Pray Like You Mean It!
based on Luke 18:1-8
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

This parable is quite interesting, the widow who knocks on the judge's door day in and day out, finally gets her day in court, not because of her just cause, but because of her annoying persistence. The judge finally breaks down and acts on her behalf.

Have you ever been persistent like this widow? Well, I have found that it really works. When I was serving my first church as senior pastor in Lebanon PA the board decided to invite our bishop to speak at the churches 125th-anniversary service. And I was commissioned to get him here. No mean feat mind you. I send him an invitation, followed it up with a couple of phone calls and waited.

That wasn't satisfactory for Terry Winters, one of my parishioners. He was one of those church members who you couldn't say no to. He kept encouraging me to keep calling the bishop.

Having Terry breathe down my neck really put me in the shoes of this pesky man who is banging at the door of his friend's house--only that the friend isn't a friend, but the bishop, i.e. my boss. So, I kept bothering the man--I even cornered him at a conference where he finally turned our invitation down. I reported back to Terry and he said: that's not good enough. We are going to have the bishop speak and you are going to get him here."

So, I kept banging against that office door. After a while the poor man must have said to himself: "this guy is going to stay on my case until he gets what he wants. So, he finally said: "o.k. fine, I'll come whenever I have an opening. Talk to my secretary." I was happy that we had the bishop speak, but for quite some time afterward I was expecting to get appointed to a really crappy ministry, maybe somewhere in Siberia.

But seriously, isn't that what Jesus said we should be in our prayers: pesky? Why did Jesus tell this parable in the first place? He uses it as a teaching tool to answer the question: "how should we pray?" And Jesus' answer is: be pesky like that widow who knocks at the judge's door in the middle of the night! Well, maybe Jesus didn't actually say: be ‘pesky.' I think the point Jesus wants us to get is that we shouldn't be afraid to ask God for favors.

What a concept! Does Jesus really mean that? Can we actually get God to do something on our behalf, because I we are asking God?
If we believe that Jesus actually told this parable of the pesky widow in order to teach us about prayer, we should really start expecting God to answer our prayers.

This is not to say that God will yield to every whim of ours. Prayer is not like being granted three wishes by a genie. Yet, Jesus clearly says that God will answer our prayers. That brings us to the question what kind of prayers God will answer.

In our parable, the request by the widow was a righteous one. She did ask for herself, but it was a matter of justice and God is a God of justice. So, the cause is important. God will answer our prayers for a good cause.

But I think right motivation is also important. In James 4:3 we read: "When you ask (in prayer) you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures."

When our cause is just and good and when our motive isn't selfish, we are not only allowed to ask for God's help, we are encouraged to do so and, yes, to be persistent, even pesky about it.

 Jesus wants to teach us that we should pray like we mean it. In Jesus' theology prayer is not a spiritual exercise, it's not a religious obligation, it's not a form of penance. On the contrary, prayer is a direct communication with God. When you pray, pray like you mean it. Pray like God is listening. Pray like you expect God to answer and to grant your request. And if you don't get what you pray for, continue to ask. Be persistent like the widow.

"And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?" (Lk. 18:7)

That's what faith looks like according to Jesus. Will Jesus find this kind of faith among us? Amen.