Sermon

There’s No One Better than You

Luke 18:1-8

The Reverend Shirley Smith Graham,

St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, October 21, 2007

Sometimes, when the telephone rings, I just know it’s a wrong number. Perhaps the call comes at a strange hour of the day, when no one I know telephones. Perhaps the call comes from an area code I’ve never seen before. Sometimes, when I answer, it takes awhile to find out that it really is a wrong number. Perhaps the caller has a heavy accent that’s hard to understand, and they’re looking for someone whose name sounds enough like “Shirley” that it takes awhile to sort out that the person they’re seeking isn’t me. Or, if the call comes in on the pastoral care phone, it takes a few minutes of conversation to sort out that the caller really is not trying to call St. Martin’s Episcopal Church – and, by the way, what’s Episcopal?

The easiest wrong numbers to detect are the ones that come from Mexico and Japan. Four times I have received calls from these countries. Since my “overseas” destination is always Africa, I’m pretty sure when I hear Spanish or Japanese that the calls is a wrong number. That call wasn’t for me.

I think the same thing happens with us sometimes when we read the lesson from the gospel. In the course of making the call, we misdial and get connected with the wrong character. We hear the story read and find ourselves identifying with a particular character in the story. And then we interpret the story from this person’s point of view. Take this morning’s gospel parable for example.

We have two characters –a widow and a judge. The widow has come before this community magistrate before – we know this because Jesus says she kept coming to him. The widow is like the unhappy customer who simply never gives up. She will keep coming back to get what she needs. What she needs is the just settlement of her complaint. She is a widow, and thus, in Jesus’ time, she doesn’t have many legal rights. She owns no property; she has no material assets; her food, her lodging, her livelihood, everything she has is dependent upon the goodwill of her extended family and community. But this community goodwill isn’t natural to human beings. Left to their own devices people won’t care for those left without. Rather this goodwill is the response of people following God’s instruction, this one recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 14. All people would bring in to the Temple a tenth of what the had, and from this tithe the widow would be fed. So it would be also that the alien and the fatherless would be fed from the tithe.

In addition, there is provision in God’s instruction for the widow to glean from the field, after the harvest is taken (Deut. 24). Farmers were forbidden to go back, after the harvesting, and glean to the edges of the field, in order that the produce at the edges and ends would be left for persons the with no other means of support. So perhaps some local farmer has gleaned to the end of his field, left none for the widow, and so she has gone to the local magistrate with a suit against the farmer.

At first, the judge rules against her, since, as Jesus tells us, the judge has no respect for God’s instruction, being one who “neither feared God nor had respect for people” (Luke 18.x). Doing something because it pleased God simply was not a motivator for this judge. So the widow returns, and the judge rules against her, once more. But she returns, and returns, and returns, until finally the unjust judge is so exasperated with her that he does the right thing simply to get rid of her. In his own words, “because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out”! (Lk. 18.5).

Let me take a poll. When you heard this story, which character did you identify with? The widow? Or the judge? For those of you who chose the widow, it’s understandable. So many sermons have been preached, rightly, on being persistent in prayer, that we may feel like the widow, assaulting heaven with our petitions until we wear out God’s ear! We may also identify with the widow because we have been wronged in some way and feel acutely wounded by the wrong. We may identify with the woman who struggles to get the outcome owed to her. Moreover, as Christians, we have an awareness that there are people who lack basic things – like food, shelter, medical care, education – and our spiritual DNA has evolved so that we’re on the look-out for how to help them.

But let me take you back now to my analogy of the wrong number. If we dialed in automatically to the widow in the parable, we may have gotten the wrong number. If we see ourselves in the widow’s position, then we are the one waiting for help; we are the one awaiting justice; we are the one in the victim’s position; we are the one awaiting consolation. But what happens when we shift ourselves to the judge’s role? – when we recognize that we have the power to effect change for a person, for a future, for life. If we think about ourselves in the judge’s position, we may find ourselves wondering if we are acting with the power we really do have – to make the difference for a widow, for our community.

Jesus reminds his listeners that if the judge manages to do the right thing, even if it’s for the wrong reason, how much more justice will God do, since God does the right thing for the right reason?! God hears the cries of people and answers them – not because they are persistent, not because they make a nuisance of themselves, not because they hammer at the gates of heaven with their requests, but God answers them simply because it is God’s nature to have mercy (Exodus 22:23).

God does the right thing, says Jesus. God is steadfastly faithful -- breaking the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. Steadfastly faithful -- bringing ex-slaves to farmable land. Steadfastly faithful -- putting up with people’s mistreatment and violation of each other. Steadfastly faithful -- bringing them back to Jerusalem after exile in Babylon, to try again, for a fresh start. Steadfast faithful -- sustaining them no matter how far from Jerusalem they go, no matter what foreign lands they travel to. God is steadfastly faithful, Jesus asserts. But, will God find faithfulness on earth? That’s the heart-pounding question Jesus asks. Will God find faithfulness on earth?

God gives us the gift of his own faithfulness. The gift of being beloved. The gift of being chosen. The gift of being unconditionally accepted, not because we are good but because we are forgiven. But will God find in us, faith?

Well, it seems to me that this question points us back to the position of the judge instead of the widow. That, in order to take Jesus’ question seriously, we need to shift position from one who comes to church seeking consolation, forgiveness, and renewal – all of which are good to seek. But for this particular Sunday, under the gift of this particular parable, let’s shift position from the one who comes to church seeking -- to the one who comes to church with something to give.

But perhaps you lack confidence in what you have to give. You may be inclined to think that, if you had been hanging around the Sea of Galilee when Jesus was calling the disciples, he would have skipped right over you and gone directly to calling Simon and Andrew. He would have picked that guy in the pew next to you. Because you, weren’t good enough. Because you didn’t have enough talent to offer. Because you didn’t have enough to give. If Jesus called you, well he just got the wrong number. But you see, there is no one better than you.

There is no one better than you to join Jesus as he walks along the lake and collects up people who need healing.

There is no one better than you to provide two fish and five loaves.

There is no one better than you to stay awake and pray with Jesus.

There is no one better than you than to give the widow the justice she needs.

There is no one better than you to offer healing.

There is no one better than you to fund this church to be the hands and feet of Jesus on Jamestown Road.

There is no one better than you.

And that’s the good news. That God isn’t expecting us to be super-heroes … but just to be faithful.

Even the unjust judge ended up doing the right thing. Surely we can do that much! Be faithful just as you are, who you are, with what you have to share – of your talents, of your personality, of your financial resources. Give of yourself generously, in the pattern of the one in whose image you are made. Give of yourself, like you would fill a cooking measure, but full to the brim and overflowing. Do as Jesus did, and Jesus will find faith on earth.

There is no one better than you.