[Propertalk] Gospel sermon bits for October 17 - Part 6

[Joe Parrish]

If we must stick with the lectionary, here is my hardest question:  Is Jesus tying faith to our persistence? In the Healing of the Ten Lepers, Jesus ties faith to gratitude, but persistence and gratitude are both actions initiated by the individual. Given my particular theological slant, I have a hard time seeing faith as the result of the action of an individual and not the sole action of God.  

http://thehardestquestion.org/yearc/ordinary29gospel/

Russell Rathbun, 2010 
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Jesus begins his story by introducing a nameless ("some") judge in "some" city (18:2). Since the judge does not fear God, Jesus probably has here in mind a Gentile judge. Since public service was not considered by the Romans to be a profession, Roman magistrates received no remuneration. The magistrate had the power of imperium within his jurisdiction. The imperium is the supreme administrative power to interpret and execute the law. Moreover, the magistrate dispensed justice by personal cognitio, his own discretion. The isolated magistrate receiving no salary and having extensive power in a small area with few guiding laws might easily abuse his power.

http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28

Aída Besançon Spencer
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Jesus' last question, with which the parable ends, is skeptical: "When the Son of Man
comes, will he find faith on the earth?" The implied answer is no, he won't. Why?
Because people don't believe. So the end of the parable is an injunction to the listeners to
pay attention to their own faith and to be an exception to what Jesus clearly expects, that
when the Son of Man (that is, he) returns, he will not find faith on the earth.

http://www.gotell.org/pdf/commentary/Luke/Lk18_01-08_commentary.pdf

Thomas E. Boomershine
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Craddock (Luke) concludes his comments on these verses with:
The human experience is one of delay and honestly says as much, even while acknowledging the mystery of God's ways. Is the petitioner being hammered through long days and nights of prayer into a vessel that will be able to hold the answer when it comes? We do not know. All we know in the life of prayer is asking, seeking, knocking, and waiting, trust sometimes fainting, sometimes growing angry. Persons of such prayer life can only wonder at those who speak of prayer with the smiling facility of someone drawing answers from a hat. In a large gathering of persons concerned about certain unfair and oppressive conditions in our society, an elderly black minister read this parable and gave a one-sentence interpretation: "Until you have stood for years knocking at a locked door, your knuckles bleeding, you do not really know what prayer is." ...

http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke18x1.htm

Brian Stoffregen
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Sometimes people emphasise this in a way that makes God just a little too much like the judge: not really caring enough to respond straight away, but needing to be irritated by much human effort in prayer before relenting. Some people do have an 'unjust' image of God, perhaps because they have only ever known those who can help them as at best aloof and superior and at worst mean. We create images every time we speak about approaching God. The style of our approach projects an image of the God whom we approach. And then we inevitably conform ourselves to God's image. This in part explains cold and aloof attitudes in leadership. Greatness, God-likeness, as Jesus reminds us elsewhere in so many ways, is about self giving and responsiveness, about love and care.

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkPentecost21.htm

William Loader
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Some Pharisees have asked Jesus when the kingdom of God will come; he has answered: it is already "among you" (17:21). Using examples from the Old Testament, he has warned his disciples that its full coming will be sudden and unexpected; many people will miss it, being preoccupied with worldly affairs.

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/cpr29m.shtml

Chris Haslam 
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17:20-18:8: The theme of this section is fidelity while waiting for the coming of the Son of Man.
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18:8: "faith": Faith is a requisite for persistent prayer: see v. 1.

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/cpr29l.shtml

Chris Haslam 
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