June 9, 2013
Lune 18: 1-8
Pine Valley Christian Church
Rev. David Hansen
Last week and this week and maybe for the next couple of weeks I want to examine the parables of Jesus with you. Many of these parables are well-known. We have heard about the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan and others. Today’s parable is sometimes called the Parable of the Unjust Judge. Others call the Parable of Persistent Prayer. Jesus introduces the parable by telling us to “Pray and don’t lose heart.”
Those of us who grew up with these stories learned to think of them as earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. Sometimes they were called earthly stories with heavenly glory. They are little pictures of heaven. In this world the woman who has suffered injustice has to berate the judge and put his phone number on speed dial, stuff his inbox and pound on his door before she can get his attention. But because she is persistent, he finally comes to the door and hears her out.
If this judge who does not care about God or about this woman can be moved how much more is our Father in heaven ready to respond to our prayers. Trust and obey there is no other way. As sure as God is in heaven, right will prevail. Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. I believe that and I like those songs. Those are great hymns. But I still have to ask, if God is all knowing, all powerful and all loving, why doesn’t God just remove the judge and let the woman get justice? Why make her go through all this?
When we ask that kind of question we are reminded that Paul tells us that suffering teaches patience and patience produces endurance and endurance builds strength and so on. Acts of injustice are tests to build up character. But maybe she already has character. After all, she went the judge’s house.
What I want to say is that maybe the parables of Jesus are not earthly stories with heavenly glory, but maybe they are also meant to be discussion starters. Maybe we should read these stories sociologically instead of metaphysically or allegorically. Maybe these stories are not about God but about us.
You remember the Alka-Seltzer adds—take these pills and drop them into the water, plop, plop, fizz, fizz and all these effervescent bubbles start bubbling up. Maybe the parables are spirit pills. Jesus is dropping these sayings into our life, plop, plop, fizz, fizz, to release the spirit and let something new start bubbling up in us.
Jesus says “Pray and don’t stop. Don’t lose heart. Never surrender.” And then he tells a story about a woman who is poor. She does not have enough money to hire an attorney. She can’t go to court and sue somebody. But her rights have been violated. She has been wronged. A crime has been committed against her. So she does her social mapping. She finds out who are the power brokers in her community. Who are the players and where do they live. She identifies the judge as the person in the community who can do something about her situation. And so she goes to his house.He can change things. But, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about her or her problem.
What we have here is a problem behind the problem. The problem is that the woman’s rights have been violated. The problem behind the problem is that the judge, the person who is supposed to protect her rights, does not care. He does not care about her. He does not care about God. He does not like green eggs and ham. He is a successful person. He has a good reputation. His pension is secure. He holds a high office. What can she give him? What can she do to him? Why should he care? He does not care. He does not care about God and he does not care about her. In the Letter of James we read, “How can you say that you love God whom you have not seen if you do not love your neighbor whom you do see?” The judge says that he does not love either God or his neighbor. He does not care, period.
The yellow light should be flashing before our eyes. Warning us that there is dangerous territory ahead. Jesus is making a connection here between the violation of human rights and apathy in high places. Let’s admit that we all need our comfort zone, but sometimes our comfort zone becomes a cushion that pads us and keeps us from feeling the shocks of injustice. Sometimes our comfort zone becomes a recliner chair and it is hard to get up once we sit down. The opposite of love is not hate; it is apathy. Indifference is the opposite of love. Who is she that he should care?
She is a woman who has been the victim of injustice. Sometimes when we see injustice in the world we ask, “Where is God?” When we see pictures or hear stories documenting the cruelty of war, or we read about starvation, or listen to news reports about sexual violence in the military, or think about hungry children in our communities or find out a friend has lost a job, when we see things like this happen we ask, “God, where are you? We need you down here. I need you. Wake up!”
If we read the parable from a sociological point of view, that question gets turned around. Instead of us asking God, God is asking us, “Where are you? Are you with the judge? Or, are you with the woman? Are you in your easy chair, or on the street?”
Jesus says clearly that “God will vindicate those who cry night and day for justice.” In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice for they shall be given plenty to chew on.” James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” You and are called to be the face of change. We are God’s building blocks for Pine Valley Christian Church. We are the people preparing the way for a new day.
