A preacher tells the story of two women who one day met unexpectedly in the parking lot of a local bookstore. One had a great bundle of books in her arms. "What in the world are you doing," her friend asked, "opening your own bookstore?" "No," said the woman, "these are all books about prayer. All my life I have been hearing about the importance of prayer, so I finally decided to learn how to pray. I have bought fourteen books on the subject. And not only that, I have signed up for two courses in prayer, one at my church and one at a friend's church. I am really going to master the subject!"

Several weeks later, the friend ran into the woman again, this time at the grocery store. "How is the big project going?" the friend asked. "Have you learned to pray?" The woman hung her head and made a gesture of despair. "It was too complicated," she said, "and I gave it up. Now I'm taking a course in yoga."

Praying can be hard. Maybe you, like the woman in the story, find it too complicated. Maybe you’re hesitant to open yourself up to God, or think that God must have better things to do than listen to you. Maybe you’re not sure how to pray, or you think your words aren’t poetic enough, or that you’re not good enough to come before God in prayer. Praying can be especially hard when our prayers aren’t answered. We may even come to think that praying is just a waste of time.

We need encouragement to be persistent in our prayers, and Jesus gives it to us this morning in his parable about the unjust judge and the poor widow. The judge is corrupt and without a conscience, interested only in himself. A poor and powerless widow appears in his courtroom. She has no money for bribing the judge, and she cannot afford an advocate. And so, undaunted, she speaks up for herself. “Grant me justice against my opponent.” “My rights are being violated. Protect me!”

We don't know who did what to the widow, but she is persistent in her pursuit of fair treatment. When the judge refuses to grant her request, the widow refuses to be silenced, and she asks for justice again –and again and again.

In the political and social stratospheres of first century Palestine, widows were typically the most helpless members of society; they had no power, no voice, few rights, and little or no access to money in a world without Social Security, Medicare, or welfare. The word “widow” in Greek is chera, meaning “forsaken” or “empty” – an accurate description of their lives and their prospects. The fact that this woman is able to get close enough to the judge for him to hear her case demonstrates her courage and perseverance and somehow, through her persistence, through her prayers, through her not losing heart, she forces the judge to act.

And listen to how Jesus concludes his parable: “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them."

How are we to make sense of this complicated and troubling story? It seems odd for Jesus to liken God to the hard-hearted and unscrupulous judge. Another way of looking at this parable is to conclude that if a man as wicked as the judge will grant the widow’s request, then surely our just, merciful, and loving God will be that much swifter to answer our prayers. But… is Jesus portraying God as granting our persistent prayers for no better reason than to get us off of God’s back. Is that our God?

Now I suppose we could try to be generous and give God the benefit of the doubt here. With all of the frivolous and self-centered prayers that humanity has muttered to God from places like Fenway Park and Foxwoods, we could almost understand if God got a little cranky from time to time and just wanted us to go away. But, I don’t buy that interpretation, even if I am tempted by the idea of saying a prayer for the Red Sox as they go into the post-season!

The gospel writer Luke introduces this passage by saying that the intent of Jesus’ parable is to show the need to pray always and not lose heart, and it would follow that we would see ourselves in the unrelenting widow, that we are the ones who are constantly lifting our prayers to God, and the message of the story is that we should not be discouraged when God does not respond. But Jesus knew that not every prayer cried was a prayer answered, as some of us know all too well.

And so this morning, let’s take a different approach to this parable and look at an alternative to the common interpretations. What if we put ourselves in the role of the unjust judge? Are you shocked? Are you thinking this is just another one of my sermons designed to afflict the comfortable?

If you’ll work with me here, let’s take another look at the judge. In just a few short verses, we get a pretty good picture of him. We know he is unscrupulous, without decency or a conscience. We know he neither respects people nor fears God. In other words, he has closed himself off from relationships, from giving of himself, from sharing his life, and he has closed himself off from God’s transforming love.

And if we are honest with ourselves, that describes us at times. Haven’t we, at one time or another in our lives, closed ourselves off from God or isolated ourselves from others? Haven’t we at times tried to so control our lives that there was no room for holy possibility or divine grace? Haven’t we at times not given God the time of day?

And if we are the unjust judge, then the persistent widow – who badgers the judge, who will not take no for an answer, who refuses to give up – that unrelenting woman represents…God – the God who continually calls us, who repeatedly asks for something from us, who just won’t let us alone until our resistance is broken down.

We know this God; this is the God of human history.

We see this God in the story of Moses, fleeing from Pharaoh after killing an Egyptian. But God pursues him and calls him to be the Hebrews’ liberator.

We see this God in the story of Jonah, running in the other direction from Ninevah but finding that he can’t run far enough to get away from God.

We see this God in the life of Paul, who persecuted the followers of Christ until God caught up with him on the Damascus Road and transformed his life.

And this same God, like the persistent widow, relentlessly pursues us. God is undeterred when, like the judge, we keep dismissing God. And just as she didn’t give up on that judge, God does not give up on us. God is ever attempting to break into our closed universe, to draw us into relationship, to show us that loving God and loving neighbor is not just a commandment – it is at the heart of a joy-filled life.

“Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not lose heart.” Yes, praying can be hard. And complicated. Maybe you think praying is an exercise in telling God what God already knows, in persuading God to do something God wouldn’t do otherwise, in trying to change God in some way. But prayer isn’t about changing God; it’s about God changing us.

Inside each one of us lurks an unjust judge, and our prayers are God, trying to wear down with divine persistence that closed, dismissive, self-absorbed presence in each one of us and forcing it out of our hearts.

A preacher* tells the story of a girl who watched a holy man praying at the riverbank. Once the man had finished his prayer, the girl approached him and asked, “Will you teach me to pray?” The holy man studied the girl’s face, and agreeing to her request, took her into the river. He instructed her to lean over, so her face was close to the water, and the girl did as she was told. Then the holy man pushed her whole head under the water. Soon the girl struggled to free herself in order to breathe. Once she got her breath back, she gasped, “What did you do that for?” The holy man answered, “I gave you your first lesson.” “What do you mean?” asked the astonished girl. He replied, “When you long to pray as much as you long to breathe, then I will be able to teach you how to pray.”

May each of us long to pray, and learn to pray, and persist in our prayers — not so we can change God, but so that God can change us, and help us know the abundant and joy-filled life God intends for us. Amen.

*The Very Rev. Charles Hoffacker, “The Voice of the Widow,” October 17, 2004, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Port Huron, Michigan.

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