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Recollections of Our Trip Through The Widow and the
Unjust Judge 10-11-09
Text: Luke 18:1-8 ● Luke “front-loads” this parable:
“to teach them
that they should always pray and never give up”.
● Interestingly, what the Bible
offers us most often is not some systematic instruction on prayer, but
simply
people praying… in all types of circumstances with all types of emotions.
It is not presented to us in such a way that we are able to assume that
prayer is merely a theological topic to be explored or studied. We don’t
hone our skills in a ‘controlled-environment’ as if prayer is accompanied
with a warning,
“Don’t try this
at home”. It is rooted in our trust in the
God in whom we believe and the actual places, people and events of our
lives.
Life is the best place to learn to pray. ● In life, sometimes we have this deep heart impulse to
say “thanks” to someone; sometimes life makes us feel so small and we are
compelled to “ask” for things we need; sometimes we feel the need to say
“I’m sorry”; sometimes it’s the need to say “why”?; sometimes it’s merely
“help”! That’s why prayer doesn’t always
sound the same. Sometimes it sounds contented, sometimes it sounds
remorseful, sometimes it sounds disappointed or angry, sometimes it sounds
bewildered. Each life experience evokes a different response. But Paul
encourages us in Philippians 4:6,
“In
everything, prayer…” ● So, we are presented with people responding to life,
responding to God. ● The courtroom scene in the ancient Near-East is much
different from what we envision. Historians tell us that as the plaintiffs
would enter, they would find, at one end of the hall/area, they would find a
judge sitting on a raised area, surrounded with cushions. Immediately
gathered around him would be secretaries or other agents. The rest of the
room was crowded with people, all clamoring at once, each claiming that
their case should be heard first.
If you had enough money,
you called a “side-bar” with on the judges cronies. When he was sufficiently
bribed, he would whisper to the judge and,
not
surprisingly,
your case would be next. ● In the Middle East, there were
(2) standard approaches to appeal to someone for help:
“for the sake
of God”, or,
“for my sake”.
But, this judge doesn’t fear God and cannot be shamed into action.
Widows were among the most vulnerable of the
culture. In the Middle Eastern culture, women did not go to court, men went
for them. The fact that she is there alone means that she has no one to
plead her case. Her only chance to be heard
involves loud, persistent pleading; to
“wear him out”
(a boxing term meaning ‘to blacken the eye’ or ‘give one a headache’). ● The widow is a woman in a man’s world. She has no
influential friends or money to help secure an audience with the judge. Even
if she does get there, she’s not assured of justice. Yet, because of her
persistence, she not only gets an audience, but is vindicated (proven to be
in the right).
“Oh, okay. So, God is like an unethical judge who has
no concern for justice, no shame and no sympathy for the helpless victim?”
“And, to God, we are just driving him nuts with
all of our clamoring. In fact, he’s willing to give us whatever we want if
we will just shut up and go away, right?” ● Once again, this is a
“how much
more”, story.
We know that
this judge is everything that God is not. We are not in the presence of a corrupt and unsympathetic
God, but a loving Father who cares for his children and is determined to
show mercy and establish justice. Within that type of relationship, we
interact with God and we “don’t lose heart”. ● Most
people, at one time or another,
pray
(it’s almost a reflex action) and many people
quit praying.
I would guess that the most common reason cited would be,
“It just didn’t
work for me. I didn’t get what I asked for”.
Have you ever
asked yourself why you keep praying? Why you keep at it when you often have
so little to show for your efforts? Why you feel so frustrated when you hear
people say, “I’ll be praying for you”, doubting it’s efficacy? ● Interestingly, the word
prayer
comes from the Latin root where we get our English word
“precarious”.
The dictionary offers some interesting dimensions to our description:
“Depending on the will and pleasure of
another”. “Dependent upon uncertain premises”. “Dependent upon
unknown circumstances”. “Characterized by a lack of security or
stability that threatens”. ● According to these descriptions, we might say that…
Prayer is for
people who desire to live life from another perspective than their own; who
accept the limitations of their understanding and their feelings of
uncertainty; and who feel threatened by the possibility of being left to
themselves- without God.. without help! ● With all of the talk about the
“son of
man returning” and the
“kingdom being
established”, it’s easy to see how the
disciples could grow impatient. Prayer takes on a more urgent tone, a more
bold appeal.
