2013 10 20 Persistence from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.
A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri on October 20, 2013.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
and Luke 18:1-8
One of the things that gives me life,
is turning again and again to the stories of the Bible.
I say this not just because we encounter God there… in that engagement
though that’s a big part of it.
But these stories in the Scripture are endlessly fascinating.
So many twists and turns and nuances and layers.
Take, for instance, this Parable:
the parable of the Unjust Judge, some call it
or the parable of the persistent widow.
There is this judge, says Jesus. We know about judges in Israel.
Their role is to maintain a reasonable harmony in the community,
to decide disputes fairly and impartially.[i]
Jewish law is clear, however: there is a particular responsibility
for such judges…and the whole nation
to protect the rights of the poor—
often described through the shorthand of the
widows and the orphans and
sojourners in the land.
So there is this Judge, says Jesus
and there is this widow. And here lies the plot:
the widow as the main character immediately
raises the stakes for this judge.
Any God-fearing jurist would feel obligated by the law, by Torah
to take particularly good care of her.[ii]
The problem is that this judge is not God-fearing.
This judge, the text tells us, isn’t particularly interested in justice at all.
He really just wants her to go away.
