Damnit, God! How Long Will You Ignore Me?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
October 19, 2025
Proper 24, C
Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 121
Luke 18:1-8

We have an adorable, 30-pound, terrier-pinscher, mutt-thing of a dog named Thor at home. He is sweet as he can be, a little neurotic, and dumb as a stump, by which I mean he’s actually not that dumb; he just has a mind of his own and doesn’t necessarily do what we want him to do all the time. Take eating, for example. We’ll put the food in his bowl, and if he’s not really ready to eat, it’ll make no never mind to him that our other dog, River, will eat all of his food, followed by all of hers. 

He knows he won’t get more food, so if he’s really hungry, he’ll stop her, otherwise, he doesn’t much seem to care that we want him to eat. He’ll just do without.

When it comes to eating our food, however, he is always hungry. The fact that he rarely ever gets our food doesn’t stop him from staring up at us, not whining, not being a pest, just staring, waiting, full-on expectant, loving puppy dog eyes. 

Not our daughter, but
still Thor begging food.

He did this with our daughter just the other day, following her around the house for five minutes as she went from room to room, eating her breakfast sandwich. We all watched, along with our daughter, chuckling, and eventually, he wore her down. She gave him a bit of cheesy, eggy biscuit, and he trotted off, happy as a dog with a bone…or bacon. 

Thor does this all the time, and he knows that most of the time, he’s getting nothing, but he still tries. He tries because maybe not today, maybe not this week, but eventually, his persistence will pay off, and he’ll get some bit of the people food that he dearly loves. 

So, regarding Jesus’ lesson, teaching us to pray always and not lose heart, my family is like the unjust judge, and our dog, Thor, is like the widow, wearing us down by his persistence. Would that we all had the same persistence in faith and prayer as that little dog has in getting people food, and yes, I realize I just compared all of us to dogs begging for food. Oops. 

Of course, so did Jesus and the Gentile woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter. So, lesson learned? Call yourself a dog, and Jesus will give you whatever you want? Maybe not?

Faithfulness is what’s really going on: keeping at our faith even when we’re really tired of waiting, keeping at prayer and living the ways of Jesus. That’s what Jesus taught the disciples, “to pray always and not lose heart.” 

So, how’s this prayer sound? “Damnit, God. How long will you ignore me? How long will this crap keep going on? How long are you going to do nothing?”

Sounds a bit cheeky. Maybe a little heretical for a prayer, but it’s not. It’s really just a more modern, angsty teenager version of Psalm 13. “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me for ever? How long will you hide your face from me? Look upon me and answer me, O LORD my God” (Psalm 13:1, 3a)

Damnit, God. How long will you ignore me? How long will this crap keep going on? How long are you going to do nothing? 

“Pray always, and do not lose heart,” Jesus said. Now, sometimes you can’t help losing heart. That’s part of what prayer is for, to offer ourselves to God in those times when we have lost heart. The challenge is to keep praying through losing heart. Keep praying while you lose heart.

Jesus’ advice is to keep praying that “How long, O Lord?”, prayer. It’s an honest prayer. So, keep praying that prayer until it changes from “How long, O Lord?” to “Thank you.” That’s what happens in Psalm 13. The prayer changes from angsty teenager, “How long, O Lord?”, to “Thank you, Lord.” That change may take a while. It may take a long while. The change from “How long?”, to “Thank you,” may take a lifetime or many lifetimes. 

There were times for the people of Israel when it was generations before the prayer changed. Looking at life here in the United States, civil rights and equal rights for all people has been a struggle for generations. The “How long?”, has in many ways been changed to “Thank you,” and yet there are many ways we are still praying, “How long, O Lord?”

The change may take generations and longer, and so Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

What do we do while we are persistently praying and waiting? Our behavior has a lot to do with the answer to Jesus’ question. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Will Jesus find us waiting patiently, prayerfully, and faithfully? Will Jesus find us living his teachings as we wait? That’s a question not only about our faith and faithfulness, but also the faith and faithfulness we may inspire in others. 

See, regardless of how much we pray or what we pray, what people see us doing is what they’re going to believe about Jesus. Truth be told, regardless of what we pray or how much we pray, what we do tends to show us where our faith really lies. 

In Bible study last week, we were talking about the ways of Jesus: forgiveness, choosing non-violence, etc. “That’s crazy,” one person replied. “In here, in the church,” he said, “it’s easy to talk about forgiveness and non-violence. Outside when you’ve got people coming at you all the time, it’s not so easy. It seems crazy to follow Jesus’ teachings out there.”

