In November of 2018, on the 35th anniversary of my ordination as a minister of the word and sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I was well celebrated by Westminster Presbyterian Church, the congregation I served from 2013 to 2025. At the reception following worship, Associate Pastor Rev. Trajan McGill surprised me with the children’s book She Persisted, written by Chelsea Clinton. In his note, he congratulated me on attaining 35 years of something I was told as a little girl by my faith community I could not do and commented that the world is better because of those who have not been willing to sit with “no” as a final answer.
According to the Oxford Dictionary: To persist is to stand steadfast and to persevere resolutely despite opposition, importunity, or warning. To persist is to remain unchanged or fixed in a specified character, condition, or position. To persist is to be insistent in the repetition or pressing of an utterance. To persist is to continue to exist especially past a usual, expected, or normal time.
The Gospel of Luke (18:1-8) highlights one who persisted and the difference her persistence made in the world in a parable about prayer and not losing heart. The parable begins with the introduction of the judge who neither fears God nor respects people. The un-respected people, whom Luke refers to as God’s chosen ones, are represented here by the widow whose unrelenting and steadfast pleas are so bothersome to the judge that she receives the justice she seeks. The un-feared God will, by the end of the parable, eclipse the fearless judge.
The heart of this parable is the widow who refuses to give up her vision of justice. The odds may seem insurmountable as corruption, inhumanity and impiety characterize the widow’s world. Yet, the importance of justice is completely internalized within the widow’s heart, and no amount of corruption can change the expectations and inner workings of this widow.
In this parable, Jesus reminds us that a seemingly powerless person is strengthened from within to persist in seeking justice, and then, by contrasting the God of mercy and loving kindness with the unjust judge, Jesus highlights the integrity and generosity of the One to whom we pray.
While the parable is framed by references to prayer and faith, the emphasis is on justice and how it figures in the confrontation between the vulnerable justice-seeker and the unjust power holder. The parable culminates with the all-powerful, just, and merciful God granting justice to the vulnerable chosen ones who cry out day and night.
There is only one other use of this term chosen one in Luke’s gospel. Jesus on the cross is mocked by the religious leaders as “God’s chosen one.” They, like the unjust judge in the parable, inadvertently get it right despite themselves. Crying out with a loud voice, Jesus addresses the Father and commends his spirit to God just before he breathes his last. God’s chosen one, the one chosen on behalf of all others, fully God and fully human, absorbs the hostility of an unjust world in an act of mercy and grace, joins the chorus of the vulnerable in a cry for justice, and, with a last full measure of devotion, persists in integrity.
In the living of our lives during these days of corruption, inhumanity and impiety, may we persist with dignity in prayer, faith and justice.
The Rev. Dr. Blythe Denham Kieffer served as pastor and head of staff at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Springfield from Oct. 1, 2013, to Oct. 1, 2025.
