Proper 24 :: Genesis 32: 22 – 31 / Psalm 121 / II Timothy 3: 14 – 4: 5 / Luke 18: 1 – 8
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker
on Sunday, October 16, 2022.
“THINGS I WISH WERE TRUE”
(Homily text: Luke 18:1 – 8)
It seems like there are things that we wish were true as we make our way through life. Here, for example, are some selections from my own life:
- I
can eat whatever I want and as much as I want and not gain weight.
- I
have all the energy and stamina at the age I am now as I had in my 20s.
- The
supply of money is unlimited.
- I am
the center of the universe.
- God exists to fulfill my requests on my schedule and on my terms.
(I
could probably think of some more, but you get the idea.)
Of course, the reality is that none of
the things I listed above are true. Not a one of them.
And especially that last entry, the one
about God existing to fulfill my requests on my schedule and on my terms, that
one, especially, isn’t at all true.
But, I suspect, the truth is that we
think that way, don’t we? We tend to treat God like we would treat an ATM
machine. You know, we put in our special access card, punch in our passcode,
and out comes the request we’ve made, immediately and on our terms. Once that
happens, we can move on with our lives and neglect God until the next time we
need something.
Maybe one of the most important
questions we could ever ask ourselves is this one: Do I treat God like an ATM
machine?
But the blunt reality is that God
expects us to be in relationship with Him. God expects us, as part of that
relationship, to offer our thanks and our worship. (Worship is, after all, the
most important thing the Church does.) And, as part of our thanks and our worship,
we offer to God our requests, our needs, and yes, even our desires, both on
behalf of others and on our own behalf.
All of these things: Thanks, worship
and prayer requests, take place in the context of an ongoing, back-and-forth
relationship between God and us.
That is exactly the point of Jesus’
Parable of the Unjust Judge. Jesus wants us to realize that we are to be
constant in prayer, and in faith. (Notice how Luke explicitly tells us what the
meaning and the application of the parable is in advance of our hearing it.) We
can approach God’s throne of grace in the confidence that God is the good and
gracious and generous giver of every perfect gift. (Jesus compares the attitude
and the behavior of the unjust judge with the God who answers prayers.) We
would do well to add that God will fulfill our request in accordance with His
will, not ours, and not on our schedule, but on his.
Faithful living and praying changes us,
as we wait for God’s response and the nature of God’s response. Patience is an
inescapable part of our relationship with God.
Today’s parable offers us a wakeup
call, a call to faithful living, praying and patience.
AMEN.
