Not to Lose Heart

Sermon for Proper 24 C RCL 10/17/2010, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8

In our Gospel reading today, the Lord tells a parable to his disciples so that they would learn to pray always and not to lose heart. There are only 3 parables on prayer in all of the gospels, and all 3 of these prayer parables are found only here in Luke. We heard the first earlier in the summer, and next Sunday we will hear the 3rd of these. But today we are given this brief little parable for our meditation. And what is more, we are even told before hand what the lesson of this parable is meant to be!

“Jesus told the disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

What does it mean to lose heart? It’s an unusual Greek word that is used here and it means something like becoming weary or tired, losing heart, beginning to despair.

What a fitting word given to us today, I believe. I know that there are many among us here who are feeling weary and tired; many who are tired of carrying such a heavy load in the church all alone.

Well, if you are in that category, then listen well to this message of hope that the Lord brings to you today. The persistent widow who finally receives justice from the wicked judge because of her patience and perseverance is a lesson for all of us who labor in the Lord’s work but see little fruit for our efforts.

I spoke with you a few weeks ago about prayer, particularly about the woman who was praying a novena to St. Joseph. And I suggested that she was misguided in her prayers because she did not, first and foremost, seek after the will of God above all things. (10/3 Sermon - Life that really is life)

But there is, of course, a place for pleading to God for those things which are on our hearts. We call that the work of petition and intercession.

Let’s take a minute to get our understanding of prayer straight before we go any further. Please turn to the Catechism in the Prayer Book on Page 856. Let us look together at how the church has defined prayer, and particularly this discipline of asking God for help and relief.

Prayer and Worship (the first question)

Q. What is prayer?
A. Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.

All that we can ever do in prayer is to respond. God always initiates; we are always in the position of reacting and responding to what God has done.

Q. What are the principle kinds of prayer? (at the bottom of the page)

A. The principle kinds of prayer are adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession, and petition.

There, at the end, are the forms of prayer that we are considering today: intercession and petition.

(on to the next page, about in the middle – the 6th question down)

Q. What are intercession and petition?
A. Intercession brings before God the needs of others; in petition, we present our own needs, that God's will may be done.

This work of prayer is nothing other than the work of love. If we love others, and if we love God, then it is natural and completely expected that we would bring to God the needs of those who love, and our own needs as well.

But this is not intended to be simply an individual effort. When we get down to it, the work of the church is prayer. Remember that the Lord’s concern when he entered the temple and overturned the tables was that the temple is to be “a house of prayer for all nations.” Our relationship with God – on an individual level – is our life of prayer. But this is true on a community level as well. Our collective connection with God begins and ends with prayer. It is our task to fulfill the vision of Jesus and to become a house of prayer for all people.


In his classic book called Prayer, Richard Foster shares the remarkable story of a prayer movement among churches in South Korea. Over the last 50 years, the church in Korea has absolutely exploded with exponential growth and, at least in terms of people who identify themselves as Christians when asked, South Korea today ranks as one of the most Christian nations on earth. One of the keys to this growth has been their commitment to prayer. Foster tells the story of Myong-Song Presbyterian Church in Seoul. Koreans are known for their early-morning prayer meetings, but this church has taken this to a new level. Back in the 1980’s, about 40 members of the church gathered together early in the morning to pray. By the mid-90’s, around 12,ooo people were coming out each morning simply to pray, and that’s all. They began at 4 AM. Once the church was completely full, they closed the doors and a large crowd waited outside until 5 AM when the doors opened and the next group was allowed inside. Another group entered at 6 AM. Even during cold winter mornings, with the temperature well below freezing, these crowds continue to gather each morning.

And why do they do this? Simply for the ability, and the privilege, to pray together.

By the way: isn’t it remarkable how quick we are to complain when things aren’t precisely as we would want them? And yet, here are thousands of Christians who are so eager to pray with their fellow believers, that they will wait up to 2 hours in the dark, in the cold, on the street, solely for the sake of that privilege of praying together?

This work of ongoing and unceasing prayer is what the church is all about. Thomas Merton wrote this about the ever-present call to prayer that we experience: “The ever-changing reality in the midst of which we live should awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue with God.”

Because change is the one constant in our human experience, this change offers us an opportunity to bring everything we experience before God in reverence and expectation, patiently waiting for the Spirit to move.

This is something that we are not particularly good at. Patiently waiting for God. I know that I am not very good at it. I’m a fix-it kind of guy. If something is broken, then let’s get to work and fix it. That’s how I think. That’s how I operate.

But, when things are broken within ourselves, or within our church, what kind of response does God teach us to take? Stop and pray and wait.



Right now, we have challenges in our congregations that keep us from being able to effectively bear witness to the gospel in our communities. What is the answer? What is the solution to our challenges? It is prayer. I can’t explain to you why or how this works. But prayer is why we are here, and prayer is the unique offering that we give to the world around us.

Prayer is our task. Both individually and collectively, to come before the presence of the living God with trust and to present our needs with hopeful expectation. This is not the easy path to take, but it is the faithful path, the one that leads to joy and abundance in our life together in Christ. Amen.