This summer we were hiking in nearby West Rock Ridge State Park and we came across Judges Cave.
In 1649, fifty-nine British judges convened to condemn King Charles I to death. When the monarchy was restored eleven years later to Charles II, the new king demanded revenge for his father’s death. Some of the judges were seized and executed, others ran away and hid.
Edward Whalley, William Goffe, and John Dixwell, three of the judges, fled to North America, believing they would be safest in the Puritan colonies of New England. Dixwell escaped to New Haven and lived under an assumed name.
Whalley and Goffe landed in Boston. The Puritans in the city received them kindly, but the judges feared discovery by royal informants. Whalley and Goffe left Massachusetts, ultimately ending up in New Haven in a Puritan Pastors home.
When the orders came for the judges’ arrest, Whalley and Goffe were forced to flee again, this time into the wilderness. With the help of several New Haven residents, the judges hid in the large rocks on the summit of what is now West Rock. They stayed hidden in the cave for a month during the summer of 1661. Several sympathetic locals brought them food throughout their stay. They were ultimately chased from their hiding place by a panther, which scared them into realizing that they could no longer survive in the woods. The pair escaped from New Haven under the cover of darkness and spent the remainder of their lives in hiding in Hadley, Massachusetts. (https://environment.yale.edu/blog/2013/11/welcome-to-judges-cave/)
Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell had power but lost it when the monarchy was restored. Was justice done in this case? That is in the murky woods of history.
“Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.” – Founding Father, John Adams
John Adams understood that power often corrupts. The importance of moral character increases as the importance of the position increases for government officials and for judges.
It was true in 17 & 18th Centuries and it is true in our own time.
That is why, judges are called to use wisdom & understanding as they impartially administer the law. Sadly, this doesn’t always happen.
In Pennsylvania, the "kids for cash" scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 2008, 2 judges were accused of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at for-profit detention centers. Those two judges are now both in prison. There were other judges in that court who were also cited for some connection to the scandal. Over 2,400 juveniles had their convictions expunged. (Wikipedia)
It’s a story about the abuse of power. Sadly, mass incarceration and a lack of trust in the judicial system are too common place in our country and need to be fixed. Power must be tempered with justice.
Think about our Gospel reading and the parable that Jesus offers: An unjust judge in a certain city refuses to give a widow the justice she seeks. The widow kept going to the judge, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” He refused. But she would not go to her home and give up. Over, and over again this scene would happen...
The judge, as we are told, who does not fear God or respect anyone else, decides to give her justice, not for her sake as a widow or because she is right or because he is respecting the law, not for the sake of justice, but so that she stops being a nuisance to him! The unjust judge in the parable has all the power for he can grant justice to the widow or not. The widow of course, in the time of Jesus, is vulnerable, she can be exploited or forgotten, her very survival could be at stake because she has no husband, and maybe no kin to take care of her.
She is on the margins of that society and would seem to have no power in this situation. And yet, she does not give in to his refusals. She uses what she has available to her, her persistence, & her voice, “Grant me justice.” The widow refuses to be marginalized or forgotten and uses her voice to be heard. From the days of the OT on, widows were not the only ones who were among the most vulnerable of the society, so too were the children, esp. the orphans. Time & time again, you hear God pleading with Israel to take care of the poor, the widow and the orphan. It is God’s plea to us today – to hear the widow and not be the judge.
Our Old Testament reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, reminds us of Jacob’s wrestling with an angel and finally Jacob prevails as Scripture reminds us that justice will not be handed to us, but there will be struggle. We must be patient, but we must also persevere, and remain steadfast in using power in the right way. (Which is also a theme in the Gospel parable – pray always & not lose heart!)
If we are honest, though, we must also confront the power that we each have in our lives. Many of us understand that we possess some kind of “power” that we exercise over others, even as others exercise their power over us. Such power is inevitable and important.
The tricky thing about power is that is can be abused, as we know. If power can’t be abused, it isn’t power. Still, my power and yours, whatever it consists of, can be redeemed and made holy by mercy. Mercy is what we call it when power is exercised and restrained for the sake of love.
A veteran police officer reflects: “When I became a cop, I thought the job would be all about power. Then I found out it is all about service. And I found out I really liked it that way.” [Adapted from Beginner’s Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life by Kate Braestrup.]
Jesus’ parable of the dishonest judge challenges us to consider how we use whatever power we possess, how we employ the authority entrusted to us by others: Do we use our power in the service of others? Do we exercise our authority to create community and to provide for those who are struggling or lost? Sometimes, we find ourselves in the position of the widow in today’s Gospel, asking God to answer our prayer — but, more often than we realize, we are the judge who can be the answer to another’s prayer if we stop, listen, and realize we have the means to help and heal.
And our response, in and of itself, is prayer: a prayer of gratitude to God for his giving us the resources to bring hope and help to another; a prayer of petition to God that God will be as responsive to us when we find ourselves in the place of the widow, desperate for mercy and justice.
Be it the economic power of an investment banker or the moral “power" of a parent or teacher or coach, we can easily “abuse” the power we possess for our own gain and satisfaction, or we can use our power as God intended us to use it: to bring justice and mercy to the wronged “widows” in our lives in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus. Amen.
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