Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 20 October 2013 by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 121; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:4 and Luke 18:1-8.

Today we have heard of a parable taken from Luke 8:1-8. This parable is about a widow who has been granted justice from an unjust judge because of her persistence to go to the judge.

The parable calls for prayer, persistence and patience.

This parable about a persistent woman leads me to think of my mother.

My father ran a family size factory. He was the owner and also the worker, my mother was the financial secretary. She was the one responsible to collect money from companies who had bought service from my father’s factory. Whenever there were companies which did not settle the bill on time, (and after several calls of reminders but received no reply) she would then go to the office of the companies. She sat in the reception or the boss office, waited for the boss to come and talked to him. When she met the boss or the person in charge, she would then tell him he should settle the bill immediately as she was in need of the money to raise her five small children. If the bill was not settled, she would go to the company everyday to nag and made the people there very disturbed.

My mother said, my father worked so hard. Every single coin was full of blood and flesh, sweat and tear. She therefore never allowed anyone to run away from paying them for the service. In most of the time she was able to force the company to settle the bill and get the money. My mother was a person with high persistence!

Persistence is a key to success!

There is a Chinese idiom to describe the importance and power of persistence:

世上無難事，只怕有心人。

In English is “Nothing is impossible to a willing mind”.

While it is clear the gospel account gives an important message about persistency, when we read the parable deeper, we find it important to notice what Jesus said to his people who listen to him.

He asked them to listen to what the unjust judge said:

“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 to me.”

The unjust judge did it because he wanted to free himself from trouble. The reason for him to do the widow justice was out of selfish reason. Like the bosses my mother encountered, they paid her because they were tired of her lagging. They might not necessarily moved by her story for she needed the money to feed her children.

After Jesus said about the motive of the unjust judge to do the widow’s justice, he moved on to say, “will God not grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will 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?”

From the text we heard, we knew that Jesus tried to compare the unjust judge with God.

To the judge, he granted justice to the widow because he did not want to get into trouble. But to God, God do it out of love and mercy. God cannot wait to grant his/her children what they need.

God’s nature is love, mercy and justice. No one who comes before him/her and cry for God’s help will be neglected. God will grant justice to the people quickly.

My mother had a positive experience when she insisted and persisted to pursuit her rights. She got what she wanted pretty quickly.

While we appreciate the quality of persistence and find it powerful and important to achieve some goals and the persons concerned get what they want, we have to admit a fact that persistent acts do not necessarily bring expected positive results. At least the positive result does not come so quickly.

From our and other people’s experience, we have seen many people suffering a lot even though they have demonstrated their persistence.

Recently I have heard of a real story about a woman, her name is Deborah Denise Peagle, she was also called Debbie. Her extra-ordinary story was taken to develop a film called Crime after crime: the battle to free Debbie Peagle. The Amnesty International HK will show this movie in the HK Christian Institute next week on 24^th October.

Debbie was an African American. She was raised up in a family where her mother was abused by her father. She walked in the same path as her mother as she was abused by her boy friend. Her boy even forced her into prostitution.

One day Debbie led her boy friend Oliver Wilson to a place where he met her friends. Oliver was beaten to death by Debbie’s friend.

Debbie was taken to court. The legal system which was supposed to keep justice did not work that way. Debbie was given unfair trial because of the corruption of the District Attorney. In the court trial of that time in the United States, there was no consideration of Debbie’s long time suffering from her boy friend’s severe abuse. Because of her race and her low socio-economic status, Debbie was in a very disadvantaged position. Misled by the office of the District Attorney, Debbie admitted to commit the crime of murder in a deal made she would not be convicted to death penalty but only lighter punishment. But she was cheated. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1983.

Debbie had suffered in silence for almost 20 years until in 2002, two lawyers learned about her case and started to help her to seek justice by bringing her case for judicial review. The two lawyers Nadia Costa and Joshua Safran from the law firm Bingham McCutchen fought vigorously for Debbie. Debbie did also persistently fight for her case for the sake of other women similar to her situation who suffered from multiple disadvantages of domestic violence, racial and sex discrimination in face of judicial trial.

