2025-10-19 Pentecost 19

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Our society really has gone down hill over the last 15 years for sure. Inflation. Crime. Drugs. Homelessness. Government corruption and scandal after scandal. I think most people will agree on the sad state of affairs that has taken over our country. But perhaps the greatest tragedy of our time is that, hardly anybody makes Western Movies anymore! Westerns. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Fistful of Dollars. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Tombstone. You know, good ol’ fashioned Cowboy movies! All we have now is this fake super hero garbage made on computers! One Western that really stands out in my mind was one called True Grit. The original came out in 1969 and it was remade in 2010 and both were based the a novel with the same name. It stands out because the story follows a 14-year-old girl named Mattie Ross as she hires a U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn, to track down the man who murdered her father. Normally in Westerns, it’s the Cowboys who are portrayed as the tough guys. They are strong, men of substance and fortitude, and tenacious for justice. But in True Grit it’s actually young Mattie who shows who’s got the real true grit as she pursues the outlaw Tom Chaney through harsh landscapes and violent encounters. It is her tenacious and relentless resolve to persevere that drives the story from the beginning to the very end.

Perseverance. This is the name of the game today for us in our Scripture readings. Jacob wrasslin’ with God. The Persistent Widow. They all have the same idea and concept in mind: being tenacious and persevering in the face of struggles. If we take our Old Testament lesson first, we see there the raw story of Jacob where heaven collides with earth. There is a midnight brawl underway, right beside the Jabbok river. In this story, Jacob is fleeing the wrath of his brother Esau after years and years of scheming that has finally caught up to him. Jacob sends his family across the river ahead of him. He is there by himself, isolated and alone. Suddenly out of nowhere this “man” appears, rather mysteriously. Who is this? Why is this guy here in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere?

For us now with hindsight, we know that this was none other than the pre-incarnate Christ who wrestles with Jacob until the break of day. Jacob, whose name means “heel-grabber” or “deceiver,” has always relied upon his cunning wit rather than trust in God. But just the same, God made a promise to him and his ancestors. You will be a great nation, you will inherit the promised land and you will be blessed to be a blessing. Despite these Divine promises, Jacob is more intent on his own efforts and cunning. This is why he struggles with God. God isn’t laying the smackdown on Jacob as much as he is trying to transform him. The “man” dislocates Jacob’s hip, a painful reminder all his days of this very event. God humbles Jacob’s self-reliance. But still, Jacob refuses to yield. “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Gen 32:26). He struggles and perseveres, demanding the promises be fulfilled. In response, God renames Jacob “Israel” meaning “he strives with God.” Jacob receives grace in the midst of his struggles and brokeness.

Jacob then calls this place, Peniel in Hebrew, which literally means “face of God.” “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” (30). And here we see the perseverance that is championed as a great virtue for us. Jacob’s wrestle is prayer in the midst of struggle and turmoil. It is a model of faith that contends with God until mercy breaks through. This is a foreshadowing of Christ our Lord, the true Israel, who strives in Gethsemane and on the cross in Calvary, prevailing not by human might and strength but rather humble submission to the will of God.

For us, the lesson remains the same. We persevere with God through trials, whatever they may be. Illness. Fractured relationships. Financial struggles. We persevere not by outmuscling God and forcing Him to do our will but rather by clinging to and holding fast to the promise of our Baptism. “I am God’s child and He will never let me go!”

When we look at our Gospel reading, we see Jesus’ parable cutting to the heart the matter too. It was a lesson “to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (LK 18:1). There is a stark contrast in the parable. There’s an unjust judge, godless and indifferent, who is tormented by a widow’s pleas for justice. You have a person in a position of power and authority contrasted to a person who represents the epitome of vulnerability: no husband, no status, totally reliant on God’s provision. Just the same, she’s chock full of the true grit of persistence and perseverance. She keeps coming and coming until finally the judge relents from exhaustion! The point here is that if the corrupt judge yields to relentless nagging, “will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?” (7).

Will not God Almighty act speedily to vindicate His people against every foe, from sin and every accusation of Satan?! Of course He will. But Jesus ends the parable with a sobering question: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (8). Will he find a people persevering in prayer and trusting in God’s timing? This is truly the litmus test of faith. This is what we pray in the Lord’s prayer when when pray “Thy Kingdom come.” We want God’s reign amid all kinds of earthly chaos. The widow embodies exactly this with her persistence. Perseverance prays not to wrestle God to the ground that He may change, but rather to align our hearts and prayers with God’s plans.

What this all amounts to is producing in us true spiritual grit as God’s people, waiting for Jesus to return. Like Jacob, we wrestle, often in solitude - nights of anxiety, seasons of seemingly unanswered prayers. Like the widow, we face difficulties like injustices as work, the grind of temptation and the slow erosion of hope. Perseverance begins by naming these things and confessing these things and taking them to the Lord in prayer. We pray in the shadow of the cross where we are reminded that our Lord is victorious over sin, death and the devil. We lean on the everlasting arms of Jesus who gives us His very body and blood to strengthen a weak and limping faith.

Persistence and perseverance. This is not an easy thing. It requires a tenacious spirit. Jacob walked away renamed and redeemed. The widow was vindicated by the Judge of all. So too, in Jesus, we are a people who prevail by the true grit of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness. We wrestle on, we strive on, persisting and persevering in the promise of Christ, until that final day dawns where faith becomes sight and every tear of perseverance is wiped away from our eyes. Persevere in the grip of the God Who will never let you go. Amen!