7/27/2019 Sermon "Take the knee... soldier" - Alan Neale

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Sermon preached at The Church of the Holy Trinity,Rittenhouse Square, PhiladelphiaSunday October 20th 2013The Reverend Alan Neale Take the knee soldier

About twenty years ago I watched a film with the family; after the film our youngest son(Ben) commented with all the wisdom of a young teenage, Well, thats ninety minutes

of my life I wont get back. The film Cabin Boy.

A few days back I watched a film, not inflicted on the family this time, called AfterEarth. After the film, with the accumulated wisdom of sixty years, I reflected, Well,thats ninety minutes of my ever-decreasing life span that I wont get back. Critics havepanned the film mercilessly and not without merit and yet one phrase embedded itself inmy mind; a phrase spoken by Will Smith (Commander in Chief) sometimes to his soldiersbut crucially to his son, Take the knee soldier.

Take the knee. This is surely, maybe unarguably, the point of todays Gospel storyfrom St. Luke. Luke 18:1 Jesus told this disciples a parable about their need to pray

always and not to lose heart.

Take the knee pray always.

Take the knee lose heart never.

Take the knee we need to pray!

The parable is not told to present God as some distant, uncaring and indifferent judge.The parable is not to present ourselves as whining, irksome and importunate petitioners.The parable is told to urge us to pray always and never lose heart.

So, hows that working for you?

The parable prompted me to wonder why is it that such persistence in prayer is oftenso lacking, so absent, so deficient in the life of the Christian, in the life of the Church?

Maybe because we doubt the justice of our cause, the worth of our lives and theresources of our God.

The widow doubted not the justice of her cause. A woman without resources, a womanwithout support, a woman without respect suffers the shameful indignity of injustice,

abuse and mistreatment. She was convinced that there was rightness to her cause andshe would not be budged from this certainty.

Sometimes we do not pray, sometimes we withdraw from ongoing prayer because wedoubt the rightness of our cause. We have lost the prophetic vigor that observes a wrongand names it as such. We have lost the pastoral passion that is inflamed in the face ofsuffering. We begin to doubt the rightness of our cause.

The widow, secondly, did not doubt that she had worth, value, esteem and so shepetitioned the judge incessantly. Though the society around her spoke explicitly or

7/27/2019 Sermon "Take the knee... soldier" - Alan Neale

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implicitly, directly or indirectly, of her wretched status, of her low esteem she listenednot to these voices but to the voice within and that voice caused her to persist.Sometimes we do not pray, sometimes we withdraw from ongoing prayer because wedoubt our worth, our value in the cosmic scheme of things. We remember too well theopening verses of Psalm 8 (What is man that thou are mindful of him) but neglect thelater verses (Yet thou hast made him a little lower than the angels).

We find it difficult to reckon our importance and so assume that it is at best useless, at

worst pathetic, to plead our cause before the divine throne.

The widow, thirdly, never doubted that the one to whom she made almost naggingpetition that this one was somehow incapable of action.

With our modern minds, with our scientific outlook, with our world-weary and jadedcynicism we have often persuaded ourselves (with little effort on our part) that the eyesof the Lord are blinded, the ears of the Lord are deafened and the arm of the Lord isshortened.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this ought not to be and so we absorb deeply the truth of

this parable pray always and never lose heart.

But here, as I reflected upon this dominical clarion call, I found myself in a quandary theologically, pastorally and personally. I recognize that over recent years I have spokenincreasingly of the need to surrender, to accept our powerlessness I have done this inteaching from pulpit and in class, I have done this in pastoral care through counsel andconversation. Is this parable from Luke the exception? I believe not.

You see whenever we turn to prayer, even think about prayer, though it be with haltinghesitation when we pray, when we take the knee, we acknowledge the need tosurrender, we profess the essential nature of dependence upon God.

To take the knee whether figuratively or actually, to take the knee is to declare tothe powers that be (within and beyond ourselves) that we cannot, may not, should notgo it alone. Thy will, not mine be done.

The first three steps of all 12 Step Programs have been summarized thus, I cant Godcan I think Ill let him.

When I, when you, stop praying; when church programs and meetings and policies arenot bathed in prayer then we degenerate into pathetic bands of the sick who try to healthemselves. Even the acknowledgement that we pray too little, too rarely is itself astatement that we know we need to pray always and never lose heart. And God hearsthat whisper of the heart and longs to amplify its volume, God senses the warmth of theheart and longs to fan into a fire.

Jacob, like the widow, took the knee and persisted, struggled with the Lord persuadedof the rightness of his cause, persuaded of his worth and persuaded that God wouldbless him. Though a sinful, fallen and broken man he found strength in his persistence.

Christian, take the knee. Return to those prayers that have been uttered rarely, return tothe brokenness of relationships and of body and of community and take the knee.

7/27/2019 Sermon "Take the knee... soldier" - Alan Neale

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AMEN