Sermon A Three Part Series on Stewardship
“Stewardship as Persistent Prayer”
Scripture Psalm 121 read responsively and Luke 18:1-8
Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ October 17, 2010
INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTUREPsalm 121 is the second of the Psalms of Ascents (120-134). These texts seem to have been used by pilgrims during their travel to Jerusalem. Travel for the ancients was at best difficult and commonly dangerous. The availability of water would have been a constant concern. In addition, the danger of bandits could never be ruled out, as the parable of the Good Samaritan later bears witness. Psalm 121 responds to what must have been unavoidable misgivings about travel with unwavering reassurances that God protects his beloved. In fact, the Hebrew verb translated as "keep," which has the sense of "watch over, protect," occurs six times in only eight verses. In all of these occurrences God is the one doing the action. God protects the traveler from a host of possible dangers. So the next time you take a trip you might want to pull out Psalm 121 and pray this psalm.
1. I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come?
2. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
3. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
4. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
6. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
7. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
8. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.
Luke 18:1-8
I have often suggested that Jesus’ parables are meant to surprise us and turn our world upside-down. But in this parable the surprise is found in Jesus’ interpretation of his story. We come away wondering, “Is God like the unjust judge?”
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
SERMON
So is God like the unjust judge and like the widow we just have to be persistent in our prayer life? Father Pierse in his reflections on this passage writes that instead of God being the unjust judge we need to see ourselves as the one “who neither fears God or respects people.” When we are dominated by our egos, we generally are just looking for what is in it for us. We are really stubborn in our self seeking. But God is persistent in love for us. God is the hound of heaven who wears us down, like the widow, by persistently pursuing us. Eventually, we yield and let God enter our lives and guide us to do the right thing.
In Peirse’s interpretation we see God as persistent in trying to break down our defenses. We see prayer as allowing this pursuing God to enter our lives and challenge us to change our self destructive behavior.” I like Peirse’s interpretation and from it I see where stewardship is like persistent prayer. Once we have opened our hearts to God, prayer is our connection to our life with God, with our Master. In Jesus’ day stewards were servants of a landowner, master, whose resources it was there job to grow through good management. What is the resource that God owns? Everything including our very lives belongs to God. So what kind of steward are you? How would you know? Has God done a personnel review with you? Received any memos from the hand of God lately? Probably not! But prayer is our personal access to God will for us. That is where the persistence pays off. If you regularly are in prayer with God, and a crisis comes upon you or those you love, you are already confident that God is with you in those time of trial.
The whole world has watched with bated breath for the arrival on the surface of the Chilean miners. What a joy to see them free at last. One of the youngest had report that there weren’t just 33 miners trapped but 34 because God never left them. A persistent God never leaves us. But a persistent steward of prayer is always aware of God’s presence in ordinary and extraordinary days.
Many of you know Tom Logan director of the Marion Medical Mission and Shallow Well program in Malawi Africa. This summer their son was killed in a boating accident. Still he and his wife, Jocelyn headed out to Malawi for another amazing year
Here is a brief update from them. Titled “We struggle on...” written on October 6, 2010
Things have been very hard this year – especially for Jocelyn, Marie and I. The well program in Africa has been the most difficult ever as we struggle to provide safe drinking water. In April Mr. Malata died of malaria, he was the foundation of the Shallow Well Program in the Nkhoma Synod. Then the death of the 4 year old boy on September 21, who ran out in front of one of our trucks in Tanzania. But know that all of US team 1 members are fine, 2 of our African Coordinator’s have had malaria (Mr. Khosa and Mr. Mhango) and Mr. Damalankhunda, one of our Field Officers, was in a motorcycle accident and lost half of his index finger on his left hand, yet they continued on hardly missing a beat. God’s blessings and power are clear, even with all the problems (diesel shortage, lack of pump fittings, malaria, etc.) over 1,000 wells should be completed by the time the first team leaves on Sunday! (and indeed over a 1000 wells were completed) This is a record for first teams. Please keep the prayers coming – pray hard and often. Love to all!
In these stories of faithful stewards of prayer, can you hear God’s call to prayer for you? Take some quiet time to open your heart, mind and will to God’s direction for your life. Amen.
