A
Reflection and Poem for XXII Pentecost (proper 24) All Saints’, Southern Shores, NC
October
16, 2016 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
The Unjust Justice's Prayer
“Please
grant me Justice for my children.”
“No
I have a life to lead with my own agendas.”
Scholars
suggest that the Gospels were written over a period of time. The first layer
was the memory of those who knew Jesus during his earthly ministry, and they
remembered certain sayings they heard and recounted stories of events that they
had witnessed. The witnesses to the earthly ministry expect Jesus to return,
and they pray “Maranatha- Come soon Lord Jesus”. These faithful witnesses start
to die off, and the community starts to write down what they remember. The
Gospel of Mark is probably the first document, followed later by Luke and
Matthew and then even later, John. They took the sayings and the stories and
put them into a narratives structure based on a particular theme that their
community needed to hear. Luke’s Gospel has an emphasis on making a difference
within the community as outward and visible signs of changed lives following
Jesus across boundaries of class, race, language and politics. The Lucan community
will also write a follow-up to that Gospel with the Book of Acts in which they
say that the works, or the acts of Jesus, are continuing in the spiritual communities
of the Acts, or works, of the Apostles;
the Holy Spirit is still alive and well.
On
the surface, that last message of encouragement is badly needed as the faith
communities face economic and political difficulties. They know more than a
little something about the official refusal to provide justice in the corrupt
Roman Empire, and the suggestion is we have no hope of
moving the empire, but we can ask for help from the Divine Power greater than
ourselves to get through the tough times.
“Please
grant me Justice for my children.”
“No
I have a life to lead with my own agendas.”
But
let’s look at this story that Jesus tells in another way. Remember Jesus tells
us stories about God and what God looks like in our lives. Instead of seeing
God as the Judge and us as the poor widow, let’s turn that upside down - the
way Jesus tends to turn the world upside down – and let’s see ourselves as the
Judge and the poor widow as God. Suppose God is the one saying night and day to
us, “Please grant me Justice for my children.” While we are the ones who keep
saying: “No I have a life to lead with my own agendas.”
We
tend to want to see God as the judge up in heaven with all with the power, but
what Jesus does is show us the true nature of God. He shows us God as vulnerable, the one who
gives us free will to be selfish, while suggesting that God is, in God's very
nature, the Trinity, always in relationship - not in judgment but in
relationship, as we are called to be in relationship with all of God's
children.
“Please
grant me Justice for my children.”
“No
I have a life to lead with my own agendas.”
We
tend to think this is a story about the persistence of prayer and how we should
keep talking to God. I do think it is about persistence of prayer, but God is
the prayer who is speaking to us, persistently in the hopes that we might wake
up and listen. We spend a lot of time talking at God, but prayer is the talking
with God, which means that we need to stop our chatter and listen.
I
think of the times I spend most of my prayer time in talking, and it is usually
spent asking God to fix something, like a magic servant who needs to be talked
into giving me what I want. That is my own narcissism, thinking I should get
whatever I want, sort of like a spoiled child who whines and fusses until the
Big Daddy caves in. Over my lifetime, I
have found that the best prayers are those when my day or life is out of
control and I ask how it might be redeemed rather than fixed. Bad things happen
to me and those I love, but how can I change to find a way of blessing; how can
I find a way to bring healing out of the wounds?
“Please
grant me Justice for all my children.”
“No
I have a life to lead with my own agendas.”
Micah,
the 8th century BC prophet said, “What does the Lord require of you;
to do justice, to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” In today's lesson,
the 6th Century prophet Jeremiah says to the people going into
exile, whose lives are way out of their control, that he sees the redemption in
the future when:
But this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the
Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one
another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all
know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will
forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
God
keeps writing things into our hearts but we keep seeing it as getting in our
way. God keeps saying “Please give Justice to all my children.” If we stop and
listen what is our response?
The Unjust Judge’s Prayer
God
save me from creating you in my own image
Instead
of the other way around, in which case
Events
be interpreted as if we need earn grace
And
love be withdrawn as if it were a privilege
We
by projection detecting signs of impatience
Hearing
muttered threats, “One of these days
I’m
going to make you suffer in all sorts of ways
So
that you’ll attend to more threats of violence
Making
you so rue the day you were ever born!”
Then
I would have to spend energies flattering
You
in prayer so I’d not see my blood splattering
As
a result of your wrath after the second warn
Because
in my world; three strikes - you’re out
As you sit on a throne with bottom lip in a pout.
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