“Keeping Heart”- Sermon on Oct 20, 2013
October 20, 2013
Scripture: Luke 18:1-8
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?”
Sermon: Keeping Heart
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Leading into the telling of this parable, Jesus has been telling his followers about the Day of the Son of Man that is to come, a day of judgment, a day like the day Noah set off in the ark; a day like the day Lot and his family ran from Sodom and Gomorrah; a day when many will be destroyed and few righteous will be spared. He cautions that those who try to secure the way they live in this world will lose out, and those who let go will find life, true life. And there are many who will be trying to secure the way they live in this life. Such a discouraging message. You can see why Jesus would be concerned that his disciples to lose heart. So he tells them this parable.
Jesus lifts up a woman, a widow, haranguing a judge for justice. This judge is called unjust, uncaring about what others think of him and what God might think of him. This judge has all the power and authority and this widow has none. She would not have even been allowed to see the judge through legitimate channels. A woman in those days could not testify in court, could not appear in public venues. Women were dependent on men – either husband or father or brother – to speak for them, to secure justice for them. And yet in this parable the woman prevails and the judge – even an unjust judge- grants her the justice she has been crying out for.
So Jesus is acknowledging to his followers that things look bad, and in fact will get worse in some ways. And the community that Luke is writing to is also going through some very difficult days. And yet they are not as powerless as it appears. They have their faith and their voice. And even when someone else tries to take away their voice,they must not lose heart. There is always a way to get your voice heard. And there is power in the cry for justice.
Some people hear this as advice to nag God with prayers for what we want, that if we harangue God enough, God will get through our holy honey-do list. Some identify God with the unjust judge, uncaring, self-centered, unresponsive unless bothered. But I think Jesus is saying if even an unjust judge will give justice, than how can you doubt that God, who is good, who is loving, who is caring, will give justice. Jesus says God will respond. But then he wonders, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth.”
As confident as Jesus is in God, he doesn’t know what things will look like on that day of the Son of Man. Because for all the saving Jesus would do, for all the responsiveness that God will show, people may not see it, may not want it, may not believe it. Now personally, I do not think there is just one day of the Son of Man, so to speak, just one day of judgment in which the few righteous will find life everlasting and the many who are trying to save their lives will be lost forever. No, I think the day is surely coming when all will know God, will have God’s law and love written on their hearts, when all will know themselves to be God’s people. It’s just a matter of when. God is listening, God is responding, God is speaking to us all the time. But God is speaking through the brokenness and fear and misery of the world created in forgetfulness. The fear and misery have loud cries and they generate loud, sometimes aggressive responses by the unjust, by those who care nothing for humankind or for God. So Jesus invites his disciples, Jesus invites us not only to listen to faith, to let that be our guide, but also to cry out against injustice, against the fear and self-centeredness that contributes to brokenness and misery for any of God’s beloved. Cry out not just so that God will hear, but that we will hear ourselves, so that those with some power and authority might hear and use their power not to try to save their own lives, but for the good of the kindom which is within, between and among us. Every day may be the day of the Son of Man, the day we are offered the chance to let go of things they way they have been, or the way that is comfortable, and create and embrace the life abundant that Christ offers. Cry out, and let it be so.
