Worshipers at Fourth Presbyterian Church-Chicago rose to their feet with sustained applause in response to the line in this sermon we have bolded in red. Scroll down for the line.
THE PERSISTENT GOD
Shannon J. Kirshner, Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church
Psalm 121
Luke 18:1–8
Maybe prayer isn’t the way in which we manipulate God but is simply the posture in which we finally become worn down by God’s persistence—God’s persistence in loving us. God’s persistence in forgiving and being known. And God’s persistence in being faithful and always, always, always bringing life out of death.
Nadia Bolz-Weber
In some ways, this should have been the easiest sermon I have written in a while. Luke tells us right off the bat what this parable is supposed to be about. While introducing Jesus’ telling of it, Luke states outright in verse 1 it is a parable about the need for persistent prayer and the call to not lose heart. Thus that interpretation should direct the way we hear the parable, right? Maybe.
Let’s meet the characters in the parable. First, we have a judge. As a friend of mine said, “We know about judges in Israel. We know their role was to maintain a reasonable harmony in the community and to adjudicate disputes fairly and impartially. [Furthermore], it is particularly worth remembering that Jewish law, the Torah, described a particular responsibility for such judges when it came to protecting the rights of the poor—of widows and orphans and refugees” (Bob Dunham, http://www.day1.org, 21 October 2007). So that is our judge. Our first character.
Then we have the widow. Now immediately when Jesus introduces us to the widow, the drama intensifies, because, as we just heard, a faithful judge would know of his duty to pay particular attention to people like that widow. Yet herein lies the dilemma: when Jesus introduced us to the judge, he also gave us insight into his character. The judge, according to the parable, was not faithful. He had no reverence for God (what the Bible calls fear of the Lord) or for anyone else.
Frankly, the judge did not seem all that interested in being an actual judge to begin with. He did not seem to really care about even the conceptual idea of justice. He certainly had no concept of compassion. We make those assumptions because of his actions. The judge was not moved one bit by the widow’s pleading of her case. “Grant me justice,” she said every single time she went before him. Yet no was always his answer. No. No. No. No. No.
Amazingly enough, though, that widow was never deterred by his denial. I guess she felt that as a widow she literally had nothing to lose by going to the court every single day and demanding to be heard. Whatever it was, something gave that widow a stubborn determination. She also must have sensed that she was getting to him. So she continued to go to his courtroom again and again and again and again. While Jesus does not tell us how many times she walked up to that judge and demanded he act with compassion and grant her justice, we do know her persistence, her dogged determination, her sheer unwillingness to give up or to give into his “no” or “not yet” grated on the judge’s nerves.
We know this because Jesus lets us overhear the judge’s internal thoughts. “Look, I could care less about God, and I sure don’t care about anyone else, but this widow is standing on my very last nerve, so fine. I will give her what she wants so that she will finally leave me alone.” And all is well that ends well, because the widow gets the justice she demanded, even if compassion was nowhere to be found and it took much longer than it should have.
For a parable, a type of story typically meant to provoke and disturb, it is strangely rather cut-and-dried. Just imagine, Jesus seems to conclude, if this horrible unfaithful judge will finally grant justice for the widow, think of how much more a good and gracious God will compassionately respond to the cries of the vulnerable, the outcast, and the oppressed.
All you have to do, the parable seems to say, is bug God day and night. Keep at it. Don’t stop. Your prayers will eventually be heeded, sooner or later. But regardless of God’s timing, summon the stubborn persistence of the widow. And don’t lose heart while you are doing it. Cut-and-dried. The end? I hope not.
Let’s be honest. You know and I know that many of the vulnerable, the outcast, and the oppressed have been praying ceaselessly for the coming of God’s justice and compassion to transform the hearts, the institutions, and the structures of our world, and yet here we are. The wolf does not live with the lamb. Nation continues to lift up sword against nation. Justice does not roll down like waters. Righteousness is not yet like an ever-flowing stream.
No, for generations God’s people, people like us, have been lifting our voices to God in fervent prayer, pleading with God to end the violence, to end the wars, to bring about equity for all people, healing for creation. But day after day we learn of another shooting or another bombing or another eviction or another hungry child or another woman assaulted or another man without meaningful employment. Thus if the sole point of this parable is only to encourage our persistence with God, then frankly I don’t know how much use I have for it.
