From the Lectionary for 19 October 2025 (Proper 24C)

Luke 18:1-8 (NRSV Updated Edition)

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He 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 that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

~

"[T]he question we have to ask is what is Jesus doing? Is Jesus comparing us to the widow? That as human beings who experience injustice, is the unjust judge to be compared with God? Is there a 'how much more' [...] argument kind of here, how if the judge is like this, how much more will God be?

"But I want to come to the two questions that are asked [by Jesus] here. The Lord says, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.” Now notice he does not say here "what the widow says.” The emphasis for Jesus in this text is not on the widow or her persistence [...] Here, this is a judge who has no honor. He doesn't care, but he gives in.

"And then Jesus asks this strange question focused on the judge. “Will not God vindicate his elect who cry to him day and night.” If you're part of the audience, your answer to that question is going to be “Yes!” Because you have in your tradition texts that move in that direction. And I want to give you one text in particular that is noted by the scholars on the parables and that comes from the book of Sirach chapter 35 [...] So if you have an Apocrypha, you'll want to go to the book of Sirach 35:14-21. Listen very carefully to this text:

“Do not offer the judge a bribe. He will not accept it. And do not rely on a dishonest sacrifice, for the Lord is judge and with him there is no partiality. He will not show partiality to the poor, but he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan or the widow when she pours out her complaint. Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek as she cries out against the one who causes them to fall? The one whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted and his prayer will reach to the clouds. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds and it will not rest until it reaches its goal. It will not desist until the Most High responds and does justice for the righteous and executes judgment. Indeed, the Lord will not delay and like a warrior will not be patient until he crushes the loins of the unmerciful and repays vengeance [...] on the nations until he destroys the multitudes of the insolent, breaks the scepters of the unrighteous, repays mortals according to their deeds and the works of all according to their thoughts, until he judges the case of his people and makes them rejoice in his mercy.”

"Here's the takeaways from this and a couple of them are linguistic. Notice here what the unrighteous judge says. “And will not God vindicate his elect who cry to him day and night?” Right out of this passage in Sirach is the language of a widow. Right out of the language of this passage are those who cry day and night. Right out of this passage is the question of will the Lord respond? And the answer is indeed the Lord will not delay. Okay, same phrase that's used here. And notice this “will he delay long over them?” It's the same in Greek here in Luke as it is over in the Sirach text on the phrase, “and like a warrior will not be patient until he crushes the loins of the merciful.” So in other words, anybody hearing Jesus doing this parable is going to have in the back of their mind this little story or text from Sirach, ok, it certainly would have been a popular text amongst the poor. And the question is, “will not God vindicate his elect who cry out to him day and night?” He doesn't say, “And will the father not vindicate?” He doesn't use "the Father” here, he uses the god concept.

"And the vindication is to be of his elect. Now, what kind of language is this business of elect? Who are the elect? We don't see Jesus talking much about the elect. And in fact, we see him doing quite the opposite in just the previous chapter before this. Is it not the case that the rich man who sat who's had the poor man at his gate, did he not count on his election? Is it not the case that the the Pharisees will say we have as our father Abraham? Are they not counting on their election? Was it not John the Baptist who when confronted with the doctrine of election said God can turn these stones into sons and daughters of God? So there's a critique of the notion of national election here that runs through the Jesus tradition. And so it seems odd to me that Jesus is now going to use a term like the elect with reference to his own.

"So what I did was what I always do. I thought this was curious because the commentators aren't helpful. Most of them want to turn this parable into almost the opposite of what it's doing, I think. First of all, when it comes to the noun 'ecletos', the elect. Okay, we rarely find it in the gospels. In fact, it's found more often in Matthew, but only from chapters 20 on, 20, 22, and 24 - eschatological texts. Oh, election, eschatological text. We ought to automatically be thinking of the Pharisees who were apocalyptic. Qumran, the elect community, they were apocalyptic. First Enoch which talks all about the elect. Okay. So election is a category from apocalyptic literature. Good. We can establish that at least. Mark 13 is the only place where elect is used (in Mark) and that's the little apocalypse. Okay. And then only here in Luke 18 and then again in Luke 23 where it is stated this is the elect Christ of God. After that it's used twice in Romans, once in Colossians, three times in the pastoral epistles and one two three four times in first Peter, once in the book of Revelation. It's not a common term.

