Dave Faulkner. Musings of an evangelical Methodist minister.
A powerful meditation for one woman’s ordination into the Baptist ministry:
God’s Politics – Jim Wallis blog, faith blog, religion, christian, christianity, politics, values
Technorati Tags: ordination, ministry, Baptist, JimWallis, GeorgeWilliamson, GiniLohmannBauman
I went to a coffee morning at one of my churches this morning. Our building is next to the Post Office. Someone was going to call next door for some stamps, so I told him the background of the last two days. When Geoff was served, he was given the angel stamps. He then queried why he hadn’t been offered the Madonna and Child stamps and was told, ‘You’ll have to wait four minutes while we open the safe.’ So he let some other customers be served, and he waited the four minutes.
Having received his more overtly Christian stamps, he explained to the staff and asked why they weren’t offering both types of Christmas stamp. They said they simply kept the angel stamps out, because they were on top when the delivery arrived. The Madonna and Child stamps were put in the safe for reasons of space.
If you want to have a conspiracy theory, I guess you could wonder why the latter stamps were on the bottom of the delivery, but one set had to be, and I still suspect there is an innocent explanation for this. Certainly the postmistress told Geoff there had been no instructions from on high to favour one set of stamps over the other, and we know her quite well. I would tend to believe her.
My Chair of District assures me she sent the email (see last post) after hearing that a colleague had had this experience at a post office. Today I went to buy some stamps. I just asked for first class stamps. I thought I had been given the religious ones, but when I inspected them at home found I had just been given the generic ‘angel’ stamps, rather than the Madonna and child. Not noticing this important difference at the time, I thanked the post office clerk and told her about the email. She told me there were no instructions to withhold religious stamps. Rather, people were being sold Christmas stamps and if they objected, were being given ordinary stamps. However, in the light of what I now realise, I have emailed the following complaint on the Royal Mail website:
I went to a post office today to buy some first class stamps. While I was sold the ‘angel’ stamps, I now discover that had I wanted something more religious I could have been offered the ‘Madonna and child’ stamps. I am surprised at this reticence to offer the overtly religious stamps after last year’s furore. The angel stamps are hardly religious, with such generic words as ‘goodwill’ stripped of their Christian content. A friend of mine commented that he went to his post office in Hertfordshire, and he was not offered the religious stamps, either. I am puzzled why you do not have a policy of offering customers a choice. I hope you are not trying to make it look like there is little demand for religious stamps at Christmas. I would be grateful to know what your official policy is. I’d appreciate a written or emailed reply rather than a phone call, please. Many thanks.
My Chair of District has just forwarded an email, which she received from someone in St Albans Diocese. It contains some copied and pasted text, alleging that Royal Mail have instructed its staff only to sell this year’s Christian-themed Christmas stamps to customers who specifically request them, so they can prove there is no demand for religious stamps. There is no quoting of a source for the story. It may or may not be true. However, I can find no corroborative allegations or evidence online. Without such evidence, I am inclined to think this is another ‘scare’ email that will give Christians a bad name, rather like the petition against a supposedly Government-funded mega-mosque in east London.
Here is the text in question:
Royal Mail has traditionally
alternated between sacred and secular designs for their Christmas stamps and
this year it is the turn for a religious image. Royal Mail has issued two sets
of designs this year. The main set of designs, available in all the main
denominations is of angels, which is vaguely Christian but not explicitly so
and certainly not specifically Christmassy. They have also issued a ‘Madonna
and Child’ design for first and second class only. Post Office staff have been
instructed to only sell this design if people specifically request it, but
obviously people can’t request it if they don’t know it exists! If people don’t
buy these stamps, Royal Mail will claim there is no demand for religious
Christmas stamps and not produce them in future. Please therefore ask for
‘Madonna and Child’ stamps when you do your Christmas posting and also tell your
friends, contacts etc. to do the same. Thank You.
Does anyone know anything that would back this up, or are my suspicions justified?
Technorati Tags: StAlbansDiocese, RoyalMail, ChristmasStamps2007, petition, megamosque
Introduction
My first Remembrance Sunday in the ministry fifteen years ago will stay in my
memory. Every year in the village, there was a united service at the parish
church. I found myself in a different world, where the elderly landowner whose
portfolio included many houses in the village had a separate entrance to the
church building.
Then there was the rector. He didn’t like women, at least
not in the ministry. During my time, he quit the Church of England over the
ordination of women, took his pay-off and retired. And he didn’t like preaching
on Remembrance Sunday. Which meant the Methodist minister always had to preach.
Step forward, me.
I was given this passage from Matthew, ‘The Beatitudes’.
Feeling I had to do justice to it, I went through all eight of the Beatitudes
that morning. It’s not something I’ve done since, and it’s not something I’ll
do today.
Instead, I want to pull out the one Beatitude that has the
most obvious relevance to Remembrance Sunday: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they will be called children of God’ (verse 9). What does being a peacemaker in
God’s kingdom include? The peace of God reverses all the effects of Adam’s fall
(whether you believe that story literally or figuratively). Making peace in
every aspect of life is the kingdom call to God’s children. What might it
involve?
1. Peace With God
‘Peace
With God’ was the title of perhaps Billy
Graham’s most famous
book. Peace with God is the most basic issue of life, according to the Gospel. Adam
and Eve are fundamentally alienated from God by listening to other voices than
his, and preferring their own way. When caught out, they shift the blame – Adam
to Eve and Eve to the serpent. They are driven out of Eden.