We get tired of waiting. ● They are prayers that demonstrate
our unwillingness to sit idly by and ignore the tension for the sake of
etiquette or
fear of ‘offending’ God. We need clarification; we need
answers; we need hope. These are what you would call
“enough is
enough” prayers.
I have found that the deeper your faith, the tougher
your questions, the more complex the answers. Your questions indicate that you take life seriously; you
believe in things like ‘goodness’ and ‘justice’ and ‘mercy’ and ‘order’; you
are convinced that because your heart longs for them, it’s what you were
created for. But, often when we
pray, the silence is deafening.
We have learned (through our own experience and
the experience of others) that such silence is not uncommon. The Psalms [closest thing we have to a prayer manual] Psalm 10:1 “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you
hide yourself in times of trouble?” Psalm 13 “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long must I bear pain in my soul?” Psalm 90 “Turn, O Lord! How long? ● People who pray ask
“why”,
“where
are you”,
“how long”
a lot! Still, we keep on praying amidst the silence because they resonate
with us and our present time and place. Prayer helps us wade
through all of the present inconsistencies and challenges in anticipation of
the “not yet”. Hope means that we are well-aware of the not-so-favorable
nature of our current circumstances. Our struggle actually demonstrates that
we expect more out of life; to expect that our faith actually broadens the
possibilities. I feel like I need
the process of prayer even more than I need the results of prayer.
I need a faith that persists because it trusts
in the nature of God and not just the effectiveness of my prayer.
The “pause” (silence)
while waiting for God will either provide the opportunity for
God to answer
your request,
for you to
alter your request, or
for you to
trust while you wait. ● Imagine how prayer would change for us if we believed
that it was more than the mere exchange of answers for requests; if we
became convinced that it was God’s way of letting us in on all that he
desires and all that he is up to in our world… in our neighbor… in our
family. Listen, to simply say,
“God’s ways are
not our ways”, may indicate that there are
limits to our knowledge/experience, but it does not preclude us from
understanding some of them! [often offered with a frustrated and resentful
tone]
“Your kingdom
come, your will be done…” is a somber
commitment to whatever that prayer might require of us. How will we need to
respond? But, to pray that prayer is to
persevere; to refuse to “lose heart”.
To pray that
prayer is to recognize that much of what takes places around us on a daily
basis is clearly not God’s will for his good creation.
So the question,
“Where is
God?”, must also be accompanied by the
question,
“Where are his people?” The question,
“Why isn’t God doing something?”,
must also
include,
“Why aren’t
God’s people doing something?” Typically,
our lives are a better gauge of desires than our prayers.
Jesus made it clear
that, many times, we are God’s answer to prayer. ● When we ask God to comfort a friend or neighbor who is
hurting, our expressions of comfort are often the answer to that prayer.
When we pray for that one that who is disconnected and lonely, our coming
close to them answers that prayer. When someone is sick, imprisoned, hungry
or without clothing…. See what I mean?
It will simply not suffice for us to pray
without a firm commitment to compassion. Rarely do we get
everything we want from God, but rarely does he get everything he wants from
us!
Isn’t our lack of attention to
the Kingdom and our lack of participation in his will actually one of
his unanswered
prayers?
Maybe God, too, understands the disappointment
of unanswered prayer.
No matter what,
don’t stop praying.
We continue to
pray because God is good and the world is still broken. ● Prayer reminds us of
where we are and
who we are:
God’s dearly loved children in the midst of a world that God is determined
to recover and restore. Prayer evokes
our imaginations to consider what we someday
will be.
“When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the
earth?” Will he find people still praying,
still trusting; people who haven’t given up? Jesus can say,
“don’t lose
heart”, because he is making that statement
from a posture of justice; from his determination to set things right. The
story of his interaction with and amongst his creation has given us every
reason to trust in his unchanging nature and commitment to justice.
Don’t give up
on prayer; don’t give up on God. |
