Trinity 18 2025 (Luke 18: 1-8)

I expect each one of you could come up with examples of people, or groups of people, who are the modern-day equivalent of the widow in today’s parable. The poor in our world who struggle to survive another day of inadequate food, clothing, shelter, water, medicine, or work. The immigrants coming to this country seeking a new, better life, greeted by hostile words or actions. The addict who everyday fights their need to drink or take drugs. Those who live each day in fear of their partners anger and violence. Those who wake up each day to still feel the overwhelming grief they suffer following the death of a child or loved one.

Just a few of the widows in Jesus’ parable. The list could go on and on. They pray for and demand a new life, hoping things will change. They seek something different for their life, something other than what they have right now. Day after day it is the same, nothing changes. It is not right. They know it, we know it, and God knows it. And some have died standing before the unjust judge.

The unjust judge wears many disguises: prejudice, hatred, fear, the disease that won’t be healed, economic systems, death, grief, addiction. Regardless of the disguise the unjust judge neither fears God nor respects people. Standing before the unjust judge life seems big, powerful, and overwhelming. You feel small, powerless and alone, with no one to defend or represent you. You stand alone unsure what to believe about life or yourself. No matter what you say or do nothing changes, nothing works and, like the widow in Jesus’ parable, day after day you cry out. That’s the widow’s story in today’s parable, in today’s world, sometimes even in our own life. I wonder if you have you ever felt like that? Have you ever stood before the unjust judge?

What do we do when we stand, or see others, before the unjust judge? Some people get angry and fight back becoming as hardened and unjust as the judge himself. Some will give up and believe what the unjust judge says, believing that is the final reality of life and it will never get better. Others will blame and accuse God of being the unjust judge. There are some, however, who will discover and trust the widow’s faith.

“Pray always and do not lose heart,” Jesus says. That is the widow’s faith. Day after day she shows up. Day after day she speaks of the injustice done to her. Day after day she holds her pain before the judge, the world, and God.

To pray always does not mean giving God a to do list and then sitting back expecting God to magically fix everything. To pray always means that we offer our cry to God and then we do whatever we can to bring about the change we seek, trusting that God also is already doing what God needs to do. Maybe that means we seek a support group. We feed the hungry. We offer compassion to the grieving. We speak and teach against hatred and prejudice, respecting the dignity of every human being. We strive for justice and peace. We make our case not just before God, but with God. We join God in answering our prayer.

Some believe that prayer is about convincing, persuading, or wearing down God so God will do what we ask. It is the idea that God is out there somewhere and not present here, that God is either unaware or uncaring about us and this world. So we have to persuade God to show up and act, and that only happens if we are good enough, believe the right things, and say the right words enough times.

That is not what it means to pray always. If that is what we have been taught or come to believe this parable says otherwise. Jesus rejects that understanding of the relationship between God and his people. God is nothing like the unjust judge. God sees our suffering. God hears our cries. God will grant justice. But when?

A widow’s faith always involves waiting. I don’t know for how long, but I do know that waiting, does not mean God is absent. Waiting does not mean God is uncaring. Waiting does not mean God is not already active. You see, the widow does not wait on God. She waits with God. To pray always is what keeps her from losing heart. It keeps her showing up day after day trusting that God sees, hears, and acts.

To pray always is what keeps us, in thought, word, and deed, present to and in relationship with God so that when God does act, we will be there. Imagine the tragedy if one day the widow gave up and that was the day the judge ruled. That was the day life changed. I wonder how much of God’s life, love, compassion, forgiveness, healing we have missed because we did not show up. To pray always is what insures we are present so that when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on earth. He will find us, the widows of the world who refused to let the unjust judge have the final say.

To live the widow’s faith may be some of the most difficult and necessary work we do. Pray always and do not lose heart. Jesus has lived the widow’s faith and, his life and faith, have been given to us. It is already deep within each of us. We already have all that we need to face the unjust judge of this world. So let us go and live like the persistent widows God knows us to be.

Amen