Children’s Sermon

Have you ever felt discouraged about something? Have you ever felt like no matter what you did you couldn’t win, or you couldn’t learn something or do something? Maybe it was in school, or in sports, or in making friends. Have you ever felt like that?

Jesus knew that his disciples would become discouraged, that there would come a time when they would pray and pray, but they would sometimes think, "God just isn’t answering my prayers. This is hopeless. I’m going to give up."

So Jesus told his disciples a parable. A parable is a story that makes us think, and might even make us want to change. Since this is a story about getting discouraged, and sometimes we get discouraged, maybe we should listen in with the disciples. You want to?

Well, Jesus says once upon a time there was this mean judge. Now, sometimes some of us think of God as a judge, but this judge was definitely not God. This judge didn’t care anything about God or about other people. He didn’t care whether he was fair or not, and he was very selfish. Doesn’t that sound like a terrible judge?

One day, a widow came to the judge. Someone had cheated the widow, and she wanted justice. Justice means fairness. It means that people get what they deserve. But the widow was all alone. Her husband had died, and she had no one to support her. And in her times, women weren’t supposed to come to a judge; they were supposed to send their husband instead, but since she had no husband, she came anyway. So we know that this widow was very determined. She was willing to do what she was not supposed to do so that she could get the judge to do what he was supposed to do —give her justice.

Now, when you go into a court of law and ask a judge for something, that’s called a prayer, just like when we ask God for something it’s called a prayer. And she sees the judge and she makes a prayer. It is a prayer I want her to teach you, and that I hope you will remember and use for the rest of your life. So I want you to play the part of the widow, is that OK? I’ll be the judge. She sees the judge and she prays this, "I demand justice!" Can you say that? [Children shout, "I demand justice." They say it again wherever it appears, cued by a hand signal.]

"No, go away." But she doesn’t go away. She comes back and she says, "I demand justice!" "No, go away." But do you think she goes away? No! She is very determined, and she won’t be discouraged no matter what. So she comes back again and again and says, "I demand justice!" And the judge says, "No, go away!" [Repeat a number of times.]

Finally, the judge says, "This woman is really bothering me. I mean, she is really getting on my nerves. I’m going to give her justice just so she’ll leave me alone." And you know what? He gave her justice.

It would have been easy for her to get discouraged, don’t you think? I mean, over and over the judge told her to beat it and leave him alone. If she had gotten discouraged, would she have gotten justice? But she didn’t get discouraged, did she? Even when it seemed hopeless, she made her prayer, "I demand justice!"

And after Jesus tells that story to his disciples, he says, "You know what? If a terrible judge like that will give justice just to get rid of someone who keeps bugging him, don’t you ever think that God, who is so wonderful, will not answer a cry for justice. It may seem hopeless; you may be discouraged, you might want to lose heart, but never quit, never give up, because God will answer your prayer."

Today we remember children all over our country. And sometimes when we look at how our world treats children, it can get pretty discouraging. It can seem hopeless. We can get discouraged and want to lose heart. Should we quit praying? Should we give up?

What do you think the widow would do? When we hear that in the richest country in history, one out of five children grows up in poverty, what do you think the widow would pray? "I demand justice!"

When we hear that among developed countries like ours, the United States ranks 14th in the proportion of children in poverty, 16th in efforts to lift children out of poverty, 18th in the gap between rich and poor children, and dead last in protecting children from gun violence, what do you think the widow would pray? "I demand justice!"

When we hear that our children are

• 12 times more likely to die from gunfire

• 16 times more likely to be murdered with a gun

• 11 times more likely to commit suicide with a gun, and

• 9 times more likely to die in a firearms accident

than children in twenty-five other industrialized nations combined, what do you think the widow would pray? "I demand justice!"

When we hear that twenty-three other nations have better laws protecting children’s health and well-being, what do you think the widow would pray? "I demand justice!"

When we hear that, in the world, thousands of children die every day from starvation, not because there is not enough food, but because adults can’t stop fighting, what do you think the widow would pray? "I demand justice!"

OK, you can stop playing the part of the widow now. You did a wonderful job. But all of these problems are still here, and it can get very discouraging; it can even seem hopeless. So I guess the question is, when you’re not playing the part of the widow, what will you pray?