Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church Praises Attorney General Eric Holder

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) of The United Methodist Church applauds U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s promise at the annual meeting this week of the American Bar Assn. in San Francisco to address racial disparities in the federal justice system.
“As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington,” said Bill Mefford, GBCS director of Civil & Human Rights, “Attorney General Holder has reminded us that the dream articulated by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is still long from being fully realized and a primary obstacle is the current mass incarceration that characterizes our criminal-justice system.”
Attorney General Holder acknowledged the U.S. system’s ineffectiveness and unsustainability, as well as the tremendous cost, both financial and social, it places on the country.
“The attorney general rightly recognized the innate racism in our current system with black men receiving sentences 20% longer than sentences handed down to white males for the same crimes,” Mefford said in praising Holder for declaring this situation unacceptable and shameful. A group of U.S. Attorneys has been directed by Holder to examine sentencing disparities, and to develop recommendations on how to address them.
Driving much of this unacceptable and shameful situation is the ineffective “War on Drugs” begun in the early 1970s and that has done very little to address drug use and addiction, according to Mefford. “For far too long, we have responded to the root causes of crime — poverty, unemployment, lack of adequate education, and addiction — with incarceration,” Mefford said.
Attorney General Holder called for large-scale reforms that will make harsh and retributive punishment more reserved and less of a first option. The reforms he called for include scaling back on the use of mandatory minimum sentences, expanding compassionate release for those currently incarcerated who pose no threat to public safety, and highlighting best practices for alternatives to incarceration. Mefford said The United Methodist Church has long called for criminal-justice system reforms, including:

• opposing all mandatory minimum sentences;
• increasing services for victims of crime;
• improving indigent defense services;
• scaling back on prosecutorial discretion; getting rid of solitary confinement; and
• increasing funding for reentry services, particularly in the areas of housing, employment, substance abuse and mental-health treatment services.

“We believe that Scripture calls for a justice system that will serve as a balm of healing to the entire society,” Mefford said. “We pray and advocate for a criminal-justice system that brings healing to those who have been victimized, restoration for those who have committed crimes and justice for those who have been mistreated by the broken system currently in place.”
On behalf of the thousands of United Methodists engaged in ministries among the millions of people directly impacted by the broken criminal-justice system, Mefford emphasized that the United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society stands with Attorney General Holder and is ready to assist in any way it can to ensure that these reforms, as well as other necessary reforms, are fully implemented.
The General Board of Church & Society is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. Prime responsibility of the board is to seek implementation of the Social Principles and other policy statements on Christian social concerns of the General Conference, the denomination’s highest policy-making body. The board’s primary areas of ministry are Advocacy, Education & Leadership Formation, United Nations & International Affairs, and resourcing these areas for the denomination. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.
For more information, contact Bill Mefford, bmefford@umc-gbcs.org
Related Social Principles 164 V. The Political Community

Sermon 4-11-13 Faith Is the Assurance of Things Hoped For, the Conviction of Things Not Seen

     Throughout the New Testament, Abraham is held up as the primary example of those who live “by faith.” (Romans 4:11-12, 16; Galatians 3:7, 9, 29; Hebrews 11:10-20)  For the Apostle Paul, God’s original call to Abraham came before circumcision as the mark of Jewish identity AND before the Law of Moses. All that was expected of Abraham was that he have faith in God’s promises. Therefore, both Jew and Gentile could be “children of Abraham” if they had the same kind of faith. (Romans 3:21—4:25). We too are called to have that same kind of faith!

     Initially God told Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1).  And Abraham left without any idea of where he was going. Abraham “set out” on a journey in obedience to God’s command.  As children of Abraham we are to be on a journey, following the prompting of the Holy Spirit, not knowing where it will lead us or what  we will experience.   

     Twenty-four years later God promised, “The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you.” (Genesis 17:8) Yet to their dying days, Abraham and Sarah were sojourners and aliens in the promised land, living in tents. They lived with a promise but not the realization of that promise. When Sarah died, Abraham’s neighbors told him to take a plot of ground for her burial.  He insisted on paying for it because he said, “I am a stranger and sojourner among you; give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead. . . . I will give the price of the field. . . “ (Genesis 23:4, 13). 

