Proper 24, 19 October 2025 "Shiny Red Bikes and Having Heart"

 Proper 24 19 October 2025

St George’s Episcopal, 

Fredericksburg, VA

“Shiny Red Bikes and Having Heart”

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

“Shiny Red Bikes and Having Heart”

Good morning! 

Jesus was a teacher. Jesus was a healer. But, what attracted and enthralled his hearers was that Jesus was a storyteller. Plain and simple.

I have been preaching twice as many years as I haven’t, and in those decades I have learned a very simple and important lesson. If I talk in the abstract, people can pay attention for a little bit before their minds wander, or they start applying the ideas to their situation and their attention flits away to those thoughts. It is par for the course.

But if I start to tell a story, and I make it engaging and interesting people look up, and lean in, and stay with me. We are wired for stories. We use them to say goodnight and tuck our kids into bed. Standing around the watercooler or at a cookout, we might break out a joke or anecdote to engage with our colleagues or friends.

And as I said, being a Master of the Human Condition, Jesus knew that about us. And how did he repeatedly teach? Through story, and we call the stories he told parables. The word parable comes from the Latin word for “comparison.” We might use the word metaphor. He is making a point by pointing to something else that is parallel to what we are experiencing.

And we are still wrestling with Jesus’s metaphorical teaching stories 2,000 years later. I highly encourage you, if you would like to take a deep dive, to pick up “Short Stories by Jesus” by Vanderbilt Divinity professor Amy-Jill Levine. Its sub-title is “The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi.” She repeatedly brings out that Jesus intended to shock and dismay his hearers by twisting something that they knew and turning it on its head.

So many of Jesus’ parables are about God and the nature of God. Some other parables are about the way things are or will be in the Kingdom of God which Jesus preached about and lived to bring into reality. 

In the spiritual world, taking the familiar and twisting is an easy way to get us to unlearn what we think we know, and relearn what is more true and real. And by more true and real I mean what God’s intentions are for all of us.

Today’s parable from our lectionary reading is often confusing because it goes against those patterns most often found in Jesus’s stories. It is clearly against how God is. And sometimes, like in this instance, they actually tell you the point it is they are trying to make. Luke does as much…

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

So let’s start there. This is about our praying, especially when we are unsure if we are being heard. We need to pray, even if we do not know the outcome.

[Jesus] said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" 

Jesus, as I mentioned, takes what is known, and spins it.

Scripture promises that there is nothing new under the sun, and a crooked politician is not new. Even in Jesus’s day, there were stinkers who would kiss a baby just so that they could take their lollipop. Do not confuse the Judge with God, which might be easy to do. The Judge is the antithesis of God; God is not like him.

When it comes to our prayer, it might seem like you are not being heard. It might seem like your prayers are landing on deaf ears. But this parable is about our need to pray without ceasing, not about the nature of God. Jesus clears that up with the line: 

And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will God delay long in helping them? I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to them. 

Now this is the time when we have to talk about God’s answer to prayers. I have read a lot. I have prayed a lot. I have waited a long time for an answers.

You may remember the story from the Hebrew Scriptures when the Prophet Elijah was being persecuted by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. They had brought in the religion of the false idol Baal, and to get the people’s attention there was a drought for three years. Elijah sent word to the prophets of Baal to meet for a showdown on Mount Carmel.

Elijah set up altars with sacrifices on them, one to Baal and one to God. He allowed the 400 prophets of Baal to pray to their deity first, and after hours of calling and crying, of dancing and even self-mutilation, nothing came of it.

Friends, that is not what God wants from us. God wants us to be clear, honest, and direct. Elijah did that and God lit the fire on the altar dedicated to himself. 

We are to pray, without ceasing and to have heart. A synonym for that is to pray with faith. 

Another caveat, when I am waiting to hear from God, I too often, admittedly think, God will give me exactly what I pray for. And sometimes God does. But I often have to remind myself that God’s answers to prayer are often boiled down to one of three things: Yes, No, and Not Now.

When my daughter was very young, she did not want to get a shot. We would tell her that she was going to get a shot. We would go through the appointment right up until the time when the shot was coming. And even while I held her still on my lap, she would look at me one last time, words no longer of use, but that way our beloved ones can look at us and speak volumes with a glance.

In that look, she would want me to make it go away. But I was the father. I was the one holding her. I was the one who knew it was best for her to take a moment of pain for her long-term health and safety. Despite her begging, the answer to her pleas was No. I stayed with her. I hurt with her. I would take her anger or resentment to the decision that I knew was best for her and all of us. I did what needed to be done. 

I would rather have her beg and tell me what she was feeling. She did not need to hold it or hide it. She did not need to say, “Why bother!?!?” I wanted her to have honest and open communication with me, but I also wanted her to trust that I was doing what was best for her.

Prayer is like that. We share our hearts, what they are really and truly feeling and wanting. No matter how trivial. And I also have faith in God that the answer may be yes, you get what you want, no, you do not get that, or not now, and we will see what comes.

Sometimes I might see a shiny new bike. It is red and cool, and I convince myself that I want that red bike. I might even pray that God would give me that really cool, shiny, red bicycle. I might even pray that continually, like a kid dropping hints at Christmas.

But then it does not arrive. Am I angry with God? If so, that would be on me. If I were a petulant child that would be the outcome.

But if I kept praying for that red bike, God would have the opportunity to show me that my blue bike is just fine. I might see that some people might not even have a bike, and how blessed I am to have a bike at all. My blue bike starts looking better and better, and I see God’s loving hand in saying No, no matter how hard I prayed. And while I got a No to my prayers, I trust that God’s No means something else will happen, and I pray I can see that it is better.

When Jesus talked about our not losing heart in our prayers, it is about faith in a God who is good, a God who is abundant with gifts and justice, a God who loves us more than we can ever perceive.

Holding my child while she got shots was hard, but it was one of the most loving things I could do. She got what she needed without necessarily getting what she wanted. And even in the No to her pleas, I trust she had heart that I loved her and wanted what was best for her in the long run.

God loves us and wants what is best for us. God is generous, abundant, and loving. Today’s reading ends with this phrase.

And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Praying without ceasing. Praying, even when the answer might be Yes, No, or Not Now, shows that we have faith that God hears us and that God’s response will be just and caring of us.

Today, as we look at the Gratitude we have in our Generosity Campaign, we have a God who hears our prayers. We have a community of love and support, especially in the hard times like so many are going through right now. Even in days like these we can have Gratitude. We have a way to have hope, even when we do not see what is beyond the horizon. God, who began a good work in you, is faithful to complete it. Amen