October 17, 2004

Luke 18:1-8, I Timothy 6:11,12                                                          Ralph DiBiasio-Sndyer

Introduction to the Scripture

Jesus, we know, was a storyteller. He didn't use careful, logical arguments to explain God. He didn't write theological dissertations. He didn't give crystal-clear answers about very many things. Sometimes he didn't answer questions at all. If you want it all spelled out for you plain and simple, Jesus is not your man. Because he taught us about God using stories - parables.

Some parables are pretty clear about what Jesus meant. But is those cases we often wish we didn't understand him so well. Like the parable of the good Samaritan. We know what it means - we're to love even our supposed enemies - but it's hard to do it. Other parables serve more to stir up questions for us rather than give answers; to make us think more deeply, and in new ways. Today's parable is one of those.

Listen to the parable of the unjust judge.

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Grant me justice! pleads the widow in Jesus' story. Justice. Now there's an provocative word, an important word. Politicians use it a lot. And it's in the Pledge of Allegiance . . . "with liberty and justice for all," we say. And we talk about "justice" in church all the time, because it's all over the Bible, beginning with the Torah:

Deut. 16:20   Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live in the land . . .

Deut. 27:19   Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.

The psalms sing often of the justice of God.

Psalm 82:3   Give justice to the weak and the orphan;  maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.

Psalm 140:12  I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy,  and executes justice for the poor.

The prophets are obsessed with justice. Just two examples:

Isaiah 1:17 -  Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

Amos 5:24   Let justice roll down like waters,  and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

It's everywhere you look in the Bible . . . this important word, justice. But it is a slippery term too. For just what is justice?

It's a hard concept to pin down, but still: Grant me justice, says our widow in the parable.

It has never been easy for widows in any society. But in Jesus' time you had better pray that you not become a widow. For a woman in those days had few if any legal rights. If her husband died, his entire estate would be passed directly to his sons, or if there were no sons, it went to his brothers, not his wife, keeping her where society wanted her: dependent on some man. She was completely at the mercy of sons or brothers-in-law, and could easily be left in desperate poverty.

So many a widow would go to a judge for relief. And the widow in the parable was not coming to ask that the judge uphold the law - for the law was decidedly unjust against her. She sought true justice, a higher law; what was fair not in the eyes of mere civil law, but of a merciful God.

The judge in the story, we know, is a real stinker. Jesus says he has neither any religion nor any concern about people. He is neither a religionist nor secular humanist. And this is not the sort of judge you want to draw for your case. His only concern is keeping his court docket clear, especially of complaining widows. But note that he in fact in the end does justice for her. NOT because he cares anything about her or civil law or God's law. He's just worn out by her; He just wants to get rid of her. And he grants her petition.

Having told his story, Jesus then turns to us. If this lousy judge, he says, answers the widow's complaint, - if he can do justice, despite himself - surely don't you think that God will give justice to those who cry out day and night? Yes, says Jesus, God surely will - and quickly. Quickly God will grant justice.

Now be careful here. It may sound like Jesus is comparing God to the unjust judge. It sounds like if we keep praying long enough, bringing our complaints to God again and again, then God like a grudging, uncaring judge will finally give in and grant our prayer. Is that what he's telling us, that it's the numbers of our prayers that count, not the mercy of God? No. For we have already been told by Jesus earlier in Luke that God is like a loving, patient Father - who like any good parent is eager to do good, to meet their children's needs. The judge in the parable has nothing to do with God.

What Jesus is saying in the parable is that if even an uncaring, jaded human judge can do the right thing, how much more, how much more will God who loves justice and mercy and righteousness do what is right for us? The emphasis here is on the character of God - the God who we know from all those passages from the Old Testament is a lover of justice. God is on the side of what is right - what is right for the poor, the oppressed - the widow and orphan, the stranger in our midst. Those who have the least power in this world, and the most need . . . God is on their side. That's what biblical justice is all about, and that's what Jesus is talking about in his story.

But I have a problem with the parable, and it is this: Anyone with eyes in their head can see that in this world the cries of the oppressed and the poor and the alien are seldom answered "quickly." Will God long delay in helping them? says Jesus. And the answer is yes, it sure looks like justice comes very slowly in this world. For some it never comes. And that is what is troubling about this parable for me. If Jesus is trying to stir up questions, to make us think, then he has achieved his goal! But I for one don't know what he means when he says that God will quickly grant justice; do you?

But look at the very last verse - the question that concludes this parable. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? "Faith?!" Where did faith come infrom all of the sudden? I didn't know Jesus was talking about faith. How did that get in here? It came in with that word, justice.

For faith is doing justice. And doing justice is faith.

You want to be faithful? Do what is right by those in our world least able to fend for themselves. You want to have faith? Do what is needed to relieve the burden on our poor, in this country and around the world. Jesus in the parable is linking the doing of justice with having faith. They are the same things, or at least are integral parts of one another - you can't have one without the other, Jesus seems to be implying. And he got that straight out of the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures.

So to be faithful we must work for justice. And that means that the weak are cared for by the strong. That those with greater resources in talents or opportunity have an obligation toward those who have fewer. That those with greater wealth are demanded by God to use that wealth so that those with little will be empowered to live fulfilling and meaningful lives. And having faith, that kind of justice-bringing faith - generously sharing what we have - has a cost. We prayed earlier in the service, "We long for a world that is "just" - or so we think." I am convinced that in a more just world we who have much would not have as much as we do, but we would have much more of what really matters in life. We would have more of real life.

The reading from First Timothy said that we should pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness . . . . Take hold of the eternal life. That is, take hold of the kind of life that matters, that lasts, that is real, that brings justice to our world in small or large ways. As our stewardship theme puts it, "Take hold of real life." We do that by every act of kindness toward one another. We do that by every gift of time and money to those who need our help and our resources. We take hold of real life when we tell our leaders that what matters to God is not how low our taxes are, but how we care for the most vulnerable in our society. We take hold of real life as a nation when we affirm and act on the principle that the interests of other nations are at least as important as American interests. We will grasp real life when realize that we have an obligation before a just God to use our massive wealth to relieve suffering, to empower the weak, to be peacemakers in so far as it is in our power.