Christ wins peace with God at the Cross. He dies in our
place. He conquers sin and death in his own death and resurrection. He brings
forgiveness of sins and new life to all who make a u-turn of their lives from
the direction of selfishness to him and his kingdom, and who put their faith in
him, following him out of gratitude. This is at the heart of the Gospel. It is
the beginning of Gospel living – not the end, but the foundation upon which
Christian discipleship is built.
This peace with God stills the troubled mind. No more
anxiety about whether God loves me or accepts me – I see it is true at the
Cross, his promises are recorded in the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit brings
truth to life in my heart.
However, this peace has more than one dimension. Not only is
it the peace of sins forgiven and acceptance by God, which itself is pretty
major: imagine what that would do to so many troubled people in our society. It
is also the peace that comes from knowing that our lives are in his hands. When
a crisis comes, or when others let us down and we struggle to trust them, it is
still possible to trust the faithful God and know peace in the middle of the
storm, because he loves us and is in charge of our lives.
Only this week has this been important for me. I faced a
situation that I can’t name publicly, but I felt someone had let me down. I’m
sure it’s because they were under stress that they made a decision that made it
look like they were hiding something. Knowing the person, I can’t imagine they
intended that. But it made me feel like something was going on that wasn’t
transparent and was being hidden, or truncated for the sake of a quick
decision. I tried to find other ways around the impasse, to no avail. In the
end, all I could do was what I should have done from the outset – acknowledge
that the God of love was in control, and that he held me, the other person and
everyone else involved in the situation in his hands. That prevented a rise in
my blood pressure! All this arises from being at peace with the God who makes
peace with us in Christ.
2. Peace With People
Something goes badly wrong between Adam and Eve. Sin is not just a private
transaction with God, even if God is the primary party affected. We hurt
others. We end up with broken and distorted relationships. For Adam and Eve,
it’s seen in the pain of childbirth and the man ruling over the woman. Neither
of these were God’s best intentions for humanity. They symbolise the fracture
that has come into the human race through sin.
But the power of the Gospel of God’s kingdom is to heal
these severed relationships. Peace with God must lead to reconciliation with
others. It’s why we have ‘The Peace’ in the communion service. It’s a more
ancient version of the Book of Common Prayer tradition that called worshippers
to be in love and charity with their neighbour before taking the sacrament.
Therefore, peace is never a private matter. If we know God
has forgiven us, then we must share that with others, as Jesus taught in the
parable of the unforgiving servant. It’s why we have the difficult words in the
Lord’s Prayer, ‘Forgive us as our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.’
Today, as we remember the deaths of those who died in international conflicts,
we must also look at our smaller, closer-to-home conflicts, and bring them to
the Cross for reconciliation.
3. Peace With The
Earth
Just giving you a title like that for this point probably makes me sound like
an eco-warrior, or a flaky New Age type. And you’re thinking, ‘He doesn’t look
like one’ (I hope!).
I am not about to spout the nonsense of those who speak
about our planet as if it were a creature, or even the goddess Gaia, but in
Genesis 3 Adam’s tilling of the soil after the Fall leads to thorns and
thistles. The close and harmonious relationship with the earth is gone. Humans
who were meant to have dominion over the earth on behalf of God now find
themselves at odds with their physical environment.
Peacemakers in God’s kingdom, then, will be concerned about
climate change and especially its effects on the world’s poorest communities.
The restoration of all that is broken requires us to be peacemakers with
creation. It is not right to say – as some fundamentalists have said – that God
gave us the earth to do with as we pleased. He entrusted us to look after it
for him. If peace is about harmony and justice, then that involves our care of
creation. It is part of being a godly peacemaker.
It was a real attraction, then, to know that the new
(Christian) head teacher of our daughter’s primary school was committed to
green issues. In teaching the children these values, she is giving a lead in
one area of Christian peace making. What steps are we taking in our family
lives, at work, and in campaigning for companies and governments to set
ambitious goals?
4. Peace At Work
Adam’s problem with tilling the ground is a problem for his work. The ground
was cursed, and he would toil as a result. Does that sound familiar to people
in work, whether paid employment or otherwise? Does it not feel like toil? How
many of us work to live, rather than live to work? The nature of the job can be
frustrating, and as for the colleagues – well, it would be easier without them
sometimes, wouldn’t it?
God made work to be good, but sin has ruined it. There is an
honourable calling in redeeming work. That may involve making the job or the
conditions better, if we have the power to do so. It may include working for
reconciliation and justice among the staff.
For me, that meant a surprise calling from God when I worked
at an office to become the office union secretary. It wasn’t all about conflict
with the management, although that happened occasionally. It was also about
caring for, and representing staff who were in difficulties.
Here is one story that became public knowledge. It involved
a young woman whose work was suffering. She asked to see me. What had affected
her work was this. She had been dating a young man from the office, and they
had gone on holiday to Majorca. While there, she discovered he was bisexual and
was seeing a man as well as her. When she confronted him with this, he beat her
senseless. She woke up in a local hospital where the staff knew little English,
and she knew hardly any Spanish. No wonder she couldn’t work well when she got
back to the office. The (now ex-) boyfriend was still there. It was my duty to
go with her to see a manager. Once they knew, they reduced their expectations
of her while she continued to recover.