I’ve sat by too many bedsides and heard too many stories from people who have diligently gone to God in persistent, stubborn prayer and yet their prayers for justice and for compassion were not answered in the ways they had hoped. So regardless of how Luke introduces the parable, I cannot get comfortable with the conclusion that the only thing Jesus wanted us to hear is the message that all those people must not have been persistent enough or things would have turned out differently. That kind of vending-machine God is not the God to whom I have given my heart. That is certainly not the God I see in Jesus.
So since parables are always meant to be disruptive and provoking, is there another way this parable might work on us, in us? If we do not assume we are in the place of the widow and that the judge is the example of what God is not, then what else might we hear? Actually, what happens if we switch roles? What happens if we sit in the seat of the unjust judge and God takes on the persistent cries of the widow? Now you might not like that seat assignment, and you might argue you have nothing in common with that unfaithful, unjust, disrespectful judge, but let’s stay there for now and listen.
What’s the first thing we hear? We hear that widow’s cry, God’s cry, for justice, for compassion. “I am coming to you on behalf of the vulnerable, the outcast, the oppressed,” God says to the church through her voice. “And trust me,” she says, “I am not going to leave you alone until you listen to me, until you act in response to what you hear, until you, as disciples and as an institutional structure, repent of all the myriad of ways you continue to ignore all these cries or dismiss them. I am demanding justice on their behalf. I am demanding that you respond with compassion,” God calls out to the church through the voice of the widow. “Yes, I am going to keep coming to you, church,” God stubbornly says, “again and again and again, no matter how many times your collective words, your collective actions or inactions tell me ‘no’ or ‘not yet.’ Like the widow, you cannot get rid of me. I will persistently wear you down with my grace,” God claims.
As we sit in the seat of that judge, this parable reveals that no matter how many times we, like that judge, try to move on with our own lives, take care of our own people, or simply keep our own heads above water, our persistent, stubbornly determined God will keep coming to us. And our persistent, stubbornly determined God will keep challenging us to let the priorities of God’s compassion and justice reorder the priorities of our lives (Alan Culpepper, New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX, p. 339), of our life. Hear that again: God desires for the priorities of God’s compassion and justice to reorder the priorities of our lives, of our life. That reordering was the widow’s challenge for the judge in the parable. That reordering is God’s challenge for the church today, for you and for me.
So we have a decision to make: how long will we ignore God’s persistent prodding of us to respond to the cries we hear for justice and compassion—justice and compassion not just for the people we understand or look like or love but particularly justice and compassion for those who are the vulnerable, the outcast, and the oppressed in our day? Because like that widow, God is not going to stop demanding that we hear those cries and that we respond to what we hear. God loves us just as we are, but God loves us too much to let us stay just as we are. So God will keep pressing us. Like that widow and the judge, God will not give up on us.
In light of that, I must ask you a question. Today, in your life, as you sit on that judge’s seat, what do you think God is persistently calling you to do, to be, to say as a disciple? What call for justice and compassion in our world and in this time is God asking for you to hear and to heed, asking for you to help in enacting? What will God not leave you alone about, no matter how many times you try to brush God off?
As you ponder that, I will tell you mine. Though it has always been a part of my call as a female clergyperson, I believe God is once again bothering me, persuading me, demanding that I, as your pastor, speak up and out in this holy space against the myriad of unjust ways women and girls are actively being demeaned in both daily acts and in our national conversation. As a person who, no matter what the world tries to tell me, is created in God’s image just as much as any man, as a mother of a daughter who, no matter what the world tries to tell her, is created in God’s image just as much as any boy, and after this past week in our world that we have all collectively endured, I can no longer stay silent.
I cannot go along to get along or let my fear of upsetting some of you keep me from testifying—testifying against the daily dismissals and denials of the myriad of ways in which women and those who identify as female regularly encounter aggression against our bodies and against our souls. It starts young, and it does not stop. I believe God is persistently asking me, persuading me, to not just let this one go unchecked anymore. Too much is at stake for me to remain silent, for the church to remain silent.
Did you know that after that tape of the bus conversation with the candidate and the reporter aired, phone calls to the country’s biggest sexual assault hotline jumped 33 percent over just one weekend, last weekend (NPR’s Morning Edition, 14 October 2016)? The executive director of that hotline said they have had to bring in additional staff and ask their other staff to stay for longer hours. Too many people are calling in distress over memories unearthed or with experiences of verbal and physical sexual assault finally being articulated.
