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Transcript of Sermon
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rt. Rev. Brian L. Cole
October 19, 2025
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We’ve just heard a gospel lesson where a parable is told about the need to pray always and not to lose heart. When I think about people who pray always, I think of monks and nuns. For many years, I have lived off and on in Kentucky in somewhat close proximity to the Gethsemane Abbey, near Bardstown. It’s a Trappist monastery where Thomas Merton lived there from 1941 to 1968.
If you know much about Kentucky, I think it’s one of those places where there’s more Baptists than there are people, except in the sort of Nelson County, Bardstown area. For centuries that has been a sort of Catholic holy land, the sort of rural Catholicism that really informs and shapes that part of Kentucky. That monastery has been there for over 150 years. And when Merton was there in the late ’40s to early ’60s, at one point they had like 300 monks there, because he had written his autobiography. In post-World War religious fervor, people were just flocking to a vocation as monks. They had them living in army tents because they had so many monks there.
And there’s a friend of mine named Brother Paul Quinnan. He was 18 years old in 1958 when he went to the monastery and has been there ever since. He’s a photographer, he’s a poet, and he’s become a good friend. And whenever I go to the monastery, I always make a point of speaking to him. And we visit over lunch or go hiking. And if there were 300 monks at Gethsemane in the early ’50s, there might be 30 there today. There has been deep, deep decline in monastic vocations, and whenever I go there, I count heads and see how many are left.
A few years ago, Paul told me they had a consultant come in—didn’t know monasteries had consultants—and show them some numbers about new vocations, deaths, and people who stayed. The point was being made by this consultant that in five years, if this kept up, there would only be 15 to 20 monks. At that point, the consultant said, “And you would be in a precarious situation.”
One of the monks, either being witty or a bit of a smart aleck, responded to the consultant, “We know precarious is a word that has its roots in the Latin, and the root word is to pray.” And he said, “We have always been in a precarious situation.”
The parable is about praying always and not losing heart. The widow wants justice. We’re told that the judge doesn’t fear God nor respect people. Other than that, he’s great, right? So, sort of a no count judge, I think, is how we would describe this judge. So not fulfilling the role of a judge, and yet that’s all the judge she’s got. And so every day she just keeps going. She just keeps showing up demanding justice. He ignores her, he ignores her, he ignores her. If you notice in the parable, she doesn’t end up changing his mind, she just wears him out, right?
Sometimes we think we’re going to change someone’s mind, but it might be just to know that, to call on God, and for the God to hear us, to be with us, is just to keep showing up. That maybe your situation is not going to change, but you’re going to stay connected to each other, to community, to God’s spirit.
I mentioned Central Kentucky. I also want to mention Eastern Kentucky, Whitesburg, Kentucky and the War on Poverty. There was a program put there called Appalshop where they were going to teach kids film technique and teach them to capture the stories of Appalachia to hopefully get jobs in the film and television industry. Well, those kids didn’t want to leave Eastern Kentucky, however, so they just started taking films of their families and colleagues and folks they knew.
So Appalshop also has a radio station there, WMMT. And about 30 years ago I was there with some seminarians showing them around the Appalachian region. And on one of the walls of the Appalshop there was a sort of poster board of various posters and announcements. And in the middle of there was a little sign, and supposedly it was a story written by a fifth grader there in Whitesburg. Again, I’m just conveying the message. I have no idea its actual source. But it was told to me that this was a fifth grader from Whitesburg. And it was the story about a grasshopper and a pig.
Have you heard this story? Did you write the story? No? Okay. So the story of the grasshopper and the pig. There once was a grasshopper and a pig. The pig bothered the grasshopper. The grasshopper asked the pig to stop. The pig didn’t listen. The pig kept bothering the grasshopper. It took a long time. It took a long, long time. But the grasshopper ate the pig. If the monks don’t convince you, maybe the fifth grader will, right?
This call to pray is a call to pray, to just keep showing up, keep showing up. When I talked to Perry a few weeks ago, he said, “We’re going to baptize people, we’re going to confirm people, we’re going to receive people.” It reminded me of this lesson that we were going to hear today. You all just keep showing up, and that door is open and you wonder who’s out there. And you all just keep showing up.
We’re living in a time when so many people are addicted to certainty and tribalism. I’m grateful that you all continue to walk with the Gospel, to love, to gather, to welcome, to believe that we keep praying, we keep praying, we keep showing up, and we don’t lose heart. And one way we don’t lose heart is we stay together. We stay connected to each other. We don’t get isolated.
So, this morning when we baptize these three brothers, they’re already a family. But in a new way, they’ll be a transformed family of God with you. And your average age is about the plummet, right? And in confirming a mom and a dad of this family, this family will be transformed into your family. And that’s what we’re called to do in every age, is to be the people who keep praying and who do not lose heart.
You know, so often what we’re confronting are judges, are folks who don’t fear God or respect people. Other than that they’re awesome, right? Because you realize, other than that they’re still children of God too, right? That’s what makes it really challenging. It’d be much easier to think, “Oh, well, they’re not us, right?” And that’s a temptation, to demonize folks who are demonizing folks. The real trick is to pray that somehow not only is my heart changed, but their heart has changed, and to believe that that’s possible, which is why you got to keep praying, keep believing, because it’s much easier to think “That’s not possible.”
So, in a moment, as I mentioned earlier, when it comes time for the baptism and the confirmation and the reception, some of this might be messy, some of this might feel like a rugby scrum, but it’s a reminder that God continues to do a new thing here at St. Mark’s, right? And I’m so grateful to be your bishop and to walk along with you in this time.
Brothers and sisters, pray always. Do not lose heart. It’s going to take a long time. It’s going to take a long, long time. But that grasshopper is going to eat that pig.
Amen.