     Abraham was 75 years old when he received the promise of a son.  He was 100 years old when he finally became a father. God makes Abraham and Sarah wait a very long time and there’s a lot of ambiguity and probably a lot of anxiety waiting for God to finally fulfill his promises. Abraham trusted in a future that seemed impossible. Imagine hearing at age 75 that you are going to be the father of a great nation and then trusting that promise for 25 more years. Abraham and his wife Sarah received the son of promise Isaac. But a son did not make them parents of many nations. They had only tasted the first signs of that eventual fulfillment, just as establishing residence in the land of promise did not mean they had actually become people of that land.

    Abraham and Sarah illustrate the trust and obedience of a faith that lasts a lifetime. Abraham's faith is never presented as a sudden heroic decision, but something more like an undercurrent that directs and is directed by a series of actions over time in the same direction, even when the ultimate destination is unknown or seems impossible to attain.  What a wonderful reassurance that we are not called to succeed, but only to continue the struggle, only to be faithful.

      Is our faith an undercurrent that directs and is directed by a series of actions over time in the same direction?  Yes, I can see that in the actions of many of you!  An undercurrent that keeps you ready to see others’ needs and to respond with caring. An undercurrent of servant leadership that keeps you working for the well-being of the community without regard for personal rewards.

 

     For Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, the promise was a homeland, a land in which they would no longer be strangers and foreigners, a land where they could faithfully worship their God and live according to his law. This longing for a homeland sustained the Jewish people for hundreds of years. Do we also long for something more than what one can see in life?

     “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”(Hebrews 11:1) I’ve always loved that Bible verse.  Some of you may remember it’s on a plaque in my living room. But what does it mean to have faith in what cannot be seen? It seems to me it means believing God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven is a real possibility. It means living with the longing for the world Jesus showed us, a world of healing and hope, compassion and caring, peace and justice.

     To live with an undercurrent of longing for God’s Kingdom means refusing to accept that the world has always been like this.  Refusing to accept great disparities in wealth; refusing to accept self interest as the only determinant of behavior; refusing to see caring for others as a threat to our personal well-being; refusing to believe that satisfying our needs is more important than preserving the planet. To live with an undercurrent of longing for God’s Kingdom means always working to make the world a better place.

     It also means expecting that we may not see that better place in our lifetime; expecting that we can only continue the struggle and trusting that eventually the promise will be fulfilled. 

     There are some things that only God can do. When we look at the rising tide of violence around the globe, the increasing number of refugees, the widespread hunger, we realize that some of these problems are so deep-seated that without God’s help they will not be solved. The good news we Christians tell one another and tell the world is that God is still actively at work in the world. God Holds the Future!

     Our challenge is to figure out where God is working and join in the struggle.  Holding onto God’s promises won’t be easy but we can trust that God will take care of us as we struggle to be obedient to his direction. Life may be risky and dangerous, but we can live without fear. The God who so loved all those who witnessed to us in the Bible, will not abandon us NOR will he abandon the world for which Jesus came, died and was risen. To live with the conviction of things not seen is to live with the conviction that the cross is more powerful than the sword and that, in the end, love will win.

     Abraham and Sarah saw only glimmerings of the eventual fulfillment of God’s promises. The story of Abraham and Sarah is a story of hardship and struggle, persistence and HOPE. This is the faith that just keeping going day after day, hanging on to the glimpses of God at work in the world and persisting in spite of doubts and fears. Living in hope. The faith of which the Bible speaks is fully in the world, but not of it. (Romans 12:2)

Scripture for 8-11-13 Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

2 For by it the men of old received divine approval.

3 By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear..

 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go.

