by Rev. Steve Jerbi

Psalm 46

Few of us preach on the psalms and I imagine on Reformation Sunday the other texts are more enticing. Psalm 46 is a nod to the best known hymn by reformer Martin Luther - “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” I’m guessing plenty of congregations will substitute the psalmody for the hymn.

Rev. Marissa Sotos​

Today instead of preaching a sermon straight through I have four reflections on parts of the text we just heard, and each part ends with a discussion question for you to form a small group of a couple people and talk about. So it’s kind of a sermon discussion hybrid. I’m going to start by reading the whole text again so we have the context…

Content Warning: transphobia, police violence, racism, queerphobia

by Remy Remmers

Now this will be political which should not be a surprise because the NRSV calls this passage “The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge.” Acknowledgement of a political system is in the name of this passage. Politics determine how people live their lives in an area, what public services they get, who gets certain rights, who can have economic prosperity, and more. At the same time politics can give systems and people easy ways to cause injustice to their neighbors. Everyone’s life is political, but some people feel that more readily because their lives are directly affected by the injustices politics allow and perpetuate. To say you don’t care about politics is to say you don’t care about the injustices done to your neighbor. There are injustices happening to this widow and she is going through the legal system again and again trying to get justice.