[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:08] Welcome to the collective table, where we celebrate the intersections of Jesus, justice and joy.
[00:00:15] This podcast is brought to you by Oceanside Sanctuary Church. Each week we bring our listeners a recording of our weekly Sunday teaching at Oceanside Sanctuary, which ties scripture into the larger conversations happening in our community, congregation, and even the podcast.
[00:00:31] So we're glad you're here, and thanks for listening.
[00:00:45] Good morning.
[00:00:48] I am Larry Warner. I will be presenting today, and we're going to talk about Luke chapter 18:1 8.
[00:00:59] And it is probably my least favorite of the parables.
[00:01:06] Never liked it.
[00:01:08] And so when I got the list of, hey, what do you want to choose? Of course, Janelle already got the good one.
[00:01:15] Then Jason gets the, you know, the prodigal. I was like, oh, my goodness.
[00:01:20] So I get the one about a widow and a judge.
[00:01:25] And yet, interestingly, and probably not coincidentally, I've come to appreciate this parable. The last 10 years of my life, seen it in a different way than I'd ever seen it before because it's taught in a particular way, which we'll get to.
[00:01:47] But I never liked the way it was taught.
[00:01:52] And so actually, I did choose it for that reason, because I see it paralleling my own life this last decade, especially this last five years, and maybe particularly in the last two years since I've started attending this church.
[00:02:11] So what is a parable? Though some people describe it this way, this is how I was taught in seminary. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson as told by Jesus in the Gospels.
[00:02:25] That sounds like a decent definition, but it's really confining.
[00:02:32] And to me, it's like saying, sourdough is just bread.
[00:02:39] No, sourdough is incredible.
[00:02:41] And if you can get Molly to make it for you, even better. So.
[00:02:45] But it's amazing. It's not just bread.
[00:02:48] It's sourdough. A parable is not just a story. There's something else going on.
[00:02:54] It's special.
[00:02:55] It's a tool for prompting critical thought, for challenging cultural norms, for even inspiring action.
[00:03:06] It's a window into the kingdom of God. This is what it looks like when the kingdom of God begins to be lived out in our world through our lives.
[00:03:17] It can startle us.
[00:03:19] It can raise questions that maybe we'd never dared to ask before.
[00:03:25] It can challenge conventional thinking.
[00:03:29] See, that's the beauty of a story parable.
[00:03:32] It can get us out of just our head and begin to engage our heart. And that's what my hope is today for you. As we encounter this parable, Together.
[00:03:43] But before we do, I want to do one more thing.
[00:03:46] I don't know if any of you have ever seen I forget the name of the TV show, but it's about the really smart little kid. Donna. What's the name of that show? We like Young Sheldon. Young Sheldon. He likes to do Fun Facts. So here's some fun facts about the parables we, which I actually didn't really know until I started studying for this.
[00:04:06] Don't answer out loud, but how many parables do you think are in the.
[00:04:10] We call them the synoptics. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. How many parables do you think are in the synoptics?
[00:04:16] So just have a number in your mind.
[00:04:19] You know, Jesus liked to like to teach parables.
[00:04:22] Well, not everyone agrees on the number, but there's somewhere between 35 and 40 parables, which doesn't really seem like that many.
[00:04:32] But listen to this fun fact first. I'll ask it in a form of question. How many of those parables only appear in one of the SynOptics?
[00:04:42] So there's 40 of them, but how many of those appear only one time? Like only one of the writers said, hey, I think I'm going to use that story.
[00:04:51] And this was very surprising to me.
[00:04:54] Ready for the answer?
[00:04:56] And this will be on the quiz, by the way, 31, isn't that crazy?
[00:05:02] 31 of those. Let's just use the number 40 are used only one time. In fact, the ones that are used in every gospel, again, the numbers are weird because some people, this is a parable. Some people isn't for sure. There's three that are used in every single one.
[00:05:22] Some count as many as seven.