9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

10 For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

13 These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Quotation of the Day

“The less we want to have, the less we need to have. This fact is itself one of the blessings God offers, with compound interest. The less we need to have, the less we need to fear. The less we need to fear, the more we know that a life of giving allows us always to live, not on the brink of destruction, but on the brink of blessing, where we can more readily hear the promise that the ‘Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour,’ desiring not to punish but to bless.” (Audrey West, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1, Propers 3-16). 

Sermon 8-4-13 Trust in God's Way

Scripture:  Luke 12:13-34
      It was customary for people in Palestine to take their disputes to respected Rabbis; but Jesus refused to judge this property dispute. Instead he used the request to teach what his followers’ attitude to material things ought to be. Jesus spoke both to those who had an abundant supply of material possessions and to those who had not.

     To those lucky enough to have financial resources beyond what’s required for daily necessities, Jesus told a story about a man who wanted the security of enough possessions to last him a long time.  It reminds me of the ad on TV, will you outlive your financial resources? Let us tell you whether retirement is possible and how much money you will need. This man never saw beyond himself. There is no parable which is so full of the words, I, me, my and mine. Despite his over-abundance of goods, the one thing that never entered his head was to give any away. His whole attitude was the very reverse of Christianity. Instead of denying himself he aggressively affirmed himself; instead of finding his happiness in giving he tried to preserve it by keeping.

     BUT, many of Jesus’ hearers only had just enough to live on and there was always the prospect that one day they wouldn’t have even that.  Most of them would have perhaps one spare garment, but not more. As with many in today’s world, both in the non-Western world and in this country, one disaster—a family member being sick or injured, for example—could mean hunger or homelessness. It was to these followers that Jesus gave his clear and striking commands about not worrying over food and clothing.

     Jesus knew how afraid people in his day were. And Jesus knows how afraid people are today.  And so he offers us words of comfort. There’s nothing to be afraid of, he says. God is with us and wants the best for us. God wants the kingdom to be ours both in the here and now and forevermore!

     All of Jesus’ examples have to do with building our lives around things that can’t be stolen away easily. If we center our lives on our possessions, then our whole lives will be about protecting and keeping those possessions -- so much so that we may live in constant fear that they will be taken from us. Even our neighbors become suspect and unworthy of our trust. Will they keep a neighborhood watch out for us? Or might they be the ones who will break in and rob us of our precious possessions?

     As we accumulate stuff, we find we must lock our doors, protect our neighborhoods, circle our wagons, form our tribes, all in an effort to keep that which is most sacred to us safeguarded against potential thieves who might come in the night and try to steal the things that make us happy: our giant screen televisions, our computers and gaming systems, our stereos and cars and boats and jewels.

     The problem is not money, but making money our god.  The question is: Do you count on money to guarantee your security or God? Unfortunately, if we believe that money can satisfy our deepest needs, we discover we never have enough. If we look to money for security, then we end up counting, tracking, and stock piling money. Just think about how much of the news today relates to what’s happening with the stock market. Doesn’t that show how obsessed we are with money?

     Jesus invites us to serve the God who is infinite and whose love for us and all creation is infinite as well. Love operates differently than money. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that when your second child came along, you didn’t divide your love for your first child between the two children. Suddenly you had more love, more than you could possibly have imagined before. The more love you give away, the more you have. Love – and especially God's love – cannot be counted, kept track of or stockpiled. When you serve God, you live in a world of abundance, of possibility, of contentment. In God’s world – Jesus calls it the "kingdom of God" – not worrying actually becomes possible.
     When Jesus speaks of “treasure in heaven,” this doesn’t mean treasure that you will only possess after death. “Heaven” is God’s sphere of reality, which, as the Lord’s Prayer suggests, will one day spread over the entire earth. The kingdom of God is bringing the values and priorities of God to this world. Those who welcome Jesus and his kingdom-message must abandon the greed and anxiety of the world and live by the values and priorities of God.

     The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.

