Readings: Psalm 119:97-104 Luke 18:1-8
We pray: May the words of my mouth
and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our rock
and our sustainer. Amen.
At the political meetings Philip ran here a few weeks ago, one the
questions asked of the candidates was ‘who is your favourite superhero?’ I was intrigued partly because it was not one
I could have answered easily myself and partly because there appears to be a
wealth of superhero’s out there that I haven’t a clue about and was vaguely
fascinated by. It was notable that most
people were in the Superman, Spider Man, Batman fold, with Superwoman making an
odd appearance. But we know that where
you have a hero there seems to be a villain, an anti hero. So who would have been the favourite anti-heros
do you think? Here again I am out of my
depth – the Joker, Lex Luther?
Did you know that superherodb.com lists 6,438 superheroes and villains?
Brittanica keeps it to 46.
The parables of Jesus had their heroes and anti-heros – and we meet one
of the anti-heros in our reading from the Gospel of Luke today. Like the unjust steward, the unjust judge is
used by Jesus to illustrate both the goodness, and the grace of God. And in this particular story to illustrate
the power of tenacity of belief.
The judge is a fascinating character – one who had no regard for what
other people thought of him, and scant regard for the law when it came to
measuring it against personal nuisance value. The judge, a practitioner of the
law, breaking the rules of his profession, putting himself outside of the
boundaries of this judging business and exercising, in the end, what we know as
grace.
So too the woman. She owned not
one iota of power, she was a widow therefore without social standing, a loser
in life according to the times. Yet she
was like a dog with a bone – refusing to give up advocating for her cause.
The parallels to our relationship with God are declaring themselves.
A God who refuses to be bound by rules of engagement, not judging the
case by its merits but rather for what we might call personal convenience – it
calls to mind the words from Paul: while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us.[1]
God didn’t wait around for us to realise our inadequacies, our lostness but
simply steps up and showers us with grace.
Like the father in the story of the prodigal son, falls on us with
delight, not caring where we have come from, simply that we have come.
The one we first think of as the anti-hero is in fact the one who is
breaking through all the rules, impatient to gather those who are lost, determined
to offer grace and mercy to us despite ourselves.
So can we be like that widow – tenacious in our belief that God cares for
us enough to explode through our self imposed rules, our idea of who is in and
out, our guilts and our shame, our arrogance and our stumbling, our doubts and
fears to reclaim us with impatient and overflowing love.
It’s a powerful picture of the love of God and the grace that covers our
lives when we turn to God.
I think that the psalmists of old truly knew this truth – that living in
faith meant seeking always the judgement of God, not in that way of expecting
punishment but rather generous grace and guidance – and that they had to be tenacious about
it. No withdrawing when they were angry
with God, no hiding themselves when they were ashamed, no holding back on their
need to share their innermost thoughts and doubts, and definitely no holding
back on their adoration for a God who was faithful, full of grace and mercy.
Our psalm for today speaks specifically about the wisdom of a mature
faith, one where the writer has learned that leaning on the precepts of God has
been a delight and a light to their lives.
It’s like they are immersed in the presence of God, so much so that they
can hold nothing back.
Hear some of those
words:
Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day
long.
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my meditation.
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my meditation.
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
How can we be like that – how do we transfer that closeness to God out of
the scriptures and into our lives? Joy
Cowley has asked the same question and came up with these helpful words.
Stop! You are looking in the wrong direction!
I am not two thousand years
distant but right here beside you, my shoulder against your shoulder, my hand
resting on the back of your neck, my breath mixed with yours in the same
moment. How could you miss me?
Forget the history and the
politics that make truth small. They are
not important enough to be pursued or rejected.
Turn with the eyes of your heart and see who has not left your side
since your soul took human journey. Say my
name in our own secret language and remember what we have always be to each
other.
Lean on me beloved. Trust to die into my love.[2]
What a difference this would make to faith, to church, to being the
people of God in this world, in this day if we could all grasp this understanding
that God’s grace is enough, the belief that God will prevail, as strongly did
that widow woman.
We could stop deciding who we think is acceptable to God and use the
default premise that it is everyone. The
blinkers of racism, sexism, and all the other isms would fall to the ground.
We could stop thinking we had the only wisdom, the best faith, the only denomination
and realise that God speaks into lives and cultures and faiths beyond our
experience.
We could stop building up treasures here on earth – think what that would
do to the economic inequalities, the starving, the dispossessed. We could stop too building up treasures in
our churches just for the sake of it, or from the fear of letting it go. Imagine the feeding of the poor, the housing
of the homeless, the valuing of the voiceless that could come from releasing
our rainy day funds.
We could stop holding ourselves back from leaning on God, stop trying to
do everything ourselves, be in control according to our understand – be a
people who trust in the grace and love of a God who pushed through all our
barriers of distrust and selfishness and sheer arrogance to send Jesus to live
among us, to teach us the meaning of love, of grace of mercy. Stop your
worrying and lean on me, says Jesus, just like that widow woman.
Using some words from Tom Schuman[3]:
When eternity comes, maybe God will sort it all out:
the unanswered questions that keep us awake at night,
the injustice of it all,
the brokenness which we cannot mend
Someday, when eternity comes, maybe God will sort it all out but until
then know this:
love showered earth when Jesus came, and flows from us to others,
hope was planted in our hearts and in God we trust,
joy became our souls companion and yearns to walk with us,
and grace was the gift we cannot exchange;
and these are all the answers we have until eternity comes.
And for this we say: thanks be to God.
Margaret Garland
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