There is far more to the Christian duty at work than to work
conscientiously and not steal the paper clips. We can be peacemakers, seeking
justice and reconciliation in what can be a stressful and even demoralising
atmosphere.
5. Peace In The World
If there is any allusion in Genesis 3 to the issues we commemorate on
Remembrance Sunday, it is when Adam and Eve are ejected from Eden by God. They become
refugees from one location to another. The arrival of refugees and the forced
displacement of peoples (or worse) are of course prime causes of wars. Movements
of peoples need not cause frictions, but such is human sin that they do. The Nazi
treatment of the Jews, and their invasion of Poland and other countries, is not
far from our minds today.
It is the Christian peacemaker’s calling to counter these
acts of hatred. But how we should do so is where we differ. There are many
shades of opinion about war and peace in the Christian community. (Moreover, it’s
what makes today so hard for those who lead worship: whatever convictions we
hold, there will be others who not only have come to different conclusions,
they are associated with painful real-life experience.)
You might hold that the words of Jesus expressly prohibit
all Christian involvement in war. You might not think they refer entirely to
that, but to personal relationships, and you might say that there is a case for
defending your nation against unjust attack. You might argue it is morally
acceptable to attack another nation or group in order to prevent them doing
evil. Most of those Christians who believe that war may sometimes be justified
generally agree that it must be a last resort, not a first resort, that the
response must be proportionate, and that care must be taken only to engage with
those genuinely involved in the war – not an easy matter.
There are other shades of opinion, too. And I confess I am
setting out some of the different ideas, because over the years my own views
have changed. At heart, I am probably a pacifist, although there is something
in my head that thinks a just war – such as the Second World War – may well be
acceptable biblically. Yet I can’t imagine myself killing an enemy combatant,
although I might feel differently if I thought my own family were threatened. And
that probably makes me a hypocrite: why defend my own family this way, but not
others? However, perhaps my struggles with this theme are echoed by some of
you.
However, I am convinced of this: we all who are followers of
Jesus need to acknowledge that it is central to our discipleship that our peace
making means we oppose injustice and violence, and that we are on the side of
the poor and oppressed. We may honestly disagree about strategies and tactics,
but we may not un-church each other on this issue. Our unity is in Christ, who
has reconciled us to God and each other through the Cross. It is that
reconciliation which leads us not only to campaign in the world; it is also a
reconciliation that we, the children of God – God’s family – need to model as
the community of his kingdom. Christian peace making is not merely something we
speak about: it is something we show by the way that we live. ‘They shall know
we are Christians by our love.’ ‘See how they love one another.’
Technorati Tags: RemembranceSunday, peace, Beatitudes, BillyGraham, reconciliation, justice, Gaia, climatechange, globalwarming, work, war, Nazis, Jews, Poland, pacifism, justwar
Introduction
My parents didn’t have a television when I was born. (Yes, I am that old.) They
first had one when I was about five. They must have been alert even then to the
dangers of television corrupting young minds, and limited what they allowed me to
watch. American imports came under particular suspicion, especially Batman.
They didn’t ban me from watching cartoons, although I think they frowned on
them. I did manage to watch The
Impossibles and Wacky
Races. Blue Peter passed
the parental test. That was factual and educational.
But not a lot else did. Certainly, they deemed cartoons frivolous and mind
rotting.
Only in adult life have I come to see that cartoons are more
than just the frivolous. They can be humorous, but making a point. The Simpsons are perhaps the classic
example. Children can laugh at the antics of this four-fingered yellow-skinned
American family, but adults can detect a deeper message, a satire. And away
from the television or cinema screen, cartoonists – such as in newspapers –
pull a similar trick. Their exaggeration is part of an effect that is not
merely meant to make us laugh, but to get over a point. Margaret Thatcher’s
large nose, Cherie Blair’s wide mouth, or a grumpy Gordon Brown are depicted so
that a message about them may be conveyed.
So can I suggest to you that Jesus was a cartoonist? A
cartoonist with words. He painted extreme and ridiculous images with words to
startle us into thinking about God and his kingdom, and responding
appropriately. I view today’s parable, about the unjust judge, as something
like a cartoon. It depicts extreme characters in order to make us take prayer
seriously. Let’s spend some time thinking about the two key characters of the
judge and the widow. And then let’s see where they and the story lead us in
terms of our attitudes to prayer.
1. The Characters
The Judge
How crazy is it for Jesus to liken his loving heavenly Father to an unjust
judge? This week one minister
said it would be
blasphemous, were not so much like something out of Monty
Python for Jesus to make such a comparison.
And so it is. The judge is a terrible character![1]
By fearing neither God nor people, he contravenes Old Testament criteria for
judges in Israel. He is the type that prophets like Amos would have condemned. Such
judges were known in New Testament times, too. People made a pun on their actual
title in Hebrew to call them ‘Robber Judges.’ Some were known to pervert justice
for a dish of meat.
In fact, it’s worse than not respecting people. Jesus is
saying that the judge had no sense of shame. And that is the worst condemnation
for someone in the Middle East. It is not enough to say to someone, ‘You have
done wrong!’ It is more effective to say, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself!’
If he feels no shame, then no appeal to morality will hold any sway with him. What
will? A bribe. Nothing else.
