Luke 18:1-8

Pentecost +22 — Year C

Luke 18:1-8

How do you play between importuning G*D for justice and being persistent and creative in your own part of claiming justice for yourself and/or someone else?

Now, why would Jesus tell this story about a probably years long struggle for justice until the judge was worn out from dealing with it? Presumably he recognized that G*D’s “quickness” in matters of justice wasn’t very quick in human lives and required partnership with us rather than snapping some metaphoric fingers to have it miraculously appear. Magic justice turns out to be very little justice at all.

We might translate “pray” as “do what needs doing”. Prayer here is not just crying out, but acting to make a difference. There is a big divide between those who see a need for social action and those who are caught up in privilege enough to advise closet prayer. If you are going to pray for someone, do it in their face. Otherwise it is spiritual gossip.

So, yes, G*D delays participation in overt justice-making until those who note injustice engage it directly. Praying about something so as to tell G*D what to do, even to pray for G*D’s will to be done, does not endear us to G*D.

Have you lost your heart to live lively and so all that’s left is mumbling prayer? I hope not. So raise a glass to widows everywhere and rejoin the on-going party of assurance and belovedness and just plain kindness. If you are familiar with ballots that show a picture of a candidate or the logo of a political party, be sure to check the widow iconography after disclosing your cause in the streets and investing your time and resources to have us live better together. Hooray for disruptive widows.