WHOLLY PRESENT
Luke 18:1-8
 
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
 
The stated purpose of this parable is ‘about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.’ Jesus is just a chapter away from entering Jerusalem and his final confrontation with power.  Jesus emphasizes care and inclusion for the marginalized as fundamental to the gospel. but he is well aware that whenever outsiders are included, there will be conflict.  It is one thing to preach that we are all children of God and another to seek justice based on that faith claim. It is a far less appealing ‘word of God’ when it requires those of us who have to confess that all that we have and all that we are is a gift from God. Without such humility and gratitude, we create a hundred rationalizations to continue systems that reflect human concepts of fairness and justice—rather than God’s.  We avoid seeing, we create arguments about who really belongs and diminish the worth of the marginalized. Jesus is very aware, for himself and his followers that maintaining such a faith is difficult and demanding.
The marginalized in this case is the widow.  Widows were among the most vulnerable people in the first century.  Women were dependent upon men for their place in society and a woman without a man had no protection.  This woman had no standing and would have had no secular reason to expect justice. Yet she comes forward as if she is a person of worth and as if she has a right to be heard.  Her behavior reflects a remarkable faith claim that puts her at odds with the world she lived in.  She lived like she was loved in the face of a world who had no regard for her.
 
The contrast is heighted in the parable by the double reference to the judge. God is not part of his life nor does he have respect for people.  He epitomizes the values that say ‘what is good for me is good.’  
 Unfortunately such attitudes are all too common.  In our day and time, it is nearly impossible to have regard for different political views.  Political ‘dialogue’ is really adversarial monologues. In real life, the idea that we should be curious or walk in another person’s shoes is almost a naive ideal rather than actual practice.  We excuse or minimize behaviors on our side of the political divide that we righteously condemn on the other side of the divide. 
 
More personally, we are confronted daily by the needs of others in our society and in our families.  We do not want to feel obligated and we do not want to confront our limitations. Better not to inquire. Better not to see.  Either way, it is not in our self interest to struggle with how to show regard. It is inconvenient at best and taxing (literally and figuratively) at worst to remain aware of the inequities of the world.  It is harder still to struggle how we will respond.
 
Our unjust judge has no reason to respond to this widow woman until she makes herself so bothersome that it is worth his time to pay attention—just to get rid of her. The Greek her is much more assertive.  The word bothersome is a boxing image suggesting that she would give the judge a black eye. Please note: God can work his purposes out even in an unjust and uncaring world. That is a second implicit faith claim of this widow.  There are many times the right thing is done for the wrong reasons. The judges actions were not out of regard, they were born of his self interest.  
 
Societally, Jesus is trying to show us a way that challenges and inverts secular values.  He promises we are loved and asks us to live that way. The widow lived like she was loved.  She acted like she mattered and she persisted in that belief—even to someone who had no respect for her.  The rules that divide; the rules that elevate some and diminish others are all man made and all include human judgments that deny our status as God’s children. These rules are systemic in our society and embedded in the way we treat ourselves and each other. In God’s world, we are neither entitled nor marginalized.  
 
The widow challenged the rules of human justice.  She lived by God’s justice and persisted in the face of the many who would dismiss and discount her. Standing with the oppressed is a Christian calling and responsibility.  Any system that devalues people is anti Christian. And the terrible irony is that the church itself has been as guilty as any secular system. It was one of Jesus’ challenges to the church in his day.  It is no less so today. 
 
The application to prayer is similar.  When we trust God’s love, it is safe to be whole before God.  It is safe to be a sinner before God. When humans decide for God what is good or what is acceptable to him, it is not only hubris, it creates within us ‘what is acceptable to the Lord’.  That is for God, not us, to decide. It is one thing to know that and quite another to trust it. Most of us have something about ourselves we would hesitate to bring before God.
 
In Faith and Real Life, I asked if there were things that were not ok to pray for.  Revenge was the first answer followed rapidly by self serving requests—but both are quite common prayers in the bible.  When there is a drought, we want rain. When we are sick, we want life. When we are harmed, we want vindication. When we feel abandoned, we are angry and do not trust.  But who among us will say such things directly and uncensored to God? In each case, there is a human rule about what is acceptable to God—and we, like the widow do not fit the rules and expectations of what is acceptable.  The polite way to pray is to always say, ‘thy will be done’ or, ‘be present in whatever we must go through.’ Both are important but sometimes such phrases are hedges against our disappointment. Our very request exposes us and forces us to face the gap between what we want and what is.
 
It is a lot easier to have faith on a good day.  It is much harder to trust God with our vulnerabilities, self serving desires, and distrust. It is difficult to believe we have standing before the judge when all of our internal rules tell us we are disobedient and ‘inappropriate.’ We are all of those things, but we like the widow, must persist in acting like we are loved.  When we present ourselves whole before God, it is an act of trust in God’s promises.  
 
Jesus said: “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”  God’s justice is love for all of his creation.  Coming whole to God is the way we actually discover God’s grace.  Loving relationships heal and out them we grow and find life. That is the promise of God’s justice.  The widow was still a widow. She still had no standing in the society. But she persisted in her faith that she was a beloved child of God and that made the difference in her life.  
 
Mother Teresa put it this way:  “People are often unreasonable and self centered. Forgive them anyway.  If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you.  Be honest anyway. If you are happy, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.”  
 
Each of us are called to live and pray like we are loved.  We are called to live like love matters. And finally, we are called to live like love will prevail.  Let be so.