How unlike God he is, then. In contrast, God has no reason
to feel shame. God is not a robber, but a generous giver. He cannot be bribed,
and would not want to be. Yet the judge fulfils the ‘God’ rôle in the parable.
The Widow
Widows and orphans were those had first tight of call upon a judge, according
to Jewish interpretation of Isaiah and other scriptures. They are the most
vulnerable, with no one to protect them, especially in a male-dominated
society. If a widow owned anything or was entitled to anything of value, you
could be sure that human vultures would attempt to take it from her. We can be sure,
indeed, that she has gone to the judge over a financial matter, since a matter
of money was one issue in which a judge could sit alone, without colleagues.
The widow need not necessarily be elderly – not in a culture
where women married at thirteen or fourteen. It is quite possible that her
husband has died young (life expectancy not being what it is in our society),
and she has been left with young children to raise. She needs all she can have,
and comes to the judge crying out not for vengeance but for justice.
She has no male representatives to go to the judge for her. Otherwise,
she would not have gone to court – a man would have gone in her stead. She would
have stayed at home. She also has neither the means nor the inclination to bribe
the judge. What hope has she? She arrives; perhaps there are others who want
their cases heard, too. Some of the more sophisticated and wealthy petitioners
may be having quiet words with officials, paying ‘fees’ – a euphemism for
bribes – and being heard first.
What can she do? She can do what men fear of women: she can
nag. She can also take advantage of the fact that a man who shouted at a judge
for justice might fear for his life, but a woman’s life would be respected and
honoured. For all her disadvantages, she has a certain safety in going to
court, regardless of her chances of success. So she goes – and rightly milks
the advantage she has. What does she have to lose? She doesn’t own anything
anyway. She wears the judge out with her persistent cries for justice. Even a
man who doesn’t have any sense of personal honour, with whom the moral appeal
won’t work, can be worn down.
2. Prayer
Persistence
Last week, American media
reported the story of a woman who passed out with shock at her husband’s
funeral. She was rushed to hospital, where her jewellery was removed for
safekeeping by her son. He put it in a rubber glove, but then mislaid it. The hospital
said it would have been collected with the rubbish and sent to a landfill site.
The family called the waste management company that had
taken the ‘trash’ from the hospital. They had not disposed of that particular
consignment yet. They agreed to deposit it at their site, separate from other
rubbish. The family and a hospital official – who refused pay for this – began to
search for the jewellery, while dressed in protective plastic clothing, and
enduring a hot day.
After seven hours, the family members were exhausted, and
were ready to quit. But the hospital official said,
“I prayed to God and pulled one more bag — because we were
about exhausted — and our prayers were answered. There it was.”
The official said it illustrated the principle by which he
lives:
“Don’t give up five minutes before the miracle.”
I found this story via an American Methodist with a healing
ministry. He
commented:
How often do we give up 5 minutes before God answers our
prayers?
Time and time again I read of healing that doesn’t come from the first time
that prayer and laying upon of hands is offered. So often it comes after much
prayer, and many healing sessions. How often do we pray for someone or
something, then give up on God? How often do we feel that our prayers are fruitless?
How often do we give up rather than persist in prayer?
There’s a person in my life for whom I pray and get tempted to think God has
not heard my prayers. This person’s situation is getting worse rather than
better. But I persist. I know that God hears my prayers and is responding to
them. Over the course of time my prayers are being honed into more focused and
insightful supplications. I seek a deeper understanding of how God’s mercy and
grace work in those praying and those being prayed for. And when doubt enters,
I hearken back to the words of the [hospital official] … and endeavour not to
give up 5 minutes before the miracle.
One person who read the story offered this response:
This reminds me of a wood festival that I went to this
summer. I paid £5 for the privilege of climbing a 70 foot pole lumberjack style
– wearing spiked boots and using a strap.
It was surprisingly exhausting. I stopped at what I thought was about 3/4 of
the way up, too tired to keep going. When I looked up to see how much farther I
still had to drag myself I discovered all I needed to do to touch the top was
reach up a bit with my hand.
When you feel too tired to keep going, look up. You might be a lot closer to
your destination than you think.
Right at the outset, Luke lays out the reason for Jesus
telling his disciples this parable:
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray
always and not to lose heart. (Verse 1)
Don’t lose heart, says Jesus. The widow didn’t. Don’t you,
either. You’re not coming to an unjust judge, but to a loving Father. Don’t let
hope slip away. God the Father is the God of hope. Keep going.
Where are you losing hope? Where are you being tempted to
give up? Jesus invites us to remember – along with that hospital official –
that we might only be five minutes away from a miracle.
Persistent Prayer Is
A Sign Of Faith
Jesus doesn’t just want gently to encourage us to be persistent. He says something
stronger than that. He wants us to do so as a sign of genuine faith:
‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant
justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in
helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when
the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ (Verses 6-8)
God will help his people. He will be patient with us,
because he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, as the Psalmist
says. He knows we are weak and sinful, but that will not change his loving and
merciful desire to help us. And if we know God is like that, then we couple
persistent prayer with audacious faith. Because God is good, we persistently and
daringly ask him for good things.
Another
American Methodist I’ve read this week had collected a series of
secular quotes on this theme of audacity. They might illuminate the point I
am trying to make:
The fifteenth century priest Erasmus said, ‘Fortune favours
the audacious.’
