Jesus The Jester #6 | "Justice"

0:00 This fall we are spending some time studying the parables of Jesus, beginning with the basic understanding that in the parables Jesus acts for us in the part of a jester. He questions the broken systems of our world. He looks beyond corrosive patterns to illustrate for us a different way, a way imagined in the kingdom of God. by telling us these challenging, befuddling, sometimes topsy-turvy stories. Jesus invites us to imagine alongside him what it might take to bring about a new creation. He challenges us to behave as though we are already citizens in the realm of God by turning away from the powers of our world that exploit or oppress. In the parables, Jesus tosses two things in the air, turning them on their heads like a juggler, the way things are and the way things could be, inviting us to look at both differently. So how do we, striving as we are to follow Christ's teachings, how do we respond to these stories? Listen now for God's word as it echoes to us from the gospel of Luke chapter 18 beginning with the first verse.

1:31 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. Jesus 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 accuser 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 she may not wear me out by continually coming to me. And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to God's chosen ones who cry to God day and night? Will God delay long in helping them?

2:35 I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. What a fall series we've had, friends. We have been taking seriously this challenge to imagine a new creation through the stories told by Jesus. We've been taking it seriously by inviting a clown into worship who juggled swords and showed our senior pastor how to twirl a plate on his head. We've been taking it seriously by passing out red clown noses. We've dropped confetti from the ceiling. We've even had a whole flock of these miniature plastic sheep running wild through the sanctuary and the sanctuaries of each home in our online campus.

3:37 It's been fun, right? Yeah, okay, reluctantly fun, all right. Maybe that hesitation is because it feels like a precarious time to be investing so many sermons on a jester, on silliness. Is it frivolous in times like these? yet biblical scholarship describes the times of the gospel writer luke as years of fear and persecution the early church would have hung on the telling of this parable learning as they were how to live under unjust rule theologian tom long tells us that these folks wagered their lives on the truth that Jesus, not Caesar, not Herod, was Lord, that the meal shared in common was more important than a private feast in luxury, that love is stronger than death, and that the lowly will be lifted up and the hungry fed, and to live this way invited scorn and often persecution.

4:55 to live this way under threat of the collapse of the world as we know it to live this way seeking justice seeking a better way to live even under the pressures of the world around us maybe that feels a little like a paradox in these days indeed there are many paradoxes happening in today's tale. An unjust judge, a widow without power or influence who achieves her goal, justice done not because it is the right thing to do but to avoid further annoyance.

5:39 And the paradoxes in this story, the way Jesus asks us to imagine God granting our prayers quickly might bring to mind paradoxes you've experienced in your own life. Perhaps you already thought of them as I was reading today's scripture, wondering, but preacher, what about the prayers I pray daily that have gone unanswered? Preacher, what about the faithful actions I take that do not bring about justice? Preacher, what about the fear I feel that none of these prayers or these actions will do anything but distract me from what's happening to my neighbors and to me?

6:25 Many faithful theologians point us back to the introductory verse of this parable to answer those good and faithful questions. it says Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. The punchline is right at the beginning folks.

6:47 But I am here to tell you that we wouldn't need this parable if it were easy for us to pray without ceasing or to ask again and again for God's intervention and not lose heart in the asking. no jesus brings us this tale to give us heart give us courage give us instructions on how to live without giving up how to live when prayers go unanswered day after day after day as the widow experiences Jesus instructs us through the work of this widow who has no community power or defenses through the kind of persistent annoyance that breaks through the shell of power around a judge this widow can serve as a reminder of our own power even when we feel powerless or overwhelmed even when we feel helpless in the face of injustice larger than our lives?

7:57 Because she wins justice not with an eloquent argument. Remember, she doesn't even actually change the heart of this judge. She wins by annoying him. She wins by wearing him out. Is it possible this widow is a jester? Hmm, let's listen again to our parable. Jesus said in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. And in that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, Grant me justice against my accuser. Grant me justice against my accuser. Grant me justice against my accuser. Grant me justice against my accuser.

8:55 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 she may not wear me out by continually coming to me. And the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says. in parables we learn through paradox through unconventional metaphor through characters acting in ways counter to how we expect a judge who is known for being unjust does the right thing perhaps for the wrong reasons a widow who's known to be powerless overpowers this unjust judge not by trickery or force, but by annoying him. This is a strategy we can learn from to break through the barriers that power and hierarchy construct between us by creating a point of connection through subversion of our typical norms.

10:09 when I moved to New York City a little more than two years ago, I needed to replace my driver's license. So I went to a place that some of you may associate with the infinite loop of paperwork, the place where they give you a number to get a number to get in line. Yes, I'm talking about the DMV, God bless it. Those of you who have experienced the DMV know that your time in this office depends, whether you're successful or not, depends on the particular person who helps you. Isn't that right? And also the mood that they're in that day, and the mood that you bring with you through the doors. So I'm in line to get my photo taken. There's a lot going on. You know, people are in the wrong line, or they're in the right line, but they're in the wrong place. People are speaking a lot of different languages, so the instructions might not be heard the first time, and we're all tense because we all took off work to be here to get this task done, and people are talking over each other, and the instructions are a little confusing, and then you step up to the camera to take your photo, and all of that stress and noise just showed up on my face. It didn't look like this. It was more like...

