Enduring Faith

 Enduring Faith: A Call to Persevere

October 19, 2025 – Proper 24c – EUMC & BCUMC

Introduction: A Season of Endings, A Call to Endure

Today’s scriptures converge upon a powerful and recurring theme: the certainty of endings. We are brought to stand with the prophet Jeremiah as he bears witness to the catastrophic fall of Jerusalem. We listen in as the Apostle Paul, knowing his death is near, pens his last words of encouragement to his young protégé, Timothy. And we follow Jesus, who has turned his face resolutely toward Jerusalem, marching steadily toward the conclusion of his earthly ministry, aware that the same crowds shouting “Hosanna” will soon demand his crucifixion. From these disparate and dramatic moments of closure, a single, unifying message emerges with profound clarity—the critical importance of perseverance and steadfast faith in the face of trial and persecution. This call to endure is not a passive suggestion but an active command, one that Jesus himself would echo in his messages to the universal Church.

A Message to the Churches: The Twin Dangers to Faith

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus addresses letters to seven specific churches in Asia Minor. The number seven, representing wholeness and totality, signifies that these messages are not confined to ancient congregations but are intended for the entire Church, including believers today. In each of these letters, Jesus follows a basic pattern. He begins by acknowledging the congregation’s faithfulness and the specific obstacles they have overcome, stating, “I know what you have had to deal with.” Only after this affirmation does he issue a rebuke: “but I have these things against you,” before detailing where they have fallen short.

Across these letters, the churches’ failings can be synthesized into two primary areas, reflecting a breach of the two greatest commandments:

• Failure of the First Commandment: The churches were succumbing to the temptation of idolatry, turning away from God to worship other things. This was often a subtle compromise rather than a conscious rejection, a danger that persists in modern forms.
• Failure of the Second Commandment: They were experiencing a loss of love for their neighbor and for one another. In the letter to the church in Ephesus, Jesus’s charge that they have “lost that first love” refers not to their love for God, but specifically to their love for the community—the body of Christ.

Yet, after the rebuke, each letter contains a further call and a promise. Jesus exhorts them to persevere, promising that if they do, a tremendous reward awaits them. Understanding these fundamental temptations, the compromise of idolatry and the corrosion of love—and holding fast to the promise given to the faithful is the first step toward cultivating a faith that is built to endure.

Deconstructing Modern Idolatry: When Good Things Become Ultimate Things

Modern idolatry is rarely a matter of bowing to graven images. Instead, it is a more insidious error of priority, where good and desirable things are elevated to the status of ultimate things, displacing God from his rightful place. The Bible provides a powerful case study in the experience of the Israelites as they settled in the promised land of Canaan. After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, they knew nothing of farming; they weren’t even sure which end of the plow digs into the ground. Looking at the bountiful fields of their Canaanite neighbors, they asked for the secret to their success. The Canaanites attributed their prosperity to the worship of Baal and Asherah, gods of fertility and rain.

The Israelites’ temptation was not born of malice but of a desperate and understandable desire to provide for their families—to put food on the table and shoes on their children’s feet. They compromised their faithfulness not because they wished to reject God, but because they elevated the good and necessary goal of provision above their ultimate commitment to him.

This concept of divine priority is central to understanding some of Jesus’s most challenging words, such as when he commands his followers, “Unless you hate your mother and father, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” In the Hebrew and Aramaic languages of the time, “love” and “hate” were often words of comparison used to state a preference. For example, to say, “I love vanilla ice cream and I hate chocolate,” simply means that one prefers vanilla over chocolate; it does not imply that a bowl of chocolate ice cream would be rejected. Jesus’s command, therefore, is not a call to feel animosity toward one’s parents. It is a profound statement about priority. And what Jesus is saying is to be aware of the choices you make and whether or not they demonstrate your trust in God or your trust in something else.

Witnesses to Perseverance: The Prophet and the Apostle

The call to persevere is not a theoretical ideal but a lived reality, embodied in the lives of figures like Jeremiah and Paul, who held fast to their faith through unimaginable hardship.

Jeremiah’s Hope Amidst Total Devastation

Jeremiah’s ministry unfolded during one of the darkest periods in Israel’s history: the Babylonian siege and subsequent destruction of Jerusalem. He was an eyewitness to absolute horror. He saw the city walls torn down, the holy temple ransacked and demolished, and the nation’s political, religious, and economic leaders deported into exile. The conquerors then brought in people from other parts of the world to settle the land amidst the mess of destruction. In his Book of Lamentations, he records the depths of the city’s suffering with a harrowing detail:

The hands of compassionate mothers boil their own children.

