The Merciful Thug

The Rev. Rebecca Lyman Samuel Garrett Professor of Church History Emerita, The Church Divinity School of the Pacific Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA Sunday, October 26th, 2025 The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost: Proper 25 Joel 2:23-32 Psalm 65:1-8 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18 Luke 18:9-14 How do we live faithfully in a world of violence and chaos? Jesus and other Jewish leaders wrestled with this question under Roman occupation in Judea. In the Gospel of Luke this morning Jesus gives us another story about the broad mercy of God and the reversal of our usual expectations of piety: who prays in authentic relation to God, the righteous one or the repentant thug? In a world saturated with grace, Jesus grounds our courage in divine faithfulness and human solidarity. Prayer changes us to live in our particular vocations as salt and light.