[00:05:24] But the majority are one time uses only.
[00:05:27] And this is a reminder that those people who were writing the gospels were writing to a particular audience in a particular time.
[00:05:38] And so as they had walked with Jesus and heard Jesus stories over and over again, as they were thinking about their audience, as they were thinking about the. The time they were living in, they chose, oh, I'm going to use this parable.
[00:05:53] I'm going to use this parable because that's what these people need to hear at this time.
[00:05:59] And sometimes I think we forget that we sort of think that the Bible was magically written without anyone's brain engaged, just sort of a kind of thing.
[00:06:10] But it wasn't.
[00:06:12] I've written seven books, and. And every time. Well, except for the first two, the last five, every time, the question is this. Who's your audience that you're writing to?
[00:06:22] Because that's Going to form and shape what you put in there.
[00:06:27] And you can't say to the publisher, well, everyone's my audience.
[00:06:32] No, it doesn't work that way.
[00:06:34] No. Who do you have a burden for? Who are you really writing to?
[00:06:39] And so Luke is writing. He picks this particular parable because here's what's happening in his time.
[00:06:48] Christians are being persecuted, and he's writing the Gentiles. So these are new believers. These aren't people who know what persecution is. Like, the Jews would be who Matthew writes to. These are people who are sort of new to this game. It's like, what, I'm following Jesus and I'm getting attacked.
[00:07:05] And then there was also this teaching that Jesus would return pretty quickly, and Jesus wasn't.
[00:07:17] So now what's going on here?
[00:07:20] So that's the context that Luke is writing in.
[00:07:24] Not exactly our context.
[00:07:26] And so as we approach this scripture, the question is, okay, God, what are you saying to us as those Christians in the 21st century who are facing our own struggles, our own hardships? What is your word saying to us?
[00:07:44] So let's pray. We'll read the passage together and then we'll get into it.
[00:07:48] I thank you for this time. We thank you for your word. We thank you for Jesus.
[00:07:54] And Jesus, we thank you for the life that you lived, the lessons you taught, the life that you gave up for us, that we might know you in ever deepening ways, your love, your grace, your mercy, your compassion. And we might know sisters and brothers in deeper ways as well, loving them, giving them mercy, extending compassion to them, even as we receive the same from you and from them.
[00:08:22] We ask that you would speak to us in these words, that you would help us to live a life that is true to who you are and also true to who you created and called us to be. As your unique, one of a kind creations.
[00:08:36] Meet us here, speak to us. We offer ourselves this time to you. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:08:43] Okay, let's look at our passage of scripture.
[00:08:50] Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them.
[00:08:54] Wait, is that what it says? Oh, yeah.
[00:08:57] Here's what I did. I blacked out parts. I didn't like anyone ever want to do that.
[00:09:03] Now I write poetry, and that's actually a technique called erasure. And I've done it with a couple of poems. I really didn't do it. It's not done the way you're supposed to in poetry, but that's what I did. Because there's certain parts I don't want to read right now. We'll come back to them.
[00:09:18] But Luke was writing to a particular group of people, and this first phrase is a huge spoiler alert.
[00:09:28] Luke just says, here's what this means.
[00:09:31] I don't necessarily agree with Luke, but that was cute of him to offer that for us. So anyway, then Jesus told his disciples a parable.
[00:09:42] In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.
[00:09:50] And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the flee, grant me justice against my adversary.
[00:09:59] For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, even though I do not fear God or care what people think yet, because the widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me.
[00:10:20] And then I just blanked out the rest of it.
[00:10:24] So we're going to look at the story. That's what we're going to look at. And then we'll get back to those other places and see what is the forbidden fruit that you're not allowed to see at this point in time.
[00:10:35] So one of the rules of exploring a parable is asking the question, what surprises you?
[00:10:41] You know, remember, it could startle us. It might think us, it might cause us to think in a different way.
