The Model of Prayer

Gospel: Luke 18: 1-8

We human beings quit rather easily.  When things are not going our way or when we face adversity, more often than not we give up.  In the life of prayer when we do not get what we want or if we are not having warm fuzzy feelings we cast prayer aside, saying that it does not work.  Much like our annual January gym memberships, we try it for a month, and when we do not realize instant results we stop going to the gym, eventually cancelling the membership.

In today's Gospel portion Jesus gives us a model of prayer: a widow seeking justice before an unjust judge.  Jesus gives us a powerless woman standing before a judge who cares not for her or any notion of justice, a woman whose lot seems hopeless.  Nevertheless, she persists in her petition.  She has no power, no status, no influence.  The widow is powered solely by her dire need and thirst for justice in her pleading, and she wins her case.  

The widow is our status in an unjust world.  The world cares not for justice or for the rights of people.  We are powerless before it.  Yet we appeal to God for justice and for the rights of His people, as we have no other recourse on earth.  And our prayer will be heard.  Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but someday justice will be realized.  The widow will have her day, the poor and oppressed vindicated, and our faith in God fulfilled.   

Avoiding the Inevitable

Gospel: Luke 17: 26-37

The Titanic was thought to be unsinkable and secure.  Those who sailed upon her did so with this confidence.  They ate and drank and reveled.  When the ship hit an iceberg no one was concerned.  It was unsinkable, after all.  When told to board lifeboats, people were indignant and resisted.  They did not believe anything could happen.  As the ship listed and began to fail, the passengers now panicked but it was too late for most.  

Life has a way of lulling us into a false sense of security.  We know with certainty that we will die, and yet we ignore this truth for much of our life.  We live as if death will never come for us or anyone else.  But then the ship starts to list: illness, disease, accident comes and now we panic.  Incredulity falls upon us, then endless attempts to save our ship from sinking.  We may succeed for a time, giving us further false securities.  But death will come for us, and we are not prepared.

Our fascination with the end of the world is ironic in many ways.  Predictions and interpretations of its coming are legion, and we perseverate over the topic.  Yet, when our own end comes or when the subject arises we resist its coming and refuse to speak of it.  Our particular demise is more certain than that of our planet.  Today is our time to accept this reality and to be ready for our end whenever it comes to us.  Then, and only then, shall there be peace in our hearts.  

Vain Quests

Gospel: Luke 17: 20-25

Christian search parties look for all sorts of things: the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, the kingdom of God, and the second coming of Jesus.  The first two items are curiosities that are the stuff of cinema and legend.  They are interesting artifacts, but it is unclear as to whether finding them will assist people in their faith life in any appreciable way.  The search for the kingdom and the coming of Jesus are different matters entirely.

The search for the kingdom and Jesus' coming have dominated faith life throughout the life of Christianity.  These quests have import to faith life, but so often they result in more harm than good in the life of faith.  That is because the kingdom is already here, and Jesus has already come again in the person of our neighbor.  Judgment is not some future event; it is in the here and now in the way we interact and treat our neighbor.  

We can put away all the maps and interpretive theories on the kingdom and Jesus' coming.  We need not build the kingdom of God.  It has already been built; it is already here.  It remains for us to live in the kingdom as we ought: a life of the Beatitudes, a life of mercy and care for others.  Realizing the kingdom is here and Jesus is come in our neighbor inoculates us from political idolatry and religious charlatans and their bags of trombones.