An unknown source said, ‘Audacity has made kings.’
Publilius
Syrus, a first century BC Roman author, said, ‘Audacity augments courage;
hesitations, fear.’
Benjamin
Disraeli said, ‘Success is the child of audacity.’
And finally, von
Goethe said, ‘In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no
talent is conceivable.’
Jesus wants us to be bold as well as persistent in prayer. In
the Lord’s Prayer he has us praying for the kingdom of God to come, paralleled
with the request for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven. That’s big! This
is not, ‘Lord, may I have a Mars Bar’ prayer. This is big stuff.
But we can learn from children. Because we are God’s children,
we are encouraged, if not urged to pray, just as a parent would think there
were something strange about their child if it did not bring requests. In my
four and a half years’ experience as a parent, I find that when Rebekah wants
something, one thing I cannot do is pretend she has not asked for it! She will
repeat it, and repeat it. Moreover, the volume of her voice will probably
increase!
Keep going! Be bold! The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ is no unjust judge. He will hear us much more willingly than the unjust
judge entertained the widow. Do not lose hope. Keep praying. And keep praying
for Big Things.
[1]
What follows is based on Kenneth
Bailey, Through
Peasant Eyes, pp 127-141.
Technorati Tags: prayer, faith, unjustjudge, widow, Batman, cartoons, TheImpossibles, WackyRaces, BluePeter, TheSimpsons, MargaretThatcher, CherieBlair, GordonBrown, MontyPython, KennethBailey, BrotherMarty, Erasmus, PubliliusSyrus, BenjaminDisraeli, vonGoethe
Introduction
My parents didn’t have a television when I was born. (Yes, I am that old.) They
first had one when I was about five. They must have been alert even then to the
dangers of television corrupting young minds, and limited what they allowed me to
watch. American imports came under particular suspicion, especially Batman.
They didn’t ban me from watching cartoons, although I think they frowned on
them. I did manage to watch The
Impossibles and Wacky
Races. Blue Peter passed
the parental test. That was factual and educational.
But not a lot else did. Certainly, they deemed cartoons frivolous and mind
rotting.
Only in adult life have I come to see that cartoons are more
than just the frivolous. They can be humorous, but making a point. The Simpsons are perhaps the classic
example. Children can laugh at the antics of this four-fingered yellow-skinned
American family, but adults can detect a deeper message, a satire. And away
from the television or cinema screen, cartoonists – such as in newspapers –
pull a similar trick. Their exaggeration is part of an effect that is not
merely meant to make us laugh, but to get over a point. Margaret Thatcher’s
large nose, Cherie Blair’s wide mouth, or a grumpy Gordon Brown are depicted so
that a message about them may be conveyed.
So can I suggest to you that Jesus was a cartoonist? A
cartoonist with words. He painted extreme and ridiculous images with words to
startle us into thinking about God and his kingdom, and responding
appropriately. I view today’s parable, about the unjust judge, as something
like a cartoon. It depicts extreme characters in order to make us take prayer
seriously. Let’s spend some time thinking about the two key characters of the
judge and the widow. And then let’s see where they and the story lead us in
terms of our attitudes to prayer.
1. The Characters
The Judge
How crazy is it for Jesus to liken his loving heavenly Father to an unjust
judge? This week one minister
said it would be
blasphemous, were not so much like something out of Monty
Python for Jesus to make such a comparison.
And so it is. The judge is a terrible character![1]
By fearing neither God nor people, he contravenes Old Testament criteria for
judges in Israel. He is the type that prophets like Amos would have condemned. Such
judges were known in New Testament times, too. People made a pun on their actual
title in Hebrew to call them ‘Robber Judges.’ Some were known to pervert justice
for a dish of meat.
In fact, it’s worse than not respecting people. Jesus is
saying that the judge had no sense of shame. And that is the worst condemnation
for someone in the Middle East. It is not enough to say to someone, ‘You have
done wrong!’ It is more effective to say, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself!’
If he feels no shame, then no appeal to morality will hold any sway with him. What
will? A bribe. Nothing else.
How unlike God he is, then. In contrast, God has no reason
to feel shame. God is not a robber, but a generous giver. He cannot be bribed,
and would not want to be. Yet the judge fulfils the ‘God’ rôle in the parable.
The Widow
Widows and orphans were those had first tight of call upon a judge, according
to Jewish interpretation of Isaiah and other scriptures. They are the most
vulnerable, with no one to protect them, especially in a male-dominated
society. If a widow owned anything or was entitled to anything of value, you
could be sure that human vultures would attempt to take it from her. We can be sure,
indeed, that she has gone to the judge over a financial matter, since a matter
of money was one issue in which a judge could sit alone, without colleagues.
The widow need not necessarily be elderly – not in a culture
where women married at thirteen or fourteen. It is quite possible that her
husband has died young (life expectancy not being what it is in our society),
and she has been left with young children to raise. She needs all she can have,
and comes to the judge crying out not for vengeance but for justice.
She has no male representatives to go to the judge for her. Otherwise,
she would not have gone to court – a man would have gone in her stead. She would
have stayed at home. She also has neither the means nor the inclination to bribe
the judge. What hope has she? She arrives; perhaps there are others who want
their cases heard, too. Some of the more sophisticated and wealthy petitioners
may be having quiet words with officials, paying ‘fees’ – a euphemism for
bribes – and being heard first.