[00:10:46] So what might be. If you're in the first century, because that's when this was first told, what might startle you? And this would be actually an interactive time, what might startle you in this passage about a judge and a widow. And a widow pestering a judge.
[00:11:05] Anyone?
[00:11:07] Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?
[00:11:12] Right.
[00:11:13] Excellent. Of course, the troublemaker over here knows that. Okay, it's a woman. This is a patriarchal society. What is a woman doing? And it's not just a woman, it's a woman without a man.
[00:11:26] Even worse, it's someone who has no standing in this culture.
[00:11:35] That is shocking that she would have the audacity to confront a judge who has all power, all authority, and yet she's going to, even in his words, attack him. That's what it feels like.
[00:11:55] So that's pretty startling.
[00:11:58] And she doesn't give up.
[00:12:00] She continues to bother badger this judge.
[00:12:10] There's two people.
[00:12:12] A judge who doesn't care about God or others, lives the life that he wants to live. And this woman who's desperate for justice, there's this huge power imbalance.
[00:12:29] This is really a story of a flea biting a dog.
[00:12:35] And yet the flea is ultimately going to win because she has no standing.
[00:12:43] The widow continues, and Continues and continues. And when it says wear him out, it's actually in the Greek. It's more. Well, here I put it this way. She goes toe to toe with. With the judge. And the reason I use toe to toe, the Greek word is there's a physical attack going on. Now it's not really happening, but that's the picture here, that he's feeling battered and bruised, blackened by, in his eye, because of these attacks.
[00:13:15] She's beating me up, she's attacking me.
[00:13:19] And so he gives in just so she would go away.
[00:13:28] So the natural question is in our story, in our parable, who is the judge and who is the widow?
[00:13:39] Now, later on, I'll tell you the traditional way this is taught.
[00:13:45] But now I'm going to spend some time teaching you the right way.
[00:13:52] In my humble opinion.
[00:13:56] To me, the widow is a picture of the kingdom of God.
[00:14:05] Jesus often talked in parables about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God, the reign of God. That God's presence is having an impact on our world was key, central to his message. We get caught up in personal salvation. That was actually not what he led with. He led with the kingdom of God is at hand. So if you're blind, if you're oppressed, if you're a prisoner, good news, because the kingdom of God is coming and things are going to begin to change.
[00:14:34] Now, this doesn't mean suddenly we're going to put the Ten Commandments everywhere. That doesn't make any sense. Why not? The Beatitudes. But anyway, I digress.
[00:14:42] That's not what it's about.
[00:14:44] It's about compassion, justice, mercy, love, being the ocean we begin to swim in.
[00:14:59] It's praying that people get their daily bread, that people would be forgiven, alluding to the Lord's Prayer.
[00:15:08] And so I see the widow as a picture of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is going to continue.
[00:15:15] And of course, if the woman, the widow, is the kingdom of God, then who is the judge?
[00:15:23] I know the answer is usually Jesus. You would be wrong.
[00:15:26] It's the world, the world systems, the way the world is set up, that it's not about the disenfranchised, it's not about the least of these. It's about those who have power, those who have riches, those who have possessions.
[00:15:43] That's the world. And that's what the widow is coming against and saying, this is not right, this is not just. And that's what the kingdom of God comes against over and over and over again.
[00:15:57] But like the widow, it seems almost ridiculous.
[00:16:03] Because the world uses violence, uses oppression, uses brutality, uses bullying to get what it needs to do done.
[00:16:17] The kingdom of God is about love.
[00:16:21] It's about grace, it's about mercy, it's about self sacrifice.
[00:16:30] That doesn't seem to do anything, seems ineffectual. It's just as if a widow was knocking on the door of a powerful judge. But because of our story, we know, wait. The widow prevails. And we, as the kingdom of God, we will prevail as well.
[00:16:49] As Martin Luther King said, the universe arcs toward justice. Or as I like to say, love wins.
