Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle C

Luke 18:1-8

I recently received my annual solicitation letter from the organization called “Madonna of the Streets.” It began many years ago in Buffalo, where a friend of mine, a scientist at Roswell Park, together with a woman who ran a small restaurant, decided to do something about the increasing numbers of homeless people in downtown Buffalo and the surrounding areas. They began by making free meals available at the restaurant. Eventually they were feeding about two hundred people. This required getting support, and that is when they went full time into their efforts. My friend, a husband and father of two grown sons, resigned from his job and began to go door to door raising funds. Being a strong Catholic, he depended on God to provide, and it happened. The ministry now involves a homeless shelter, a homework house, a place where people of the streets can get cleaned up and get some decent clothing and counseling and helped with addiction and many other services available through volunteers – and they work out of an old inner city parish plant that was falling into disrepair. And the ministry of providing nutritious meals to the homeless continues. My friend was troubled by what he saw as injustice, and decided to do something about it.

Today we hear another one of those parables that seems simple on the surface, but probably isn't. Part of the reason is that Saint Luke sets us up; he tells us that Jesus told this parable to emphasize the necessity of praying always without growing weary. And so when we read the parable, we see ourselves represented by the widow and God represented by the judge. And then we expect that if we pray long enough and hard enough our prayers will be answered. And they aren't not always. You and I know that.

But I think we need to look at this parable differently. First, is the judge really standing in for God? Jesus calls him unjust, and he is arrogant, fearing neither God nor man. And he has no intention of listening to the widow. That doesn't sound much like the God Jesus talks about. And then, the widow. In Israel, widows were supposed to be rushed to the head of the line when they complained of injustice; the only ones who had precedence over the widow was the orphan. That was made very clear in the Laws of Moses. Widows and orphans, in fact, were numbered among those who were considered innocent unless proven guilty, the ones who would be called “just ones”, along with other categories; the foreigner in your midst; the poor being another group. Moses and the prophets had made it clear that God was on their side.

So when we keep that in mind, we see a widow who is being denied her God-given right to be heard. But eventually, the judge decides to hear her case and, it says, deliver a just decision for her.

Many of Jesus' parables end with an explicit comparison between someone in the parable and the Father. Remember the one about the father who would not give his son a scorpion if he asked for a fish? But in this parable, Jesus says, “Listen to what the dishonest judge says!” The dishonest judge is being embarrassed by the widow; if we read the original Greek, it would say “because this widow is giving me a black eye...” which was an expression meaning “public shaming”. In other words, despite the character of the judge, despite the fact that he starts out with no intention of hearing the widow's case, justice is eventually done.

So Jesus is telling this story to illustrate that God will deliver justice to his just ones who cry out to him; and Jesus says this will be done speedily. And then he laments, will he find faith on earth when he returns?

The widow never stopped pestering the judge to hear her case. She would call him on the phone, bang on his door, meet him in Starbucks when he was trying to get a coffee, walk up and down his sidewalk carrying a picket sign; she just wouldn't stop. And Jesus is saying the same thing will happen if his just ones do the same thing. If we go out and do something about injustice, if we make a nuisance of ourselves, if we never give up, God will give justice, and the more noise we make, the quicker it will happen. But it isn't happening, and it wasn't happening in Jesus' time, and there aren't many who cry out for justice and of those there aren't many who are persistent. And that's why he worries that he won't find faith.

I suspect any of us who have listened to Christ's words Sunday after Sunday are aware that justice was very high on His priority list. And at the same time we have to admit we could do more to bring about justice, to be the tools God uses to bring about the kingdom of God where justice rules. When we look at all the injustice in the world it is pretty overwhelming. We read about refugees from the middle east, especially Syria, who have lost everything, or the people of North Korea, who live in a country-sized prison. But there is plenty of injustice right here in our area; why shouldn't a kid growing up in Springfield have the same opportunity for education as one growing up in Longmeadow? And indeed, why should anyone have to live out of a shopping cart and seek shelter under a bridge at night? That's happening just a few miles from here.

So I guess a question we should ponder this week is how can we be better instruments of God's justice? Like the judge in Jesus' story I have the power to render justice but don't. Maybe I am the dishonest judge who refuses to render a just judgement.