What brings happiness? The Psalmist says, “Happy are those who consider the poor.” This is central to our lives as people of faith.
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Jesus liked to surprise his hearers. This little parable of Jesus is no exception. He used a widow—the poorest of the poor and the least powerful of the powerless—and an unjust judge “who neither feared God nor had respect for people” to make a point about prayer and to encourage people as they dealt with being treated unjustly.
Many years ago Susan and I and our daughters were camping in southern Georgia. In that region there was a mountain bike race going on. It had been raining there for several days, so the trails had turned to mud.
Jesus described his followers as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” “These people are the salt of the earth!” an old retired pastor said about the congregations I had just begun serving.
What’s on your Mind? When you’re not thinking about anything in particular, what do you find yourself thinking about?
One of my favorite places to visit is Fort Davis in the Davis Mountains of Texas. It is an area that has its own kind of beauty. There aren’t many trees larger than the small and scrubby little trees that have taken hold in that semi-arid land.
Faith is famously defined in the first verse: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Several historical details from ancient Judea help to illuminate the rhetorical force of this famous example story.
Many of Jesus’ teachings were in parables, stories that made a point and usually startled his first hearers into a new way of seeing things. Today’s reading actually follows Jesus’ “Parable of the Sower and the Seeds.”
There is a long tradition of people crying out to God about the injustices of the world, the evils of the world, the pain and the suffering of the world. There is strife. There is conflict.