Sorry -- but I guess I goofed on trying to allign with the dates. The readings and reflections don't necessarily fit the dates. My mistake.
Then Jesus told a parable about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. A widow in that twon used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’”
This parable is found only in Luke’s Gospel. It’s a strange one – God is compared to a dishonest judge!
But parables are stories that simply make a point, and you shouldn’t get lost in the details.
The point here is the long haul. Luke wrote his Gospel about 85 A. D. Peter was dead, Paul was dead, and most of the first generation of Christian leaders were dead. Once they had expected the Lord to return fairly quickly. But now Christians gradually began to realize that this was not to be.
They also remembered that Jews had talked a lot about the “Reign of God” and how this was a colossal ongoing enterprise. It may begin small (like the mustard seed) but it is meant to encompass all creation.
So, if our prayers and work for peace, justice, goodness are not immediately fulfilled, we have to condition ourselves for the long hauyl. Our smallest efforts have a cumulative effect – like the widow’s effect on the judge.
The question is…do I see myself as a long-term partner with God in this great enterprise?
That is the fundamental meaning of stewardship. Everything belongs to God.