• ABOUT
    • Mission and Core Values
    • Progressive Christianity
    • History
    • Mission Board
    • Church Staff
    • Contact Us
  • Weekly Sermons
    • Schedule of Services
    • Jazz Vespers
  • OUR MINISTRIES
    • Social Action Ministries
    • Liturgical Ministry
    • Music Ministry
    • Hospitality Ministry
    • The Cyprian Center
    • Compassionate St. Aug
  • NEWS & EVENTS
    • Events Calendar
  • WEDDINGS
  • Donate

St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church


22 Pentecost

10/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Printer-Friendly Version
This morning’s reading from Luke’s Gospel begins with the introduction, “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”  The parable of the Unjust Judge and the Widow then follows. 

22 Pentecost
October 16, 2016
 
In the name of the God of all Creation,
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.

This morning’s reading from Luke’s Gospel begins with the introduction, “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”  The parable of the Unjust Judge and the Widow then follows. 
 
The temptation is to equate the Unjust Judge with God, and to equate those of us who are praying with the Widow … if only we would pray hard and long enough God will grant our prayer if, for no other reason, God is tired of hearing our pleas.  Not only is it tempting to read this parable this way, given the introduction, but many preachers over many centuries have done just that.  Indeed, I am tempted to preach on our “need to pray always and not to lose heart.”  However, using this parable to strengthen that idea I believe is a mistake.
 
The contours of this parable are familiar to readers of the Bible: a vulnerable Widow, seeking justice, stands before a powerful Judge who is anything but just.  The Judge denies her again and again, but she hassles him so much that he finally relents and grants her request. Most people understand the parable as an illustration of the principle "from lesser to greater."  That is, if an unjust Judge eventually gives the persistent Widow what she seeks, then surely a loving, just God will do even more for those "who cry to him day and night."  Certainly, this is one interpretation of the parable … or at least a long-standing one … but I believe it risks turning God into a giant slot machine: pull the lever often enough and you will win the prize for which you have prayed.
 
I return to the introduction of this reading from Luke’s Gospel: “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”  I do not believe that the parable that follows belongs with this introduction.  But that isn’t to say that the words of Jesus about our “need to pray always,” and “not to lose heart” are to be dismissed … indeed I believe these words are to be strongly proclaimed. 
 
If we lift the parable out of the framework that the author of Luke’s Gospel has placed it … that is, if we take out the editor’s interpretation of the parable: “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” … then we see a contest between God’s justice and the ways of the world.  This Unjust Judge is obviously in a position of power … and he uses this power for selfish gain.  The narrator in the text tells us that he “neither feared God nor had respect for people” and the Judge goes on to admit it in his own words.  The Widow, on the other hand, not only wants justice in her case, but she wants to expose and hold accountable the Judge for failing to do his job.  Since this Judge was not an elected official, and there was no TV upon which to air attack ads, the Widow had only one recourse … to constantly berate the Judge to hear her case.  The Judge does not want this Widow to “wear me out.”  In English it sounds as if the Judge is annoyed and tired, but the Greek word translated here as “wear me out” is actually a boxing term describing multiple jabs to the face that result in a black eye.  The Judge is not just worried about his time, he is also concerned about his appearance in public … a heavyweight Judge besmirched with a metaphorical black eye by a poor Widow … how embarrassing would that be?
 
For me, this parable is not about pestering God to listen to my prayers.  It is about the persistence of God’s justice to face the myriad examples of injustice and abuse of power in the world around us.  And the way God does that is through you and me … through poor widows, and the homeless, and the unemployed, and the abused, and the marginalized, and the overlooked, and those that our society and the world sees as the most vulnerable.
 
The Widow stands on firm ground in her faith.  For the past several weeks we have been hearing about the Jews in exile in Babylon from the Book of Lamentations and the Prophet Jeremiah.  In our first reading this morning Jeremiah is reminding the people, that in spite of their plight, God has a new vision for them.
 
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.
 
This vision is that God’s justice will be a way of life … it is not about mere legislation written in a book.  It is about knowing right from wrong in one’s heart.  And it is about the power of justice to hold accountable all forms of injustice in the world.  The promise is that God will be with us, not only as an external force in God’s Creation, but also as an internal compass guiding us in the paths of justice.  In Jeremiah’s proclamation of God’s new covenant we know who we are as children of God, and we know to whom we belong … past, present and future.
 
It is the essence of that proclamation that empowers the Widow to confront the Unjust Judge, and it is what can empower us to speak truth to power.
 
You have heard me use these words before, and most likely you will hear them again.  The Catechism of our Book of Common Prayer defines “Prayer” as “responding to God, by thought and by deed, with and without words.”  The fact is that the Widow’s persistent protest to the Judge is her response to God’s justice and is therefore a prayer of deed.  We too are called to the same such prayer.  Not just to fulfill our own personal agenda of healing in time of illness, or peace in the face of violence, or restoration of fortune following bankruptcy, or comfort in the midst of grief.  All those and more are worthy of our prayer, but our prayer life is also to include living God’s justice.  As the prophet Jeremiah reminds us:
 
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.
 
Yes, we have a “need to pray always” in our “thoughts and deeds, with and without words”.  As the Psalmist says the “words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart.”  And we need to be emboldened “not to lose heart” in the face of the injustice of the world and the abuse of power.
 
Amen.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    REV. TED VOORHEES
    Vicar Emeritus

    The Rev. Ted Voorhees retired as the Vicar of St. Cyprian’s on September 25, 2022.
     

    PAST SERMONS

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

GET IN TOUCH


37 Lovett Street
St. Augustine, Florida 32084
904.829.8828
Email Us

ABOUT


DIOCESE OF FLORIDA
MISSION BOARD
CHURCH STAFF

CONNECT


THE LATEST NEWS
​FACEBOOK
BREEZE