What can she do? She can do what men fear of women: she can
nag. She can also take advantage of the fact that a man who shouted at a judge
for justice might fear for his life, but a woman’s life would be respected and
honoured. For all her disadvantages, she has a certain safety in going to
court, regardless of her chances of success. So she goes – and rightly milks
the advantage she has. What does she have to lose? She doesn’t own anything
anyway. She wears the judge out with her persistent cries for justice. Even a
man who doesn’t have any sense of personal honour, with whom the moral appeal
won’t work, can be worn down.
2. Prayer
Persistence
Last week, American media
reported the story of a woman who passed out with shock at her husband’s
funeral. She was rushed to hospital, where her jewellery was removed for
safekeeping by her son. He put it in a rubber glove, but then mislaid it. The hospital
said it would have been collected with the rubbish and sent to a landfill site.
The family called the waste management company that had
taken the ‘trash’ from the hospital. They had not disposed of that particular
consignment yet. They agreed to deposit it at their site, separate from other
rubbish. The family and a hospital official – who refused pay for this – began to
search for the jewellery, while dressed in protective plastic clothing, and
enduring a hot day.
After seven hours, the family members were exhausted, and
were ready to quit. But the hospital official said,
“I prayed to God and pulled one more bag — because we were
about exhausted — and our prayers were answered. There it was.”
The official said it illustrated the principle by which he
lives:
“Don’t give up five minutes before the miracle.”
I found this story via an American Methodist with a healing
ministry. He
commented:
How often do we give up 5 minutes before God answers our
prayers?
Time and time again I read of healing that doesn’t come from the first time
that prayer and laying upon of hands is offered. So often it comes after much
prayer, and many healing sessions. How often do we pray for someone or
something, then give up on God? How often do we feel that our prayers are fruitless?
How often do we give up rather than persist in prayer?
There’s a person in my life for whom I pray and get tempted to think God has
not heard my prayers. This person’s situation is getting worse rather than
better. But I persist. I know that God hears my prayers and is responding to
them. Over the course of time my prayers are being honed into more focused and
insightful supplications. I seek a deeper understanding of how God’s mercy and
grace work in those praying and those being prayed for. And when doubt enters,
I hearken back to the words of the [hospital official] … and endeavour not to
give up 5 minutes before the miracle.
One person who read the story offered this response:
This reminds me of a wood festival that I went to this
summer. I paid £5 for the privilege of climbing a 70 foot pole lumberjack style
– wearing spiked boots and using a strap.
It was surprisingly exhausting. I stopped at what I thought was about 3/4 of
the way up, too tired to keep going. When I looked up to see how much farther I
still had to drag myself I discovered all I needed to do to touch the top was
reach up a bit with my hand.
When you feel too tired to keep going, look up. You might be a lot closer to
your destination than you think.
Right at the outset, Luke lays out the reason for Jesus
telling his disciples this parable:
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray
always and not to lose heart. (Verse 1)
Don’t lose heart, says Jesus. The widow didn’t. Don’t you,
either. You’re not coming to an unjust judge, but to a loving Father. Don’t let
hope slip away. God the Father is the God of hope. Keep going.
Where are you losing hope? Where are you being tempted to
give up? Jesus invites us to remember – along with that hospital official –
that we might only be five minutes away from a miracle.
Persistent Prayer Is
A Sign Of Faith
Jesus doesn’t just want gently to encourage us to be persistent. He says something
stronger than that. He wants us to do so as a sign of genuine faith:
‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant
justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in
helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when
the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ (Verses 6-8)
God will help his people. He will be patient with us,
because he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, as the Psalmist
says. He knows we are weak and sinful, but that will not change his loving and
merciful desire to help us. And if we know God is like that, then we couple
persistent prayer with audacious faith. Because God is good, we persistently and
daringly ask him for good things.
Another
American Methodist I’ve read this week had collected a series of
secular quotes on this theme of audacity. They might illuminate the point I
am trying to make:
The fifteenth century priest Erasmus said, ‘Fortune favours
the audacious.’
An unknown source said, ‘Audacity has made kings.’
Publilius
Syrus, a first century BC Roman author, said, ‘Audacity augments courage;
hesitations, fear.’
Benjamin
Disraeli said, ‘Success is the child of audacity.’
And finally, von
Goethe said, ‘In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no
talent is conceivable.’
Jesus wants us to be bold as well as persistent in prayer. In
the Lord’s Prayer he has us praying for the kingdom of God to come, paralleled
with the request for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven. That’s big! This
is not, ‘Lord, may I have a Mars Bar’ prayer. This is big stuff.
But we can learn from children. Because we are God’s children,
we are encouraged, if not urged to pray, just as a parent would think there
were something strange about their child if it did not bring requests. In my
four and a half years’ experience as a parent, I find that when Rebekah wants
something, one thing I cannot do is pretend she has not asked for it! She will
repeat it, and repeat it. Moreover, the volume of her voice will probably
increase!
Keep going! Be bold! The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ is no unjust judge. He will hear us much more willingly than the unjust
judge entertained the widow. Do not lose hope. Keep praying. And keep praying
for Big Things.
[1]
What follows is based on Kenneth
Bailey, Through
Peasant Eyes, pp 127-141.