Well, yeah. As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:18, the Gospel does seem foolish, and yet it is the power of God. The ways of the streets are, be stronger, be tougher, be mean so you can survive, and it’s hard as hell not to be, and yet, that’s the way of the world. Are we going to put our trust in the ways of the world, or are we going to put our trust in the ways of Jesus?

Non-violence seems crazy. Fair enough. Non-violence in the face of injustice seems crazy, and yet it was non-violence that brought about the greatest change in the Civil Rights Movement. Looking at today, street protests seeking justice are good, until they get violent. Once violence starts, the people seeking justice are seen as villains, and so the justice they seek is seen as injustice. 

When a group of people cries out, “How long, O Lord?”, but also engages in crime and drugs, fighting and hurting other, how could that people expect that God should grant justice? The crime and violence delay any justice that could come, because the people who might have grant justice no longer will. They no longer see people in need of justice, but simply criminals in need of punishment.

Crying for justice doesn’t work if we do not also follow the ways and teachings of Jesus. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” 

Where will Jesus find that our faith lies? What will our actions show about where our faith lies? How long are we willing to wait and be persistent in prayer to bring about the justice and peace we desire? How long are we willing to trust in the ways and teachings of Jesus as we wait for justice and peace? 

Are we willing to live the prayer and teachings of Jesus for generations as we wait for justice to come? Are we willing to be faithful over generations so our children and grandchildren can live the fruits of our faithfulness? 

If not, our children and grandchildren will live the fruits of our faithlessness and violence. We will hand them the same injustice and violence that we suffer. 

If we are faithful, however, if we continue in prayer, if we risk enough to follow the ways and teachings of Jesus, then our prayer will turn from “How long, O Lord?”, to “Thank you, Lord.” It may not be today. It may not be this year. It may not even be this lifetime, but the prayer will change. Justice will come. Even if it takes generations. If we are faithful in prayer and in action, if we follow the ways and teachings of Jesus, the prayer will change from “How long?”, to “Thank you.”

"How long, O Lord, will there be such strife in the world?" We Ask. "How long, indeed?" God replies. "How long, humanity? How long?"

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
July 27, 2025
Proper 12, C
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Psalm 138
Luke 11:1-13

There’s something terribly wrong with the world*, isn’t there? Terrorists kill thousands, and so others respond by killing hundreds of thousands. Folks want as big a return on investment as we can get, and if that is done by paying people poverty wages or worse, well…it’s not really my fault, that’s just how the market works.

Those poor people on the streets are unsightly, let’s put them in jail or drive them far from here, and what happens to them after, that’s their problem. I’m hurt and angry. It feels like that’s all I’ve ever been, and I’m just going to keep taking it out on everyone around me because I really don’t know a what else to do. Most of what the church has ever done is just threaten me with Hell, so to Hell with them too.

We care about people in the abstract (in general), but when it comes to sacrificing our own comfort and security, taking on suffering ourselves for the sake of others, our caring often becomes even more abstract (less). That goes for churchy disciples of Jesus, too. 

How often when I (or others) talk about Jesus’ teachings on economic justice do folks blast it as woke socialist teaching? It’s not. It’s just what Jesus said. “Sure,” folks will counter, “but you can’t apply Jesus’ teachings to our economy, or how we invest money, or how we pay people.” Ok, but that’s just like what the people of Israel kept saying when the prophets kept telling them, “Y’all are sunk because of you exploit the poor and seem to love economic injustice.” Saying you can’t apply Jesus’ teachings to the economy is to place love of wealth above love of people and to place economic might as an idol above God. 

How often do I then hear people agree with the very same teachings of Jesus, the teachings about economic justice, so long as they can pretend that those teachings are only about what happens when we die, and not about economic and social justice in this world and in this life? A lot, very often, that happens.

Yes, there is something terribly wrong with this world, and recognizing that fact, we find a deep longing for people actually to care about one another.

