Sermon Seeds: Not to Lose Heart

Sunday, October 19, 2025
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
(Liturgical Color: Green)

Lectionary Citations
Jeremiah 31:27-34 and Psalm 119:97-104 • Genesis 32:22-31 and Psalm 121 • 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 • Luke 18:1-8
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=p&d=80&y=384

Focus Scripture: Luke 18:1-8
Focus Theme: Not to Lose Heart
Series: Raise Her Voice: Seek After God (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

The heart keeps us alive. At the center of our bodies’ circulatory system, the heart pumps blood through our arteries and veins. It alternatively delivers oxygen to our cells and remove waste, namely carbon dioxide, from them. This vital organ is only about the size of a fist but it interacts with every part of us. The connection to our lungs, the other major organs of our cardiovascular system, is clear. The brain and nervous system direct the activity of the heart, which beats through electric pulses in order to propel our blood throughout the body. Even our hormones contribute as they can signal the heart to increase or decrease blood pressure. We can literally feel the heart beat when we press our fingers against particular points on our wrists or necks, and we can hear it with a stethoscope or unaided through our ears when our heartbeat really accelerates.

We cannot live without our heart; it’s that critical and necessary for the functioning of our being. Yet, we also understand the heart to have more than physiological significance, meaning, and impact. Culture credits the heart as the emotional center of our lives. We may refer to something or someone as the heartbeat to indicate a pivotal role or importance within their sphere. While the use of heart as metaphor pervades our discourse, the practice is not new. The biblical narrative is full of references to the heart and its centrality not only to our bodily function but to our whole selves.

The psalmist asks God to cleanse our hearts. Proverbs cautions us to guard it. In Ezekiel, the Holy One promises a new heart (along with a new spirit) while Jeremiah laments the deceitful heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pronounces blessings on those with pure hearts and declares that our hearts are revealed by the distribution of our resources. Those are only a few examples, and the focus scripture follows in the tradition of referencing the heart in an analogous fashion.

Here, Jesus cautions against losing one’s heart. While this expression has become common in the lexicon from this passage, it would be interesting to assume the perspective of the original hearers of this message of encouragement. In some ways, it seems blatantly obvious that one needs to keep one’s heart. After all, how else can one live?

Luke 18:1–8 still addresses Jesus’ disciples. Before narrating the parable, Luke interprets it: “It is necessary to pray always and not to despair.” Maintaining hope (18:1) responds to the adversity predicted in 17:22–37. The judge, who does not fear God or respect people (18:3) and thus whose behavior is born from “injustice” (genitive of origin, 18:6), refuses to grant justice to a widow. He belongs to imperial systems that contrast with concerns for widows in Israel’s Scriptures. Still, the woman’s audacity would surprise hearers. The judge finally accedes to the widow’s vexing persistence and grants her justice. Luke 18:8 reiterates the theme of faith(fulness) in 17:5–6, 19.
Robert L. Brawley

The matter before the judge, apparently, is one of life and death. The widow has been accused of something by someone. Neither are named, but the woman asserts that an injustice is taking place. She does not proclaim her innocence; her focus rests on their guilt and her desired relief from their unjust accusations. Implied in the story is that the accuser is relentless. She meets that relentlessness with the persistence she displays before the judge.

The judge does not care about justice. They remain unmoved by her plight and seem disinterested in her story. What can be done when those in power neglect their responsibility? What can be done when the levers of government abandon the tenets of their position in favor of the pursuit of power? Traditional interpretations of the text suggest that the judge personifies God, and the woman represents anyone with an unsolvable, insurmountable problem that only the Holy One’s intervention will change.

Yet, would Jesus ever suggest God to be uncaring and unmoving? Certainly, this is a parable and the details support the point so the judge’s character deficiencies should not dissuade the reader from the message of being persistent in prayer. But, why would that detail be included if it does not reflect the character and identity of the Sovereign God? Is it possible that the judge represents the insolvable problem? It’s not upon the accuser that the woman focuses her attention. She knows that the solution to her problem does not rest in the one who wronged her. It’s from the one who has the power and authority to hold that one accountable that she seeks restoration and repair. It is from the one who represents the systems of power that she appeals for alleviation from her plight.

Feminists and others (e.g., Cotter) champion the widow who asserts her rights against unjust, imperial, patriarchal systems, and they emphasize the way she dramatizes faith(fulness). Imperial studies note the verisimilar depiction of Roman courts, which favored elite Roman citizens over others (Garnsey, 128–41). “The parable is a burlesque of the whole justice system” (Cotter, 342). Praying with confidence that God grants justice is part and parcel of confronting injustice persistently, and vice versa.
Robert L. Brawley

The woman’s persistence displays her power. She could have given up on justice. She may have adopted hopelessness, clung to despair, and acquiesced to fatalism. Her victory comes from not giving up. The judge apparently does not give a reason against hearing her case. She cannot present an argument, but she can show up. The judge does not bring her accuser before them both to hear both sides. She cannot defend herself against those accusations, but she can show up. Showing up is her act of resistance and deliverance, and whether her persistence is fueled by desperation or righteousness does not matter. She can continue to show up so she does, and justice reigns in the continued, persistent action.

Luke’s introduction to the parable (18:1) builds on prior instruction about prayer, presented both through Jesus’ modeling of prayer (see the comment on 3:21–22) and through explicit teaching about the topic (11:1–13). If the model prayer commended by Jesus has directed disciples to petition for the coming of God’s reign (11:2), the parable of the persistent widow presents Exhibit A that the unfolding of history will not promptly and unambiguously deliver on that request. Just as the widow Anna continually prayed and fasted in the temple, “night and day” (2:37), out of her deep longing for God’s deliverance of the people, and just as this parabolic widow relentlessly seeks justice when the system is stacked against her, so history will demand that God’s “chosen ones”120 persist in their oppression-resisting, justice-seeking cries to God “day and night” (18:7). Interacting with the preceding parable, the formulation in vv. 7b–8 is intriguing, tensively capturing at one and the same time the affirmation of God’s utter reliability and an acknowledgment that life in the world will nevertheless not deliver efficient justice and vindication for those who place trust in God.
John T. Carroll

The power of the parable of the persistent widow is found in that her commitment to justice outlasted the opposition’s apathy and complicity. That explains why Jesus admonishes the disciples not to lose heart. In this case, heart represents that persistence, commitment, courage, and relentless pursuit of justice. In the reign of God, justice is righteousness personified. Justice is the kindom on earth as it is in heaven. Justice is the realm of God for all. Losing heart gives up on that and abandons the work of the incarnation, passion, and resurrection. Losing heart makes the life and ministry of Jesus a vain exercise. Losing heart means embracing death of God’s vision of beloved community.

In times like these, the adversary’s most power tools are apathy and defeatism. Both involve those with power not wielding it because they do not care about the circumstances or they cease to believe they can change them. Both are lies the enemy uses to keep the imperial systems in place, to diminish the kindom of God, and to dismantle justice and righteousness. In this story, the Holy One is not in the apathetic judge. The Holy One is in her who believed that justice would prevail because she did not lose heart.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“I, Too”
By Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

For Further Reflection
“One love, one heart, one destiny.” ― Robert Marley
“The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.” ― Leigh Bardugo
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Works Cited
Brawley, Robert L. “Luke.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.
Carroll, John T. Luke. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012.

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
During this series, Raise Her Voice: Seek After God, in the season after Pentecost, we encourage the local church to engage in spiritual practices to support faith formation and ministry engagement. This week, commit to resist hopelessness and fatalism.

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/after-pentecost-19c-october-19/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.