This devotion was written by Jeff McGuire and Youth Ministry Associate Kurt Esslinger as a reflection on the Senior High WorkCamp to New Orleans. It is based on Luke 18:1-8.
Reflection
We cannot help but see connections in this story to today's situation. We can imagine the judge representing current government leaders such as the governor of Louisiana or George W. Bush. The widow may represent the people of New Orleans, such as the residents of the Ninth Ward, a neighborhood not unlike Englewood in Chicago. In the parable, the widow was persistent and stuck by what she believed in. This encourages us to push for God's justice, to cry out for justice. Earlier in the week, we were told a little bit about whom God's justice focuses on: the blind, the poor, the captives and the oppressed. After Katrina has brought New Orleans to its knees with a flood of water, God responds with a flood of justice.
We, as volunteers felt like we were riding this flood of justice into New Orleans. We were able to help building sheds, installed dry wall, spackled, installed insulation, ripped wires out of a house to strip it down to the frames, and painted numerous surfaces. Now we did not fix all the problems as we could see especially in the Ninth Ward. Houses there still sit in the muck and the mess that filled them three years ago. The flood of justice we rode in on did not magically end the problems of these oppressed people, but the little good we did definitely helped those people we came in contact with. Since we represent a mere droplet of God's justice, we need more friends, more families, more churches, and more communities with enough droplets we can make a wave.
Prayer
Gracious God, we pray that your wave of justice may wash upon the lives of the poor, the oppressed the blind, and the captives so that they may know that your justice is true. May we come together as one to be your wave of justice, Amen.
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