[00:16:58] That's the bottom line. And so we can continue what seems to be ineffectual because God is involved in that. And when God is with us, nothing can stand against us.
[00:17:14] So it's about this persistence, persistent presence of this widow who's continuing to come again and again and again.
[00:17:26] The kingdom of God, though appearing weak, is anything but weak.
[00:17:30] It's transformative.
[00:17:34] I was leading a protest on Thursday night in honor of John Lewis, actually, over in Carlsbad.
[00:17:42] And I'm in charge of People of Peace. So we sort of try to keep things in line.
[00:17:47] So there was this one guy on a little scooter and I don't know, harassing would be the right word, but bothering people along the line. We had about 700 people stretched out on the boulevard.
[00:18:01] And so I encountered him one time, and then he went on his way two times, then he went on his way three times, then he went out of his way.
[00:18:13] And then the fourth time, the fourth time before he went on his way, we shook hands.
[00:18:22] We shared a story together.
[00:18:25] That was Thursday. On Saturday morning, he was at my house and I was giving him a book that I had written on grief because found out that his daughter had recently died.
[00:18:37] So here was this angry man.
[00:18:41] You just needed to be loved.
[00:18:44] They needed to have compassion.
[00:18:46] They needed to be seen. That's the kingdom of God.
[00:18:52] That's the power of the kingdom of God.
[00:18:56] Change lives, beginning with ourselves and going outward. I like to think of this as the metaphor of water versus rocks.
[00:19:10] So I think we have a picture of that.
[00:19:13] There we go. Now my head has disappeared. So that's going to go away so that people at home can see my beautiful face.
[00:19:22] But water beats rock always.
[00:19:29] No, not today, not tomorrow, not next week.
[00:19:32] But eventually cliffs become beaches.
[00:19:39] That's what we're talking about here. This persistence, a persistence that we're able to do because of who God is and because of the power God has put within us and our Belief that we will win, we will overcome, love wins out, justice will come about in this world.
[00:20:03] So in the last five years, I've expanded my sense of who this widow is a little more.
[00:20:11] I used to think the widow was the kingdom of God, but as personified by us. So you're the kingdom, you're the kingdom. You're the kingdom, which I think is true to some extent. But what I've realized in the last five years, and especially the last two years, is, no, we are the kingdom of God.
[00:20:29] It's not about me and Jesus. It's about us. It's about our. It's about life together. So that's why we show up on a Sunday. So we all come forward and take communion to remind ourselves we're not on this alone.
[00:20:43] We're in this battle together.
[00:20:46] Sometimes as I talk about the protests that I lead, I don't do this on purpose, but unconsciously, subconsciously, I'll call them retreats, not protests. And I've done it many times because my sense of us together is that it's us together.
[00:21:07] It's actually a safe place to show up and to be vocal, even though we all don't even agree on the same stuff.
[00:21:15] But we're seen and acknowledged there.
[00:21:22] It's like a retreat.
[00:21:23] It's a coming together, and that's where the power is.
[00:21:28] And they're not all Christians by any stretch of the imagination, but as people come together, there is something of the kingdom that is seen in that when they're coming together for the sake of others.
[00:21:41] So I like to think of our protests not even as protests, but when I speak, I speak of them in terms of advocacy. We're standing for. We're standing up with those who are struggling, those who are on the margins, those who are living in fear. Right now, we're not protesting against a person.
[00:21:56] We are standing with people who are being impacted by what's going on in the world.
[00:22:04] We are standing up for justice.
[00:22:07] And it seems pretty silly. Yes, holding a sign, walking a dog with a sign on the dog, even sillier.
[00:22:19] And actually the silliness continues even more than that.
[00:22:23] But there's something that's happening in the lives of all those.
[00:22:27] In the life of a man on a scooter, that's the only reason I had the interaction with him, is because I was there. And he was there for very different reasons.
[00:22:36] But who else was there?
[00:22:38] God was there, and a life was touched, mine and his.
