|
|
Proper 24C 2007 Luke 18:1-8a
What is this parable about, this time? Piety? Prayer? Persistence? Prayer and Persistence? Persistence and Prayer? Persistent
Prayer? All of the above, some of the above, none of the above? Or might it just be a simple little story about a stubborn
old woman, a real pest, who annoyed a busy judge until he just gave up and did what she wanted? Call to God, be persistent
in the calling, God will hear. Sometimes I wish Jesus hadn’t wandered all over ancient Palestine telling these difficult
little stories, stories that make us struggle with their many deep levels of meaning, so deep that feel I’m drowning
in their depth at times.
And, of course some things are timeless. Kenneth Bailey is an American New Testament scholar who, for thirty years, has lived
and taught in the Middle East. He is convinced that life in society in the Middle East has changed very little, and by living
and understanding the culture of the Middle East, we can understand the full impact of the stories and deeds of Jesus better.
In fact, he tells of this western traveler to a small village in Iraq in the mid 20th Century. It was the ancient city of
Nisibis.
"Immediately on entering the gate of the city on one side stood the prison, with its barred windows, through which the prisoners
thrust their arms and begged for alms. Opposite was a large open hall, the court of justice of the place. On a slightly
raised dais at the further end sat the Kadi, the judge, half buried in cushions. Round him, squatted various secretaries
and other notables. The populace crowded into the rest of the hall, a dozen voices clamoring at once, each claiming that
his cause should be the first heard. The more prudent litigants joined, not in the fray, but held whispered communications
with the secretaries, passing bribes, euphemistically called fees, into the hands of one or another. When the greed of the
underling was satisfied, one of them would whisper to the Kadi, who would promptly call such and such a case. It seemed to
be ordinarily taken for granted that judgment would go for the litigant who had bribed highest.
But meantime a poor woman on the skirts of the crowd perpetually interrupted the proceedings with loud cries for justice.
She was sternly bidden to be silent, and reproachfully told that she came there every day. ‘And so I will,’ she
cried back, ‘until the Kadi hears me.’ At length, at the end of a suit, the judge impatiently demanded, ‘What
does that woman want?’
Her story was soon told. Her only son had been taken for a soldier, and she was alone, and could not till her piece of ground;
yet the tax collector had forced her to pay the tax, from which she, as a lone widow, was supposed to be exempted. The judge
asked a few questions, and said, ‘Let her be exempt.’ Her perseverance was rewarded. Had she had money to fee
the clerks, she might have been excused much earlier." (1)
The story of the widow and the unjust judge is unique to Luke. Matthew, Mark, and John do not tell this story. But Luke
is more concerned with prayer than any of the other gospels. The whole Bible is concerned primarily with two things: God
and our relationship with God. The Bible reflects no need to prove that God exists. The Bible writers struggle to give us
some kind of picture of the nature and personality of God as God’s personality, will, and purpose is made clear by God's
interaction with people. With his people. With his disciples. The people with whom God has entered into a covenant relationship.
For Saint Luke a big part of that relationship consists in how we talk with God. The way that we talk to God is with prayer.
So this story begins: "And Jesus told his disciples a parable their need to pray always and not to lose heart." This is a
story for us, his disciples of this century, to hear about how we should pray and about the One who hears our prayers. This
story wants to tell us something about the nature and quality of God and it wants to tell us something about how we should
pray. It tells us to be like the widow – to be as the Prayer Book has put it beginning with the book of 1549, “as
our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say….” (2)
AMEN
1. Kenneth E. Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), p. 134, as quoted in Rick Brand, “Knock,
Knock, Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, SermanMall.com for 21 October 2007.
2. as adapted from Rick Brand, “Knock, Knock, Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, SermanMall.com for 21 October
2007
|
|
|