Technorati Tags: prayer, faith, unjustjudge, widow, Batman, cartoons, TheImpossibles, WackyRaces, BluePeter, TheSimpsons, MargaretThatcher, CherieBlair, GordonBrown, MontyPython, KennethBailey, BrotherMarty, Erasmus, PubliliusSyrus, BenjaminDisraeli, vonGoethe
Introduction
My parents didn’t have a television when I was born. (Yes, I am that old.) They
first had one when I was about five. They must have been alert even then to the
dangers of television corrupting young minds, and limited what they allowed me to
watch. American imports came under particular suspicion, especially Batman.
They didn’t ban me from watching cartoons, although I think they frowned on
them. I did manage to watch The
Impossibles and Wacky
Races. Blue Peter passed
the parental test. That was factual and educational.
But not a lot else did. Certainly, they deemed cartoons frivolous and mind
rotting.
Only in adult life have I come to see that cartoons are more
than just the frivolous. They can be humorous, but making a point. The Simpsons are perhaps the classic
example. Children can laugh at the antics of this four-fingered yellow-skinned
American family, but adults can detect a deeper message, a satire. And away
from the television or cinema screen, cartoonists – such as in newspapers –
pull a similar trick. Their exaggeration is part of an effect that is not
merely meant to make us laugh, but to get over a point. Margaret Thatcher’s
large nose, Cherie Blair’s wide mouth, or a grumpy Gordon Brown are depicted so
that a message about them may be conveyed.
So can I suggest to you that Jesus was a cartoonist? A
cartoonist with words. He painted extreme and ridiculous images with words to
startle us into thinking about God and his kingdom, and responding
appropriately. I view today’s parable, about the unjust judge, as something
like a cartoon. It depicts extreme characters in order to make us take prayer
seriously. Let’s spend some time thinking about the two key characters of the
judge and the widow. And then let’s see where they and the story lead us in
terms of our attitudes to prayer.
1. The Characters
The Judge
How crazy is it for Jesus to liken his loving heavenly Father to an unjust
judge? This week one minister
said it would be
blasphemous, were not so much like something out of Monty
Python for Jesus to make such a comparison.
And so it is. The judge is a terrible character![1]
By fearing neither God nor people, he contravenes Old Testament criteria for
judges in Israel. He is the type that prophets like Amos would have condemned. Such
judges were known in New Testament times, too. People made a pun on their actual
title in Hebrew to call them ‘Robber Judges.’ Some were known to pervert justice
for a dish of meat.
In fact, it’s worse than not respecting people. Jesus is
saying that the judge had no sense of shame. And that is the worst condemnation
for someone in the Middle East. It is not enough to say to someone, ‘You have
done wrong!’ It is more effective to say, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself!’
If he feels no shame, then no appeal to morality will hold any sway with him. What
will? A bribe. Nothing else.
How unlike God he is, then. In contrast, God has no reason
to feel shame. God is not a robber, but a generous giver. He cannot be bribed,
and would not want to be. Yet the judge fulfils the ‘God’ rôle in the parable.
The Widow
Widows and orphans were those had first tight of call upon a judge, according
to Jewish interpretation of Isaiah and other scriptures. They are the most
vulnerable, with no one to protect them, especially in a male-dominated
society. If a widow owned anything or was entitled to anything of value, you
could be sure that human vultures would attempt to take it from her. We can be sure,
indeed, that she has gone to the judge over a financial matter, since a matter
of money was one issue in which a judge could sit alone, without colleagues.
The widow need not necessarily be elderly – not in a culture
where women married at thirteen or fourteen. It is quite possible that her
husband has died young (life expectancy not being what it is in our society),
and she has been left with young children to raise. She needs all she can have,
and comes to the judge crying out not for vengeance but for justice.
She has no male representatives to go to the judge for her. Otherwise,
she would not have gone to court – a man would have gone in her stead. She would
have stayed at home. She also has neither the means nor the inclination to bribe
the judge. What hope has she? She arrives; perhaps there are others who want
their cases heard, too. Some of the more sophisticated and wealthy petitioners
may be having quiet words with officials, paying ‘fees’ – a euphemism for
bribes – and being heard first.
What can she do? She can do what men fear of women: she can
nag. She can also take advantage of the fact that a man who shouted at a judge
for justice might fear for his life, but a woman’s life would be respected and
honoured. For all her disadvantages, she has a certain safety in going to
court, regardless of her chances of success. So she goes – and rightly milks
the advantage she has. What does she have to lose? She doesn’t own anything
anyway. She wears the judge out with her persistent cries for justice. Even a
man who doesn’t have any sense of personal honour, with whom the moral appeal
won’t work, can be worn down.
2. Prayer
Persistence
Last week, American media
reported the story of a woman who passed out with shock at her husband’s
funeral. She was rushed to hospital, where her jewellery was removed for
safekeeping by her son. He put it in a rubber glove, but then mislaid it. The hospital
said it would have been collected with the rubbish and sent to a landfill site.
The family called the waste management company that had
taken the ‘trash’ from the hospital. They had not disposed of that particular
consignment yet. They agreed to deposit it at their site, separate from other
rubbish. The family and a hospital official – who refused pay for this – began to
search for the jewellery, while dressed in protective plastic clothing, and
enduring a hot day.
