The reading we
just heard from the Gospel of Luke, like so many gospel readings, comes to us
without a specific context. What
motivated Jesus to tell this story at this time? The text offers no clues. But keep in mind the nature of that
society. It was an age when the many
were onerously burdened to the benefit of a privileged few. For those many, of which Jesus was one, the
longing for justice would have been intense.
And it would have been frustrating. And it would have been infuriating. And it would have been disheartening.
So Jesus tells one
of his stories to emphasize why it is important not to get discouraged and why
it is important to keep praying. Look at
this miserable, rotten, no good judge, Jesus says. If a scoundrel like that relents because the
widow refuses to give up, how much more will our loving God respond to our
prayers?
Who is our God? What is our God like? In my readings this week I came across this
beautiful passage from a homily delivered by 4th century bishop Gregory
of Nyssa:
Charity lives in the
intimacy of God and it is God who by his hands shaped the first works of love
and philanthropy in creating everything that is. For God is the first and foremost lover of
good deeds who nourishes the starving, waters the thirsty, and clothes those
who are naked.
That is who God is
and what God is like. God cares about
injustice and God cares about our suffering.
This concern is rooted in the very heart of God and the call for justice
in the Name of God permeates all of Scripture.
Still, we are left with a nagging question: if God cares so deeply about
injustice, and if God loves us deeply, why do our prayers for justice – prayers
for our entire social order as well as prayer about the specific wrongs we
endure – why do these prayers seem to go unanswered?
An American tourist sat at a table at an outdoor café near
Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall. As he sipped a
coffee he observed a man praying at the wall.
While others came and went, this particular person prayed all morning
long. After what seemed like hours, the
man left the wall, walked over to the café, and sat at a table next to the tourist. The American decided to strike up a
conversation: “I saw you praying at the wall all morning. Do you mind me asking what you were praying
for?” “Not at all,” the man
answered. “For the first hour I pray for
peace around the world; that goodwill might rule in every human heart. For the second hour I pray for people who are
hungry or naked or homeless; that no person should ever have to go without the
basic necessities of life. For the third
hour I pray for the sick and hurting; that there might be an end to disease and
suffering.” “May I ask how long you have
been coming to the wall to pray?” “Every
day for twenty-five years.” “That is
incredible,” the tourist said. “What
does it feel like to offer such important prayers day in and day out for that
many years?” “Well,” the man said, taking
in a deep breath, reflecting, and then letting out a sigh, “Sometimes it feels
like I am talking to a wall.”
Surely you know
that feeling. Surly each one of us here,
at one time or another, has felt as if our prayers not only go unanswered, but,
even worse, go unheard. Pray all you
want, work for justice as hard as you can, and still nothing seems to
change. This, I think, is the experience
Jesus encountered in some folks that motivated him to tell the parable we heard
this morning. It is tough, he says, but
you must not give up and you must not give in.
You are never praying just to a wall.
It strikes me that
praying for justice is very different from other kinds of prayer. When you pray for forgiveness, your prayer
hinges largely on your own ability to accept the forgiveness God extends. When you pray for healing – either for
yourself or for another – the answer depends on many factors; some we can
control and others we can’t. With
healing prayers, ultimately, either we are encouraged by what we see or we
resign ourselves to another path of prayer.
But when we pray for justice, we are praying for a change of heart that
leads to a change in action and behavior.
Whoever or whatever is perpetrating injustice must undergo deep,
spiritual transformation before the wrong can be righted.
Changing a cold
human heart takes time. Pharaoh endured
ten horrific plagues before he reached a point where he could let the Hebrews
go. In today’s Old Testament reading, we
heard the prophet Jeremiah’s vision of a time when God’s covenant with the
human family would be written on the human heart. It is a vision of a time when right behavior
is not dictated and directed by external laws, but rather emanates from within;
of a time when God’s very life would so dwell within each of us that we would
know and do what is right and just.
Christians believe
that some six hundred years later this vision found its fulfillment on
Pentecost Day with the coming of the Holy Spirit. But even we admit that it is at best a
partial reality. Because God honors the
freewill of every human being the quest for justice can be a very long haul
indeed. That is not good news for us who
are more and more the product of a short-term, quick fix world of instant
gratification because the quest for justice is not a short-term, quick fix kind
of problem.
So here are two
things you can do.
First, do not give
up. Stay at it. Persevere.
That is what Yvonne Pierre did.
As a child she endured terrible, unspeakable abuses and the murder of
her father. As a result she fell into
self-destructive behavior, but eventually determined to turn around her
life. She graduated from an alternative
school and, over time, earned four undergrad and graduate degrees. She has written a play, a film, and a
book. The mother of two children, one
who has Downs Syndrome, Pierre works tirelessly with the special needs
community. Thinking about all she has
endured and overcome, listen to this passage from her book, The Day My Soul Cried:
For every person who
closed the door in my face, thank you. For every person who told me I wasn’t good
enough, thank you. For every person who
laughed and told me that I was wasting my time going to college, because I was
going to fail, thank you. For every
person who tried to break me, thank you. For every person who took my kindness for
weakness, thank you. For every person
who told me I was wasting time chasing my dreams because I would fail, thank
you. It could of broke me. From the core of my heart, I thank you. I truly mean it, because if it weren’t for
each of you I wouldn’t be who I am today. I wouldn’t of spend hours and loss sleep
studying. I wouldn’t developed tough
skin. You pushed me to think about what
I “really” want out of life. You pushed
me to master my craft. You helped me
develop the drive, passion and determination. You pushed me to not wait for someone to
believe in my vision, but to find a way to make things happen. I know you didn’t “intend” to, but I thank you
for teaching me to believe in myself! AND
you taught me to TRUST in God and lean on my faith, not man. Thank You!
Yvonne Pierre is a present-day widow from Jesus’
parable, isn’t she! Her life, with all
of its challenges and struggles, gives witness to the fact that when we pray more
than a wall hears us. With faith and
determination, she overcame her challenges.
If she could do it so can you.
Here is the second thing you can do while you
wait for justice: examine your own heart and your own actions and your own life. Where are you a perpetrator of
injustice? When are you the very thing
you detest? While you hunger and thirst
for a wrong to be made right, allow God’s covenant to be written on your heart. The easiest heart for God to change is yours.
There is much to be said for being the person you are praying for
another to become.
There is an anonymous quote that says “Everything will be okay in the end, so if it’s
not OK, then it’s not the end.” And we
Christians would add, if it’s not okay then we still have work to do; work on
our knees, work in our heart, and work marked by determination and perseverance
that one day will get us to the ‘okay end’ we long for and know will come.