[00:22:47] So that's how I see this parable.
[00:22:52] It's Showing us that the kingdom of God wins out even when it feels like it can't, even when it looks like it can't, it will win out because it will continue to keeping on, keeping on, no matter who that judge is.
[00:23:08] And so we, we, we cannot, we don't need to lose hearts, but we need to, to open to what God is inviting us into.
[00:23:17] And don't hear in this message that everyone should go to a protest.
[00:23:23] But here in this, this question, God, what are you inviting me into in terms of fighting for justice, standing for the marginalized, seeking to bring a sense of dignity and worth and value to people, all people, regardless of their race, their sexuality, amount of money that they make.
[00:23:52] All right, so that's what this actually means. Now let's see what Luke, how he went sideways on this whole thing. Okay, so let's look at the first one.
[00:24:04] Then Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray and always pray always and not lose heart. See, that's how he starts off. He's like, okay, obviously, what is this parable about praying and not losing heart?
[00:24:18] Again, spoiler alert, could you tell us? This is coming.
[00:24:22] But what happens when we see that? And the reason why I didn't want to put it up at first is we tend to think of prayer in a very certain way. And you don't see anyone in this parable praying.
[00:24:32] No one's folding their hands and bowing and just sitting in silence saying, God help me. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
[00:24:40] There are times for those kinds of prayers as well. But that's not the prayer we see in this parable. But oftentimes that's where our mind goes, oh, yeah, we just need to pray. We just need to ask God for stuff, and God's going to give it to us.
[00:24:55] Now, again, I remember the context.
[00:24:58] New Christians struggling, they're being persecuted. Jesus isn't coming as quickly as they want to. So Luke is very concerned with the people and saying, I don't know if they're going to get this story.
[00:25:09] I'm just going to tell them what it means.
[00:25:13] And that just shows Luke's heart and sort of what I did. I really care about these people. Here's what's going on in our world. I really want them to get this. Here's what it means.
[00:25:24] So I identify with that.
[00:25:30] But we need to expand our concept of prayer.
[00:25:36] See, what is prayer in this? See, that brings us to another question. What is prayer in this parable?
[00:25:42] Well, prayer in this parable, is the widow going to the judge over and over and over again. It's an embodied prayer. It's not a prayer in their prayer closet. It's a prayer that's out in the world. And it's embodied. It's bringing spirituality and action together.
[00:26:03] And so as we show up on a Monday for the food pantry, everything we do that day is prayer.
[00:26:11] As we load the boxes, as we bring in the food. That's prayer.
[00:26:18] Prayer is an embodiment of our faith.
[00:26:23] And so when we think of prayer, let's not think of prayers that we classically think of it folding our hands and bowing, just asking God for stuff, but rather opening to God in conversation and listening and. And asking God for stuff. I'm sure, you know, she was praying, God, you know, give me, help me have favor with this judge.
[00:26:43] God, please help me. Out of favor with this judge.
[00:26:47] Oops, there's my timer. It doesn't mean anything.
[00:26:53] Just means, oh, all right. That was just a goal.
[00:26:58] And we're pretty close. We're a lot closer than I thought I would be.
[00:27:02] So it's an embodied prayer. And this passage reminds me of what John Lewis writes, and I want to read that quote. John Lewis is one of my heroes. He was the answer to my question, if you could have dinner. He died five years ago.
[00:27:21] Five years ago from last Thursday, if you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would you want to have dinner with? And my answer would have been, who was alive? John Lewis. John Lewis was.
[00:27:34] Well, he preached his first message at age 16.
[00:27:38] At age 20, he was sitting at lunch counters bringing, trying, working for desegregation.
[00:27:46] At 21, he was on the freedom buses riding through the south, sitting in white only spots to bring change in those areas.
[00:27:58] At age 23, he spoke at the same gathering as a guy named Martin Luther King who had a dream that day.
[00:28:08] He was one of the speakers. John Lewis.