This was the gruesome reality of starvation during the siege. Yet, in the face of this complete societal collapse, Jeremiah’s message was one of unwavering hope. He knew that God remained faithful and prophesied that God would establish a new covenant—not on stone tablets, but by writing his law directly onto the hearts of his people.

Paul’s Final Charge from Chains

The context for Paul’s second letter to Timothy is equally stark. Paul is no longer under house arrest but is now imprisoned in chains, fully aware that his execution is imminent. He writes with a sense of urgency, sensing that Timothy may be wavering in his own faith and leadership. Paul’s purpose is to fortify him, to encourage him to remain steadfast and remember the faith that has been handed down to him.

His core instruction points Timothy back to the wellspring of endurance: the scriptures. “All scripture,” Paul writes, “is inspired by God and... useful for instruction, for reproof, for equipping saints for ministry.” It is a vital piece of context to remember that when Paul wrote these words, he was speaking primarily of what we call the Old Testament, as the books of the New Testament had not yet been compiled. By immersing himself in God’s Word, Timothy would find the strength to persevere and faithfully proclaim the gospel. These powerful examples of endurance find their ultimate illustration in a parable told by Jesus himself.

The Parable of Persistence: Lessons from an Unjust Judge

In the Parable of the Unjust Judge, Jesus offers his primary illustration of the necessity and power of persistent prayer. He introduces a judge who is the very epitome of corruption, a man who, in the scriptural description, “doesn’t fear God and has no respect for people.” He is as crooked and unworthy of his title as a judge could possibly be.

Before this judge comes a widow, a symbol of vulnerability in the ancient world. She is being wronged by an accuser and has no one else to turn to for justice. Night after night, she goes to the judge’s home, pleading her case. It wasn’t as if the judge had storm windows to shut and an air conditioner to turn on; his open-air windows required that he hear the ranting of that woman, night after night, disturbing his peace. Finally, worn down by her relentless cries, the judge decides to act. His motivation is not a sudden pang of conscience or a desire to do what is right. He grants her justice for one reason: to “shut her up” and get her out of his hair.

The central point of the parable is a powerful argument from negative inference. Jesus invites his listeners to ask:

If relentless persistence can move a corrupt and godless judge to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, how much more will our loving and faithful Father in heaven grant justice to us, his chosen ones who cry out to him?

This principle of God’s steadfast faithfulness applies not only to our pleas for justice but also to our need for forgiveness and guidance, regardless of how lost or far from the path we may feel.

The Path Forward: Grace from Where You Are

The Christian journey is rarely a straight line. We stray, we stumble, and we get lost. Yet the promise of the gospel is that God’s grace is available to us no matter how far we have wandered from our original path. This truth can be illustrated with a simple cross-country travel analogy.

Imagine your journey is to travel from the East Coast to the West Coast. The most direct route from North Carolina is Interstate 40, which will take you straight across the country. But let’s say you get distracted. You see signs for “South of the Border” and impulsively get on I-95 heading south. One distraction leads to another, and soon you find yourself driving through the boring stretch of Georgia and deep into Florida. You finally realize you are hundreds of miles off course and nowhere near your destination.

Now, to get back on track, do you need to turn around and drive all the way back to North Carolina to find I-40 again? Of course not. From northern Florida, a new path—Interstate 10—runs directly to the West Coast.

The theological conclusion is profound: No matter where you are, God has given us a path to take. It may not be the same path we would have taken years ago, but it’s the path that’s placed before us right now. This promise—that it doesn’t matter where we are, but where we are going—is the very essence of God’s grace.

Conclusion: The Sound of Amazing Grace

No matter how far we have fallen, how lost we have strayed, or how low we feel, the unwavering call of God is to accept his gift of grace, take the next step, and persevere. The story of John Newton, the author of the beloved hymn “Amazing Grace,” is a testament to this truth. Newton was the captain of a slave ship; he bartered and sold the souls of human beings. Yet God was at work in his life, and through a profound conversion, Newton came to realize he could not follow Christ and continue in his horrific profession. He renounced his livelihood and later penned the immortal words:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

In one modern hymnal, the word “wretch” was changed to “soul.” While perhaps understandable, this change misses the radical reality of grace that Newton so powerfully understood. The hymn’s enduring power lies in its honest acknowledgment of sin. Grace is not amazing because it saves a “soul”—grace is amazing because it can reach down and save even a “wretch.”

Friends, it doesn’t matter where you are at this time, at this moment. Hear the call of God. Take those steps. Accept his gift and live.