Isaiah 58,1-12 Luke 18,1-8 AACC S Advisory committee on Peace Nairobi, 4 December 2013 Rev Priscille Djomhoué NJB Isaiah 58:1 Shout for all you are worth, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet. To my people proclaim their rebellious acts, to the House of Jacob, their sins. 2 They seek for me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that has acted uprightly and not forsaken the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are upright; they long to be near God: 3 'Why have we fasted, if you do not see, why mortify ourselves if you never notice?' Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fast days and you exploit all your workmen; 4 look, the only purpose of your fasting is to quarrel and squabble and strike viciously with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high. 5 Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself? Hanging your head like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh? 6 Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke. to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? 7 Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin? 8 Then your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice will go ahead of you and Yahweh's glory come behind you. 9 Then you will cry for help and Yahweh will answer; you will call and he will say, 'I am here.' If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words, 10 if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkest hour will be like noon. 1
11 Yahweh will always guide you, will satisfy your needs in the scorched land; he will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry. 12 Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will build on age -- old foundations. You will be called 'Breach-mender', 'Restorer of streets to be lived in'. NJB Luke 18:1 Then he told them a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. 2 'There was a judge in a certain town,' he said, 'who had neither fear of God nor respect for anyone. 3 In the same town there was also a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, "I want justice from you against my enemy!" 4 For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, "Even though I have neither fear of God nor respect for any human person, 5 I must give this widow her just rights since she keeps pestering me, or she will come and slap me in the face." ' 6 And the Lord said, 'You notice what the unjust judge has to say? 7 Now, will not God see justice done to his elect if they keep calling to him day and night even though he still delays to help them? 8 I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of man comes, will he find any faith on earth?' 2
Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke. to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? "Even though I have neither fear of God nor respect for any human person, I must give this widow her just rights since she keeps pestering me, or she will come and slap me in the face." Dear brothers and sisters let me, as a prelude to the sermon express my gratitude to AACC for its invitation to me to be part of its advisory committee on Peace, and to share with you the word of God, on the occasion of its first meeting. The proposed texts for the sermon are taken from the book of Isaiah58,1-12, and the gospel of Luke chapter 18, verses 1 to 8. In the book of Isaiah, God define what He expects from the believers as a kind of mandate related to their Faith: being a believer and a Christian today invites people to break the barriers of injustice, and to break all yokes. The Gospel puts in a kind of drama, a poor widow seeking for justice in an unjust context. Commentators called this portion of the Gospel, the parable of the unjust judge and the persistent widow. Luke shows two characters: an unjust judge and a widow who defend herself emphatically. Then, he mentions some explanations of the Lord before concluding with a double lesson which embraces by analogy the divine action (8a) and human behavior (8b). The meaning is that justification, in fact, results from the combined action of God and the widow. By introducing this parable, Luke is careful to express its sense: unceasing prayer and the fight against discouragement are essential. He begins the story with a brief description of the immoral judge. He fails to mention any action from him, indicating therefore that he does nothing. From the widow, he provides no description of her character, but focuses on what she does: she goes to the judge and requires from him to take care of her case. This approach by the gesture and speech repeats. But we are facing a kind of deadlocked because the widow wants the judge to act, but he insists on turning a deaf ear. The narrative pauses as for now, the situation is blocked. The thing which prevents the action is not a lack of will. Instead, the judge does not lack 3
