The Airport

First Lesson:Jeremiah 31: 27-34
Responsive Reading: Psalm 119: 97-104
Second Lesson: 2 Timothy 3: 13- 4:5
​Gospel Lesson: Luke 18: 1-8

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
​
“Pray continually.”-I Thessalonians 5:17.

Once upon a time down south, there was a young boy.  The boy was an only child as his twin brother didn’t survive his mother’s womb[1].  The boy was so poor growing up, that at the age of three his father got sentenced to three years in prison for forging a four dollar check[2].  The family would frequently be forced to move from home to home. 
When the boy was eleven years old, he asked his parents for a bicycle[3].  They couldn’t afford a bike, so he’s given a guitar instead.  The family eventually moves to the big city.  The boy who always carried a guitar would be frequently mocked and bullied by his classmates.  One of his friend's parents wouldn’t let him into their house declaring him to be nothing more than “white trash[4].”
 
The boy with the long black hair remained an outsider . Despite the boy’s love of country and blues music, he failed a music class in high school[5].  After graduating, the boy bounces between jobs including working as a truck driver.  The boy seemingly eventually gets a big break in music being hired on at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. After his first show, the Opry’s manager Jimmy Denny fires him declaring: “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck[6].”
 
The boy who was now a young man preserves at this point.  Fifteen months after being fired by the Grand Ole Opry after one performance, the young man recorded a single of which you’ve maybe heard titled “Heartbreak Hotel[7].”
 
The young man who preserved despite the toughest of childhoods and bouncing between jobs would eventually sell more of his music over 600 million record sales than any other artist in history [8].  Elvis Presley is one example of the power of perseverance.

But there are even more significant examples of perseverance out there.  A few years back at Washington D.C.’s Reagan Airport, a change in flight patterns began to inconvenience nearby residents[9].   Planes would take off earlier, land later, and fly at lower altitudes significantly affecting the quality of life for nearby homes.  The first year of the change was 2015.  The airport received 8700 complaints that year. What made that so remarkable is one individual filed 6500 of these complaints[10]. One individual was so persistent that they complained an average of 18 times a day, every day for one whole year. 
 
Now, this was just one individual versus one of the world’s largest airports, yet their persistence paid off as Reagan Airport officials eventually began working with local residents to address the problem “noise.”
 
Now let me ask this question, how many of us would dare be so persistent.  The following  brings us to Our Gospel Lesson for Today from the 18th Chapter of Luke’s Gospel[11]. 
 
In our text, Jesus begins by making the following point to his Disciples: “Pray always” and “Do not give up[12].” Jesus proceeds to give them an example of persistence like Elvis Presley or the Airport neighbor to whom they could relate.
 
Once upon a time, there was a widow.   The widow longed for justice against her adversary.  The widow approaches a particular judge.  This judge was not the type that the widow would have wanted.  The text says he “neither feared God nor cared what people thought[13].”  The judge having no concern for this certain widow’s plight kept ignoring her requests.  This judge was not going to be moved to act by any sense of compassion for the widow.  What did the widow, do? She kept going back to the Judge again and again.  Eventually, the Judge realizes that he needed to respond to the widow’s plight, or else she would keep approaching him no differently than the individual who filed 18 noise complaints a day[14].
 
So as soon as Jesus tells this story, he interprets it for the Disciples[15].
 
Now if this Unjust Judge can be moved by such persistence, how will Your God in Heaven respond to similar persistence in prayer.
 
Jesus then declares: “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off[16]?”
 
Now as Jesus points out, God will respond “quickly”,  but often not quick enough for our liking, so Jesus ends our lesson by declaring: “when the “he” Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth[17]?”
 
So Jesus closes our lesson by declaring  how God’s timetables and plans in prayer might be very different from our own.   So what are we to do in the midst of all this, persist like the widow within our lesson.  Pray day and night, even when the cause seems to be hopeless.  Perseverance and faith, like displayed by the widow within our lesson, have a way of eventually paying off.
 
Once upon a time, there was a certain young man.  He saw an ad in the newspaper to work as an understudy to a local statistician. He saw an address to which he should apply PO Box 1720[18]. 
 
The man responds to the ad, receives no answer.   The young man would not be easily deterred, he writes again, again gets no reply.  Writes a third time, nothing, yet again. Finally goes down to the local post office, asks the clerk for the name of the box holder, is told “no.” Requests for the postmaster,  receives same response of “no”[19].
 
The young man finally had an idea which seemed like a breakthrough.  He was going to get up early, fix a big breakfast, go back down to the post office, and stand outside Box 1720[20].
 
Finally, someone comes to get Box 1720’s mail.  The young man follows the mailboy to a nearby brokerage firm.  He proceeds to ask for the manager[21]. 
 
The young man begins to explain to the manager, everything he tried to do to hear back from the company, the manager is stunned at his persistence[22]. 
 
The manager finally turns to the young man before declaring: “You are just the kind of persistent fellow I want.  You are hired[23]!”
 