After seven hours, the family members were exhausted, and
were ready to quit. But the hospital official said,
“I prayed to God and pulled one more bag — because we were
about exhausted — and our prayers were answered. There it was.”
The official said it illustrated the principle by which he
lives:
“Don’t give up five minutes before the miracle.”
I found this story via an American Methodist with a healing
ministry. He
commented:
How often do we give up 5 minutes before God answers our
prayers?
Time and time again I read of healing that doesn’t come from the first time
that prayer and laying upon of hands is offered. So often it comes after much
prayer, and many healing sessions. How often do we pray for someone or
something, then give up on God? How often do we feel that our prayers are fruitless?
How often do we give up rather than persist in prayer?
There’s a person in my life for whom I pray and get tempted to think God has
not heard my prayers. This person’s situation is getting worse rather than
better. But I persist. I know that God hears my prayers and is responding to
them. Over the course of time my prayers are being honed into more focused and
insightful supplications. I seek a deeper understanding of how God’s mercy and
grace work in those praying and those being prayed for. And when doubt enters,
I hearken back to the words of the [hospital official] … and endeavour not to
give up 5 minutes before the miracle.
One person who read the story offered this response:
This reminds me of a wood festival that I went to this
summer. I paid £5 for the privilege of climbing a 70 foot pole lumberjack style
– wearing spiked boots and using a strap.
It was surprisingly exhausting. I stopped at what I thought was about 3/4 of
the way up, too tired to keep going. When I looked up to see how much farther I
still had to drag myself I discovered all I needed to do to touch the top was
reach up a bit with my hand.
When you feel too tired to keep going, look up. You might be a lot closer to
your destination than you think.
Right at the outset, Luke lays out the reason for Jesus
telling his disciples this parable:
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray
always and not to lose heart. (Verse 1)
Don’t lose heart, says Jesus. The widow didn’t. Don’t you,
either. You’re not coming to an unjust judge, but to a loving Father. Don’t let
hope slip away. God the Father is the God of hope. Keep going.
Where are you losing hope? Where are you being tempted to
give up? Jesus invites us to remember – along with that hospital official –
that we might only be five minutes away from a miracle.
Persistent Prayer Is
A Sign Of Faith
Jesus doesn’t just want gently to encourage us to be persistent. He says something
stronger than that. He wants us to do so as a sign of genuine faith:
‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant
justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in
helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when
the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ (Verses 6-8)
God will help his people. He will be patient with us,
because he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, as the Psalmist
says. He knows we are weak and sinful, but that will not change his loving and
merciful desire to help us. And if we know God is like that, then we couple
persistent prayer with audacious faith. Because God is good, we persistently and
daringly ask him for good things.
Another
American Methodist I’ve read this week had collected a series of
secular quotes on this theme of audacity. They might illuminate the point I
am trying to make:
The fifteenth century priest Erasmus said, ‘Fortune favours
the audacious.’
An unknown source said, ‘Audacity has made kings.’
Publilius
Syrus, a first century BC Roman author, said, ‘Audacity augments courage;
hesitations, fear.’
Benjamin
Disraeli said, ‘Success is the child of audacity.’
And finally, von
Goethe said, ‘In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no
talent is conceivable.’
Jesus wants us to be bold as well as persistent in prayer. In
the Lord’s Prayer he has us praying for the kingdom of God to come, paralleled
with the request for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven. That’s big! This
is not, ‘Lord, may I have a Mars Bar’ prayer. This is big stuff.
But we can learn from children. Because we are God’s children,
we are encouraged, if not urged to pray, just as a parent would think there
were something strange about their child if it did not bring requests. In my
four and a half years’ experience as a parent, I find that when Rebekah wants
something, one thing I cannot do is pretend she has not asked for it! She will
repeat it, and repeat it. Moreover, the volume of her voice will probably
increase!
Keep going! Be bold! The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ is no unjust judge. He will hear us much more willingly than the unjust
judge entertained the widow. Do not lose hope. Keep praying. And keep praying
for Big Things.
[1]
What follows is based on Kenneth
Bailey, Through
Peasant Eyes, pp 127-141.
Technorati Tags: prayer, faith, unjustjudge, widow, Batman, cartoons, TheImpossibles, WackyRaces, BluePeter, TheSimpsons, MargaretThatcher, CherieBlair, GordonBrown, MontyPython, KennethBailey, BrotherMarty, Erasmus, PubliliusSyrus, BenjaminDisraeli, vonGoethe
And you thought only American Christianity produced tacky toys and souvenirs:
Anglican archbishops to star atop Christmas tree
Technorati Tags: Christmas, RowanWilliams, tat
Doesn’t surprise me, I’m afraid:
Study reveals stressed out 7-11 year-olds | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk
In the 1980s when I was a civil servant, we were one of Maggie Thatcher’s political footballs, kicked everywhere to score cheap goals in Parliament. Later administrations have done the same to teachers. But the Thatcher government instituted tests that made children the ongoing political footballs, along with the teachers. League tables. SATs. Subsequent Prime Ministers have not had the inclination to withdraw the SATs. They play to the gallery of pushy, ambitious parents. Isn’t this something the church should speak up about? This short book helps with ministry to ‘tweenagers’, but as well as minister to (with?) them, we need to advocate their cause in society. We campaign about other forms of abuse: what about this?
Technorati Tags: education, children, stress, SATs, tweenagers
Big Circumstance 