     We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab. One of the consequences of such a life is joy.   Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow.  Pain and hardship still come. So often when they come we realize that there is no way we can protect ourselves from the events that really change our lives. There is nothing we can do to guarantee our well-being. The really important events in our lives are beyond our control: a sick or injured spouse or child, the death of a spouse or child. We can only live confidently leaving our needs in the hands of an all-knowing, steadfastly caring God. The kingdom of God is about living a life turned toward God, turning, facing, yearning, reaching out to God with trust and hope.

     Can we believe the words of our Lord? Can we let his love and his promises take away our fears? Can he free us to live with courage and conviction, hope and trust? Can he inspire us to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth? Jesus urges us to center our lives on the God who created us and who wants us to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven! God, the creator, loves to give good gifts, loves to bring you his care and rescue.

     I know, I know, it's hard to believe in God’s world of abundance -- this world that invites us to trust God's faithfulness like a flower does spring or to sail upon the currents of God's love like a bird does the air. This is the world Jesus invites us into: a world of abundance, generosity, and new life. But it is also a world of fragility, trust, and vulnerability. Which is why we have to choose. We can’t worship both God and money. The most powerful Lord in the universe, the creator of all things, wants to hear our voices, and speak to us. How we respond to God’s request for our time and attention is a good measurement of whether Jesus is our Lord. Those who live lives turned toward God may confidently leave their needs in the hands of an all-knowing, steadfastly caring God.

Review of Reza Azlan's "Zealot"

By Patrick Scriven, Director of Communications and Young People’s Ministries, Pacific NW Conference, United Methodist Church

Two of the biggest religion stories over the past week involved the formerly Christian, Muslim author Reza Aslan and the young, formerly conservative, evangelical blogger Rachel Held Evans. Aslan’s recent book on Jesus, “Zealot,” became a hot item after an insulting, yet not surprising, Fox News interview went viral. Held Evans wrote a piece distributed by CNN on why Millennials are leaving the evangelical church, and what they might be looking for.

Reza Aslan’s book Zealot begins with a vivid description of the Temple cult in first century Judaism that is quite provocative. His subsequent detailing of the political, religious and social tensions of the day breathes significant life into his portrait of Jesus, his earliest followers, and the world in which they lived. Given the limited data any historian has to work with Aslan should be applauded for created such a compelling world even as a healthy amount of skepticism ought be applied to his more dramatic flourishes, particularly when they reach beyond scholarly consensus.

One of my favorite things about history is the way looking back inevitably causes us to reexamine the present. In this case Zealot, on more than one occasion, prompted me to think about the role of the church in the 21st century.

Aslan describes a Temple cult that was central to the religious practice of a majority of the Jewish people throughout the region. When the Temple was destroyed along with Jerusalem following revolts in 70 CE, the Jewish faith was forced to reconsider, reshape, and reform – not for the first time. Of course, Aslan also makes the point that this event had significant impact upon the shaping of Christian theology as well.

The destruction of Jerusalem was not the preferred choice of any of the first century Jews that we are aware of. One might even conclude that it was the refusal of some to recognize Rome’s overwhelming dominance that made it inevitable. But this dramatic event forced a creative resurgence, indeed a complete reformulation of what it meant to be a Jew and how one faithfully worshiped God.

Many mainline folks like myself salivate when we read posts like Rachel Held Evan’s. We imagine that with a little bit of work we can pick up a portion of those young evangelicals who are falling away from their parent’s church forgetting that our own children tend to follow similar patterns. Several blogs over the course of the past week have rightly cautioned that such thinking may be somewhat wishful; I’m drawn to agree.

In my mind, one word connects Aslan’s work and Held Evan’s blog. That word is one you’ll rarely hear me saying and that may be part of the problem. The word is authority.

In Aslan’s description of Jesus’s world and the origins of the church so much is anchored around authority, how one attains it, and where it is ultimately rooted. Jesus builds his ministry to those who are not benefitting from the formal authority structure and boldly claimed a direct authority from God that is in conflict with the powers of the day. The nascent Christian community continues his ministry to the poor and outcast claiming authority through the risen Jesus; an authority that emboldens them through early persecution and sustains their theological imaginations as Jerusalem is destroyed. In contrast, the priestly caste’s authority is directly challenged by Jesus and other’s because of their collaboration with the state (Rome) and ultimately is undermined by it’s close connection to a physical location.

