Sermon Tone Analysis

CALL TO WORSHIP

Lord, we meet to worship and to bring our prayers.

Teach us to be patient as we wait for your response.

We know that you hear all our prayers,

however they are made and whoever we are.

Give us faith to trust your awesome love and care for us.

Amen.

Hymn 544: As the deer pants for the water

PRAYERS

A prayer of adoration

Lord, you are our keeper,

the one who watches over us,

you are always present,

ever loving, ever faithful.

You are creator and redeemer.

We praise you

for your kindness and justice,

and for all that you are.

Amen.

A prayer of confession

Lord, forgive us when we have closed our eyes

to the things that matter,

when we have prioritised the trivial surface matters

over urgent needs and deep-seated injustice.

Forgive us when we have chosen to look away

from those who need us the most.

Forgive us when we have stretched ourselves so thin

that we do not have time and energy

for that which you call us to do and to be.

Forgive us and restore us, we pray.

Give us what we need to live, love and pray persistently,

in the power and counsel of your Spirit.

Amen.

Assurance of forgiveness

Loving God,

we know you hear us.

You not only hear us,

you accept us as your children,

surrounding us with grace and forgiveness.

Thank you for your unconditional love.

Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Hymn 51: Great is thy Faithfulness

READING

Genesis 32: 22-31 “The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

And Jacob was left alone.

And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

And he said to him, “What is your name?”

And he said, “Jacob.”

Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?”

And there he blessed him.

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.…”

Luke 18: 1-8 “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’

” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them?

I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?””

Hymn 545: Be, thou my vision

SERMON

This morning our two readings give an insight into the results of persistence.

The story in Genesis describes Jacob wrestling with God to get the blessing he wants he would not let go until he is blessed.

As a result, God blesses him, and he is renamed Israel.

The parable from Luke is also about things happening – they are just happening more slowly than we may want.

It also shows that anyone and everyone can come to God with faith and perseverance.

The example that Jesus uses in this parable is not about getting justice, neither does it describe God as a judge who doesn’t care.

It says that, in contrast to the man who didn’t care about anyone and yet still – eventually – did the right thing, God does care!

A Christian lady had prayed every day of her married life for her husband to come to faith in Jesus.

In later life he was admitted to a hospice where, a few days before he passed, a carer prayed with him, and he gave his life to Christ.

The wife had never given up her persistent prayer, and God had always had a plan.

Luke mentions widows more than do all the other Gospel writers combined, In that day, widows usually had a difficult time making ends meet, despite the care God instructed His people to give them in Exodus and Deuteronomy and other books of the old testament.

We find acts and other letters identify that the early church was serious about the care of Christian widows which is a good example for us to follow today.

As we look at this parable, we should try to see it in its Eastern setting.

The “courtroom” was not a fine building but a tent that was moved from place to place as the judge covered his circuit.

The judge, not the law, set the agenda; and he sat in the tent, surrounded by his assistants.

Anybody could watch the proceedings from the outside, but only those who were approved and accepted could have their cases heard.

This usually meant bribing one of the assistants so that he would call the judge’s attention to the case.

The widow had three obstacles to overcome.

First, being a woman (sorry ladies) she, would have had little standing before the law.

In the Palestinian society at the time of Jesus, women did not go to court it was left to the men.

Since she was a widow, she had no husband to stand with her in court.

Finally, she was poor and could not pay a bribe even if she wanted to.

No wonder poor widows did not always get the protection the law was supposed give to them!

Now that we understand something of the setting of this parable, we can better understand what Jesus was teaching.

Basically, He was encouraging His disciples to pray, and He did this by presenting three ways.

In verse 1 Jesus told them to pray always and do not lose heart or in some translations, it says Pray always and do not faint.

If we don’t pray, we will faint; it’s as simple as that!

The word faint can be used to describes a believer who loses heart and gets so discouraged that he or she wants to quit to give up.

I don’t know about you, but I can recall a couple of times when I have fainted physically, and it is the most helpless feeling you can ever experience.

I felt myself “going,” but I couldn’t seem to do a thing about it!

There is a connection between what our Lord said in Luke 18:1 and His statement in Luke 17:37.