Living in the Spirit
October 15, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘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.”’ And the Lord said, ‘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?’

An Oklahoma state senator staffer told me once that it, in general, took ten years to get a needed piece of legislation passed. The staffer and I were working on vital changes that would upgrade our child care system. It did take at least ten years. The need for universal health care was recognized when Medicaid and Medicare were enacted in the mid-1960’s. Monumental steps, these two programs were just a beginning. Lots of vested interests create the environment for extensive negotiations. Gridlock result when we the people do not encourage our elected officials to compromise. Sometimes I wonder if gridlock is a goal as maintaining the status quo leaves expensive, inefficient systems in place which continue to produce healthy profits, not healthy people.

We all share common blame as we fail to meet the Common Good. We want the government to be there when we need it and provide fast effective responses. We do not necessarily want to pay for the services we demand or we do not want to pay for services someone else might need.

No matter who is elected on November 8, our job does not end with our vote. We need to emulate the widow in our scripture today and demand justice until we get it. Such work requires us to understand what is just and what is not. It demands that we try to see issues from the eyes of the others involved and search along with our elected officials for new and innovative ways of meeting the Common Good.

Prayer: God of Justice, Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour*. Amen.

*Phrase from hymn God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry E. Fosdick see at http://www.hymnary.org/text/god_of_grace_and_god_of_glory

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.