Sermon for the Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
October 21, 2007
Genesis 32:22–31
Psalm 121
2 Timothy 3:14—4:5
Luke 18:1–8
Proper 24
Lectionary 29
Year C
I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)
5Father of orphans and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
6God gives the desolate a home to live in;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious live in a parched land. (Psalm 68:5-6)
Camille Ellingsen was a lovely woman, living alone in her home on a tree-lined street in our comfortable Chicago suburb of Elmhurst, Illinois.
She had a long, thick graying tress of hair always gathered up behind her head and an expressive face.
She was a homebound members in the parish I first served.
She was almost blind, and had a severe spinal condition that gave her chronic pain.
Every time after ringing the doorbell I would cringe, because I would hear Camille’s grunts and groans while she shuffled her feet on the way to open the door.
While Camille was holed up in her home, and increasingly walled within her failing sight and debilitating back pain, four-foot eleven and shrinking Camille Ellingsen was a widow of substance.
She lived on radio as she did on food, devouring the news. She had many purposes in life, proud of her son’s devotion, noting that through a very difficult pregnancy she was fortunate that he was born at all. She had a volunteer job to phone about ten people a day, just to check in and make sure everything was all right. She had memorized many phone numbers, and one of her ministries was to be a cheery and calming voice for other elderly and shut-in people.
Her phone was the tool she used to maintain connection with the world around her, and she wore a badge of honor in using that phone to nag elected officials. As a news junkie with her ears practically glued to the radio, Camille would regularly pick up the phone and call her congressman, her alderman, or her her senator. Those who worked in those offices knew Camille well, and Camille used her voice to offer her opinions and urge passage on issue after issue. Reporting on this to me, she would smile and break into a belly laugh when she said she had just phoned in again!
What a persistent widow!
5Father of orphans and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
6God gives the desolate a home to live in;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious live in a parched land. (Psalm 68:5-6)
God bless the widows!
Camille was a real person who lived faithfully, who knew God’s unmerited grace and that she was God’s beloved child.
The widow in the story that Jesus tells is a caricature, a nag, someone in the judge’s face, who was incessantly demanding justice.
The judge likewise is a caricature, corrupt, having no respect for anyone, neither God nor people.
In this one in a series of morality tales, Jesus paints with large brushstrokes a contrast between the characters in the story and God and God’s people.
The parable is funny. It’s okay either to cheer the widow on, or on the other hand like the judge to imagine her whining, her constant jabbering, pleading her case, never shutting up, “blah-blah-blah, yada-yada-yada, would you please give me my justice?!” Isn’t that a rip?
The parable is funny. It’s okay to put yourselves in the judge’s shoes, and either to identify with him, “won’t she ever shut up?! Widow, go away!” Or on the other hand to shake your head at him, because he’s amoral, he has no scruples, he’s a lone ranger selfish son of a gun, and the only reason—the sole reason for him granting the widow’s request is not that he was just, not that he listened to the voracity of her argument, and not that he had any mercy at all on her, but that he couldn’t stand to listen to her anymore, so he caved in!
Here’s the clincher, underlined and boldfaced by Jesus, who wants nothing else than to demonstrate the nearness of almighty God, to show how ready God is to listen to prayer, how God is so, so eager to hand out justice and mercy, that at the end of the story, Jesus’ pointed questions are to make sure that the hearer understands that God is nothing like the judge, there’s just no comparison with the judge of the story, just to make sure that we’ve got it right:
And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Yes, he will. Will he delay long in helping them? No, he will not delay. And just in case you weren’t listening, Jesus adds, 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.
Finally, Jesus poses one last question for those who are reticent to pray, who think that it’s not important to cry out for justice, who don’t want to be a nag, who wonder if God really listens, and yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
What a cliffhanger! Jesus stares his disciples in the face (don’t we know that Jesus is the Son of Man?) and pleads with those who overhear today, October 21, 2007, is anyone engaged at all, is anyone struggling with issues of justice and mercy? Is anyone asking how God might be connected with the hungry, with those desperate for companionship, with those in deep grief, with those who long for an end to war and poverty, with those who look to recognize an alternate to life as usual?
Jacob struggled to reconcile with his estranged brother Esau, and ended up wrestling with the holy in his midst.
God bless Jacob.
Camille Ellingsen did not live the life of a recluse, but engaged with those she could find on all matters of legislation even while offering a pleasant hello to those on her daily calling list.
God bless Camille, and God bless the widows.
Today, in Nashua, people are walking a number of miles in order to demonstrate that people of God take notice of the world’s hungry, people of God will extend themselves to learn and act, people of God will be in solidarity with one another to thwart issues of poverty and need throughout the world and in and around this city.
God bless all who struggle and who cry out for change as a matter of faith.
Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man did not hold back on his desires, his opinions, or his lamenting over the way things are. He wrestled with the cup of sorrows in the garden of Gethsemane, asking that God’s will be done.
At his last breath, he commended his spirit to God, who received his cries and raised him from death.
May we continue in the struggle, never give up on prayer, and recognize Jesus’ desire to redeem the world.
5Father of orphans and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
6God gives the desolate a home to live in;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious live in a parched land.
19Blessed be the LORD,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation. (Psalm 68:5-6, 19)
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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