22 Pentecost, Cp24, October16, 2016
Jeremiah 31:27-34 Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8a
Sometimes when the parables of Jesus are interpreted, we try to make them make them too literal. The parable about the nagging widow and the heartless judge reveals not the literal condition between actual people, it provides us insights about the conditions that we dealing with in our lives of faith.
What is one of the greatest human dilemma in life? How many times do we think, or say or shout, "It's not fair!" Life is not fair. Life does not distribute equally the fortunes and misfortunes which can occur to human beings.
How many of you have ever felt that life is not fair? The experience of the unfairness of life probably has been blamed for creating agnostics, atheists and people who think the belief in a loving God is just plain silly.
Let do the logic. God is loving. God is all powerful. Life is unfair especially to the innocent sufferers. If God is all loving, then it would be God's nature to want to enforce universal fairness. If God is all powerful then God is able to enforce fairness and justice in life. But it is the case that unfairness occurs in this life so that means it would be logical to deny the nature of God as either being all loving or all powerful.
How do we maintain our belief in an all loving God in light of the unfairness in life? How do we have faith in a God who apparently is not all powerful?
Jesus posed the wisdom question about faith. When the Son of Man comes will he find faith? When the entire history of humanity is taken into account, will faith in God be the significant character of humanity?
The parable about the widow and the judge hides within it the insights about this dilemma of injustice in life. How do we continue to have faith in face of this life often being just unfair?
In the parable, we are told that the judge did not respect God or people? What does the judge represent in our human experience? The judge represents the negative probability of what can happen when freedom is genuine. God as the creator is one who allows genuine freedom, and that freedom is permissive of probable negative outcomes. The parable personifies negative fate as a judge, because that is how it often feels when bad things happen to us. We take it personally; we may think someone is punishing us. In a world of genuine freedom, injustice can happen. Negative probable outcomes can seem to be like the unyielding judge. The judge is saying, "Don't hassle me about injustice; I am just the by product of genuine freedom. My position of permitting the negative probable outcomes of injustice is one of the attending results of genuine freedom."
What do you and I do in face of the truth of negative probable outcomes, including injustice and innocent suffering?
"That's it, God. I'm quitting because this whole system is rigged against me. I'm going to give up and quit. Or, if it is all "a dog eat dog fight" with such conditions of freedom, I am going to be Darwin's fittest and not just survive but push and shove all weaker free agents out of the way. If I can be hurt in this system of freedom, then I might as well be a bully and take as much as I can."
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith?
Faith is the secret that Jesus is hinting at. Don't subscribe to fatalism. Don't subscribe to the view that everything already predestined. Have faith. And if we are faced with the unfairness of life, we are encouraged to have a "nagging" faith.
"Nagging" is generally considered to a negative persuasive technique. As parents we know that sometimes it does work. My baby child wants candy at the store and she screams and nags at the checkout line and I buy her the candy to stop the nagging or keep me from being embarrassed in public. In marriage we put sweetness on nagging; we call it "honey do."
The Bible is full of holy nagging. Why? Because the Bible deals with lots of people facing misfortune, oppression and injustice. Re-read the book of Psalms; read the prophets. These are some of the world most talented holy, nagging complainers.
Why and when is prayer as holy nagging admirable? Holy nagging is admirable and permissible when one is faithfully nagging about justice, health, love, kindness and good things. Why is it admirable? It is because we believe in a loving and good God and in this belief we believe that goodness, justice, kindness and freedom from pain is what is normal and good. Whatever deviates from goodness and justice is a deprivation of goodness and justice. But in the permissiveness of the conditions of genuine freedom, deprivations and injustice occur.
So what is desirable response? If the conditions of freedom permit all things, then we as human being need to freely exercise our faith. If freedom is the dominant condition of life; we need to exercise our freedom of faith as much as we can. We need to fill up the overall environment of freedom with free acts of faith expressing that our belief in God's love and justice will turn the tide and tip the scales in favor of justice and goodness, health and kindness coming to prevail.
So what is the message? We truly have freedom and it is very important that we exercise our freedom. We need to overcome evil and injustice with the energy of faith driving our strong commitment to God's justice and love.
Because freedom is genuine, the free exercise of our faith really matters. If we multiply the total number of faithful acts then we will influence the overall balance in the arena of freedom where both negative and positive outcomes can prevail.
We should always pray and never lose heart. When the Son of Man comes will he find faith?
It is election season and your vote counts. In our election you can only legally vote once. But in the life of faith, we need to "vote early and vote often." We need to flood the ballot box of overall freedom with our nagging prayers of faith toward love and justice.
Don't give up; on anything in life we need to vote with prayers and deeds of faith. We may be the vote which tilts the arena of freedom toward a 51% majority and turn the tide toward the good goals of love and justice. And as we win and the image of God as loving and powerful and the creator of freedom is maintained to characterized the genius of the moral and spiritual miracle of the human experience, not just an experience, but a moral and spiritual adventure.
The parable of Jesus today reveals to us that you and I are really crucial and significant players in real outcomes in life and so we need to take up holy nagging with new intensity.
