October 20, 2019: The Doldrums

October 20, 2019                                                                             Rev. Rhonda Blevins, DMIN

 The Doldrums

Luke 18:1-8

 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.  In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’  For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”  And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

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 Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the Optimist Pram. This little sailboat is one of the most popular sailing dinghies in the world with over 150,000 registered and many more in use. Do you know where it was invented? Clearwater, Florida. There’s an even closer connection here at the Chapel. If you go into our church narthex, you’ll find a plaque with the names of 17 women and men who founded Chapel by the Sea—one of the names on that plaque is Clifford McKay, father of our own Anne Garris. Major McKay was a part of the Clearwater Optimist Club—it was his idea to create a little boat in which young children could learn to sail at minimum cost. In 1947, the Optimist Pram was born.

 Now, I’ve had two sailing lessons aboard the Optimist, so I’m pretty much an “expert” sailor (if by “expert” it means you take a little sailboat out and you can’t get it back and you have to be rescued by a motorboat.) In my two lessons, I learned the frustration of having minimal wind, sitting in a boat, hoping to go somewhere with little luck.

 Real sailors (not hacks like me) are wary of an area near the equator, roughly 5 degrees north and 5 degrees south, where little surface wind blows. It’s called the “Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).” At the ITCZ, northern winds and southern winds converge, and because of the heat at the equator, the warm, moist air is forced to rise up like a hot air balloon. Because the air is forced upwards, there is little surface wind. Sailing vessels can get stuck there for weeks. Sailors more colloquially call this area “The Doldrums.”[1]

 The Doldrums—the frustrating place where nothing much happens.

 If you read between the lines of our scripture lesson today, you might discern that Jesus’ disciples were in the spiritual “doldrums.” Why else would Jesus sense the need to tell them “a parable about their need to pray always and not lose heart?” The disciples must have been feeling frustrated in their prayer life—like their prayers didn’t matter—like nothing much happened as a result of their prayers.

Have you ever felt that way? Like your prayers didn’t matter? Like nothing much happened as a result of your prayers? I know I have felt that way. It’s frustrating at best. At worst it can lead to losing hope and even giving up on faith in God all together.

 The “Spiritual” Doldrums—the frustrating place where nothing much happens.

 Symptoms of the “spiritual” doldrums:

·        you might not feel like praying,

·        you might not want to get up on a Sunday morning for church,

·        you might lose interest reading the Bible or other spiritual works,

·        you might grow weary of good works or acts of service.

 There’s a reason why these practices—all of them—are called “spiritual disciplines.” Like any discipline—diet and exercise, earning a degree, biting your tongue, climbing the corporate ladder—spiritual disciplines aren’t always “fun.” You don’t always feel like skipping the chocolate cake or going to the gym, but “discipline” means you do it even when you don’t “feel” it.

 I’ve counseled numerous people over the years, from young to old, who expressed their frustration with not “feeling” God’s presence. And I get it. I do. There are lots of times when I don’t “feel” it. But what I have to remind myself during those times is that it’s not about me and my subjective “feelings.” Feelings and emotions come and go and are rarely a reliable measuring tool for God’s presence or activity in our lives. It’s not our “feelings” that matter—what matters is our “faithfulness.”

 When it comes to faithfulness and prayer, the challenge Jesus is teaching about here, faith without prayer is like a sailboat without a sail. You can’t catch the wind if you don’t hoist the sail! When we grow weary of waiting on the wind, we might “lose heart,” question whether the wind will ever blow again and ask, “what’s the point of even hoisting the sail?”

 It seems that’s what was happening with the disciples. Jesus, discerning that his disciples have lost heart and given up on prayer, tells them a story about a rotten judge and a persistent widow who persevered in asking the rotten judge for justice. It was the woman’s persistence that finally compelled the bad judge to grant her request. Jesus sets this rotten judge in contrast with a loving God—if this rotten judge finally grants the persistent widow’s request, how much more will a loving God respond to the pleas of the faithful?

 On occasion, when no one else is here, I’ll come sit in the sanctuary. I love how the early morning light from the east streams through the stained-glass windows—the pews become a kaleidoscope of colors. I’ll sit in different places and think about the people I know who sit there (because it’s not like you guys ever “mix it up” and sit somewhere different! J) Sometimes I’ll imagine, or wonder what keeps people coming back to church Sunday after Sunday—I suspects it’s a variety or combination of reasons:

 ·        maybe it’s mostly habit, tradition or a sense of duty,

·        the need for a break from routine or an anchor for the week,

·        a desire for or love of community,

·        or maybe it’s the hope for some inspiration, hope, comfort, joy,

·        a sense of calling—that you can use your gifts and talents here in this place among this people.

 Let’s face it—some Sundays you “feel” it, some Sundays you don’t. Church attendance, like prayer, is a spiritual discipline—a practice by which we position ourselves to respond to God’s movement in the same way that a hoisted sail is positioned to harness the power of the wind.

 The Greek word translated for “wind” in the New Testament is same word that can be translated as “Spirit.” It’s the Greek word “pneuma:” “wind,” “Spirit,” or even “breath.” A sailboat needs the wind to blow in the same way that a soul needs the breath of God’s Spirit. The thing about prayer: If you want to catch the wind, you have to hoist the sail!

 Sometimes the wind doesn’t blow, and we find ourselves in the doldrums. We can’t “feel” the wind; we can’t predict when the wind will blow. We cannot predict how the Spirit of God will move either. Our job—even in the Doldrums—is to hoist the sail of prayer, to ready ourselves in faith and hope that the wind will blow again. When we hoist the sail of prayer, we are ready to: 1) catch the fresh wind of the Spirit, in order to 2) harness the power of the Spirit, so that we can 3) progress in the life of faith.

 So hoist the sails my friends! You can’t control the wind, but you can be ready when the wind of the Spirit blows.

    [1] “What are the Doldrums?” U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/doldrums.html, accessed 10/17/19.