character, but his will is the fact of not wanting: in verse 4 it is said that «he did not want." What thus raising the story is not an initiative of the widow, but a reflection of the inner judge: Let me insist. We are taught that the judge is unfair «And he said if I do not even fear God nor respect human ". And we learn at the same time that he finally decides to act and he will do it for not honorable reasons, "Well, because this widow bothers me, I will do her justice, so she will not come without end." The judge intervenes, and the widow will be restored in her right. Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, the long wait responds sudden decision, written in a specific time; sustainable frustration reached a satisfaction that will last for long. It's a happy ending even if it is for a dishonorable reason. In this parable the Lord directs our gaze and our thinking toward these two characters. He invites us to listen actively, that is to say, to reflect on the character of the persistent widow. The evangelist gives the widow a community value: she is the figure of God's elect people, the community of men and women believers. A community marked by multifaceted and multidimensional crisis. The Lord invites us to capture the parable and to apply it in our own fate and life. This widow is the incarnation of dependency and vulnerability. Deprived of her husband, she seems here, surrounded by no children. So alone, she is exposed to all sorts of excesses and drift, egos and pressure from some powerful people of the society. Indeed, this widow who continues to seek justice from a judge who neither feared God, nor respect human being knows her society very well. She knows that in her society, the role of people of the law or judges, the role of leaders, economists, religious, and so on is in principle to re-codify the laws so that they work for justice. But the laws are applied in such a way that they are to serve some ruling elites. In other words, the laws are good and it is possible to apply them in an unbiased way. But the reality is that they are applied so as to protect and enhance the privileges of some ruling elites while coming in support of societal structures of oppression. It can happen that one makes use of the law, and even religious practice to support oppression and make accomplices rather than promote life. In the society of the widow, what is a priority for the judge is not his allegiance over to justice, but the support to the people who appointed him and to whom he owes his position. The judge in fact did 4
what he was told to do by contagion and against the law, and he uses his position to fill his pockets. The widow is a heroine whose voice broke the culture of silence. She is a smart woman who knows the system and the place she occupies. She knows that in this system, she does not have all the assets in her game. What does she do to bring the judge to change? She refused to remain silent in the oppression she undergoes, and the judge, after she persisted, gives her a favorable verdict. But the truth is that the widow took the necessary time; the text emphasizes on her perseverance. Knowing her context, she could solve the problem in a very short time, that is to say, by bribing the judge who expected this. But she chooses prayer, action and patience. God promises vindication to his elected who demonstrate their loyalty by constant prayer: God is on the side of those who cry to him day and night and who act justly. In sum, while praying, the widow refuses to walk on the way of injustice. Reading this text in the African context, we reflect on the question to know how to get out of injustice and poverty in a large continent where some leaders are trying to maintain the status quo? How to get out of injustice when we ourselves participate and maintain the corruption by our actions or by our resignation? When taking into account the talking and the thinking of many of us, it emerges that in many of our different countries, we can only succeed either if we have the money to bribe, or the support of a leader. This other philosophy of life gradually crystallized in truths and standards to the point that one is considered to be abnormal if he does not compromise. Everyone in Africa, Christians or believers complains about everyone, everyone complains of corruption and everyone is corrupted and corrupts either actively or by the act of keeping silent by indifference or by complicity: Where is the determination, the persistence and perseverance, the patience of this widow without support, in our lives as men and women believers? In this advent period, how are we preparing to welcome the Son of Light who is coming soon? When the Son of man comes, will he find any faith on earth, and especially in our big and statistically full African parishes or churches? 5
Our churches, despite the reform still have aspects of clericalism which tends to avoid challenging questions. But to keep quiet and to stay indifferent as baptized, as a stakeholder in the Church may be a sign of cowardice and hurt the Church as well. For every Christian and church, Reform is a process that does not stop, a process that does not stop until the awaited kingdom of God arrives. Preparing the coming of Jesus invites us to rethink, and to reformulate our faith. As a Church in the heart of the African malaise, we need to reformulate our vision. Is the Church the promoter of the reform that Martin Luther is the symbol, or the keeper of an unchanging world? Will the Church, better the believers going to get up and move, adding to the work of Luther what the challenges of these days demand? We will have to reconsider what makes sense today: the sense of the Church is the common pursuit of all Christians, including what is disturbing for conservatism. What may bring us together in the Church is our common goal. What the Christian people as well as believers of Africa want is peace in a church that seems to speak little or a Church that speaks a lot for very little where it is expected to say much. God is looking forward to see in Africa, a Church and Christians who believe and act in the good way, not with accents of revolt, but with much love. The expected way to live our faith is: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke; to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? May God bless the listening of His word. Amen. 6