October 21, 2007
By Jack Price

Do you have any pets in your life? Even if you don’t, chances are you have some pet peeves. So, that leads to a dangerous question, what is it that irritates you? For most of us, irritation usually involves people. There seem to be two kinds of irritants in life – people who are irritating just because they’re irritating. They invade your personal space or waste your time, or get on your nerves. Then, there are people who are irritating because they represent truth. They reveal something about or within us. Sometimes they push our buttons of reactivity or push us out of our comfort zones and reveal our need to make changes in our lives.

The parable of Jesus that serves as the scripture lesson for this sermon begins with a statement about the meaning of the story. This is clearly the work of an editor, probably Luke. He gives us that meaning up front – that it is “necessary to pray constantly and never quit. The truth is that no rabbi will ever tell you the meaning of his parable before he tells you the parable. The point is that you have to find your own meaning, the meaning for yourself.

The original parable is contained in verses two through five.

There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: 'My rights are being violated. Protect me!' He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, 'I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won't quit badgering me, I'd better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I'm going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.'

Jesus said to pay attention and don’t miss the point. God is much more faithful than the unjust judge. You cry out. You pray fervently for justice from Rome, for the freeing of Israel and the coming of kingdom. Don’t stop! Never give up! Keep trusting God’s faithfulness.

Do you ever think of prayer as irritating to God? We keep asking God to fix things. “God give!” “God forgive!” Sometimes, people stop asking God – praying – because they give up hope. Sometimes I wonder if people stop asking because they don’t want to irritate God. They don’t want to be irritating. The Bible clearly directs us not to stop – to keep asking and keep insisting. The Lord’s Prayer is pretty insistent: Give us this day our daily bread. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. Do it, God! Keep asking. Keep insisting even at the risk of being irritating. I don’t believe in a God who gets irritated by my honest prayers. At a very practical level, the more specific and insistent you are in your request for help from God, the more likely you are to participate in your own growth and development in partnership with the Spirit.

We don’t know the full affect of our prayers. We trust they’re heard. We trust they matter when our motives are pure and good or our level of desperation is high – when we are willing to back our prayers with our living. We trust our prayers are heard. We trust they matter and trust their vibration reverberates through the realm of spirit – the heavenly realm -- right to the throne of grace, the metaphorical ear of God. It may be that our prayers for justice activate the power of the life force that is God. And there is a benefit that flows through heaven and earth. The point of the parable is don’t stop praying and asking. God hears your prayers and they do make a difference.

The widow in the parable finally gets justice from the unjust judge by being persistent -- being irritating. When I picture myself in this story, it is as the judge. I don’t see myself necessarily as unjust – just very human and prone to the weaknesses of humanity. When I think about irritating people I have encountered, I think about the sales person who is effective at getting me to buy their product so that they’ll like me or have a good opinion of me. That’s very irritating! I think about an authority figure: a boss, a teacher, a supervisor who seems to know just the thing to say to me that triggers a deep-seeded response of shame or irresponsibility. I end up feeling bad about myself and angry at myself all at the same time. That is very irritating!

Even though, like the judge, I usually know my own mind and have a pretty good sense of my personal boundaries most of the time, still I know some irritating people who affect my life. Remember that there are two kinds of irritants: people who are irritating just because they’re irritating. They invade my space, waste my time, and get on my nerves.

Some people are irritating because they speak the truth. They reveal something in me, pushing me outside my comfort zone and challenging me to change. Often it’s family that irritate me this way. I rarely appreciate it at the time. I almost always recognize an am grateful for the irritation after changes have been made. I don’t always express appreciation for pushing me to make those changes.

Teachers, supervisors, colleagues, coaches, students, parents, children, and sisters and brothers in faith, in church, have served to provide such irritation. It is most like a grain of sand that irritates an oyster and eventually produces a pearl. Who are those persons and those experiences for you? Even if irritating people are not intending your good, if the result of the irritation is your growth, moving you to create a response for justice and growth, then be grateful. They have blessed you beyond measure.

Sometimes in the parable, I see myself in the role of the widow. I think about times I have irritated others to get what I wanted, what I felt was due me – or sometimes to enable what is right. Sometimes I am irritating for dubious reasons – to get a certain gift for Christmas or just to get my way, or because I just feel entitled. Sometimes I am irritating because I’m kind of tired or cranky. I feel irritated and don’t want to keep it to myself. I want to share my irritation around, though it’s not much of a blessing!

Then I think about Martin Luther King, Jr. He irritated the power structure of the United States for the purpose of ending a war and ending racial discrimination. I think about Bishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador who irritated the power structure of El Salvador. He spoke out against corruption and oppression and was murdered in the government’s attempt to stop the irritation. I think about the Alabama judge who irritated people, lots of people including the power structures, with his efforts to keep the Ten Commandments in the in court building. I thought he was wrong. I disagreed with him, but he was trying to right what he perceived was an injustice. How important it is for you and me – for this congregation – to be irritating for right reasons, for the cause of justice around us.

Can being irritating actually be a spiritual gift, a sign of God’s presence? You bet it can. Now that’s not carte blanche -- being irritating just to be irritating. That is not always a spiritual gift. But think about people who irritate you. You will do well to ask what life gift they might be giving you.

If we don’t find the message of Jesus irritating, the movement of the Spirit in our lives unsettling, then we’re probably not hearing it. The Spirit invites us to change, to grow, and to move outside our comfort zones – invites us to take some risk, try on new behaviors, and expect more from ourselves. That may be irritating to us. When we take those risks, those steps – when we make changes and move forward in our lives – that might be irritating to people who are comfortable with us as we are. Nietzsche told us, “He who flies is hated most of all.”

If our life as church, our questioning and our inclusiveness, is not irritating to many other churches and other Christians, then maybe our questions are not honest enough or perhaps they’re not hearing us -- not seeing what we’re trying to do as church. Crossroads Church will be irritating if we are true to the One we follow. Jesus was irritating. He irritated the powers that were and the powers that still are. I invite you to walk together with this community, to be prophetic voice and an irritating presence to our society and to the Christian Church so that justice can begin to flow like rushing water around us. My prayer is that we will make Elizabeth O’Conner’s words our own theme:

I have caught a vision of Christ’s new earth and have come to understand that it is every person’s vocation to create this earth. We do not [often] take the step of creating the world we envision. We lack the courage or somehow feel that this is someone else’s responsibility rather than the work of the one who sees and images something different and higher.
(Cry Pain, Cry Hope)

You and I called to envision and to create, to be honest and growing even when that means being irritated. We are called to be dynamic and prophetic even when that means being irritating. We have the right and responsibility to claim the possibilities within us individually and the possibilities within us as a Christian congregation, that: “We are not powerless in the face of the oppressive situations in which we feel caught. We are not bound to the reality we see. We are creators. We can make the new.” (Elizabeth O’Connor, Cry Pain, Cry Hope)

Let our mission be to live free in the freedom of the Spirit. We are free to create a world of justice, peace, and inclusive love. Let us make the new together in Jesus’ name.