[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 24C: “Never Give Up” or “What’s Tattooed on Your Heart?”

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-------- Original message --------From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org> Date: 19/10/2019  9:03 pm  (GMT-04:00) To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org> Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 24C: “Never Give Up” or “What’s Tattooed on Your Heart?” 

 

This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “Never Give Up” or
“What’s Tattooed on Your Heart?” and is based on all the lessons.  Here it is:  

 

Today we heard Jesus
tell the story of a poor widow facing down a powerful judge.  As you know- in those days (as often in our
own time), widows were usually among the poorest and most vulnerable people in
town.  No matter how rich their husbands
were, widows in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day did not inherit property.  The common practice was for the widow to
become the wife of the oldest brother of her husband.  If he would not have her or this was not
possible, she would be taken in the household of her father or another male
relative.  If no male would take her in,
she could prostitute or steal or beg or sell herself and her children into
slavery or starve to death.  Well- apparently
someone owed this widow money, but the judge wouldn’t listen to her.  Perhaps he only heard cases of those who had
a large enough bribe to make it worth his while.  We heard what the widow did.  Every day- cold or hot, wet or dry, she
appeared and repeated her claim.  Finally
he became so sick and tired of her nagging that he did the right thing and
granted justice to her.  Let’s look at
this parable to see what Jesus intends us to learn about how to live our lives
successfully as his beloved children.

 

FIRST- NEVER GIVE UP
ON YOURSELF.  Widows in that culture were
frequently scorned and abused.  People
usually figured either the widow or her husband or both were responsible for
the misfortune that had caused the husband’s death.  In fact, many religious leaders of the time
taught that tragedies were the punishments from a righteous God and were proof
that the sufferers were terrible sinners. 
So you see, she could have believed all the negatives she had heard from
the time she was born and just assumed she was a huge nothing, a zero.  Instead, she wrestled with that judge like
Jacob wrestled with the angel; and as the angel blessed Jacob, so the judge
blessed the widow.  The famous minister-
the late Norman Vincent Peale (who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking)
once traveled to Hong Kong. As he passed a local tattoo shop, he noticed some
of the designs people could have tattooed on their bodies - a flag, a dagger,
and various slogans. One slogan especially caught his eye: “Born to Lose.” He
was curious and went inside to ask about it. “Do people really ask for that
tattoo?” he asked. “Yes,” the owner replied. 
Someone that very day had just asked for it, in fact. “Why in the
world,” asked Dr. Peale, “would anyone want to be branded with a saying like
that?”  The old man shrugged and said,
“Before the tattoo is needled into the body, that tattoo is already branded on
the mind.”  Use the widow as a role
model, and don’t give up on yourself.

 

SECOND- DON’T GIVE UP
ON OTHERS.  That widow could easily have
given up on that judge, but her persistence paid off and he finally did do the
right thing.  God could easily have given
up on sneaky, lying Jacob, but God’s persistence with Jacob produced the father
of the Israelites.  The Rev. Richard
Donovan tells the story of another minister, the Rev. George Mueller who
pastored in the last century.  Rev.
Donovan says, “Early in his ministry, Mueller began to pray for five people by
name.  He prayed for them every day
without exception. Sick or well -- at home or abroad -- he prayed for them
every day.  After eighteen months, one of
the five became a Christian.  Eighteen
months- that’s a long time.  Mueller kept
praying.  Five years later, one more
became a Christian.  Five years- that’s a
long time.  Six more years passed, and a
third became a Christian.  That means
that Mueller had prayed every day for twelve years, and only three of the five
became Christians.  Mueller kept praying
for the other two, but then he died without seeing his prayers answered.  But then, more than fifty years after Mueller
began his prayers, the other two finally became Christians.  Mueller did not live to see it, but his
prayers were answered.”  As the widow didn’t
give up on the judge, as God didn’t give up on Jacob, as Rev. Mueller didn’t
give up on his people- don’t give up on others. 


 

THIRD- DON’T GIVE UP
ON GOD.  When our hearts are breaking or
our needs are great, this is sometimes the hardest of Jesus’ lessons.  At the end of the parable, we hear Jesus ask,
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find anyone on earth with faith?”  Our culture teaches us to expect quick
results.  You’ve got a headache?  Take a pill for instant relief.  Come home hungry?  Pop something in the microwave.  We’ve even got a name for restaurants that
meet our need for instant relief from hunger- fast food!  Friends, God doesn’t work like that.  God’s ways are not our ways and his timing is
certainly not our timing.  We sometimes
act as if our prayers are like the dollar we put in the candy machine- send
your prayer up to God and get your answer back right now.  Some people treat God like a super-genie:
make your wish and rub the bottle, but this time our wish is a prayer and we
get to skip rubbing the bottle.  All
those wishes…all those prayers…what if they were all answered?  What if every team won?  What if no one got sick and died?  What if we never had to wait for something,
struggle with something?  Remember, God
is our coach.  His purpose for us is to
shape and sharpen us up so we become more and more in the image of Christ.  The most important thing prayer changes is
ourselves.  Our perspective changes.  We see life more and more through God’s
eyes.  Often while God is in process of
changing us, he’s using us to change the world. 
Dr. Tony Evans (of the Urban Alternatives Ministry) says, “It’s worth it
to wait on God, because when He moves, He moves well.”  I’m going to close with an old story of how
God moves in surprising ways.  “Once upon
a time there was a good lady who lived next door to a bully. Everyday, when the
lady prayed, the bully could hear her. He thought to himself, ‘She sure is
crazy, praying all the time like that. Doesn't she know God’s not going to pay
attention to the likes of her?’ Many times while she was praying, he would go
to her house and harass her, saying, ‘Lady, why do you pray all the time? Don't
you know God’s not going to pay attention to a nothing person like you?’ But
she kept on praying.  One day, she had a
really serious situation, because she ran out of groceries. As usual, she was
praying to the Lord explaining her situation and thanking Him for what He was
going to do. As usual, the bully heard her praying and thought to himself,
‘Humph...I'll fix her!’  He went to the
grocery store, bought a whole bunch of groceries, took them to her house,
dropped them off on the front porch, rang the door bell and then hid in the
bushes to see what she would do. When she opened the door and saw the
groceries, she began to praise the Lord with all her heart, jumping, singing,
and shouting everywhere!  The bully then
jumped out of the bushes and told her, ‘You crazy old lady. God didn't buy you
those groceries, I bought those groceries!’ Well, she broke out and started
running down the street, shouting and praising the Lord even more. When he
finally caught her, he asked what her problem was. She said ‘I knew the Lord
would provide me with some groceries, but I never guessed he’d make the devil
himself get them for me.’”

 

Don’t give up on
yourself.  Don’t give up on others.  And, most important- don’t give up on
God.  Amen.

 

For anyone who
is interested, this sermon and updated African-American wisdom statements are
posted on our parish’s web site under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: http://www.stpaulsepisag.org .

 

Blessed preaching,

Judy Boli

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Saginaw, Michigan





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