So today, I say, "Holy naggers unite! Let us keep up our nagging toward tipping the balance in the arena of freedom towards justice and love." Amen.
What is one of the greatest human dilemma in life? How many times do we think, or say or shout, "It's not fair!" Life is not fair. Life does not distribute equally the fortunes and misfortunes which can occur to human beings.
How many of you have ever felt that life is not fair? The experience of the unfairness of life probably has been blamed for creating agnostics, atheists and people who think the belief in a loving God is just plain silly.
Let do the logic. God is loving. God is all powerful. Life is unfair especially to the innocent sufferers. If God is all loving, then it would be God's nature to want to enforce universal fairness. If God is all powerful then God is able to enforce fairness and justice in life. But it is the case that unfairness occurs in this life so that means it would be logical to deny the nature of God as either being all loving or all powerful.
How do we maintain our belief in an all loving God in light of the unfairness in life? How do we have faith in a God who apparently is not all powerful?
Jesus posed the wisdom question about faith. When the Son of Man comes will he find faith? When the entire history of humanity is taken into account, will faith in God be the significant character of humanity?
The parable about the widow and the judge hides within it the insights about this dilemma of injustice in life. How do we continue to have faith in face of this life often being just unfair?
In the parable, we are told that the judge did not respect God or people? What does the judge represent in our human experience? The judge represents the negative probability of what can happen when freedom is genuine. God as the creator is one who allows genuine freedom, and that freedom is permissive of probable negative outcomes. The parable personifies negative fate as a judge, because that is how it often feels when bad things happen to us. We take it personally; we may think someone is punishing us. In a world of genuine freedom, injustice can happen. Negative probable outcomes can seem to be like the unyielding judge. The judge is saying, "Don't hassle me about injustice; I am just the by product of genuine freedom. My position of permitting the negative probable outcomes of injustice is one of the attending results of genuine freedom."
What do you and I do in face of the truth of negative probable outcomes, including injustice and innocent suffering?
"That's it, God. I'm quitting because this whole system is rigged against me. I'm going to give up and quit. Or, if it is all "a dog eat dog fight" with such conditions of freedom, I am going to be Darwin's fittest and not just survive but push and shove all weaker free agents out of the way. If I can be hurt in this system of freedom, then I might as well be a bully and take as much as I can."
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith?
Faith is the secret that Jesus is hinting at. Don't subscribe to fatalism. Don't subscribe to the view that everything already predestined. Have faith. And if we are faced with the unfairness of life, we are encouraged to have a "nagging" faith.
"Nagging" is generally considered to a negative persuasive technique. As parents we know that sometimes it does work. My baby child wants candy at the store and she screams and nags at the checkout line and I buy her the candy to stop the nagging or keep me from being embarrassed in public. In marriage we put sweetness on nagging; we call it "honey do."
The Bible is full of holy nagging. Why? Because the Bible deals with lots of people facing misfortune, oppression and injustice. Re-read the book of Psalms; read the prophets. These are some of the world most talented holy, nagging complainers.
Why and when is prayer as holy nagging admirable? Holy nagging is admirable and permissible when one is faithfully nagging about justice, health, love, kindness and good things. Why is it admirable? It is because we believe in a loving and good God and in this belief we believe that goodness, justice, kindness and freedom from pain is what is normal and good. Whatever deviates from goodness and justice is a deprivation of goodness and justice. But in the permissiveness of the conditions of genuine freedom, deprivations and injustice occur.
So what is desirable response? If the conditions of freedom permit all things, then we as human being need to freely exercise our faith. If freedom is the dominant condition of life; we need to exercise our freedom of faith as much as we can. We need to fill up the overall environment of freedom with free acts of faith expressing that our belief in God's love and justice will turn the tide and tip the scales in favor of justice and goodness, health and kindness coming to prevail.
So what is the message? We truly have freedom and it is very important that we exercise our freedom. We need to overcome evil and injustice with the energy of faith driving our strong commitment to God's justice and love.
Because freedom is genuine, the free exercise of our faith really matters. If we multiply the total number of faithful acts then we will influence the overall balance in the arena of freedom where both negative and positive outcomes can prevail.
We should always pray and never lose heart. When the Son of Man comes will he find faith?
It is election season and your vote counts. In our election you can only legally vote once. But in the life of faith, we need to "vote early and vote often." We need to flood the ballot box of overall freedom with our nagging prayers of faith toward love and justice.
Don't give up; on anything in life we need to vote with prayers and deeds of faith. We may be the vote which tilts the arena of freedom toward a 51% majority and turn the tide toward the good goals of love and justice. And as we win and the image of God as loving and powerful and the creator of freedom is maintained to characterized the genius of the moral and spiritual miracle of the human experience, not just an experience, but a moral and spiritual adventure.
The parable of Jesus today reveals to us that you and I are really crucial and significant players in real outcomes in life and so we need to take up holy nagging with new intensity.
So today, I say, "Holy naggers unite! Let us keep up our nagging toward tipping the balance in the arena of freedom towards justice and love." Amen.
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