In February 2009, Debbie was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and her lawyers attempted to win her release on bail. This request was rejected by the judge due to technical reason. But her lawyers did not give up. With the persistent supports by her lawyers, family members and community, her release was granted at the end. But Debbie died at home after 10 months after her release.

Debbie was released at the end. But she enjoyed her freedom less than a year. She had suffered so much. Her story looks very sad. Although the persistence of Debbie and her lawyers helped her to release from the prison, she had waited for 25 years and suffered so much.

Debbie was a victim of domestic violence, judicial corruption, racial and sex discrimination. But she refused to become a passive victim. While she was in jail, she directed the prison gospel choir and earned two associate degrees. Debbie had made good use of her time while she was in prison. She did suffer but she never perished as she upheld her faith, hope and life. Her persistence had also revealed God’s grace in her life. The persistence of the two lawyers helping Debbie manifested God’s care to Debbie as well.

Persistence is not only an act. It is not only a human quality. More importantly, persistence is a spiritual gift given by God. Persistence is an attitude and determination to choose life and to choose God. Persistence is a faith, a faith in God who is love, care and justice.

Persistence is a faith in Jesus’ word, as he said in the parable of the widow: “will God not grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”

Where there is God, there is hope. God will not delay to help. While Jesus affirmed God’s promise, he gave a challenge to his people who were listening to him. “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The implication of Jesus’ question is this: God is committed to his/her people and through Jesus Christ, they will be saved. But they may need to wait for God’s coming with faith. They should pray always and not to lost heart.

Like Debbie, she had suffered a lot in her earthly life – abused severely by her boy friend, loss of her freedom for 25 years and suffered from chronic illness before she died. What a horrible life seems to be for many people. But Debbie fought until the end of her life. Her service to direct the prison gospel choir while she was behind the bars had touched my heart deeply. Her courage to speak up and fight for justice had brought improvement to the judicial system and increased public awareness to the plights of abused women facing court trials Although she suffered a lot, she still kept her life in God and lived a life with praise. Her faith was admirable. Her life very much revealed the glory of Jesus Christ who had suffered and died. Debbie suffered but in Christ she was raised in glory. In her suffering, Jesus suffered with her together and granted to her life of eternality.

Sisters and brothers, we are challenged by Jesus to lead a life with faith in times of trial. Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray always and not to lose heart. God has given his/her people the gift of persistence. Jesus our friend and brother had acquired this spiritual quality and shared with us. By the help of Jesus, we could do the same like Jesus.

When we know that God is our source of help and everything, we shall overcome.

We heard Psalm 121 this morning. This is a very encouraging poem. The Psalmist affirms that God is our source of life and source of help. In God, we shall be fine as we are well protected.

Whenever our faith is shaken and we are facing many challenges in life, may this psalm 121 give you strength and hope in God:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Whenever we seek God and place our live back to the centre of God, God will help us to go on with a persistent spirit and act with persistence.

Apostle Paul encouraged his young disciple and spiritual son Timothy to carry on his teaching and ministry with persistency. Paul’s powerful message also speaks to us, servants of God today. I would like to conclude my sermon with Apostle Paul’s words of encouragement to Timothy, taken from 2 Timothy 4:1-2.

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke and encouraging with the utmost patience in teaching.”

God in Christ who is the ultimate judge of the world encourages us to keep our faith and to work persistently to proclaim God’s good news in words and in deeds.

Acts of persistence reveals our deep faith in God. We believe that God is also a persistent God. In the life of Jesus Christ, we know that God never give us up! We then should do the same as Jesus has called us.

Sisters and brothers: remember that the power of persistence is from God and with God.

May God give us strength to pray always and not to lose heart!  Amen.