October 20, 2019. The message today is on Luke 18:1-8, the Parable of the Unjust Judge. Pastor Tom Schoenherr tells us that we should not lose heart or give up on God, but that we should continue to believe the promise.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Before beginning, I want to say I am not colorblind and I did not wake up this morning just bleary thinking I picked up the wrong stole. This is blue. It is the Advent stole, the Advent color. But the focus of the gospel is on hope. And more and more, we need hope in our world and in our lives. And so the Advent theme being hope, I know it just looks strange to see it in relation to the green of this season, but think not necessarily that we’re into the wrong season, but it’s hope that’s our focus.
Grace to you. Peace.
On Thursday night, my wife and I joined with a group of a hundred and fifty other people to pack food for Feed My Starving Children. During that whole time, Wednesday night through Sunday today, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, they’re going to pack nearly a million meals. On Wednesday night, they finished packing five million meals over a thirteen year period. Every time, at the end of one of those sessions, we pray over all of those meals that are going to be sent. We pray in the face of hunger, and still there is hunger in the world.
My wife and I have good friends who want to have a resolution in court for their daughter. It’s been going on for three years. They and we keep praying for a miracle, and yet it hasn’t happened. And still the problem is going on, and it seems like lawyers and judges and even God are not listening. And that’s the way it is sometimes with prayer for us, isn’t it? It just seems as though God isn’t there, or isn’t listening.
My wife and I have a list at our kitchen table of all of those people who are loved ones, friends, family for whom we are praying. We keep praying for a miracle. And yet also we wonder when will God show up and do for these people like we are praying for them. And it’s difficult. It’s so hard because we want so much for them to be healed. And yet it doesn’t seem like things change sometimes. We pray for this person that they might be delivered from their disease. We pray for this person that they might be delivered and comforted in their time of grief. We pray for family that they might be connected to God’s love for them in the midst of the process that they’re going through of grieving.
And yet it seems like things go on and problems continue, even though we’ve prayed. And I wonder if what God is saying to us is that prayer is not a matter of just asking for things, but that prayer has to do with connecting with God’s will and God’s way of compassion and care. And that we are changed in the process of praying, that we are opened more and more to what God has intended for us and for his world.
This widow comes continually wanting to have a resolution of her problem and she doesn’t seem to get any response. She comes without anyone standing by her. As Katie mentioned, she doesn’t have a husband. She doesn’t have another person who’s going to come with her and stand there in the court with her. She is alone and she is unfortunately more easily ignored. So she keeps coming and finally, as she does, this unjust judge grants her what she wants, because she’s going to give him a black eye. That’s what he’s concerned about. He’s more concerned about his own reputation than he is about what’s going on with her. And so in order to prevent her from giving him a black eye in the public eye, he gives her what she wants.
I think it’s one of those places where Jesus is really wanting us to laugh. It’s that sense of humor that Jesus is showing us this woman who, as Katie said, doesn’t have much to offer, is pummeling this judge because he doesn’t do his job. And it sets up a way in which Jesus is also pointing out that the whole justice system seems to be weighted against widows and against orphans and against immigrants and refugees and all of those who seem to be powerless.
In the face of it all it seems as though it’s easy for us to lose heart. That’s the reason Jesus tells the parable in the first place, that we do not lose heart. But it’s easy to lose heart, isn’t it? To give up on God? To think that somehow God could be able to do something to resolve all of these issues and everything would be fine with our loved ones and our friends and ourselves. But it isn’t.
And turning our back on God’s promise, turning our back on God and not trusting God, we’re left without a prayer and hopeless. So in the face of all of the injustice in the world, in all of the injustice that we are feeling in ourselves, how do we not lose heart? And how do we not give up on God?
Jesus points out something to us. He says something: watch this unjust judge. Even though he doesn’t respect God and he doesn’t respect other people, he does for her give her justice. And then Jesus says that this judge is nowhere like God at all. Then he says, as he has given her justice how much more will God give mercy and compassion and love for the people who cry to him day and night?
And we keep crying to God day and night for our loved ones. And God keeps lifting all that injustice, taking all of that injustice, all of that pain, all of that distrust that we have of God’s promise and he lays it on Jesus on the cross. And Jesus takes it to the cross and dies there and rises again for us, that we may have a new life, that we might know love and forgiveness, that we might know God’s compassion and care for us, now and forever. And that even though things are not working out the way we hoped they would at our time and in our way, that God is still working, that even though we cannot hear or see, God is still there working out his purposes and his way in the world.
And now God is no longer the one who is our opponent, but God is the gracious god of love. And we are empowered through God’s spirit to be like this widow. We are empowered to continue to come and persevere in prayer. We’re empowered to stand with the people who are going through terrible times, who are losing heart, who are giving up on God, that we can stand with them and for them and let them know that there is a God who has not given up on them, but continues to care for them, to reach out to them with compassion and love.
And this widow is also a witness to us that prayer is not a passive thing. But a prayer invites us to be passionate about injustice in the world, to be passionate about people who are not experiencing mercy or compassion, to be passionate for all of those people who are struggling in our world and in our lives, people we care about. Not to give up, for God does not give up on us.
And he calls us to continue to love and care for the world that he loves so deeply. And to count and to continue to believe the promise, for he says, “Will I find faith on earth when I come again?” That in faith, we continue to believe the promise that love and hope will have the last word over injustice and hopelessness and fear.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
*** Keywords ***
2019, Christ Lutheran Church, Webster Groves, sermon, podcast, transcript, Pastor Tom Schoenherr, Parable of the Unjust Judge, Luke 18:1-8