11:27 And as soon as I saw the flash, I was like, no, no, no, that was bad. That was really, really bad. Please, please, please, please, sweet sir who's working here at this DMV, can we please retake the photo? I know you're not supposed to. You don't normally do this, but please, would you want this photo to be the picture that you have to show every bartender and TSA agent for the next several years? And now my DMV worker who is barraged by these similar requests all day long just looked at me for a minute and looked back at the photo and cracked up and said, you know what, you're right. He laughed with me, and now I have a photo that in the context of the DMV is pretty flattering.

12:19 And this, my friends, is such a trivial example. And we don't know the specifics of the widow's petition, the way she made a connection to the judge, but perhaps you can bring to mind your own example of tangling through the infinite loop of paperwork the labyrinths of actions denied that are a part of living in this world.

12:46 Maybe it's trying to get a human on the phone to deal with any account issue ever. Maybe it's petitioning your health insurance or talking to the social security office. it's trying to get someone to work within a rigid system and do just a little bit more than their job requires to remind each other that we are humans working within an inhuman system that asks us to be numbers waiting in line that asks us to be efficient and frictionless but you and I both know that is not the reality of our lives. The paradox of our lives is that people die and then they aren't here to tell us the information we need to change their accounts. The reality of our lives is that we need humor to keep from getting stuck in despair.

13:46 and to laugh we have to be vulnerable we have to let our soft underbellies show we have to be willing to put on the clown nose we have to be willing to say please that photo is terrible won't you please help a girl out you have to be the widow who says oh judge hello I'm here again I will be here every day, day after day, until you say yes. Grant me justice against my accuser. Grant me justice against my accuser. You see her persistence on the cover of our bulletin today. Let your eyes travel around this image and really rest on each of these squares.

14:42 Think about the decisions that led up to each of these days' moments, the courage to go again and again. We can't quite see her face, and so I've been imagining her this week, perhaps, with a clown nose on. Again and again, saying hello, smiling, winking at this judge, annoying him until he relents. Maybe right now you feel like we are in a different loop, that crushing cycle of our news media, designed to inundate us daily with new indignities, decisions being made to dismantle rights we thought were settled.

15:38 And this inundation is by design. It makes the systems of our lives less functional. It separates us from each other so that we are driven towards isolation or paralysis. But what if there was another loop possible? A way to remind ourselves and each other of our shared humanity. friends humor does not diminish real pain for what is happening in our democracy in our world torn by war and by greed is no laughing matter and haven't we said to each other we've got to laugh to keep from crying this does not mock our injuries but gives us permission to hold laughter alongside our lament. The people in my life who have taught me this lesson are indigenous and African-American, those whose families have for generations persisted through fighting for freedom and equal treatment, using humor as a tool to strengthen cultural bonds with inside jokes or nicknames to create a shared language and to fuel each other with joy in the struggle.

16:59 This week, federal troops were deployed to major cities across the United States, in Portland and in Chicago, justified by claims that these places are out of control with violence. And yet we've seen neighbors there respond to this threatening language with a different truth by standing next to the lines of National Guard members in riot gear and rifles, wearing clown noses and brightly colored wigs, wearing inflatable unicorn costumes, showing clearly there is no war zone here. Why send the military in riot gear to fight unarmed smiling clowns? A group of unicorns dancing together to music?

18:00 Some call this tactical frivolity. Tactical frivolity, where laughter bonds together those engaged in collective action, brings more people into the group because it's fun and mocks the rigid seriousness of those wearing masks and hiding their face. maybe this doesn't seem effective to you and that's fine there are plenty of modes of faithful action on behalf of justice and all of them are needed but don't lose sight of the joy friends the power that it is to gather with costumes and tubas with flowers instead of guns in a time where we are only being sold, a politics of escalation where the only response to disagreement seems to be violence, I am here to remind you there is biblical precedence for the folly of joy.

19:01 When you're fighting hatred, hatred's not the tool to sharpen. Christ tells us do not return evil for evil. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes, God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. God decided through the foolishness of proclamation to save those who believe. so let us be foolish in our proclaiming that our Lord came on earth not to rule through military might but through the paradoxes of our human lives armed with riddles and stories flanked by widows and the poor. We don't know what lies around the corner. We don't know when the heartbreak will come or the healing, when justice will prevail even from the lips of a corrupt judge.

20:01 But we must stay human through it all. We must find room for joy amidst our despair, or we are already defeated. following Jesus as a jester shows us one way we can unadapt ourselves, as theologian Mary Lutie puts it, to the conditions of a world that does not yet judge us equally. Anne Lamott, in her book, Plan B, Further Thoughts on Faith, describes some of her fear at the outset of the war in Iraq and tells a story about A.J. Must, who was a lifelong pacifist, who during the Vietnam War stood in front of the White House each night, night after night for years, holding a single candle. A one-person protest, Lamott describes it, conducted near the end of his life. And on one very rainy night, a reporter asked him, Mr. Must, do you really think you're going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night with one candle?

21:11 He replied, oh, I don't do it because I know it will change what's happening in this country. I do it so what's happening in this country won't change me. There is a ripple effect to this kind of action. Each of us now remembering this single candle lights a candle of our own to kindle our courage. A reminder of our agency, our humanity, of the many forms of our actions on behalf of justice. there is much work to be done to repair this world friends so let's roll up our sleeves yes but also let's light our candles and don our unicorn suits and crack jokes with our cashiers because these acts are not just frivolous they unite us they strengthen us they remind us we belong to each other and they are done day after day in the footsteps of the one who came so that we may live