Just last week in this very room with one voice we said that “The mission of Pine Valley Christian Church is to be a progressive faith community of unconditional love seeking justice in an interfaith world so that all people may have abundant life.”
Last week Julie showed slides of her trip to Colorado and told the story of a 19 year old youth who was so concerned about what is happening to animals that people are keeping as pets—lions, tigers bears, wild animals—that are being locked up in pens and cages and basements, he was so concerned about their welfare that he created a sanctuary for these animals.
Since last Sunday we have been captured by the story of a family in Pennsylvania that took to the airwaves to launch a campaign to change the regulations for health care and organ transplants so that their daughter will have a chance to get new lungs. They challenged medical convention and wisdom. And now their daughter is at the top of the waiting list.
In November, the weekend before Thanksgiving, Julie and I and anyone who cares to join us will be going to Fort Benning, Georgia to join thousands of other people from all over the world. We are going there to call for the closing of the School of the Americas. Father Roy Bourgeois has been campaigning for 25 years to close this school. This school trains people in counter-insurgency. Graduates of this school are leaders of the death squads in Central and South America. Father Roy started this campaign after nuns and priests in El Salvador were killed by graduates of this school. We should remember that September 11th means one thing in this country, but it means something else in other parts of the world. September 11, 1973 is the date when graduates of the School of the Americas assassinated President Salvador Allende of Chile. Augusto Pinochet became the U.S. sponsored dictator who replaced the democratically elected Allende. The other day at a workshop I met Mauricio, a young man from El Salvador, who said his hero was Archbishop Oscar Romero. Bishop Romero was killed by graduates of the School of the Americas while he was celebrating mass. So we are joining others who are going Georgia this fall to call for the closing of the School of the Americas.
We can name other problems and concerns. Hunger and food insecurity are huge issues and the need will become greater as the government cuts back on programs that help the poor and people who rely on these programs. We hear that it if you feed a person a fish you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a life time. But it is not that easy. And if you don’t know where your next meal is coming from or you are worried about what your children will eat, having a hot meal is important. Programs like the Lord’s Dinner and the backpack project are important programs. But I have to ask myself why it is that this the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world cannot afford to feed, cloth, house and educate all of its children.
When we start making a list of injustices, the list gets pretty long pretty fast. We are tempted to say that is it just too much. We are like grasshoppers in the land of giants, to use a biblical image. And so we go to the recliner and wait for someone else to wake up the judge. Or maybe we give money to a cause and tell ourselves that with my limited resources I can do a limited amount of good and at least I will feel better about myself—and that is not bad. That is a good thing. But I think Jesus is offering us a third way.
First, Jesus is asking us to believe that another world is possible. We don’t need to give in to apathy or settle for minimalism. Jesus is asking us to believe that Pine Valley Christian Church is a progressive faith community of unconditional love seeking justice in an interfaith world so that all people may have abundant life. You and I and everyone else who cares about human rights and social justice are the salt of the earth, the leaven of love and justice, the light of the world.
So here is what I am thinking. This fall, in September, we have a “Spirit Fest.” I would like to suggest that we change the name and call it Our Passion Fest. Use this summer to ask yourself, “What is my passion?” What is it that I really care about? What would get me to go on the street with this woman? And then do a little research. Go on the internet and type your passion into your search engine and see if there is anyone else in the world that shares your passion. What are they doing? Then narrow the field. Is there anyone else in the United States who shares your passion? Is there anyone in Wichita? Start broad and then narrow the field. If you don’t find anyone else who shares your passion, maybe you will find some ideas.
You never know who is sitting next to you until you ask. Yesterday in this workshop that I was attending we were going around the circle and introducing ourselves and one of the people in the group was Sally Morris. I did not know who Sally Morris is but when she introduced herself she said that at one time she was the national vice president of PFLAG. So some of us got together with her during the break and told her that we wanted to start a PFLAG chapter here. We will be meeting with her soon. Some of you may want to join us.
I don’t know what Our Passion Fest will look like. I don’t know how we will do this. But I know that if we come together and share our passions with each other something good is going to bubble up. I know this because Jesus told me so. Jesus said that God will hear the voices of those who cry for justice and come speedily.