Faith again.
There it is in the last line of the gospel, God will grant justice, but will that be enough – will that for us, the ‘proof it people’, be reckoned as faith?
Each text for this week is clearly chosen for its sense of
keeping on.
For Jacob it is staying with God in the wrestling match that provides him a new name, in Timothy’s epistle written to a new faith community struggling to stay together, to hold on to the teachings and prayer in the midst of persecution and doubt, and then the parable of the widow whose persistent pleadings persuade the unjust judge. It wasn’t her claims for justice that won the decision --it was here continual coming.
Keep on keeping on.
Using this persistence for good. Using the tenacity of the human spirit to triumph over evil. This is a gift and I wonder how often we give God the glory. An odd phase in today’s world I know. Certainly, in the stewardship of life, we focus on whose gifts they are. Even when we use our persistence, our insistence, our perseverance -- is it our own or does that come from our faith. Our faith in something that is us and yet arises outside of us. The very spark of energy of life that calls us to stay in the struggle till dawn, that keeps us coming before the unjust judge. Beloved this is a call that can be lost in the loudness of our world but let us commit to keep on keeping on.
Because we worship a God
who keeps on keeping on
with us. Thanks be to God.
Alison Schultz+
Priest in Charge
