How is God persistent in your life?

     This week's gospel lesson comes from Luke 18.1-8.  It is the parable of the unjust judge and the persistent widow.  It is a very well known text about the widow who keeps coming to the judge every day until the judge finally gives her what she wants because she is pestering him so much.  The 'moral of the story' has traditionally been that we need to pray persistently, just like the widow, and when Jesus comes back he will find faith on earth (in reference to verse 8).  However, I always get suspicious when the text tells me why Jesus is doing something.
     In the very first verse the author of Luke tells us that Jesus is telling this parable, "for their need to pray and not lose heart."  While that is a very good reason, I wonder how the author knows the motives behind Jesus' parable?  I also wonder, if we take this parable as it has been traditionally interpreted, if this is the kind of God we want?  The judge finally gives the persistent widow what she wants, much like a slot machine; you put enough coins in, you get some coins out.  Is that really the way God works?  We hear stories of people's persistence, much like the persistence of the miners in Chile, and when everything comes out fine we say it was because of their persistent prayer.  But when we pray persistently and things don't work out the way we think they should...  While I acknowledge the need to pray and not lose heart, I think we miss out on the richness of the parable if we stop there.
     What if we were to reverse the roles?  What if God is represented by the persistent widow and we are the unjust judge?  God comes to us in the one who is marginalized and presses persistently, asking us to do justice - for God's sake, not ours.  Do we not often have hard hearts and turn from justice?  Do we not often grudgingly do what is right?  And yet God never gives up.  It is a mutual relationship, one in which both we and God play a role.  We pray persistently.  We ask for faith, give praise, confess our sins, and God comes to us, gently yet persistently giving life, sustaining, blessing.  If God is the persistent widow, I wonder: How has God been persistent with me?  With you?