Furthermore, the Friday before the second presidential debate took place, writer Kelly Oxford wrote on Twitter about her first experience of sexual assault and asked other women to share their stories in response. Within one evening, she had received one million responses. One million responses. I know from personal experience that we are not making this up. It is not about locker-room banter or letting boys be boys. It is about a demeaning and a dismissing of our full God-created, God-given humanity and a passive acceptance of our female bodies as public property. Why else would we have so many purple ribbons outside during this Awareness of Domestic Violence month?
As men and women of faith, siblings in Christ, we all must take this unjust and unfaithful cultural attitude seriously and do what we can to dismantle the idol of maleness as reigning supreme. As Christians, we must speak up when something demeaning is said; carefully consider the ways we speak of God in order to make sure our words are as inclusive and as expansive as our Creator; stop ignoring or denying the stories of pain that so many women carry over past experiences; and do whatever we can inside the church and outside of it to make sure that all of our children, regardless of gender identity, know they are deeply valued and loved.
Because I believe God, like that widow, is going to keep coming to us as church, as followers of Jesus Christ, again and again and again and again in order to keep asking us why we are not speaking up or acting out in ways that embody God’s compassion and value God’s call for justice and equity. God is not going to just leave us alone about it. It is not who we are, and the toxicity of that idolatry is damaging our country, and it is damaging our souls. My daughter gave me permission to tell you that what she has been hearing scares her. So this is my conviction as to where I feel called to act and to lead in response to our persistent God. What about you?
As you move into this week, take that question with you. Open your heart to hear what God is bothering you about these days. How is God persistently challenging you to allow God’s compassion to reorder the priorities of your life, so you might resist the temptation to be only an unjust judge and instead you might act in response to God’s call articulated though the widow’s voice for compassion and justice? Because God will not stop continually coming and doggedly calling and persistently persuading until those cries, God’s cries, are answered. Thank God. Amen.
NOTE from Views from the Edge: Fourth Presbyterian Church-Chicago is one of America’s historic pulpit churches. Shannon succeeded John Buchanan and Elam Davies. Elam Davies and John Fry (see yesterday’s “Chicken Sh*t Sermons and Polite Company”) co-taught preaching for the Class of ’64 at McCormick Theological Seminary. Shannon boldly continues the Presbyterian-Reformed Tradition’s emphasis on preaching with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
Views from the Edge 
Pingback: We All Have Questions: Should the Church Be “Political”? – First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo
Gordon,
Sexual abuse and harassment are serious subjects that the church needs to address accurately and Biblically. Shannon has done so.
Your response in this comments section concerning abortion is inaccurate and unBiblical. “Pro-life v. women’s rights” wrongly labels those who support both pregnant women and their unborn babies as opposing women’s rights. That is inaccurate.
You add that women whom you counseled considered both abortion and “the alternative” to be “abhorrent.” Since abortion kills an unborn baby, the alternative must be letting him or her live. It is unBiblical to describe babies as “abhorrent,” when the Bible says in the Old Testament that children are a heritage from the Lord and in the New Testament that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them. Contrary to your conclusion, it is that simple.
LikeLike
Bonnie, thank you for weighing in on this. We agree that Shannon’s sermon addressed sexual abuse and harassment accurately and biblically. It was a fine piece of work.
My comments re: abortion and women’s rights came, as you’ve noted, in response to another comment which turned the discussion in another direction. My response missed the mark if it led readers to the conclusion that I thought babies, rather than the wrenching choice of whether to continue to carry a child. were abhorrent. The “alternative” to which I was referring was a mother’s decision to continue her pregnancy when medical testing and counseling confirm that the mother’s life is a risk or the fetus is not viable without life-long institutionalization. These are tragic moments in which there is no “good” decision. Either way, life is at stake. Biblical ethics and bioethics, or so it seems to me, understand that the human situation is inescapably tragic, and invites us to pray for guidance, strength, and wisdom in the midst of the Fall. When there is evidence that the fetus will never get to be a “child” in this life, the ethical decision is far from simple.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We as a church AND as people of God have been silent many times and for far too long. We are at a point that is as much our fault as any one’s. Thanks, Shannon, for challenging us all to speak up gently and firmly and say, Enough is enough! Let us hear God’s call anew. With love and joy, Dusty
LikeLike
Thank you, Dusty. I’m sure Shannon will be pleased.
LikeLike
Amen and strong women!
LikeLike
Amen to that, Judith. AND Amen to the Cubs who just won the National League Championship Series and are on their way to the World Series. Shannon and Fourth Church will be in seventh heaven tomorrow.