"First of all, it's not a common term. That ought to tell you something right away about Calvinism, which puts the doctrine of election right at the top of the system. Double election. Okay, we have a problem here. When we major in the minors, when we take things that aren't significant and we make them significant, we make them bigger than they are within our theological model. That's the first takeaway.

"Second takeaway is that with regard to the elect, I want to ask the question, is Jesus countering or critiquing this apocalyptic tradition? Where as if I perceive that I'm part of this elect nation and if this elect nation is praying day and night, will not God come and deal with with the issues? And while I think that the crowd is going to be saying, “Yes, God will indeed vindicate his elect who cry to him day and night.” And then when Jesus says, “Will he delay long over them?” they would they would say no. But remember the delay long over them in the Sirach text is that he will not delay long until he crushes the loins of the of the unmerciful and repays vengeance on the nations.

"Will not God vindicate his elect who cry to him day and night? Won't God do that? Isn't that the way God works? Will he delay long over them? And they're going, “Yes.” And then Jesus says, “I'm going to tell you something. He'll vindicate them speedily. But,” - and there's a very strong adversity here, 'plēn' - “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find 'pistus' on earth?” What is 'pistus'? As we've already seen in the Gospel tradition, as we explained in four lectures at the very beginning of our Unsystematic Theology, 'pistus' is trust. Jesus invites us to trust the Father.

"Okay. Does the woman trust the judge? No. The judge is not like the Father. That that much is clear. Or I should say the Father is not like the judge. Okay. The judge capitulates and gives in because of this woman's nagging of him. And Jesus is is inviting us, as Luke says right at the beginning, that we always ought to pray and never lose heart because we don't perceive God to be like this judge. We know that God is faithful. We know that God vindicates his children. We know this. He did it with Jesus. Many of us have have bits and pieces of our own stories where that's taken place. [...] The Father does that. [But] what the Father is looking for is 'pistis', is trust. We don't have to push God for vengeance. That's what's being sought here, vindication or vengeance, [...] 'make this other person pay' kind of logic. That's not part of the kingdom, as we've seen over and over about forgiveness and the lack of transactional thinking in that's not part of the kingdom as we've seen over and over about forgiveness and the lack of transactional thinking in Jesus teaching.

"So that's why number one, the emphasis is not on the widow and she's persistent and gets her way and therefore Christians who are struggling can pray and pray and pray it up and pray it up and whatever [...] And it is also the case that in the Gospel of Matthew - and whether this is Matthean redaction or not in the Sermon on the Mount, don't know, don't care right now - Matthew's Jesus says, when you pray, don't babble on and on and on like the Gentiles. And the Lord's Prayer itself as a prayer is very short.

"Prayer is not meant to be something we sit and do for hours and days at a time as a religious exercise, my friends. Prayer, I would say - this is not in the text - are those conversations that arise from our heart to the Father. [...] God is not like the unjust judge."

- Michael Hardin, from video "Luke 18" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54U0ojrAr4o)

[For alternative analyses and discussions on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflect.../year-c/proper24c/]

[I also recommend James Alison's video homily for this passage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3iWK46e_HI]

From the Lectionary for 12 October 2025 (Proper 23C)

Luke 17:11-19 (NRSV Updated Edition)

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus's feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

~

"[T]he main word that Luke uses to indicate the healing in vs. 14 & 17 is 'katharizo', “cleanse,” “make clean.” In between, in vs. 15, the major witnesses use the word 'iaomai'. But there are several ancient texts that keep it consistent at this point using the word katharizo. The significance of the word choices is that Luke's Jesus changes to a very different word for the final pronouncement, saying to the Samaritan leper in 17:19 (NRSV), “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” “Well” is the translation of the Greek word sozo, “save,” “rescue.” Especially if we take the lesser textual witnesses, Luke changes from “made clean” to “saved.” Has there been a double healing for the Samaritan? Does 'sozo' indicate a healing, a salvation, for the Samaritan that goes beyond the initial cleansing enjoyed by all ten lepers?"

- Paul Nuechterlein, from Exegetical Notes on Luke 17:11-19 on the Girardian lectionary page for this Sunday (link in comments below)

~

"Not only do we have a group of marginalized lepers, but that group also has its singular marginalized person, the Samaritan. Shall we suppose that the disease of leprosy so united the lepers that they no longer were engaged by the victimage mechanism? Shall we suppose that the nine Jewish lepers did not in some fashion ostracize the Samaritan within their little circle? Would their leprosy have overcome the hundreds of years of social animosity that they carried with them in their worldviews? No. This seems to be implied by Jesus' reference to the Samaritan as an 'allogenes', a foreigner. The Samaritan, in other words, is the victim par excellence in the story, he is the victim of the victims, yet it is this most marginalized one who truly sees (not at all an unfamiliar theme in the gospels).