What Held Evan’s blog doesn’t account for is the draw of church’s like Seattle’s Mars Hill. If Millennials are truly looking for more progressive faith communities it hard to imagine what they see here. Part of this phenomenon can be explained by the reality that generational groupings make broad generalizations that never fit perfectly. More detailed analysis of the millennial cohort helps us to see significant religious diversity. But I also suspect that people are drawn to the sense of authority with which Driscoll offers his teachings.

What Mainline Protestantism is missing, in large part, is a deep, profound sense of authority. Even as Protestant clergy are often told to “take thy authority” as they are ordained, there is a lack of clarity about what that truly means. Serious theological questions remain open in the minds of many moderate and progressive Christians. And others who have resolved those questions in less traditional, but perhaps more faithful, ways display anxiety in sharing these new reformulations of the faith to people in the proverbial pews.

While the obnoxious interview on Fox News played a huge role, the buzz around Aslan’s book betrays our culture’s continued interest in a first century itinerant preacher and significant dissatisfaction with the sanitized Jesus too often presented by churches of all stripes. Christian leader’s should be thankful for the opportunity this book provides to open dialogue about the historical Jesus we all learn about in seminary and tend to hide as we preach a safer, softer Christ who loves Easter bunnies and potpourri.

Let me suggest that what we are seeing today is a new recalibration after the destruction of the third Temple. This Temple, unlike it’s predecessors, was built with bricks of privilege and the mortar of cultural accommodation and collaboration. Amidst the rubble, the church cannot rely on privilege to sustain itself. It is no longer the state religion or the default religious preference of emerging generations and this, while painful for some, is a grand opportunity.

For the church to thrive we will need a creative and engaged theology that recovers the authority Jesus claimed. Our imaginations must be unshackled from the theology of empire and reengaged with those who Jesus calls us to serve. This is where truly divine authority always lies.

Such authority is not synonymous with an obnoxious certainty (which is the heresy of some) but it does require that we truly know, experience and declare the movement of God in people’s lives – and not shy away from defining it as such (something most mainline Christians are terrible at). Again, I would suggest this becomes easier as our heads move out of the clouds and our faith is contextualized by missional immersion. A faith rooted in Jesus’way will by its nature offend and divide, but it need not be deliberately offensive.

Sermon 7-28-2013

Abba! Father, Hallowed Be Your Name

     In Jesus’ day, travelers often journeyed late in the evening to avoid the heat of the midday sun. In today’s parable, a traveler arrives close to midnight. The late arrival  put the householder in an embarrassing situation. He had no bread so he could not fulfill the sacred obligations of hospitality. Late as it was, he went out to borrow from a friend. The friend’s door was shut. In this part of the world,  the door was opened in the morning and remained open all day, for there was little privacy. But if the door was shut, that was a definite sign that the householder did not wish to be disturbed. But the seeking householder knocked, and kept on knocking.

     The poorer Palestinian house had just one room with only one little window. One-third of the room was a raised platform where the whole family slept on mats, not beds. Families were large and they slept close together for warmth. It was also the custom to bring all the animals into the house at night. Imagine the commotion if you got up in the middle of the night to answer the door (babies crying, dogs barking, sheep bleating, cocks crowing)!

     Is there any wonder that the man who was in bed did not want to rise? But the determined borrower knocked on with shameless persistence until at last the householder, knowing that by this time the whole family was disturbed anyway, arose and gave him what he needed.

     “That story,” Jesus said, “will tell you about prayer.”But there is substantial disagreement about what that story tells us about prayer. Some believe this story tells us to be persistent in prayer, that Jesus is encouraging an insistent asking, a search that refuses to give up. This interpretation focuses verse 8, I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. In other words, if you don’t get an answer right away, you’ve got to keep trying. To the extent that this means our prayer shouldn’t be just routine or formal praying, going through the motions as a daily or weekly task this is certainly true.

