Punch

 

Sermon from Grace and St Stephen’s 10/16/22 Luke 18:1-8

          Sometimes the Bible is funny. It can be hard to pick up on that when it is read in such a beautiful and grand place, with a beautiful and grand procession by people in fine robes with titles and surrounded by serious faces and acolytes very carefully performing their assigned duties … but in all of that very important and very serious presentation … sometimes there is a bit of silliness. Like when a widow wears down a big mean unjust ruler by incessantly asking for justice. In fact, as I was studying this passage I came across a slightly different translation of verse five several times. It’s the part when the judge says “I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out.” According to scholars, the Greek verb translated as “wear me out” is actually a boxing term that literally means to “hit under the eye.” (Miller, 158) Which explains why one translation gives us verse five as, “But this widow gives me so much trouble that I will give her justice! Otherwise she will keep coming and end up giving me a black eye!” (Johnson, 268) Which let’s face it, makes for a pretty hilarious mental image. The widow coming day after day and punching the judge in the face over and over again until the red-eyed, swollen judge relents.

 

          But of course, we don’t always have to take things literally and we also don’t need to promote eye punching, so we can go with the translators who opt for the figurative “wear me down.” And, even with the figurative translation, the widow maintains her fierceness in persistently pestering this judge who the text tells us, “neither feared God nor had respect for people.” So we know he doesn’t care that she is a widow and should have protected status, as many others would.  He also doesn’t care about anyone or justice. But she does and so she keeps at it.

          I have to say that I am glad that the kids are down at Sunday School and not here to hear this particular scripture. Because I can tell you that most kids do not need further encouragement in the art of nagging. When I read this passage I actually have some compassion for the mean old judge as I know what it is like to be worn down. My 8-year-old will match anyone in persistence when he is determined to get a snack … several times per day. Most of us can understand how exhausting it is to have someone ask for the same thing over and over again, ignoring us when we say no. It can certainly wear one down. The truth is, persistence is only praised when you aren’t in the role of the judge, or when the persistent person isn’t fighting for what you are against. Persistence can be good or bad.

          Many of us are here because of the persistence of ancestors who dreamed of a better future, parents who persisted in caring for us, and our own persistence at facing each day even when the anxiety was thick or the hopelessness tangible. We celebrate those who fought oppression and injustice persistently so that we could have a better world, those who persistently work towards a cleaner earth, equal rights and a more just society. But there are things we wish were not so persistent- racism, hatred, crime, war, those who profit from the unjust treatment of others and those who just drive us crazy because they won’t leave it alone!

 

          Persistence in itself is not what Jesus is teaching the disciples with this story. In the introduction to this parable we are told that it is about the need to pray always and not to lose heart. It’s about persisting in faith. And the truth is, there is a reason why prayer and not losing heart are paired together. Anyone who has ever prayed knows that losing heart and giving up is a very real possibility.

          This parable ends by saying that God will not delay in helping those who cry to God day and night … that God will “quickly grant justice” to them. And yet, sometimes that doesn’t feel very true. Have you ever fallen on your knees and prayed deeply day and night, praying when the tears fall … crying out to God? I have and I have sat with others as they have. And it doesn’t always take away the bad news, it doesn’t always stop the disease or the pain or the injustice. Sometimes losing heart feels more likely than persisting in prayer.

 

          And I’ll bet that was the case with those first disciples that Jesus was talking to. The road before them was not an easy one. The task of telling this seemingly outlandish story about a guy rising from the dead must have seemed monumental. And they faced persecution, fighting, torture and death. As they endured their imprisonment or the stones thrown at them … did they think back to this story from Jesus … did they remember that persistent widow wearing down the judge? Maybe … after all we have these stories today, all these thousands of years later, passed on generation to generation, and that only happens through persistence in telling them, persistence in believing them.

 

          The truth is, persisting in faith is a choice. Sticking with Jesus is something we choose to do. Being in a faith community through thick and thin is a choice. Claiming Christianity is something we decide to do … in a world where that is certainly not always popular.

 

          It is a choice to pray, to show up on Sunday mornings, to give thanks to God, to lift our hands asking for the body and blood of Christ. It is a choice to keep at it and not lose heart.

 

          Sometimes I wonder what makes a person decide to stick with faith. I think back on the twenty years I have been working in churches, all the many young people I have talked theology with and taken on mission trips, all the babies I have baptized, the adults I have preached to and all of the invites to church events and worship I have put out there. And I wonder what makes it stick for some and not for others? I would love to be able to talk someone into faith, to do and say all the right things so that I could bring more people into the church and give people a lasting and enduring faith. But that isn’t how it works. I can’t control it, we can’t control it and we can’t even always rationally explain why we continue to choose faith.

 

          But we can be persistent. We can keep reaching out to others, keep sharing about our own faith and keep praying- not because our prayers can somehow control what happens, but because we are persistent in our faith, because we are choosing to stick with Jesus.

 

          In a world that does not always make sense and that often hurts our hearts, we choose persistence in Christ’s flipped over vision for the world- where a nagging widow gets justice from an uncaring person in power. Where the weak are made strong and the least are first. Where hope never dies even in the darkest hour. Where justice prevails even when matched up against wealth, status and power. Where mercy defeats cruelty and love overcomes hate. This is the choice we make, to stay together as Christ followers even though we know it will be hard. We may not always be able to explain it but that persistent faith sinks deep into our bones and the blood of Christ which we take starts pulsing through our hearts.

 

          I often don’t like the ways in which the female figures in the Bible are handled by interpreters. It seems that women are always characterized as sad, desperate, needy and weak, even when the text doesn’t actually say that. We read into these characters a lowliness or unworthiness that we then use to show how charitable the other characters are. And we are tempted to look at them with pity. Like in this passage, we could pity this poor, powerless widow facing a harsh judge. But this fierce widow doesn’t need our pity. She has faith, she has hope, she has not lost heart. It’s hard to see anything weak or pitiful about a justice-seeking widow giving an unjust judge a black eye. I like her fierceness and I hope we can find that fierceness in our acts of justice and our own persistence in faith.

 

          So when the day is long, the work is hard, the hope is distant and you feel like losing heart, think of this widow, come to God through prayer and find the strength to keep punching.