[00:28:11] Two years later, John Lewis led what we refer to as Bloody Sunday.
[00:28:16] He was one of the leaders, leader of sncc. They would call it Students for nonviolence, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He led that.
[00:28:27] You know, that in Blaze Sunday is when all the horses and all the people came and just beat the living crap out of people.
[00:28:36] And he was one of them.
[00:28:38] He gave his life to service.
[00:28:40] Eventually became a House of representative for Georgia in the. In the US Congress.
[00:28:48] But he says, do not get lost in a sea of despair.
[00:28:57] Be hopeful, be optimistic.
[00:29:00] Our struggle is not the struggle of a day or a week or a month or a year.
[00:29:08] Our struggle is the Struggle of a lifetime.
[00:29:13] Never ever be afraid to make some noise and get into good trouble.
[00:29:20] Necessary trouble.
[00:29:22] That's prayer.
[00:29:24] Good trouble. Necessary trouble.
[00:29:26] That's prayer.
[00:29:28] That's what it means to be salt. That's what it means to be light.
[00:29:34] Okay, the final couple of verses, we'll just do this very quickly.
[00:29:39] And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says.
[00:29:43] This is why I really didn't like this parable. Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?
[00:29:52] Will he keep putting them off? Tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.
[00:30:00] However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
[00:30:06] So I don't like it because he was there.
[00:30:09] He's equating God with an unjust God and basically saying, if you bug God enough, God's going to give you what you want.
[00:30:18] Untrue, untrue.
[00:30:26] But God will give you what you need.
[00:30:29] Quote the Rolling Stones.
[00:30:33] Because that's who God is.
[00:30:36] You know, some of. There's even a country song around this. Not that I'm a country song person, but this song someone told me about, and I was thanking God for unanswered prayers.
[00:30:47] We don't want God to give us everything we ask for, no matter how many times we ask, because we don't know all the time what we need.
[00:30:57] So let's wrap this thing up.
[00:31:00] Larry good, Luke bad.
[00:31:08] And I have a little more.
[00:31:10] The key phrase in that last, last passage is, will he find faith on the earth when he comes back?
[00:31:18] That's really what we're talking about. Are we going to continue to live as Kingdom people?
[00:31:23] Are we going to continue to knock on the systems of this world and say, this is not right, this is unjust, even though no one's answering the door right away?
[00:31:37] Are we going to remember that water wins over the mountains and that God is faithful and is with us as we embody prayer in the world in which we live in?
[00:31:51] The world needs our ongoing, prophetic, persistent, communal, prayerful presence, which is just embodied life of prayer.
[00:32:02] So I leave you with these two questions.
[00:32:05] What is the injustice that God has placed on your heart?
[00:32:09] What might it look like to be a champion of that cause?
[00:32:14] And who are those who you could join with to fight for this justice?
[00:32:21] And lastly, what is keeping you from being a persistent widow?
[00:32:28] What keeps you from day after day going up against whatever it is that God has placed upon your heart? Whatever it is in the news that breaks your heart, that says, this is not right?
[00:32:40] What is keeping you from embodying a prayer that seeks to be an answer to that very, very cause that has arrested your soul.
[00:32:51] All right, let's pray.
[00:32:57] God, we thank you for the life that is ours in you and through you.
[00:33:04] We thank you for the truth of the kingdom, that justice, love, will win out.
[00:33:13] Help us to be bold, to be courageous like this widow.
[00:33:18] Bang upon the door of injustice, knowing that you will ultimately bring victory, that your will will be done on earth as is in heaven.
[00:33:30] May we be a part of that very prayer by the lives that we live, by the way we use our resources, expend our time, Give us eyes to see what you're up to and the courage to join with you in the fight against injustice.
[00:33:51] Fight of love, grace, mercy, compassion that changes lives, changes the world.
[00:33:59] It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
[00:34:06] Thank you for joining us for this Sunday teaching, no matter when or where you're tuning in.
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