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Will You Please Stop Whining?

The Reverend Canon Elizabeth C. Knowlton
October 21, 2007
Proper 24 C
Evensong 4:00 pm
Luke 18:1-8

“Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather (Luke 17:37).”

Now, don’t worry.  I did not look at my calendar wrong and think I was supposed to preach a Halloween sermon.  One of the first things I learned in seminary was the importance of finding the context for the day’s assigned preaching passage. What comes before?  What comes after?  At what point in Jesus’ ministry is this narrative taking place?  Who is listening?  Who is being spoken to?

So, as I dutifully sat down to look at this text, I found this verse.  Believe it or not, this is the verse that immediately precedes today’s gospel.

It sounds a little different when you hear, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.  Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart Luke 17:37-18:1).”  The urgency of his advice has a different character.  And don’t let the chapter division throw you; those breaks were not added to the bible until the 13th century.

This verse about the vultures gives us an important context for why we need to pray without losing heart.  The Pharisees have asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming.  The disciples are then told that while the Kingdom is coming, there will be much suffering and rejection during the intervening period.  They are preparing to enter into a time a great uncertainty, without the promise even of their leader’s presence. 

So what happens to us in a time of uncertainty?  One thing to realize is that we all have different responses to the unknown.  Some consider it a grand adventure.  Others want to know as many details as possible.  But almost inevitably, when we start something new and life changing, emotions arise.  And the wave of emotions can affect how we are able to weather whatever lies ahead of us.
One of my greatest steps into the unknown coincides with the birth of my children.  Now, before they came, I tried to prepare.  I read every recommended book, questioned my friends, and subscribed to every parenting magazine possible.  The most difficult decision I had to make at the time was whether or not I would go back to my job at the Centers for Disease Control or stay at home.

You can imagine that there were many people gathered around me to provide advice.  However, one person gave me by far the best answer.  Even if it wasn’t the one I really wanted.  She said, “You really shouldn’t even try to make a decision in advance.  There is no way to predict how you are going to feel until after the baby is here.” While that was great advice, I wanted to know which decision was right and I wanted to know it right then.  And even if I took her advice, I need some suggestion for how to make it through the remaining months of my pregnancy.

We can empathize with the disciples desire to know precisely how and when the Kingdom of God is going to arrive.  We can empathize with the emotions we imagine they must have felt.  A little encouragement was certainly warranted if they were not to lose heart in the face of such uncertainty.  We can certainly see the need for the parable.

The more difficult piece of this text has to do with the parable itself.  We can have a tendency to interpret the widow’s persistence as nagging the judge to death through whining.  It is one of the few times in scripture I really wished the central character was not a woman.  There is a sense that if she just keeps whining, even the unrighteous will have to cave in. 

Is that how we are to not lose heart in our prayer?  Just keep at it until we wear God down?  Is this the squeaky wheel gets the oil approach to intercessory prayer?

I just can’t believe that.  It too quickly evolves into my thinking I can control God or that if I haven’t gotten what I wanted I just need to pray differently. It also reduces the widow beyond recognition.  To equate her petition with being bugged to take out the garbage at home is to miss what she represents.  It is to confuse whining with the lament of those without power or recourse.

A child in the children’s chapel service today asked me a profound question.  It got my attention enough to add it to this sermon.  We had been talking about how we keep doing things even when we don’t really feel like it.  Whether it is practicing the piano, doing homework or chores around the house…to rely solely on our feelings would leave a lot of things undone.  So after we talked about how we need to pray even if we don’t feel like it, or when our prayers seem to be unanswered, I said Amen. 

Then the hand shot up in the air.  The child asked, “So does God not answer our prayer until later to test whether or not we will lose heart?”

This is why I like being in the children’s chapel.  It was a good question, and not remotely childish.  While my theological perspective assures me the answer to her question is no, I still have times when I feel I’m being tested.  Even if intellectually we know that God doesn’t answer our prayers like spitting money out of an ATM machine, we really long for tangible results.  Or a magic code to unlock the secret. 

We long for them particularly, when we find ourselves uncertain of the future.  We want to know whether our petitions are going to be answered in the way we want.  And we can feel as if we’re being tested when it doesn’t seem to be going our way.  We fear the loss of our sick loved ones, unemployment, or other real and terrible challenges.

And when we start to feel we’re being tested, this is just the time when we need to look back to the widow.  And we need to see her persistence as something that has nothing to do with whining.  When I looked up whining in the dictionary it was defined as “sniveling or complaining in a self pitying way.” There is no way that definition matches the description of the widow’s deep appeal for justice.

So what is she up to?  And what are we to do when we feel that our petitions are not being heard or answered.  The simple answer is to honor the lament.  A lament is a way to express our anger, grief, sorrow, and regret.  It is a way we stay in relationship with God.  You cannot be completely disconnected from God if you are still engaged in a lament.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at the book of Psalms.  They are filled with those who in times of uncertainty long for God.

To honor the lament is a way to prevent us from losing heart when we are unsure of the future.  We do not need to pretend those emotions don’t exist, or feel guilty when they arise.  No, we can like the widow persist.  And trust that God will respond to us in ways we cannot imagine.  We may not get exactly what we want or in the timeframe we want it.  But, we will be graced with a sustaining relationship with one who knows and values our needs.

Amen

Comments? Contact Beth Knowlton at: BKnowlton@stphilipscathedral.org

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