This is text of an article I want to read next Sunday. Adapted from an excellent article in christianity today. Thought I would share it ahead of time to give you a chance to read beforehand.
A poor black woman, living on Chicago's South Side, sought to have her apartment properly heated during the frigid winter months. Despite city law on the matter, her unscrupulous landlord refused. The woman was a widow, desperately poor, and ignorant of the legal system; but she took the case to court on her own behalf. Justice, she declared, ought to be done. It was her misfortune, however, to keep appearing before the same judge who, as it turned out, was an atheist and a bigot. His standard of justice was, that "blacks should be kept in their place." The possibilities of a ruling favorable to the widow were bleak. Even more so as she realized she lacked the one thing that would help her case: money for a bribe. Nevertheless, she kept at it. She was like a lobbyist, making requests.
At first, the judge did not so much as look up from the novel he was reading before he dismissed her. But then he began to notice her. Just another black, he thought, stupid enough to think she could get justice. Then her persistence made him self-conscious. This turned to guilt and anger. Finally, raging and embarrassed, he granted her petition and enforced the law. Here was a massive victory over "the system" – at least as it functioned in his corrupted courtroom.
OK. This is not quite true. I don’t know of a case where this happened in Chicago. But it is a story Jesus told in Luke 18:1-8 to illustrate the nature of lobbying in prayer.
It seems appropriate to think about this on the day of the Temptations. Rather than looking at the status quo, just the way things are, he focused instead on God’s perspective, giving us a model for prayer that makes requests, for petitionary prayer. Maybe this is a stretch, but I don’t think so. Rather, it is a jumping off point to consider this.
What we have to look at in this story is the parallel between the widow and the petitioner. The widow refused to accept her unjust situation. She kept at it, despite discouragements. Likewise, people in the Jesus Way should refuse to resign himself or herself to the world in its fallen state and need to keep practicing prayer.
If your prayer life is like mine, it can be feeble and irregular. Especially in lobbying prayer, it is too frequently addressed in the wrong way. I am inclined to beat myself up for having a weak will, unable to keep my wandering mind in check. Robb suggests that the problem is I misunderstand prayer's nature. My practice will never be persistent until I have the outlook that that widow had.
At its heart, petitionary prayer, prayer that lobbies for an answer, is rebellion… rebellion against the world in its fallen state. It is the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal. It is the refusal of every agenda, every scheme, every interpretation that is at odds with the norm as originally established by God.
Think of it this way. If I come to think of life “as it is”, “just the way things are” I have surrendered to Evil and to what is abnormal. I have ceased to see things in God’s perspective. I have come to assume that God cannot really overcome Evil by Good. I have resigned from the fight.
And nothing destroys petitionary prayer as quickly as resignation. Jesus says, "At all times," Jesus declared, "we should pray" and not "lose heart," thereby acquiescing to what is (Luke 18:1).
Let’s look at the other side.
Petitionary prayer only flourishes when we come to believe that God's name is hallowed too irregularly, his kingdom has come too little, and his will is done too infrequently and, secondly, that God himself can change this situation.
Petitionary prayer is learning to see that life “as it is” can be and should be something else. To live in the world in the Jesus Way, lining up with him, is going to require regular prayer.
Jesus prayed. When busy. Before great decisions in his life. Before the Cross. Before and during unusual times of unusual temptation (such as Gethsemane). In each of these situations, he was faced with the temptation to follow his own agenda, accepting someone else’s perspective, choosing his own path. In each case, he rejected these alternatives by petitionary prayer. He choose to live on God’s terms.
Unlike the widow in the parable, we find it is easy to come to terms with the unjust and fallen world around us: in the face of social injustice, with jobs and peers, even in church. It is not always that we are unaware of what is happening, but simply that we feel completely impotent to change anything. That impotence leads us to strike a truce with what is wrong.
In other words, we have lost our anger, both in our life and before God in prayer. Anger at what is wrong and desire to God’s righteousness and kindness set it right. And living it.
This is what it means to live in the Kingdom of God. It is not sufficient simply to have a good religious experience but to come live as if it matters. Praying that God’s love and power and kingdom breaks into the lives of sinful people, of every culture and group. Praying that goes beyond the concerns of our private lives to include the wide horizon of all human life in which God is concerned. If the Gospel is universal prayer cannot restrict itself to being local.
Like the widow’s situation, the world is a courtroom in which a "case" can still be made against what is wrong and for what is right. Our feebleness in prayer happens because we have lost sight of this, and until we regain it we will not persist in our role as litigants. But there is every reason why we should regain our vision and use our opportunity. The Judge before whom we appear is neither an atheist nor corrupt, but the glorious God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 18:7-8, Jesus says that this judge will not fail to bring about justice, and quickly for those who do not lose heart.