, and hopelessness.

--He will hear, listen, and judge for us.

--That is what he has promised to do when we were baptized.

--He will keep his word.

What then is the purpose of prayer which we are encouraged to continue unceasingly?

--Not to manipulate God, but to remind him of what he has promised,

and to begin to mold us by that conversation into the persons he wants us to become.

That is his intention, you know.

Once he begins something with us, he intends to see it through.

One more story, this one from C.S. Lewis, telling us of his childhood.

He didn't want to go to his mother when he had a toothache, because he knew that she would not only give him an aspirin, but also she would take him to the dentist.

The dentist wouldn't stop until everything was put right in his mouth.

God is like that dentist.

If you give him an inch, he will take a mile.

Folks go to him with one particular request in prayer, and we know that he hears.

He will handle the request as he sees fit, saying Yes, No, or perhaps Wait for something better ... but he won't stop there.

Once he begins with us in Holy Baptism, he intends to give us the full treatment.

Whatever it costs us, (even our whole lives),

and whatever it costs him (the life death and resurrection of Christ Jesus),

he means to make sure that it all happens in us.

Such a persistent God!

And Paul in today's Second Lesson, writing to his young friend Timothy, points to the Bible as the evidence and record of the persistence of God.

The Lord has been at it for a very long time.

He reveals his nature in small doses as we are able to grasp it:

--through Patriarchs and prophets,

--through the women at the tomb and the apostles,

--and most expansively in Christ Jesus himself.

What wonderful persistence of God do we know!

Just think of all of the Milestone events that we celebrate together here in St. Mark's: baptism and Affirmation of Baptism, Prayer Pillows, All the languages of the Good News, the gifts of Bibles and catechisms,

up to and including “70 and still praising God” and the final reminder of Baptism which is the funeral service.

We have observed that we need to hear the Good News in many different ways, at different times, in a variety of settings

until the Good News finally sinks in.

We would all be in very big trouble if God only offered a resource once, or if we only made use of the resources once.

But the Bible and all of the tools and approaches that we have developed to get the Spirit's word into our hearts and minds continue to be opened to us again and again.

And here we are in the middle of the story.

You know that one of my favorite spots in this church's windows is the procession of the saints in the Proclamation window (third on the south side).

In the right panel we can see the white-clad forms moving from the distant past to the present, each one touching the next.

Among other things, it reminds us that God reaches us directly, and also indirectly through the lives and experiences of the generations of Christians who have lived before us.

God's persistence stretches across time and space!

This very building is a sign of it.

we are in this congregation's third building in the past 150 years.

Most of those who built this beautiful space are now in the Church Triumphant, but their appreciation for the majesty of God and the awe and wonder which is appropriate to the worship of such a God is very much with us.

They shaped the room and it now continues to shape us.

We had visitors in the nave on Wednesday evening, and as visitors often do, they expressed what a worshipful and awe-inspiring room this is.

And through this nave God is working on us to recognize that he is the center of Life, and not we ourselves.

I hope we get the message and are able to pass it on.

These days we are all caught up in lonely individualism.

Our other worship space, the chapel, brings us close together, and encourages us to listen to each other,

to care for each other,

and to speak with one another in the name of the Lord Jesus.

God shows us his persistent love in that place also.

This is a day of the celebration of persistence.

Not so much of us, for we stumble, falter, fail quite regularly;

but the persistence of God,

who is determined to speak to us and through us, until at last we are molded fully in his image.

What a wonderful thing it is. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.