The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr
Luke 18:1-8, October 18, 2025
How often do you pray? How long do your prayers last? What
do you pray for? Do you sometimes feel your prayers are a recording, set on
repeat? How does Jesus want us to pray?
Nicolas Herman was born in 1614 in a small village in
France. He was poor and uneducated. He served as a soldier in the Thirty Years’
War, where he was wounded in battle. After the war, he returned home, where he
endured the emotional and spiritual wounds of war. Nicolas was deeply disturbed
by the violence and chaos he experienced. He was spiritually searching for
answers.
It was one winter day when he had a profound spiritual
moment. He was walking when he saw a leafless tree, stripped bare by the winter
weather. It was here that he remembered God’s promise of renewal. The tree that
looked dead would return to life in the Spring. At that moment, he realized
that God could renew his own heart just as that tree would be renewed. The
vision sent him on a lifelong journey with God. It was a turning point in
Nicolas’ life.
Life outside of being a soldier was difficult for Nicolas.
He worked as a household servant for a nobleman but was frustrated with serving
such demanding people. He said, “The noise and pressure of the world were
keeping me from peace with God,”[1]
so he joined a Carmelite monastery in Paris as a lay brother. He took the name
“Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.” He did simple jobs there: working in
the kitchen, repairing leather sandals, etc. In these ordinary tasks, he
learned to live every moment in the presence of God. He said, “The time of
business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and
clatter of my kitchen… I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon
my knees.”[2]
In other words, he began to live every moment in the presence of God – “to make
prayer as natural as breathing.”
The parable we heard today begins, “Jesus told his disciples
a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart (Luke 18:1). He
tells of a widow who is powerless, overlooked, and dependent. The widow keeps
coming to an unjust judge demanding justice. This judge doesn’t fear God, and
he doesn’t care about people. But he finally grants her request simply because
of her persistence. He knows that if he doesn’t grant her request, she will
keep bugging him and bugging him until he does.
Jesus says that if an unjust man will respond to
persistence, how much more will God, who is perfectly just and loving, hear the
prayers of God’s children who cry out day and night? He ends his parable with, “When the Son of Man
comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:0). Jesus isn’t teaching us
that we should be persistent in prayer to wear God down. Being persistent in
prayer is about revealing our genuine faith in who God is. It’s about trusting
and waiting even when God seems silent.
While the story of Brother Lawrence is a story of stillness and the
widow's story is a story of struggle, they both tell us the same truth: genuine
faith never stops turning toward God. The widow continues to come back with
persistence. Her prayer is about pain and injustice. Brother Lawrence’s prayer
is not a prayer of urgency, but it’s an awareness of God. An awareness that
comes to him as naturally as breathing. The widow represents those of us who
continually pray to God for the same things over and over. It puts our faith
under pressure. They are the prayers that refuse to die when God delays
answering them. Brother Lawrence represents our faith at rest; those prayers
that are so habitual that they live within us. Both of these people represent
what Jesus is teaching us: A faithful heart doesn’t quit praying in desperation
or quiet trust.
When Jesus says we should always pray. He doesn’t mean constant
words. He means continually turning our hearts toward God. This is what Brother
Lawrence discovered in the kitchen at the monastery. Even when God seems
silent, even when life is ordinary or maybe painful, the heart that trusts God
keeps praying and keeps breathing faith. True persistence is not about effort.
It’s about faith that refuses to let go of God.
When life hurts, we are to pray like the widow. We are to cry out
to God in faith, even through our tears. When life feels ordinary, we are to
pray like Brother Lawrence, breathing in God’s presence with every task we do.
In all of our readings today, we hear how God is forming people
whose faith is so rooted in God’s Word and presence that prayer and
perseverance flow naturally, even in seasons of waiting and silence. In
Jeremiah, God promises to write God’s law on our hearts. It’s not something
external but something internal, shaped by divine presence. In the Psalm, the
inner Word becomes our delight and meditation. Prayer flows from relationships
and reflection. In 2 Timothy, Paul urges Timothy to remain faithful to the Word,
amid a tired and changing world. Together, with our reading from Luke, these
passages show the journey of God’s people: God writing God’s truth within us,
to loving it deeply, to holding fast to it in hardship, and to living it out
through persistent, faith-filled prayer.
When Jesus asks, “Will he find faith on earth?" He’s looking for
hearts that pray as naturally as they breathe and believe even when the waiting
hurts. Sometimes prayer feels easy, and other times, it feels like we’re tap,
tap, tapping on God’s shoulder, waiting for a response. This is where our faith
grows. God’s not just listening to our words. God’s shaping our hearts while we
wait. So, don’t give up when the waiting gets long. Keep praying when it hurts.
Keep trusting when you can’t see what God is doing. Make prayer as natural as
breathing. Amen.
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