October 2023 Magazine letter
There is a parable that could have been written specially for a post-Covid church. It goes…
‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”‘
The judge is without honour, shameless in fact. It is the widow’s right to demand the protection from the judge for he stands in the place of God to administer justice under the Law – and widows, orphans and foreigners are given special protection under the Law of Moses (eg Ex. 22.21-24). But the judge is shameless and will not act for the widow – this would be a scandal to the first hearers of the parable. He only gives in because she ‘upwpiazh (hypopiazee – gave him a metaphorical black eye). She was like a Mohammed Ali jab that just keeps coming. This widow is not so weak or helpless, she has spirit and determination and will not give in, she just keeps coming – she persists.
If we add the usual beginning to a parable, ‘the of God is like…’ the story becomes even more surprising. How can the Kingdom of God, or the rule of God, be like a widow who will not give up demanding justice from an unjust judge? But then the penny drops and we get the idea that the Kingdom of God is a state of existence that happens when people show compassion and forgiveness to one another, and will not give up, but will persist against whatever barriers are put in their way. And the Kingdom will keep coming.
To paraphrase the Rev. Dr Giles Fraser, ‘Our job is to hold out in difficult times. To say our prayers, to celebrate the sacraments, to look after our parish. Faithfulness to this, rather than frenetic and nervous reinvention, is the order of the day.’ Like the widow, we must persist, even when we are out of fashion and people no longer gather for worship as they once did. We must be tenacious and hold on to the teaching of Jesus, and have faith that it will make a difference. Even though our numbers be fewer, like yeast in a loaf, we will make a difference, if we don’t give up.
William