June 19 2005

When You Call on God, Do You Get an Answering Machine?

June 19, 2005 Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

In 19^th Century Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq, a widow traveled into the city of Nisbus. A few months before, her only son had been taken from her to serve in the army. As a widow, an older lady, she could not work the ground that she owned but she was also not supposed to pay taxes on it either. But the tax collector would have none of it and forced her to pay up. And so she journeyed to the city, to the Hall of Justice. In those days women were not supposed to go to these places; they were supposed to stay home. But she had no one to go for her so she had to go. As she walked into the chamber, there sat the judge almost swallowed up in pillows, surrounded by secretaries and then surrounded by men all clamoring to be heard. It was the secretaries’ job to see that the cases came up and those that were more prudent would go and talk to the secretaries and hand out bribes or “fees.” If the fee was large enough, the secretary would make sure the case got to the judge; most often, those who paid the most in fees won the case. This woman had no money, no one to speak for her. The only thing she could do is cry out, “Judge, hear my plea. Give me justice. Give me justice.” This went on day after day, she came back. Finally one of the secretaries asked her why she did not go home. She said, “I will when the judge gives me justice.” Finally the judge himself asked who the woman was. Her story was told to him, he asked a few questions, and finally because she had been there persistently, he gave her justice. Remarkable story, but what is remarkable about it is that it is so similar to the parable I’m going to tell you that Jesus told almost twenty centuries before. Things may be a little different in that part of the world, but in nineteen centuries it was very similar. This was an eyewitness account in the 19^th Century and the parable that Jesus told was almost the same; a woman comes in to see the judge and asks to be granted justice against her adversary. As we listen to this parable, one of the things we must do with parables is to try and place ourselves within it and discover who’s who. In this case, it’s pretty easy; we are to be the woman and Jesus uses this parable to illustrate prayer and not giving up in prayer. But the judge, interesting, the judge who Jesus says cares nothing about anyone, yet somehow this judge is equated with God. A kind of story that Jesus would tell to get our attention, shock us a bit. Let us hear the word of God as it comes to us from Luke 18, the parable of the judge and the widow.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

In your prayer life, have you ever felt like God really did have an answering machine on and would get back to you later? A lot of times when we leave messages, we wonder if we’ll get called back. Or, maybe in your prayers you have felt like your prayers bounced off the ceiling or you were talking to yourself. I have come to believe that almost everyone has this experience from time to time; some have this experience so much that they have stopped praying. I suspect if we take a poll in this room and ask how often people pray, a lot of people would say, “Not that often.” Some of us pray only when we get desperate, when things are going bad we pray, but even then, not always. I remember when 9/11 happened, we had services right after that and the first one was just packed out. We had another one a week later about half the size and another a week later half the size of that. We as human beings tend to forget to pray…sometimes though it is because we have gotten discouraged. Maybe we didn’t think God was hearing us.

What is Jesus trying to tell us? It’s interesting how even two thousand centuries ago, believers had the same kind of problem. They were losing heart about prayer and he speaks to us from long ago saying, “You should pray and not lose heart. Do not lose heart.” He’s teaching us first and foremost to be persistent in prayer. We need to be persistent in prayer. I’m not sure if it specifically just an American thing, but I think Americans are typically “fix-it” type of people. And when we see a problem we want to fix it and we’ll take one solution and apply it to the problem; if that doesn’t work, we’ll throw it out and get another. We’re just that way and it’s not all bad. We apply fixes to problems and we are very pragmatic. But we can’t do that with prayer and I think that’s what we do. I think that we look at prayer as primarily asking God to help us with our problems, to fix things. And when they don’t get fixed, we sort of lose heart. Prayer for us doesn’t work. But I’m here to tell you this morning that prayer does work. Prayer does work! But it really depends on how you look at it. Prayer is certainly about asking God to help us with our problems, to provide us things. We are told, “Pray that your daily bread be given.” But it’s not primarily that. The Lord’s Prayer starts with “Our Father who is in heaven.” It is primarily about opening up a channel of communication with God. And any relationship must have communication. I want to tell you something guys, I know that this may not sit too well with you, but if you are going to have a good relationship with your woman, you must talk to her. I know the ladies are laughing… And you have to listen. It’s true with any of us; any relationship is built up by communication. And unless you learn how to communicate with God, you will not have a close relationship with God. God will seem like he’s way up there or that the ceiling is between you and him in terms of your prayers or that he has the answering machine on. We must be persistent and we must remember that prayer does not have as its primary thing asking for things or problems. God is not the salesperson at Wal-mart.