"When all were healed and only one returned thanking God, where did the other nine go? They made a beeline back to the social matrix from which they had been thrust, back to families they may have missed, back to the world of social respectability. They made straight for the religious dimension of the sacral mechanism, the priest, who would declare them socially acceptable. They failed to see that God, in cleansing them, had already accepted not only them, but also their fellow leper, the Samaritan.

"A new sociality had been given in the miracle that they failed to grasp and so they took this gift from God and walked right back to the system that had previously extruded them without seeing or understanding that something indeed was “bent” about the system. Nor, as mentioned, did they see a new thing had occurred in their midst, the healing of a division that went back hundreds of years. Jesus brings healing to each of us and all of us in order that we might be one in Him. Do we see any clearer than the nine?"

- Michael Hardin (source not currently available online)

~

"One turned back. He saw what had happened and turned back. Could it be that becoming whole is seeing the blessing and feeling moved to thank the One who has blessed you? It's a new way of seeing that shifts the focus and one of the ten got it.

"This former leper sees that what has happened is something different. The others returned to a world based on boundaries that separate good from bad, well from sick, and the “in” from the “out”. But in coming back, this one left that world and entered a new and exciting world where all exist by grace and none are excluded. It's a new world.

"Our text says, “He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him.” His falling down before Jesus was a result of his new way of seeing. From his position he looks up to Jesus and sees everything with Jesus in the foreground. This is the perspective that gets it right. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ.” One former leper sees that Jesus brings a new way of living, a way where we each dwell in the sea of grace.

"When we see everything with Jesus in the foreground we discover that God is nothing but forgiveness, gentleness, blessing, benevolence, compassion, and tenderness. Our response to all of this, once we get it, can only be gratitude and openness to life!"

- Thomas L. and Laura C. Truby, from a sermon on October 9, 2016 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Truby-Proper23-2016-One-Embraced-a-New-Way-of-Living.pdf)

~

"Being cleansed was a cultic matter, but this one shows that it is more than being cleansed. He has actually recovered his soul, his sense of being human. [...] And Jesus is observing this, observing that the ones who fit back into the system - well, they've been cleansed. But this one, he's seen something more than that. By his attitude, you can tell that his whole life has begun in a completely new and rich way.

"This I think is very much in line with Jesus [...] commenting about the woman who washed his feet with her tears and dried it with her hair, “I tell you, this woman, [...] you can tell that she has been forgiven because she has loved so much,” rather than, “Now she'll be forgiven, then she will be able to love.” Jesus is noticing something with delight, seeing someone come to life because their wholeheartedness has taken them way beyond what might have happened.

"This I think is something of what grace, the Gospel of Grace, is about: Jesus taking delight in us finding ourselves taken far beyond simple, perfunctory, thank-yous, and actually being able to live with enormous gratitude as we find ourselves brought to life."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYu-Gl8IU0k)

[Source of Paul Nuechterlein and Michael Hardin quotes and link to Thomas & Laura Truby sermon, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper23c/]

From the Lectionary for 5 October 2025 (Proper 22C)

Luke 17:1-10 (New American Standard Bible)

Now He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to one through whom they come! It is better for him if a millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea, than that he may cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” But the Lord said, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.

“Now which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him after he comes in from the field, ‘Come immediately and recline at the table to eat’? On the contrary, will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which were commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”

~

"“Increase our faith!” cry out the disciples. What do we think they were asking for? What do we think of when we hear the word faith? Do we think they're asking to believe harder? That faith is mostly about believing a certain way? In our age of science, believing is a lesser form of knowing. We pose faith against scientific knowing in such a way that faith seems to be losing out [...]

“Increase our faithfulness!” cry out the disciples. “Faithfulness” is a better translation than “faith” of the original biblical word. “Increase our faithfulness!” cry out the disciples. And now what are we talking about? We're talking about human relationships, aren't we? We're talking about a relationship kind of knowing instead of a scientific knowing. [...] We don't need more faith, which in the terms of today's scientific knowledge, seems like a lacking of that knowledge. We need more faithfulness to each other as human beings that we might live together in peace.

