Gospeling Your Life ~ As as the persistent and persuasive

 

Read Luke 18-19 ~ So I love the persistent and persuasive woman who keeps begging the judge for justice.  I see her showing up in the courtroom, silently staring at the judge from the back row.  I see her waiting outside his chambers, following him home every night and arguing her case day-after-day.  I see her waiting in the morning as he is sipping his coffee.  She keeps showing up for justice.  Justice cannot be microwaved or manufactured.  Justice is not singularly/only up to us as humans and our own will power, rather justice is aligning ourselves with God’s work.  This is a place where we need to be careful not to assign roles in parables.  I don’t think the unjust judge equals God.  I don’t think God needs us to pester God to get our way.  God is the one who knows us better than we know ourselves.  God is the One who continually calls us and initiates the conversation with our souls daily.  God is more like the woman than the judge.  Maybe, I am more like an unjust judge than I care to admit or accept.  Hold this.  Hold Jesus’ inviting himself over to the house of the very one seen as an enemy. What would you do if God invited God’s self over to the house of someone you thought/saw as unworthy?  I would think, “What in the devil is God doing?!?”  And maybe that unveils the shadow side of envy.  I want God to come to my house, not that person’s house.  I want to hoard and control God, rather than let God be lavish/extravagant/wasteful (see Wednesday) with God’s presence.  I pray you are finding places in Luke where the Spirit is stirring and swirling, maybe even in ways you would prefer the Spirit not move.  I hope you have found a few narratives in Luke you’d like to return to and re-read in the days to come.  I pray as we move toward completing our third Gospel next week, you are discovering truths that are Good News, Gospel medicine, to your soul in these days. Amen.