Sunday 19th October, 18th Sunday after Trinity

When I was growing up, like all children I would pester my parents with requests for things (some more reasonable than others), and in our family there were three standard answers: ‘yes’ meant yes; ‘no’ meant ‘no, and don’t ask again’; ‘we’ll see’ meant various things but was at least hopeful and mostly meant ‘not now, but probably later’.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus wants to encourage his hearers to be persistent in prayer, and tells them the story of the unjust judge who has to be pestered and nagged to do his job. Does this mean we should nag God? No, says Jesus, God is a loving Father not a reluctant official, we should go to him confident that he wants to give us things which will help us grow and flourish.

So why do so many prayers seem to go unanswered? The trick (like parent-wrangling) is to know the person we are praying to. Eventually I learned that there were some things mum and dad were never going to give me (like a Chopper bicycle), either because they were simply impossible or because they weren’t in fact good for me; some things were quick and easy; and some good things took a little longer and I just had to wait. Prayer is perhaps better understood as a conversation than as a wish list: as we pray, we learn more of God’s heart, and the more we learn, the more in tune with God’s heart (and our good) our prayers will be.

Every blessing,

Roger.