Sermon thoughts and other musings

Although the author of the gospel identifies this as a parable about persistence in prayer, I don't read this as a story about the widow. My first thoughts turn to the parallels between us and the unjust judge. The widow in the story is, because of the culture of her time, completely disempowered (though I don't mean to imply that sexism isn't rampant here and now!) - the unjust judge has the power to grant her justice. Most of us, most of the time, are empowered. We have the means to grant justice, at least on a small scale.

After all, what does it mean to grant justice? Justice is something we do. The famous verse, Micah 6:8, commands us "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God"; justice is something we do, and kindness is something we love ... not the other way around. For example, when we feed the hungry we are doing justice because everyone is entitled to food. For someone to be hungry is unjust.

The unjust judge finally grants justice to the widow because she bothers him. Shouldn't we be bothered when we hear the cries of the poor for justice? Shouldn't their cries move us to try to grant them justice? Ultimately, it is human nature to answer a cry for help, but often we have trained ourselves not to listen. We do not need Jesus to tell us to help those whose cries we hear -- but we do need Jesus to help us to learn to "fine-tune" our ears so that we hear their cries more acutely. And above all, we need Jesus to forgive us when we fail to listen and fail to help.

In the week ahead, listen for the cries of those who need help - the poor, the sad, the lonely, the oppressed. Then do what humans do when we hear a cry ... we respond.