The Preacher’s Study
First thoughts about next Sunday’s sermon
(22nd Sunday after Pentecost, October 20,
2013)
Maylanne Maybee
When I was a young adult, my desire
as a Christian was that people would see a visible difference in my life, a
life devoted to fighting poverty, caring for the needy, making the world more
just. Becoming a deacon and staying one
was part of that zealous decision.
It wasn’t hard at first to
get involved in projects that I thought would make a difference (starting a
literacy program, opening a community health centre, providing support for women
fleeing domestic violence, organizing a food bank, starting a social housing
development).
But I didn’t expect to meet so
much resistance, indifference, or active opposition. Most people I talked to
weren’t interested in these worthy initiatives, grant applications were often
turned down, even my church tended to ignore or worse, undermine these efforts.
Exhausted and discouraged, I
realized I had to learn to pray. I
learned about contemplative prayer and meditation, but I wish I had remembered Jesus’
stories about banging on doors in the middle of the night or threatening to
give the powers that be a black eye! It
certainly is how I felt!
Earlier this summer I
reflected in this blog on another passage in Luke 11 where Jesus encourages
perseverance in prayer. He has just
finished teaching that when you pray, say, “Give us this day our daily
bread.” Then he tells the story of a man
who wakes a friend in the night and asks for three loaves of bread to feed an
unexpected guest. His friend
refuses.
Jesus’ message is, “Keep at
it. You’ll get your bread eventually because of your persistence if nothing
else.” Ask, he says. Search.
Knock.
The action has progressed
since the telling of that story. Jesus
and his disciples are approaching Jerusalem and the air is heavy with
expectation. The Pharisees have just
asked, “When is the kingdom of God coming?”
He tells his disciples that the days are coming when they will long to
see the Son of Man, and that the Son of Man will come in the way that lightning
does – a sudden flash of light that just as suddenly disappears. A brilliant glimpse of extraordinary
power.
Again, Jesus tells a story to
encourage persistence in prayer. This
time it’s not a man asking a sleeping friend for bread, but a widow badgering
an indifferent judge for justice.
I am struck by the language
of justice in this passage. It’s not
about “making” justice but either asking for it – clamouring for it day and
night, or granting it. Most Christians
in North America have been on the granting side of justice – they have enjoyed
economic advantage, decision-making power, disproportionate access to the gifts
of the earth. Yet there are many in our
streets, and certainly in other parts of the world, who would gladly give us a
black eye in their quest for justice.
If I were preaching, I would
reflect on some of those groups and individuals. I would ask who the importunate widows are in
our communities and in world news.
In Canada, our Aboriginal
communities have been asking for justice day and night – restitution for the
damage caused by residential schools, treaties that have not been kept, mining
practices that threaten their sacred lands and territories. They have asked for justice in lawsuits, at
barricades, in fasts, in dances and demonstrations.
Recent demonstrators in front
of Ottawa’s Parliament Buildings have given voice to every possible cause. Some have asked for climate change policies
that will encourage renewable energy, others for positive changes in maternity
care, others for changes in immigration policies. In June, a sole woman protested in solidarity
with Turkish activists.
Aung San Sui Kyi has asked
for justice most of her life, enduring decades of house arrest and exile from
her family as she struggled for human rights in Burma. Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in
prison on Robbin Island, waiting for justice – not for himself only but for all
the people if South Africa excluded from justice by apartheid.
Some people are the seekers
of justice. Others have the power to
grant it. As ones who have been
baptized, we have made promises to “continue in the apostles teaching, in the
breaking of bread, and in the prayers”, to “to resist evil”, “to strive for justice and peace among all
people, and respect the dignity of every human being.” We can persist in these promises because God
is not a sleeping friend or an indifferent judge, but One who longs to give
bread and grant justice to those who ask and search and knock day and
night. May it be so.
Maylanne
Maybee, a member of APLM Council, is an Anglican deacon serving in the Diocese
of Rupert’s Land. She is Principal of the Centre for Christian Studies, a
national theological school based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, that prepares
women and men for ministry in the diaconal tradition of the Anglican and United
Churches.
Top picture: Sole
woman protests on sidewalk in solidarity with Turkish activists. Photo
by Alec L Boucher, June 21, 2013.
Second picture: downloaded from http://gointotheworld.net/2010/10/17/god-is-depending-on-us/widow-and-unjust-judge/
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