Jacob and Esau, the Widow and the Judge

Genesis 32:22-31, Luke 18:1-8

Two amazing and rich stories this week. I want to focus for the blog on Luke's story of a widow who has been denied justice persisting in pestering a judge known to be unjust in order to have justice done in her case. In the end, the judge relents and she receives justice.

Luke's comments that frame this story indicate it may be about several things. He begins by saying it is about the need to pray and not lose heart. Then the words of Jesus indicate it might be about how God will bring justice for the people, but also he wonders if, when he comes again, he will find people have remained faithful in the meantime.

So what is this parable about?

What it is not about is saying we should whine to God or whoever until we get our way.
What it is not about is saying all we have to do is pester God enough and we will get whatever we want.
What it is not about is describing God as unjust and therefore needing to have us pester and pester until we get a response.
It's really important to get those things clear, because sometimes people really do think that's what Jesus is saying here.

Remember that this story is told in the context of a long conversation in the previous chapter about when God's kingdom will come. Remember that in what we call the Lord's Prayer, Jesus has told the disciples to pray that "God's kingdom come, God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and to pray this in a time and place where God's will was patently not being done on earth.

One commentator I read this week says that this story is primarily about "a yearning for change," and a yearning on behalf of the powerless, those like the widows of Jesus' time who most need for things to change, and change in a big way in the world. This is also not about personal prayer, really, not about asking for our own needs, but about the bigger picture, the coming of the kingdom in which we won't be arguing about which children should have health insurance and which should not or the fine points of what is torture and what is only making people suffer enough to tell us whatever we want to hear.

Another way to look at this parable might be to imagine God as the woman instead of the judge! What if it is God who keeps pestering us to bring justice while we sit as the unjust judge just wanting God to go away!

Either way, there is an element here of waiting in hope and insisting on not giving up, despite the fact that justice seems so delayed. Sort of what Esau had to do with Jacob, waiting for his brother to come to him seeking reconciliation. Sort of what God had to do with Jacob, wrestling with him until he got the point, even if it took all night and a wound that would follow Jacob the rest of this life, making the one who thought himself invulnerable all too vulnerable.

Don't give up on us, God, and we will try not to give up, either.

Faith Connections

Second Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17:5-10

Two interesting passages this week that speak in different ways about faith and its power.
First, in Second Timothy, Paul expresses thanks for Timothy's strong faith and notes that this faith did not spring up in him ex nihilo but from his mother and grandmother (whom Paul perhaps converted?). The faith also came to him "through the laying on of hands" at his baptism? ordination? commissioning as a missionary? The hands that served as the conduit of the HolySpirit came from the church, the faithful gathered to strengthen Timothy's faith.

So he is reminded, as the intro to the Star Trek series puts it, to "boldly go." He's not to be timid, but to see this faith connection with other people as empowering him both to love powerfully and also to stay grounded and not fall to temptation. Paul tells him to "guard the good treasure," not meaning to lock it away in a vault, but to courageously share it, not being afraid of the consequences.

Faith here, grown from and strengthened by connections between the past and the present, enables Timothy to move beyond fear to bring the treasure of the gospel into the future. Those connections, human and divine, are critical.

Then in Luke we get the all too well known mustard seed passage. Check out the context, though, in verses 1-4 of Luke 17. The apostles are asking Jesus in verse 5 to increase their faith because he has just told them that they'd better not do anything to make another believer stumble, and that they need to learn to forgive a ludicrous amount of time; even to forgive a person who sins against them seven times in one day! A feat seemingly beyond the capacity of any human being!

Jesus responds that they don't need more faith, they just need to fully access and exercise the faith they already have, even if it is a small as a little mustard seed! Then he goes on to say that if they just do what they know they should (like a household slave does), then they will find the faith they need, to do as he asks them to do.

They don't need "big" faith in order to say to God and the world, "my, look what big faith I have!" Rather they need to do what is required without expecting to be complimented on the greatness of their faith, either by God or by the community. Very much in line with Paul's charge to Timothy, isn't it? shelly