A Sermon by Seminarian Johnson Ramsaur: Proper 24 Year C
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Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to God our rock and redeemer. Amen.
It has been and is an honor to be with you here at Trinity. I have enjoyed being in conversation with many of you and being a part of the communal life here and look forward to getting to know more of you. Please do not hesitate to stop me for a conversation- I am eager to get to know you and to grow together this year as your seminarian.
At one time, I was absolutely scared to death to talk to people- to ask a question or even introduce myself. Until I learned how valuable smiling can be. Smiling can give us a glimmer of hope, a burst of joy, or sometimes a huge burst of laughter. Even on darker days, offering a smile helps me to remember hope is still there and may adjust someone’s whole perspective. Authentic smiling, not that of a mask, helps connect us to each other as we go day by day.
But for me, this past week is one of many where it can become challenging to claim that inner hope. My hometown of Lumberton, NC is still experiencing devastating effects of flooding from Hurricane Matthew last weekend. People that I grew up with and too many others have lost everything from the effects of the flooding. While my family is fine, many others are experiencing the greatest tragedy of their lives.
We are all familiar at some level with pain or loss that life can bring. Just this year, we have been confronted with tragic acts of gun violence, the political turmoil in our country showcased most prominently in our presidential race, and the fifteenth anniversary of September 11th. Times like our own can make us question where God is and the strength of our own humanity to deal with the world around us.
While our current problems can seem matchless, this is not new pain. Our reading this morning from the prophet Jeremiah comes from a context of great pain. Jeremiah is preaching to a community of individuals who feel utterly broken. The Israelite people have been uprooted from their native land into a foreign land and do not know for sure whether they will ever return home. They are living in a place of excruciating oppression as refugees.
But Jeremiah is revealing that “days that are surely coming” and speaks of a brighter day. His telling of the future shows how God will treat individuals and how humanity should respond to God. This is a message of great hope and greatly contrasts much of the other writing of Jeremiah. God promises to build up God’s people rather than tear down them down!
Jeremiah’s foretelling sounds so similar to the Christian message that we proclaim in our life of prayer. Working into knowledge and love of God transforms us to be God’s people. In asking for forgiveness and the assurance of God’s forgiveness, which we live into at least weekly in our common prayer, we are brought anew into this covenant with God.
Jeremiah’s prophecy says that God’s law or word will be “written on their hearts.” I find this an evocative image. Imagine that our hearts, the same ones that are prone to despair, happiness, and many other emotions, might be one with God’s own heart. Is this not what all of this is about? A gathered community of faith? Our prayers? Scripture study? This service of Eucharist we celebrate weekly?
Our prayer life- made up of all of these things mentioned and so much more of the prayers we lift through our thoughts, words, and actions daily, are essential to living life. In our Gospel reading this morning, Luke introduces his parable as saying explicitly that Jesus stressing to those listening that they “need to pray always.”
Well what does that look like!? We could talk and explore the modes of prayer for our whole lives. Many people devote their whole lives to this, for just cause and they give us much wisdom. But I think that it could start with simply following the model of the Psalmist- actively letting Scripture speak into our lives and their active engagement with prayer and the world around them.
But this is not always easy. It is hard work. Sometimes we have breathtaking and joyful clarity like the Psalmist has in this passage. But if you have spent any time with Psalms, it quickly becomes clear that the Psalms do not shout for joy at all times. Times come when we are on fire and determined, but times of doubt and despair do come and will come.
Several years ago, I was taking routine walks with a friend in a particularly distressing time of my life. I was completely burnt out and was losing hope in where I fit into the world and whether I really believed in God. At some point in our walks, my friend would ask about my prayer life. I responded, I am so mad at God that I can’t talk to God and I doubt that God even hears me or is at work at the world. He would chuckle and would say, “well it sounds like you need to keep on praying.” I would respond, how? He said “honestly.”
Prayer was hard work then and it has not gotten any easier. I used to think that prayer was all about figuring things out or “letting go, and letting God,” but I think it is much more complicated than that.
As I was reviewing this morning’s Scripture passages, I came across a hymn text by Fred Pratt Green, a British Methodist minister that speaks to this reality of a life of faith:
When our confidence is shaken
in beliefs we thought secure,
when the spirit in its sickness
seeks but cannot find a cure,
God is active in the tensions
of a faith not yet mature.
Solar systems, void of meaning,
freeze the spirit into stone;
always our researches lead us
to the ultimate unknown.
Faith must die, or come full circle
to its source in God alone.
In the discipline of praying,
when it's hardest to believe;
in the drudgery of caring,
when it's not enough to grieve;
faith, maturing, learns acceptance
of the insights we receive.
God is love, and thus redeems us
in the Christ we crucify;
this is God's eternal answer
to the world's eternal why.
May we in this faith maturing
be content to live and die.
It is this already but not yet notion of faith that can be so difficult. We are always maturing and growing, but seeking God and finding hope is essential in our lives of prayer.
Hope is best fostered in our persistence of prayer and reflection. This “training in righteousness” that Paul lifts up in Second Timothy can assist each of us to respond in effective ways to the world around us. Paul lifts up staying rooted in our faith and to “carry our mission out fully,” “endure suffering,” and “to be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” Paul’s statements are thought provoking and demand action.
The gospel reading showcases an individual living out of this reality. The “persistent widow” who this parable or story is often named after comes continually to the “unjust judge” seeking change in the injustice in her life. It is not easy work to fight for justice, but it can be easier when we do the inner work[1] necessary to be firmly rooted in what is right through our continual lives of prayer and reflection. We must act with courage from the convictions that this reflection brings us. This parable stresses to those listening of the “need to pray always” and to “not lose heart.” Despite our world that often brings us to despair, we must persist in praying and acting.
Even among whatever trials life is bringing to us now, let us keep praying and acting boldly in our faith. Maybe as we smile at each other, we can remember the persistent hope that our faith brings to us and the comfort that we can bring to each other. May our smiles provide an invitation to deeper prayer, abiding hope, and more faithful action.Amen.
[1] Parker Palmer