The Gospel According to The People's Court

Proper 24C

Luke 18:1-8, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

St. Matthias

October 20, 2019

This morning we have heard 2 of the more unusual scripture readings we will have all year.  One’s a reality show and the other a medical condition.  And they have to do with 2 of the most important parts of our spiritual lives – prayer and scripture. 

           Now I am going to call today’s parable from the Gospel of Luke - the Biblical edition of the Peoples’ Court.  Technically, you could name it after any of those unrealistic reality court TV shows that come on in the daytime.  The Peoples’ Court was on a couple of weeks ago while I was sitting in the dentist chair and wasn’t exactly in a position to ask them to change the channels – so I watched it.  And our parable is just like that episode.  There is a judge who seems to think rather highly of himself.  Luke says that this judge doesn’t respect God or anyone else.  And there is a widow who shows up in this judge’s court time and time again seeking justice.  Clearly she makes her living suing her neighbors over this or that.  She is probably about as likeable as the judge.  And what really makes this parable unique is that neither of them is the hero like the Good Samaritan or the father of the Prodigal Son.  And the whole point of Jesus’s story is this – keep praying because if an unjust judge will listen to an equally unjust widow then surely God who is good always hears our prayers.

           And then there is our reading from the 2^nd letter of Timothy and it is just as intriguing.  It is the only place in the Bible that I can find that talks about itching ears.  We’ll label this one – the Eczema Epistle!  Paul is writing to his fellow evangelist Timothy with instructions for the early Christian church.  There were lots of spiritual fads back then just as there are now.  People were always looking for the next big thing that would make you more holy – give you inner peace – lower your blood pressure and boost your self-image.  Paul says to Timothy, “They will accumulate teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.”  Several years ago, when Dan Brown published The Da Vinci Code, any number of people would come to me with their book in hand to ask me to explain different passages.  They had bookmarks with sections highlighted and underlined.  I actually had folks tell me they believed that the book was true – that this was the way it really happened. Dan Brown, who by the way is an Episcopalian, was asked in an interview if his novels are based on truth to which he said that God is real and the rest of the book belongs in the fiction section of your local bookstore.

           But this morning we actually hear the truth – both IN scripture and ABOUT it.   The Psalmist declares – I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come?  My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.  Here in writing are the WORDS and the Word of God.  We believe that scripture is holy because through the Bible – God speaks to us.  You can read these words over and over and God speaks to us.  Father George Gibson was a retired priest in Memphis who tutored me when I was preparing for seminary.  He was continually reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  He would finish and then he would start all over again – and then again.  I asked him WHY and he said because God always has something new to say.   He’d been doing it for over 50 years and figured God still had a lot more he needed to hear.  So he kept reading.  In Luke, Timothy, the Psalms and all the rest of the Bible – God is made real through the stories of the Old Testament, the parables of the Gospels, and the witness of the apostles, prophets and martyrs.  Here is truth straight from God and it will lower your blood pressure, make you holy, and give you the inner peace that passes all understanding.  You JUST DON’T get that from a Dan Brown novel.

           Now the more I read scripture – the more I pray.  In fact – reading scripture IS prayer.  You cannot help but read the Psalms and feel the presence of God.  That is prayer.  Prayer is learning about Jesus in the manger, in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, and washing the disciples feet in the upper room.  Prayer is hearing the Savior with our hearts – it is experiencing Resurrection in our souls.  In prayer, God becomes real.  And we do not pray over and over again hoping that God may hear us or may answer our prayers.  We pray again and again - because God DOES hear - and God DOES answer our prayers.  We need to get over this idea that prayer is a hit or miss thing on God’s part.  God is faithful.  We on the other hand need to have the faith to believe that God answers our prayers – that God speaks to us in scripture.  And the more we pray – the more we will read the Bible.  And the more we read scripture – the more we will find ourselves praying.   

           Dan Brown’s latest novel is Origin.  You will find it in the Fiction section at the library or your favorite bookstore.  We are reading Isaiah in Sunday School.  Its in the Bible.   In Isaiah you will hear God speak.  I didn’t check to see what channel The Peoples’ Court comes on.  I think I’ll pray instead.  AMEN.