LikeLike
I love Shannon! I said when I heard her first sermon at WCPC maybe 15 years ago, that she would not be long at our lovely church. That saddened me because I am a selfish sinner who wanted to keep her with me to lead me on my faith journey. But in truth I am thrilled to have known Shannon for just a minute. This message was wonderful! Thank you Shannon!
LikeLike
Three cheers!!!
LikeLike
Not just justice for women but justice for our grandchildren, for the future. God is screaming at us from the polar caps, the dying coral reefs, the acidifying oceans, the disappearing species ( far faster than the die-offs with the dinosaurs) to take responsibility for the life supporting systems of our planet. How long will we ignore this?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anonymous, you just spoke out loud the question that was ALTOGETHER MISSING in last night’s presidential debate. And THAT’s a huge shame! Thank you for pointing the elephant in the living room we choose to ignore at everyone’s peril. “How long will we ignore this?” Till the cows come “floating” home.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The sermon was good. Nice points about abuse. Do you also have a sermon on murdering our unborn children? That is NOT a woman’s right to decide who lives and who dies. Pagans sacrifice their children.
LikeLike
Gayla, we haven’t published the sermon about which you ask and I’m at a loss how best to reply. The pro-life v. women’s rights debate seems to me a painfully inadequate framing of the issue. Moral and ethical decisions are not always as simple as one might wish. I can say without hesitation that for the women who turned to me for pastoral consultation, abortion was an abhorrent option. So was the alternative.
LikeLike
Murder no matter the motive is still murder and as the leader of the church, I would hope you would uphold that principle.
LikeLike
For your consideration, not all killing is murder. There’s a long history of ethical discussion about the difference. For example, the “Just war” theory justifies killing under certain circumstances. The killing in a “Just War” is not considered Murder.” Might the same principle hold true in the case of a woman who’s own survival is placed at risk or who is known to be carrying a fetus that by every measure is is not a human or sustainable. We could all wish it were simple. Unfortunately, it’s not.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It is usually a family decision after wise counsel and fervent prayer. It is not your decision, nor mine, nor the government’s. I respect that.
LikeLike
Oh yes, there is fear in coming forth. I was a young woman in a prestigious Episcopal parish and was set upon regularly BY THE RECTOR! I was afraid to say anything; no one would believe me anyway. Now I am a priest myself and way retired,but it lingers on and on.
LikeLike
Thank you, Elizabeth. Trinity Episcopal Church of Excelsior, MN has become home. Two wonderful priest, both women (Devon Anderson and Anne Miner-Pearson) hold the pulpit to a high standard. Thank you for sharing and God bless!
LikeLike
Thanks so much, Shannon, for your courage and clarity, among your many other gifts displayed here. Blessings.
LikeLike
I enjoyed reading this. And I’m not a member! But I AM a woman who sees the reports of injustice worldwide, and feel much the same as the pastor. Very few men are assaulted and/or raped…so I wonder if ANY MAN can put themselves in our shoes. Understanding this from the violence, the shame, and the mental anguish deserves time, open ears and hearts. Think of the victims first. Done. Cindy M.
LikeLike
Thank you, Cindy, for sharing. I know Shannon will be pleased by your comment.
LikeLike
Pingback: A Standing Applause Sermon – Whales & Nightingales Press
I assume this means it was reblogged by Whales and….?
LikeLike
Pingback: A Standing Applause Sermon | stillnessandpeace
Pingback: A Standing Applause Sermon | Dour Mouse
Raymond, I hope and pray that on the day your daughters feel courageous enough to tell you of the assault(s) they have endured, you will lovingly and compassionately listen to them, hear their story and its affect on them and not call it a ‘bunch of mush’, made up, false memories. I clearly remember my 3 experiences of molestation, 2 by a family member and 1 by a stranger. And the time in college I was raped and held hostage for 9 hrs by a complete stranger. You don’t get to choose what happened to me just like I won’t choose for you. This is real and enough is enough. Thanks, Shannon, for calling out injustice and for holding us all accountable. For helping us believe we can make a difference. That IS Good News!
LikeLike
Thank you, Erin, for sharing your story here. It’s a horrible tale, but not a “tall tale”, and deserves more eyes. I think what Shannon’s sermon did was to reassure women that they are not alone, and that brutality and bullying can be called out publicly by those who dare.
LikeLike
I totally agree with this sermon. But if you are going to politicize the issue, why slant it toward republicans? Bill Clinton has done much worse- proven acts while in the White House Oval Office!!!! Short memory Shannon..