The other thing is that God is way ahead of us. Even the great John Wesley said that God doesn’t do anything unless people pray for it. I don’t agree with that. I love John Wesley but I think he’s wrong about this. God is always up to something. God’s always ahead of us and part of what prayer is about is getting on-board with what God is already doing. God’s already up to something, we just have to figure out sometimes what it is. So there is not only persistence, there’s patience. When we pray, God doesn’t always answer our prayers immediately. Sometimes he doesn’t answer them in the way we want him to; he says, “No” just like any good parent. I want to ask a question; how many times in your life have you prayed for something and not gotten it, but then later said, “Thank God I didn’t get that”? It’s like when you first dated that girl in high school and were asking God to let them be “the one” and then later on you are thanking God that they weren’t the one. Or about a job…any kinds of things. We pray for lots of things and then are glad we didn’t get them. I’m glad that somebody else is in control, frankly. I regularly mess my life up when I feel like I’m in control. There’s patience in accepting the “No” and there’s patience in waiting. You know, God can do anything, he’s omnipotent. But he acts in space and time so literally when you pray for and ask for something, you need to give God time to arrange it. It’s kind of like the story you have heard about the man who is in his house one day and a big rain storm comes and the waters rise up. He has to crawl out on the roof. He’s asking God to provide rescue for him and help him. A little while later, a boat comes along and asks him if he needs help. He replies, “No, the Lord is going to provide.” Later on a helicopter approaches and asks if he needs help. He replies again, “No, the Lord is going to provide.” Later on a log floats by. He skips that, the waters rise and he drowns. Then he goes to heaven and says, “Lord why didn’t you rescue me?” The Lord replies, “I sent you a boat, a helicopter, and a log. What else did you expect?” Sometimes it takes a while for God to arrange the boat or the helicopter. In my own life, I’ve discovered God’s timing. It’s almost always the last minute. It just seems that way because God is trying to teach me something. That’s the third category; God teaches us. God is more concerned with your character and your faith than He is about making sure you have everything you want. I know that’s hard to hear. God is more concerned with your character and your faith than with making sure that you have everything you need or you think you need.

This leads us to the third thing and it is faith. Jesus says, “When the Son of Man comes, will there be faith?” Will there be faith? I was watching a movie for the umpteenth time yesterday, one of the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies. At the end of the movie they are all searching for the Holy Grail and they found out where it is and the bad guy shoots Indiana Jones’ father. And he says only the Grail can save him now and looks at Indiana Jones and tells him that it is time for him to ask himself what he really believes. Good question. What do we really believe about God? I think sometimes, especially when things get bad, we tend to think God is way up there somewhere and maybe He hears our prayers. The Bible says something very different about God, that God is intimate or theologically imminent in and through us, with us. God is our Father. What a nice coincidence, if you will, on Father’s Day. God is our Father. God is Abba. God hears us. He knows everything that you need. He knows you, He knows all about you. I think sometimes we just have to believe that. God is in control and we’re not going to get everything we ask for. Thank God. Sometimes it will come in its own time, thank God. But God will win in the end. You are going to win in the end. God’s going to get you through. I said at the beginning that prayer works. And I mean that. It works on a variety of levels but it also works when you ask God for things or to help you with things. I want to leave you with a challenge. Make a list of all the prayers you pray for three months and see how many things get taken care of. Not everything will; maybe it needs more time or maybe God has said no. But you will be very surprised, if you make a faithful list, how many things get taken care of over time. We forget about all that. We pray and God answers it and we don’t remember. Write it down. I’m challenging you, God will come through. Prayer works. God is faithful and He loves you. God answers your prayers. Do not lose heart, the devil wants you to lose heart, so do not lose heart. Pray always. Let us pray.