Sermon for the Parish Eucharist on 18 October 2010 Emma Smith
(Luke 18:1-8)
On Thursday Fr Stephen re-told the story of the persistent widow for the benefit of fourteen very small people at our Holy Hamsters service, using the grumpy Mr Badger to represent the judge and the persistent Mrs Hedgehog as the nagging widow. The children appeared to be charmed with the puppets, and possibly even began to grasp one possible moral of the story, that even grumpy people will help you eventually if you keep asking nicely.
But I am conscious that many people find this biblical reading deeply discomforting, as they identify the judge in Christ’s story too closely with God himself. The abundance of life which we believe God is giving to us through Jesus sits awkwardly with the idea that God might be grumpy or grudging, and for those of us with teenagers, the judge’s response sounds a bit like that familiar response to endless nagging, “All right, all right, I’ll do it.”
But Jesus’ stories were seldom straightforward allegories – he used human examples to make his teaching come alive, and even, as in this case, to be humorous. Here he is using a technique we heard in the Gospel reading some weeks ago, when Jesus pointed out that even human fathers will give their children bread, and asked, “How much more will your Father in heaven give to his children?” In this case, he is arguing that if even a bad-tempered old judge will give in to a pestering woman when she doesn’t give up, then God will grant us so much more if we continue to pray with perseverance.
The issue is that of faith, and how it may result in persistent and answered prayer.
Many of us will have had times in our lives when the demands of faith in God have closely resembled the sensation of banging one’s head against a brick wall, which the story of the persistent widow graphically illustrates.
Although, of course, God is not grumpily ignoring our prayers, we may occasionally have had the feeling that we seem to be doing all the running. Although we pray, we make our communion, we contribute to the church both financially and in terms of time and effort, we sometimes feel that if God is listening at all, he doesn’t seem to be making much difference in our lives.
Perhaps what we need to consider is how we should be praying and what for.
I am afraid you may by now be only too aware that this month is our Gift Month, when we speak to you about our hopes for God’s work in this place, and the money, resources and help we shall need in order to bring this work to fruition. Sometimes, to be honest, this too can result in a sense that the clergy and church finance committees are taking on the role of the nagging widow, with the congregation responding, “All right, all right, I’ll do it.”
Yesterday I spent the day sitting in the church with Fr Stephen for Gift Day. We were very touched by those who came to the church to donate money, or to increase their regular giving.
But as we sat there, it conjured up for me a very clear memory of a visit we paid, as a family, to a Jamaican church in the Cayman Islands, some seven or eight years ago.
It was the week after Christmas, a time when finances are generally low, but during the service, the congregation were invited to bring up their tithes to the altar. Accustomed to the polite and almost excruciated Anglican practice of hiding one’s gift in an envelope, and then slipping it with embarrassment into a closed collection bag, hoping that no one will see the amount and feel that you have given too little, – or possibly even worse, given an ostentatiously large amount! – I was amazed by what we witnessed. The band played a loud and inspiring chorus based on the words from Chronicles, “All things come from you, O Lord, and of your own do we give you.” Large buckets were placed along the front of the chancel, and one after another, members of the congregation got up to make their offering.
It was one of the most exhilarating moments I remember in a church service, as the people bopped up the aisle, singing and rejoicing, encouraged by the shouts and cheers of their friends. The joy and excitement were tangible, as they hurled the offerings, which looked as though they were startlingly generous in view of their likely income, into the buckets and bopped clapping back to their seats.
I have to confess to you at this point that a small part of me rather wished yesterday that someone would come bopping up the aisle, singing and shouting and hurling money at Fr Stephen’s feet, but I fear (mea culpa!) that this was partly because I would have enjoyed watching to see whether he would respond in kind!! Perhaps unsurprisingly, being Hampstead, the style of giving was a great deal more restrained.
But that experience in Cayman has often led me to reflect on the description of the members of the earliest Church in the Acts of the Apostles, who, we are told, gave “with glad and generous hearts”.
What experience of God can lead people to believe they are receiving so much that they long to give so much back with overflowing joy and gratitude?
Last week we celebrated Harvest Festival – a somewhat displaced festival in the centre of a vast city. Once congregations would literally have brought the first fruits of their hard-earned harvest to lay at God’s altar, in gratitude for his love and providence in sending rain and sunshine to nurture their crops. No doubt, in country churches they still do.
We, however, brought goods purchased from supermarkets, or from the Fairtrade stall, and were much less involved in their production.
Yet the service felt joyful and filled with praise; and that joy was also manifested in the delighted faces of the people from the Simon Community who came on Wednesday and were able to take away an entire van packed with kind donations, which they knew would make a real difference to the lives of others.
In response to God’s generosity, we are called to be glad and generous in the practice of our faith, rejoicing in every opportunity to return to God the fruits of the gifts which he has given us, whether these are financial, practical or spiritual.
We cannot ignore the fact that faith is also often demanding, emotionally and practically – a fact demonstrated clearly in our first reading, in which Jacob wrestled all night with God.
We may experience times when faith seems a cold and demanding thing, or worse, in which it actively causes us pain to believe in God, or to persevere with the life of his Church. We may have the sensation that we are wrestling with doubts, fears, anger or even boredom, but both our readings encourage us to persevere in faith, as the rewards will be great.
Whilst the PCC do ask you to contribute to the church’s finances during this month, whether or not you were able to be with us yesterday, the message of the Gospel is that God is asking us to give with joy, not just money, but time and, in the words of the post-communion prayer “our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice” to His glory.
So how can we pray with perseverance, so that when the Lord comes, he will find faith on the earth?
And what should we be praying for, so that God, in his loving-kindness can respond to our prayers?
Perhaps we could pray for help to see beyond the stresses and strains of everyday life, to see the generosity and abundance of God in everything he has given us, and to experience for ourselves that overwhelming sense of gratitude which can result in the giving of ourselves freely and joyfully in return.