Prayer for Justice
Can be heard here
Gate Pa – Year C th
Sunday of Ordinary Time,
Readings:
Psalm: Psalm:
119:97-104
First
Reading:
Jeremiah
31:27-34
Second
Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14 –
4:5
Gospel:
Luke
18:1-8
What I want to say:
Do
we pray without ceasing? what is it we pray for? and why do we pray – so that God
will fix it, or something else?
I want
to explore what it means to pray unceasingly for justice, and how that prayer
changes us to be people of justice.
What I want to
happen:
People to reflect on how they pray,
what they pray for, and what they hope will happen.
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
Then Jesus told them a parable about their
need to pray always and not to lose heart.
phew
i wonder
are we guilty of praying always? unceasingly?
and what do we pray for?
(discussion)
2. The Story
so Jesus goes on to tell a story
about a judge
who
neither fears God
nor
had respect for people
certainly didn’t love God with all his heart
and soul and body and mind
didn’t
love his neighbour as himself
ð some suggest is definition of the very thing
he refused to give
justice
and a widow
in his world life got really hard without man
in your life
husband
son
brother
ð became non person
life expectancy got much much shorter
especially true if already among poor
which most people were
so have judge not good giving justice
widow who comes to him and beat him black and
blue with her complaint
'Grant me justice against my opponent.'
judge neither fears God nor respects people
so
refuses to act
but she keeps coming –
the
greek says she beats him black and blue with her complaint
eventually he relents just to stop her coming
Jesus continues
“"Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as
he is, is saying? 7 So what makes you think God won't step in
and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won't
he stick up for them? 8 I assure you, he will. He will not drag
his feet.”
finishes
with – “But how much
of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he
returns?"
3. Questions
which all seems really straight
forward
pray continuously
God will act
except
ð if God is acting – why do I need
to be like the widow?
ð what is it I am supposed to be
praying for?
ð what do I hope will happen?
4. Why pray
so why pray unceasingly?
sometimes we see ourselves in
this story as the widow
nagging God with our requests
which
doesn’t feel right really
because
God is not an unjust judge
but
God deep and passionate love for all people
But what if God does not need our
nagging
what if we
need our nagging
went mountain biking few years
ago
guy
leading it told us to look where we wanted to go
because on bike (and I think in
life)
we
go where we look
in fact signs all over Victoria
in Australia for motor cyclists saying just that
you will go
where you look
prayer directs our looking
we pray for what we are looking
at
sometimes we pray for things that
deeply concern us
and sometime we pray for things
that we think we should pray for
not
that important to us
more we pray
more we look
more we go
there
more those
things become important to us.
so prayer isn’t about us nagging
God
it is about
us learning to look
or to put it another way
our pray shapes us
more
we pray for something
more important that thing will become
for us
more
time we will give it
more we will look to it
more we will become God’s agents in
that situation.
when
we pray without stopping
we
are slowly changed by our prayer
our priorities change
what’s
important to us changes
way
see world changes
Praying isn’t being like widow
nagging God
Praying is being like the widow nagging
ourselves to pay real attention to what we are praying about.
In that way – we are the unjust
judge
not fearing God
not respecting others
and in prayer we learn
love
god
by
loving neighbour as ourselves
5. Praying for?
So what are we praying for?
the persistent faith of widow was
her expectation of justice
that
justice would be given her
what
is justice?
when
God is feared and people respected
or
when we love God with all our heart and soul and mind
by
loving our neighbour as ourselves, and as we are loved.
I think
A lot of people I read about this
passage suggest
our incessant prayer is to be
about justice
our prayer is to be about widows
of our world
and we are to be like widow
beating
down God with our demands for justice
and
in doing so learning to be like widow
beating
the powers of our time that do not fear God and to not respect others
what are the issues of justice
that need our incessant prayer today
prayer
to God
that
leads to action
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