I was saddened last week over the death of Ozzy Osbourne, and I bring him up, one because I love his music, and two because he was one who shared this deep longing for people actually to care about one another. Despite what lots of right-wing fundamentalist preachers have shouted over the years, Ozzy was a Christian. He was a flawed dude, but he was also a dude who despaired at the horrible things we humans do to one another. He wrote songs calling out our human atrocities and longing for hope, longing for people actually to care about one another.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2014, they asked about his faith, and in part of his answer, he said,

My idea of heaven is feeling good. A place where people are alright to each other. This world scares the shit out of me. We’re all living on the tinderbox. It’s like there’s some maniac somewhere trying to devise a new means of destruction. It always amazes me that mankind always goes to find the biggest, powerfullest means of destruction before they find anything good. It’s always the negative things they find first. Since I’ve had kids I’ve thought, ‘What are we leaving these people? Nothing.’ What a future we’ve got for mankind.

He was torn down by how terribly wrong this world is, and he wrote about that in his music, which was aggressive and violent sounding, but like most angry music, it wasn’t meant to harm others but to heal them. “I’d rather have people get rid of their aggression at an Ozzy concert,” he said, “than by beating some old lady over the head and running off with her purse. [The concerts, the music are] a release of aggression.”

  

“How long, must we keep on waiting?”** He wrote in one of his later songs, Diggin' Me Down. That song in particular makes me think of the lament Psalms, like Psalm 13. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will I have grief in my heart day after day? Look at me. Answer me. How long will the enemy triumph?

The Psalms is a lament and a question, challenging God to answer because there is something terribly wrong with the world, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

“How long, O Lord,” and I think there are times when God’s answer may well be, “How long, indeed?” How long will you people continue to hurt one another. How long will you continue to seek all the best for yourself pretending like it’s not hurting anyone else? How long will you continue to go it alone, taking your violence and anger out on everyone around you. How long, humanity? How long?

Knowing all that is terribly wrong with the world, when Jesus’ disciples asked him to pray, he taught them “The Lord’s Prayer,” as we call it, and there are two things I’d like to point out from his teaching. One, knowing all that is terribly wrong with the world, Jesus taught us to pray for God’s Kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. 

If we’re praying for God’s kingdom to come, that also means that we’re gonna be working towards it. Remember that Pope Francis said, “You pray for the hungry, then you feed them. That’s how prayer works.” Well, regarding the Lord’s Prayer, you pray for God’s kingdom to be lived out here on earth as in Heaven, and then you live out God’s kingdom here on earth. That’s how the Lord’s Prayer works. 

You pray for people to care about one another and be loving towards one another, and then you actually start doing that. You pray for economic justice, and then you actually start living it. You pray for an end to hatred and vengeance, and then you actually start loving and forgiving people.

Jesus taught that our actions are meant to match our prayer. Jesus also taught that we don’t try to live out God’s kingdom all by ourselves. We are to ask the Holy Spirit constantly to help us. He told the story of the guy who kept beating on his friend’s door asking for some bread because another friend had just showed up at midnight. Weird story, please don’t do that to people. Wait six hours till the morning, your hungry friend ain’t gonna die. 

What Jesus said was that this persistence in prayer was for the Holy Spirit. The guy in the story eventually gave some bread to his jerky friend just to shut him up. “How much more,” Jesus said, “will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.”

God gives the Holy Spirit for the church to live out God’s mission of reconciliation and love. God gives the Holy Spirit for the church to bring some kindness and caring into this world, rather than the anger and aggression we so often face.

There is something terribly wrong with this world, and that terribly wrong this is the spirit of the Adversary: us vs. them, me vs. you, fear and anger, get all I can regardless of who it hurts or how it hurts them. The spirit of the Adversary is rife in this world, and we don’t even recognize it. We see the spirit of the Adversary, and we say, “I need a good return on investment, and that’s just how free markets are supposed to work. We’re supposed to get vengeance on our enemies. I’m hurting and in need, and to hell with anyone who gets in my way.”

That spirit of the Adversary is what is terribly wrong with this world, and God has given us a different Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, so that we might no longer be against one another but for one another. God has given us the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, so that we might live out God’s kingdom of economic justice, mercy, forgiveness, and love here on earth, right now, as it is in heaven. 

How long, O Lord? How long will we continue not to ask for the Holy Spirit or to ask selfishly? How long will we keep God waiting? Ask for the Holy Spirit, Jesus taught us, all day, every day, so that we might follow the Advocate, rather than the Adversary, and live out God’s kingdom here on earth, as in Heaven. 

*And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? 

Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.

― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

** Digging Me Down, Ozzy Osbourne

https://youtu.be/nqAmREzj6nA?si=Tgjt1yWllbcX9KO2