Luke 18:1-8
Proper 24 (29) - Year C
How do you play between importuning G*D for justice and being persistent and creative in your own part of claiming justice for yourself and/or someone else?
Now, why would Jesus tell this story about a probably years long struggle for justice until the judge was worn out from dealing with it? Presumably he recognized that G*D’s “quickness” in matters of justice wasn’t very quick in human lives and required partnership with us rather than snapping some metaphoric fingers to have it miraculously appear. Magic justice turns out to be very little justice at all.
We might translate “pray” as “do what needs doing”. Prayer here is not just crying out, but acting to make a difference. There is a big divide between those who see a need for social action and those who are caught up in privilege enough to advise closet prayer. If you are going to pray for someone, do it in their face. Otherwise it is spiritual gossip.
So, yes, G*D delays participation in overt justice-making until those who note injustice engage it directly. Praying about something so as to tell G*D what to do, even to pray for G*D’s will to be done, does not endear us to G*D.
Have you lost your heart to live lively and so all that’s left is mumbling prayer? I hope not. So raise a glass to widows everywhere and rejoin the on-going party of assurance and belovedness and just plain kindness. If you are familiar with ballots that show a picture of a candidate or the logo of a political party, be sure to check the widow iconography after disclosing your cause in the streets and investing your time and resources to have us live better together. Hooray for disruptive widows.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/10/luke-181-8.html
The New Interpreter's Study Bible notes a stronger translation is available: "lest she continue coming and end up doing violence to me!" and continues by reflecting, "The point is that, according to societal norms, this widow should simply have accepted her fate; by refusing to do so, she acts so out of character that the judge is astonished. In this way, she becomes a model of faithfulness on earth."
Where have you and I self-censored ourselves? Where might we break free from societal norms, from our usual character, and be faithful to a larger picture of the meaning of life?
This is an important question in a time of political turmoil. To play our usual passive role is to allow continued violence to ourselves and others. It is not that we will threaten violence, it is simply that any standing outside the norm will be interpreted as violence by those in power - note any non-violent action from the Song of Songs to Jesus to Civil Rights.
It is not too amazing that our translators get a bit tentative once in awhile and choose a milder translation. However, we do not have the same felt constraints they do so let's go with the "stronger" translation.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/october2004.html
Tomorrow is Children's Sabbath. One of the injustices is to limit the slogan, "No child left behind" to the educational realm. Material from Children's Sabbath asks, "What would it look like to treat every child as a child of God?" They go on to indicate, "We would ensure that every child has a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life.
You may note that we need to do more with starting the kids than noting they are already behind and try to pull them along, all the while enlarging exactly the gap that all these starts need to deal with - poverty.
Widows and orphans are an inseparable pair in the scriptures. Imagine, if you will, replacing the widow with an orphan. This draws the picture all the more starkly. A widow can have some modicum of standing, being an adult and possibly having friends. The same cannot be said about an orphan unless you or I enter the picture as an intentional, going-the-long-distance, advocate.
This story is filled with accusations in this political season against a mass-deceived war, poverty and an increasing gap between the rich and the poor denying any increase of minimum wage to the poor so the rich don't even have to get any richer to increase that gap, and a program that is only concerned about some measurability of grades with no concern about the health of the children that allows any head learning to mean something.
Yes, G*D/widow and G*D/orphan have an accusation to bring against the rulers of our day and those of us who have quietly avoided the call to be an advocate who will wrestle against the powers and principalities of our day.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/october2004.html
"This and the following parable warn us against two fatal extremes, with regard to prayer: the former against faintness and weariness, the latter against self confidence." - John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament
Paragraphing unparagraphed material is always a challenge. Here is my preferred edit:
Jesus told a parable about a 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 [read "a persistent heart"] to them.
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith [read "justice"] on earth?"
- - -
Listen again to what the unjust judge says, "Justice will eventually come to pass!"
Jesus will find justice [read "faith enacted"] when, eventually, G*D's justice and our justice come together. It is justice that is needed for Jesus' return, not some rebuilt temple.
- - -
prayer is to faith
as
persistence is to justice
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
Hot on the heels of a week of dreaming comes one that starts with prayer. Define the difference between a dream and a prayer and spelling will be a major category. We dream for better, we pray for better - not just for ourselves or some, but all of creation (anything less is that much less worthy of it name).
At issue is "justice" - seemingly almost in hand, but never quite, like dreams and prayer, that need persistence and hope (combined - and this is more than a spelling difference).
The widow's hopeful persistence is, itself, a prayer form - even if there is never a religious word uttered. Trying to limit prayer to G*D and Church is like trying to return the jar Pandora opened to never-having-been-opened.
Listen to what the unjust judge said. In listening, hear that G*D is not interested in prayers asking for an intercession with the unjust. G*D is saying, "Get out there and do something about what you think you are praying about."
Oh, folks so wanted to hear Jesus going on to suggest that G*D was open to manipulation by prayer and would eventually, no matter whether early or late, bring injustice to heel, that they wrote it in. Even if this is accurately recorded, there is still the matter of whether attempts to pray G*D to a particular action is faithful praying. To put it all on G*D may be to lose our faith, our ability to trust that our participation in transforming life toward justice, day in and day out, has a worth of its own.
As you take a look around at issues needing more justice anticipated and applied, can you see your action as prayer, regardless of the form it takes? From time to time we will use one of the traditional prayer forms to re-energize our participation, but our prayers can never be constrained by a particular idiosyncratic religious tradition(s). Can you redefine your justice issues and actions as prayers offered by a descendent of our ancestral aunt, St. Widow of Importuning?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/10/luke-181-8.html