LikeLike
Carolyn, I hope it’s clear that Shannon did not use a name. She named the issues, and did so in a way that put us all in the judge’s hot seat before the persistent widow God. Thanks for chiming in.
LikeLike
I see she’s offended by nasty talk on a bus do I hear anything about physical assault and rape? Or just some dirty talk? There’s a little bit of bias there I think. Feminism and churches have an Unholy Alliance as far as I’m concerned. Too much church lady Goody Two-Shoes stuff. It’s the real world people, get your heads out of your pews. I don’t believe those statistics for a minute. There’s no shame anymore about coming forth about being sexually assaulted or assaulted in any manner. That was a hundred years ago maybe seventy years ago but not today so these women had no reason not to come forth and tell someone. I think they’re depressed and have a false memory. I think a lot of them conjure this stuff up in their head and extrapolate an otherwise nonthreatening event because of nonsense that was just preached. In addition, as long as you wanted to go biblically a woman is required by the Bible to fight back. Women have been telling themselves because of the feminist that they are victims. I’m a defensive tactics instructor, women do not have to be victims they can fight back all they have to do is take the time to learn how. It’s all a bunch of mush. BTW…I have daughters
LikeLike
Raymond, So far as I know, this is the first time we’ve had a chance to “talk”. It’s also clear you don’t know Shannon and you don’t know me. “I see she’s offended by nasty talk on a bus do I hear anything about physical assault and rape?” I can understand people giving up on the church. I’ve been there myself because people had their heads stuck in their pews – a retreat from the real world. You might be interested in the reflection “Chicken Sh*t Sermons and Polite Company”, the previous post here on Views from the Edge. As for your comment (“There’s no shame anymore about coming forth about being sexually assaulted or assaulted in any manner. That was a hundred years ago…”), I took part in a discussion with three women two nights ago. All three agreed with Shannon. There IS shame and there is fear about coming forth about sexual abuse and assault. All three of the women identified with the women who called the hotline. The numbers did not surprise them. Their responses were highly personal and, like Shannon’s sermon, were worth telling to a bigger world. Once you name something (e.g. “Feminist”), it’s easy to dismiss it. This was an equality sermon. She didn’t fight with hands, feet, and arms. She spoke with the greatest power in the world – the power of the Word, the power of conviction and persuasion.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Raymond, I am talking from my UK experience as a woman brought up to feel capable and confident regardless of my gender by enlightened parents. No extremism, just down to earth acceptance that most gender roles are distortions of the true capabilities of both men and women. Both men and women can excel at things thought to be the domain of the opposite gender.
I am not a victim and don’t know any women who regard themselves this way but I frankly think it is nonsense to say women’s stated experience of abuse from some men is mush and to suggest that women are so weak-minded and incapable of independent thought that they are going to imagine offenses and think that they are victims because of a sermon or feminism. This is precisely the kind of disrespectful and dismissive way that women are sometimes treated by some men, fortunately only a minority of men.
“There’s no shame anymore about coming forth about being sexually assaulted or assaulted in any manner.”
This is just not true for the assaulted woman – being sexually assaulted is highly personal and an utter invasion to the core of a person. The last thing an assaulted woman wants to do is reveal highly personal and traumatising sexual details. Sexual assault is traumatic in the extreme.
You also sweepingly suggest false memory, that just sounds to me like denial on your part. Perhaps you are the one who has their head in the sand.
LikeLike
A quick note, because this has been an occasional critique: If I had been a pastor in the 1990’s, when all the demeaning talk was stirring back then, perhaps I would have tied that in. But I was a recent college graduate and not yet begun my seminary studies. My own father, however, did preach about it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Shannon, thanks for this comment. Those who preach prophetically (i.e. courageously in the the tradition of the Hebrew prophets and Jesus himself) often come from families where it was modeled as normal and expected. You were blessed by such a father; your father is now blessed by you. And the river of blessing rolls on through time. FYI, Views from the Edge had 13,934 visits yesterday from 12,415 different visitors. An all time high. You’ve broken the glass ceiling again!
LikeLike
Those were consensual. It is unwanted harassment that is the problem!
LikeLike
Wonderful sermon! Mighty in so many ways!
LikeLike
Yes, in SO many ways.
LikeLike
Thanks for posting this Gordon. I hope her sermon makes a difference in many lives.
LikeLike
I hope so, too, Chuck. What pleases me as much as the sermon is the congregation’s overwhelming support. They were waiting for someone saying clearly what they had been feeling and thinking. That’s the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition at its best.
LikeLiked by 2 people