Now how many of us would dare be so persistent in our daily life? What would people say?  Now let me you ask this how many would dare be so persistent with God? How many times would we pray for the church?  How many times would we pray for a job?  How many times would we pray for a relationship? How many times would we pray for a child?  Before, figuring prayer is powerless when we don’t get exactly what we want. 
 
The most interesting thing about our lesson is this.  Jesus uses a widow as an example of the power of prayer[24].  There were very few widows within the land of Israel.  Women who lost spouses were expected to remarry, often to their husband’s brothers.   Widows were women who had long outlived the childbearing age.  They would often lose their husband’s property against any family member who would claim it instead.  Widows would often seek out male relatives to defend them as carrying more credibility with a judge[25].  This widow though boldly choose to represent herself.  Nearly every judge would seemingly ignore her pleas.  The following background wasn’t going to matter to this lone widow; she believed her pleas would eventually bring about the change for which she longed. This brings us the following question for Today:  “ What might happen as Christian people if we persisted just like this?” 
 
Let me close this morning with one final story.  Some years ago there was a woman named Monica[26].  Monica was trapped in a miserable marriage. Her husband drank and drank. He had a violent temper and was continually unfaithful to Monica.   On top of this, Monica had a son that I’ll call Augie.  Augie was as rebellious a teenager as there was around.  Augie engaged in theft for the enjoyment of it[27] and took frequent female lovers against Monica’s objections. 

Monica tried everything that she could to get Augie to turn his life around.  When all of Monica’s solutions failed to work, she turned to prayer.  Monica began praying for Augie night after night.  Even as Monica kept praying for him, Augie drifted further and further from her Christian faith. Monica shed tear after tear over her lost child.  Monica prayed for Augie night after night for nearly twenty years. 
 
Eventually, Augie hears a well-known preacher, gets converted and is ultimately baptized.   Monica’s perseverance in prayer would subsequently lead to her being given the name of Saint Monica[28]. As for Augie, he would become one of the most influential Christians to ever live as Saint Augustine. There was no more prominent Christian voice in  nearly fifteen years than Augustine[29].  Augustine’s most well-known work The Confessions would declare Monica as the one whose prayers would lead to not only Augustine’s salvation but the salvation of countless others in the years since.
 
Monica was not an extraordinary woman.  She just believed that her God would come through within her life, just as Christ came through death upon a cross.  If an Unjust Judge eventually relented to the pleas of a persistent widow, how will a loving, and faithful God finally respond to the prayers of his people?  Amen
 


[1] Fujioka, Kuromi. “Elvis Presley's Perseverance.” Prezi. 25.Sept.2012. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[2] Nix, Elizabeth. “7 Fascinating Facts About Elvis Presley.” History.com. 7.Aug.2019. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[3] Graceland. “Elvis Presley’s Early Childhood.” Graceland. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[4] Aurandt, Paul. “You Can’t Come Inside.” More of Paul Harvey’s: The Rest of the Story. William Morrow and Company. New York. 1980. Print. Page 20-22.
[5] Nix, Elizabeth. “7 Fascinating Facts About Elvis Presley.” History.com.
[6] Eberle, Kevin. “10 Famous People Who Proved Perseverance Pays Off.” Business 2 Community. 3.June.2015. Web. Sept.20.2019. 
[7] Graceland. “1954-1957.” Graceland. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[8] “List of best-selling music artists.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 18.Sept.2019. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[9] Tabor, Chuck. “Persistent prayer pays off.” The Times-Gazette. Hillsboro, Ohio. 10.Oct.2018. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[10] Baskas, Harriet. “One Person Filed 6,500 Noise Complaints for Reagan National Airport.” NBC News. 11.Mar.2016. Web. Sept.20.2019.
[11] Luke 18:1-8.
[12] Luke 18:1.
[13] Luke 18:2
[14] Tabor, Chuck. “Persistent prayer pays off.” The Times-Gazette.
[15] Wilson, Brittany. E. “Commentary on Luke 18:1-8.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 20.Oct.2019. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[16] Luke 18:7
[17] Luke 18:8
[18] Sunshine Magazine. “PO Box 1720”. Found on moreillustrations.com under persistence. Sept.19.2019.
[19] Sunshine Magazine. “PO Box 1720”. 
[20] Sunshine Magazine. “PO Box 1720”. 
[21] Sunshine Magazine. “PO Box 1720”. 
[22] Sunshine Magazine. “PO Box 1720”. 
[23] Sunshine Magazine. “PO Box 1720”. 
[24] Sylvester, Emily. “The Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow.” Sermon Writer. 2010. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[25] Sylvester, Emily. “The Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow.” Sermon Writer.
[26] Phillip, Dr. Babu. “Persistent Prayer.” Christian Moral Stories. 11. Feb.2013. Web. Sept.19.2019. 
[27] “Confessions (Augustine). Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 3.Sept.2019. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[28] “Saint Monica.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 28.Aug.2019. Web. Sept.19.2019.
[29] “Augustine of Hippo”. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 19.Sept.2019. Web. Sept.19.2019.