"How long, O Lord, how long?" In one form or another, that cry has gone up from the people of God since there has been an awareness of a God to whom one could cry. "How long must we wait for relief from this crisis?" "How long will this wasting disease continue to plague my family?" "How long will we be persecuted?" "How long before we can return home?" "How long, O God, until you do something about the mess the world is in?" It is a cry for which there is always an answer. But the answer is almost never what we are hoping to hear. When we are in the midst of a crisis which leaves us crying out to God, we are looking for specifics. We want a time-frame, a plan of action, a guarantee. What we get instead is a promise that God has not forgotten us and that ultimately God will indeed respond.

The people of Israel had suffered much under their Babylonian conquerors. Many of the people, including much of the leadership, had been sent into exile. They were cut off from their very identity. Prophets such as Jeremiah had cast these troubles within the framework of judgment from God. The exile, the prophets said, was the direct consequence of Israel's faithlessness. But in the midst of such a declaration of judgment, Jeremiah also makes it very clear that judgment is not the final word from God. Redemption and restoration are always God's final word and will eventually replace the current woes. There is hope for the future. "The days are surely coming..." writes Jeremiah (31:31). They are not here yet. The promise must still be understood as future-tense. But the days are surely coming when things will change.

It is at this point that Jeremiah offers a remarkable vision of what God's hopeful future will look like. It will center around a new covenant. The history of Israel is a covenantal history. It is defined by the agreement between God and the people that "God will be their God and they will be God's people." This is the essence of the covenant made with Abraham and renewed with Isaac and Jacob. It is a covenant which was periodically renewed following periods when the people failed to remember that they were, indeed, God's people. But Jeremiah is promising a shift in this pattern. This will be a new covenant, which is to be understood in contrast to that which had come before. It is not new in terms of the core agreement -- "I will be their God and they will be my people." But it is dramatically new in terms of how that reality will be manifest. Before, it was understood primarily as an external agreement. It was a relationship which was almost contractual in nature. But the future to which Jeremiah points will be characterized by an internal relationship. God is going to write this covenant not on paper or even stone, but directly on the human heart. It will be a relationship which is established at the deepest and most profound levels. Maintaining the relationship will no longer be a matter of obligation, but of desire. Knowing God, in the most intimate and transformational ways, will become an experiential reality, rather than a legislated, but unfulfilled mandate. This vision which Jeremiah proclaims represents a fundamental change in the very fabric of human existence.

Several centuries later, Jeremiah's promised new covenant remained only a hoped for dream. The cry "how long, O Lord, how long" stilled echoed through the land. The people of Israel were no longer living in exile under Babylonian domination. Instead they were subjects of Roman rule. Their faith was tolerated, but also closely monitored and regulated. Once again they were, in many ways, cut off from their identity. And once again there were cries for God to intervene. In the section of Luke's Gospel which immediately precedes the parable which was read this morning, Jesus is engaged in a discussion about when the kingdom of God will come. When will God come and do something about the mess the world is in? When is God going to bring relief to the faithful who are suffering under the outside forces of the evil empire? Jesus begins to answer these questions by saying, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed...For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21) And it is within the context of this discussion that he offers the parable about the woman and the unjust judge. The point he is making is simple. Be persistent. Don't give up. God's presence and activity in our world is not always easy to perceive and recognize. It does not always come when and where and how we would expect or even desire. But God is present and God is active. What is required of us is faithful waiting. Keep praying. Keep beating on the very gates of heaven. Because eventually we will begin to recognize what has been true all along -- God is at work in the world.

Almost 2,000 years later, we still find ourselves waiting. We still find ourselves crying "how long, O Lord, how long." The promise of God's covenant being written on our hearts so that everyone will know God fully and intimately still seems to be largely unrealized. The kingdom of God still seems more future than present tense. We still live in a world where God's presence is not always easy to recognize and people's lives don't often reflect a relationship with the God of love and grace. This past week there were two deaths which made the news. The circumstances for each were very different, and yet I can't help but see the common thread running through them both. Early in the week we heard that a young man in Wyoming had died, following having been beaten and left chained to a fence in near freezing temperatures. He was robbed of his life because he was homosexual and he encountered two men whose intolerance overreached even a basic respect for life. Then came the news that a man had been executed by the State of Washington for his crimes of murder. As I said, the circumstances of these two deaths were very different. One took place outside the law, motivated by hatred and intolerance. The other took place within the law, motivated by justice. But in both cases I found myself crying, "How long, O Lord, how long?" How long will our world be filled with such violence? How long must people live in fear of being different? How long will families be devastated by tragic and senseless killings? How long will we continue to respond to violence with still more violence?

And the answer which comes, from Jeremiah, from Jesus, from the still, small voice of God's Spirit within me, is -- don't give up. In spite of how things appear, God is still presence and God is still active. Keep praying. Keep working for peace and justice. Keep working for peaceful justice. Continue to faithfully wait for the day which is still coming, when God's covenant will be written on every heart and everyone will know and feel and experience God's presence in their lives and in their world. There is still hope for the future. May we remain hopeful.