Tenacity is a Virtue - Jeremiah 31: 37-34; Luke 18:1-8

The book of the prophet Jeremiah is a difficult text to read in any time. It decries the inevitable corruption of unchecked power, and it issues a harsh warning to communities who won’t renounce this dangerous trajectory. Most societies throughout history could imagine themselves in this prophecy, and we are no exception.

The 31st chapter of Jeremiah is part of a brief interlude in his otherwise relentless admonition. The prophet pauses to reveal that there is, in fact, life on the other side of desolation. Earlier in the chapter, he describes the joy that will return in the lives of the people, and towards the end of it, in the passage we hear today, Jeremiah describes the new relationship the people will enter into with God. He calls it the new covenant. This is language we Christians are quite familiar with, but we can’t take credit for coining that phrase.

The covenant that had been passed down to Jeremiah and his people through the generations, all the way back to Moses, was etched on tablets that were housed in an ark, which had to be carried around from settlement to settlement in the wilderness and could be destroyed by any invading army. Eventually it found a permanent home in the temple, but the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians before their very eyes.

In the ancient Jewish context, the idea of a new covenant was not a new set of rules to live by, but a new way of receiving this way of life from God. Speaking to people who are experiencing poverty, invasion, and the destruction of the precious trappings of their religious life, Jeremiah explains that when the rubble settles and the dust clears, access to God will be different. While they will mourn the loss of their temple, they will no longer have to seek God out in the physical world, because the covenant will be written on their very hearts.

There is deep wisdom here from our ancestors in the faith. When our way of being in relationship with God isn’t working, as evidenced by all the pain and suffering in our world, and everything comes tumbling down, God’s approach will become stronger, and God will break into our lives in a new and more intimate way. We don’t even have to do anything to make that happen. In fact, resistance is futile, both resistance to the destruction of old ways of life and resistance to God’s advances.

We have a way of expressing this aspect of the nature of God in the Christian tradition, as well. Today’s parable in Luke’s Gospel comes after a long teaching about the Kingdom of God. Jesus has just finished explaining that the Kingdom does not exist in some alternate reality that we must discover. It cannot be seen or perceived from afar, because it is inside each and every one of us.

To my utter delight, the parable he uses to illustrate this idea involves a feisty widow who is determined to stand up for herself until the cows come home. She knows she is in the right in the case she has brought before a judge. The judge turns out to be unjust and will not see sense, but she absolutely refuses to back down. And because she will not relent, the unjust judge eventually does.

The widow is the vulnerable party in this story. She does not have the upper hand. The cards are stacked against her. But, Jesus tells us, she has everything she needs. She has the presence of the Kingdom of God within her, and she is tenacious to boot. So although her world has crumbled - her husband has died and someone in her community has wronged her to the point that she has come to a judge - she is able to rise up and start again, strengthened in her faith.

This is what life in the Kingdom of God is like. It is not preservation from all trials and tribulations. It does not even spare us from utter desolation. Living in a renewed covenant with God is having everything we need to face the world already within us. It is the steadfast presence of God as the rest of the world falls away.

Of course, some days, we don’t feel nearly as empowered as our feisty widow. And sometimes, the world puts more danger and overwhelm in our path than a single, unjust judge. This is where our hero’s tenacity comes in. In the Kingdom of God, tenacity is a virtue. The feisty widow is tenacious in her argument and self-advocacy. Jesus is inviting us to be tenacious in our faith.

Now tenacity in faith does not mean that we never waiver or doubt. It does not mean that we are always in a positive mood or that we see the world through rose-colored lenses. Tenacity in faith comes when despite our doubts and frustrations, we continue to pray, we continue to worship, we continue to show up for our faith community. Tenacity in faith is standing up tall to face the injustices of the world, even when we experience destruction, even when we find ourselves in uncharted territory. Eventually, if we don’t relent, the unjust judges of the world will.

The gift of a renewed covenant is good news, but it is also a challenge. It may take practice to exercise our holy tenacity. In my world, that usually looks like two steps forward followed by one giant leap back into a bad attitude after a hard day. And that’s ok! As long as I get back out there the next day like all the feisty widows before me. Because the destruction and injustice in our world, which we all contribute to, is horrendous and we must stand up to it.

But this does not mean that all is lost, because the Kingdom of God is present wherever the faithful are gathered, and on the other side of desolation, God is always climbing through the rubble to write a renewed covenant on our hearts. Of course, the best news of all is that in the midst of this struggle, we have each other. And if the Kingdom of God is within each of us, then when we work together, the unjust judges of the world don’t stand a chance. Amen.