     Persistence is also required if your focus is on seeking the Holy Spirit. The action of the Holy Spirit is gradual; it happens over a long period of time. Because spiritual growth takes a lifetime, we should keep praying to God. We ought to beg and beg God for the Holy Spirit to come into us and work change upon our hearts. Note, we beg not for God to fill our specific requests but for God to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts. We beg not for experiences of the Holy Spirit, which are rare, but for changes in wisdom and understanding and in our capacity to love and care for others.  But, importantly, we are not to take God’s silence as a sign of rejection. When we pray, we are to pray with the assurance that we are God’s beloved children. It’s certainly true that persistence is what’s needed if we seek the change of heart brought by the Holy Spirit.

     It’s also true that the Holy Spirit is what this whole fast-paced, ever-changing world needs. I truly believe the only remedy for our current situation is the slow and persistent work of the Holy Spirit to bring changes from the inside, so that we can become catalysts for change for the good on the outside. So that we can bring God’s love and hope to people who really need community. Persistence is what’s needed if we  focus is intercessory prayer, prayer that pours God’s love out onto others.

Tom Wright, suggests,

There is a battle going on a fight with the powers of darkness and those who have glimpsed the light are called to struggle in prayer, to pray with passion—for peace, for reconciliation, for wisdom, for a thousand things for the world and the church, perhaps a hundred or two for one’s own family, friends and neighbours, and perhaps a dozen or two for oneself.

     There are, of course, too many things to pray about. That’s why it’s important to be disciplined and regular. If you leave it to the whim of the moment you’ll never be a true intercessor, somebody through whose prayers God’s love is poured out into the world.[1]

I really like that ratio (a thousand/to a hundred/to a dozen) between prayers for the world, prayers for those you care for and prayers for yourself. I also like the emphasis on discipline and regularity as well as energy, passion, and commitment.

     Someone has said that the Lord’s Prayer has two great uses in our private prayers. If we use it at the beginning of our devotions it awakens all kinds of holy desires which lead us on into the right pathways of prayer. If we use it at the end of our devotions it sums up all we ought to pray for in the presence of God.

     The Lord’s prayer begins by calling God Father. Actually the word was abba, better translated as papa or daddy. It reflects the familiarity, the intimacy of Jesus’ relationship with God, a relationship which Jesus came to restore between God and us.

     The name Abba Father also identifies who we are. We are children of God. The Gospel promises that no matter how powerful our earthly names, they do not define us. What defines us is the name given to us by God alone: the name of beloved child of God. We discover who we are by hearing once again whose we are, to whom we belong. We who call ourselves Christians are marked with the cross of Christ and named a beloved child of God forever.

     Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are reminded of this gift of identity (as a child of God). That no matter where we go, God will be with us. That no matter what we may do, God is for us and will not abandon us.

     That first word, Abba Father, also tells us that in prayer we are not coming to someone out of whom gifts have to be unwillingly extracted, but to a father who delights to supply his children’s needs. It’s important to focus on the last verse of our Gospel reading, ¹³If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

     The lesson of this parable is not that we must batter at God’s door until we finally compel him to give us what we want, until we coerce an unwilling God to answer. Jesus is trying to say just the opposite: If an unwilling householder can be coerced by a friend’s shameless persistence into giving him what he needs, how much more will God who is a loving Father supply all his children’s needs.

     This does not free us from commitment to prayer. Prayer is our personal connection with God. Deeper than mere words, in prayer we open our hearts and hope for answers. But it does mean that we are not wringing gifts from an unwilling God, but going to one who knows our needs better than we know them ourselves and whose heart towards us is the heart of generous love. If we do not receive what we pray for, it is not because God grudgingly refuses to give it but because he has some better thing for us. There is no such thing as unanswered prayer. The answer given may not be the answer we desired or expected; but even when it is a refusal, it is the answer of the love and wisdom of God.

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[1] Wright, Tom (2004) Luke for Everyone, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, p.134