[...]

“Increase our faithfulness!” cry out the disciples. We have talked about this faith in terms of relationships instead of believing, a love-kind of knowing instead of a scientific kind of knowing. But there is a more specific context that we should attend to. The disciples cry out for increased faithfulness right after Jesus has given them a challenging picture of forgiveness. [...] Now we can see why the disciples ask Jesus for greater faithfulness. It takes great faithfulness to keep forgiving someone who keeps hurting you!

"[...] [F]orgiveness is a very complicated business! And these few words from Jesus about forgiveness evoke the disciples' response for Jesus to help us with our faithfulness. We need his power of faithfulness to even begin to forgive others as he forgives us."

- Paul Nuechterlein, from a sermon delivered on October 3, 2010 (https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper22c_2010_ser/)

~

"[The] paragraph begins with Jesus' ominous warning against being occasions of stumbling (scandals) for any of Jesus' “little ones.” Unlike the parallels in the other synoptic Gospels, however, this warning is quickly followed by an admonition to rebuke those who cause stumbling but then to forgive them if they are penitent, even if it is seven times a day, which is a lot of forgiving.

"So, the disciples aren't having a problem believing in the Nicene Creed. They are having a problem accepting this demand to be forgiving on such an incredible scale. After all, if one repents seven times a day, how serious is the repentance? Forgiving like that often requires the patience of a saint and not even many of the saints I know anything about are as patient as that. [...]

"Unlike the parallels in Matthew and Mark, [where] faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to move this mountain, perhaps the Temple Mount and its sacrificial system, from here to there. But mulberry trees have nothing to do with sacrifice. So why a mulberry tree in this version? [...] Mulberry trees [...] have complex root systems that spread out a large distance just under the surface and they also send sinker roots deep into the soil. [...]

"We see the mulberry tree as an image of the intractability of the occasions for stumbling that we encounter on a daily basis. The image also stands for the tangle of our anger and frustration over being asked to forgive those who keep making us stumble over and over again. The close coupling of Jesus' admonitions here suggests that all of us cause others to stumble about as much as we have occasion to forgive others for making us stumble. Faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to pull us out this tangle of scandal and stumbling and yet we have trouble having as much faith as that!

"A brief parable follows. We are apt to think the master treating his slaves so harshly stands for God, but Jesus is asking: Whom among you would say to his slave to come sit down for dinner after a hard day's work? The implication is that we are the ones who would like to have the power to order people about like that. But is that faithfulness to Christ? Looks more like a cause of stumbling to me. Jesus then shifts to the perspective of the slave who must not presume to be worthy of any reward, just as slaves were so considered in his time. In a similar parable in Luke 12, Jesus says that the master is the one who will wait on those slaves who eagerly await his return.

"In daily life, we often feel that we are slaves of those who cause trouble and so demand much attention and energy on our part and yet are the last to express any gratitude for what we do for them. We tend to resent such slavery and take refuge in vengeful anger and maybe some grudging forgiveness that makes us feel superior. But Jesus places himself in the position of the slave to those who stumble and make others stumble, so that is where we will find Jesus if we have the faith the size of a mustard seed."

- Andrew Marr, Abbot of St. Gregory's Abbey (Three Rivers, MI), from blog post titled "Increasing Faith in Forgiveness" (https://andrewmarrosb.blog/2016/10/01/increasing-faith-in-forgiveness/)

~

"In this story from Luke, all of this happens before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. [...] Jesus will enact the very thing he tells his disciples they must do. At the crucifixion Jesus himself becomes the servant of God who forgives us and in that shows us the way of forgiveness. He provides a most powerful example of what we are to do in our lives in all ways. Here is a leader who sets an example and asks us to do as he has done."

- Tom Truby, from a sermon by titled “The Power of Forgiveness” (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Truby-Proper22-2016-The-Power-of-Forgiveness.pdf)

~

"[T]hat's actually how you will find yourselves living the other half of the story, that the One will come into your midst and come to your table and will serve you, those two mentions of serving the Lord and what place you are in it coming together. [...] I think that this is Jesus actually nudging people into having a bit of a bigger imagination about what it looks like to serve and not to be too important, and to remember that their work is not over until they have served the Lord."

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKz-jabeylI)

[Source of links to Paul Nuechterlein and Tom Truby sermons and Andrew Marr blog, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper22c/]