“Tenacity” Colchester Federated Church, October 19, 2025, Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Luke 18:1-8)

Today Jesus tells a parable about a widow and an unjust judge in the Gospel according to Luke.  This is a parable about a persistent widow, a tenacious widow who Jesus used as an example of the need of his followers to pray continuously and to not become discouraged.  Jesus is teaching that we must not quit praying and going to God even if what we pray for doesn’t seem to come to pass.  As the old hymn goes:

Teach me to feel that you are always nigh;
teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
to check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.[1] 

Sometimes faith does require patience and persistence and tenacity.  In this parable that Jesus tells, there’s a judge in a certain city who doesn’t fear God or respect people.  The judge does only what is in his best interest.  And there’s this widow who keeps coming to the judge asking, “Give me justice in this case against my adversary.”[2]  It would appear that this widow goes to this judge for justice several times.  There is a lawsuit and she wants the judge to rule in her favor.

Now in Galilean villages judges were usually an older man who those villagers entrusted to settle the inevitable disputes that arose among neighbors.  Though this judge was operating outside of the bounds of appropriate conduct of judges because it seems that he only has his own personal interests in mind.  Additionally, judges in Jesus’ day were supposed to be especially fair to widows, orphans, and immigrants—that instruction can be found in Deuteronomy.  Judges were supposed to watch out for those on the margins, those without power.  As we can read in Deuteronomy Chapter 24, “Don’t obstruct the legal rights of an immigrant or orphan.  Don’t take a widow’s coat as pledge for a loan.  Remember how you were a slave in Egypt but how the Lord your God saved you from that.  That’s why I’m commanding you to do this thing.”[3]  God commanded those in power to look after the legal rights of the poor.

Now for a while the judge refuses to help the widow.  But he finally relents because she keeps bothering him.  Notice it’s not because he has a change of heart.  It’s because she’s annoying, and he wants to be left alone because she keeps going to him for help and embarrassing him.  That’s why he finally grants her justice.

Judges usually sat in public places to hear cases and render their judgments.  This persistent widow would have made her repeated requests for justice in front of everybody, in front of the whole town!  It would be like a judge holding court on the Town Green and this woman coming to see that judge right there in the center of town week after week demanding for the judge to rule in her favor against her adversary.  We don’t know what her case was.  We don’t know who her adversary was.  We just know that this tenacious widow prevailed over the unjust judge because she refused to give up.[4] 

Jesus uses this parable to tell his disciples, “Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night?  Will he be slow to help them?  I tell you, he will give them justice quickly.”[5]  Because if an unjust judge will finally do the right thing, how much more will our merciful God do the right thing when we go to God for help?  Be persistent.  Keep fighting the good fight.  Don’t be discouraged even when it feels like everything is falling apart.  Keep the faith.

This story of the persistent widow and the unjust judge is reminiscent of one of the most important strikes that took place in our country for the rights of workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912.  This is important history to remember and not just in New England.  The event was eventually named the Bread and Roses Strike.  To be transparent and perfectly honest, I have a soft spot for unions and the labor movement in general.  My great grandfather was a union representative for the Rubber Workers Union in Akron, Ohio.  So when there was a labor dispute, Great Grandpa Sam was one of the spokesmen for the Rubber Workers.  A rebellious streak goes back generations in my family and we are quite proud of that.

Though in all seriousness, it may be hard to fathom how awful the working conditions have been in many American factories.  Not to mention that the workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts lived in crowded and dangerous apartment buildings when they were not working dangerous jobs in these mills.  At the time of the Bread and Roses Strike, a victory had been won by workers when legislation was passed to reduce the work week from 56 to 54 hours.  This small, two-hour reduction was a victory for those low-wage workers.  Employers in the Lawrence Mills reacted to the legislation by slashing wages.  The Mill Owners assumed that the workers wouldn’t be happy about the pay cuts, but they didn’t anticipate organized retaliation. 

At the time, many women immigrants were working in the mills, coming from different countries and speaking different languages.  The Mill Owners assumed that the workers wouldn’t organize with each other because of these cultural differences.  These workers could barely understand each other after all!  Yet 14,000 workers walked off the job in the first week of the Bread and Roses Strike, followed by 9,000 in the weeks to come.  The Industrial Workers of the World helped orchestrate and lead the strike and various Women’s Neighborhood Associations helped organize the striking workers and their families too.  After a violent confrontation with police assaulting women and children, public opinion overwhelming favored the workers.  Eventually the Mill Owners came to terms with those who fought for their rights, and those workers were mostly women immigrants.  The name of the strike came from James Oppenheim’s poem “Bread and Roses” which declared:

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.[6]

Movements for equality are often about bread on the surface.  By that I mean—food, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare, equal rights and protection under the law—basic rights and necessities.  But there’s often an underlying desire for roses too.  By that I mean—beauty, art, music, spiritual nourishment, free time and resources to enjoy your life with those you love.  Do we live to work, or do we work to live?  Those mostly immigrant women in the Lawrence Mills were fighting for a fair work week in terms of hours and wages.  They were persistent and tenacious just like the widow arguing with the unjust judge in the midst of a lawsuit as Jesus told the parable we heard today.  But those mill workers were also fighting to enjoy their lives and be with their families, to truly live on this earth and not just exist. 

It is easy to look at the world around us and give into hopelessness and discouragement.  Sometimes it’s helpful to remember that people have been here before in standing up for themselves and demanding justice.  Sometimes those in power are not going to have a miraculous change of heart.  It is through the tenacity of folks who know their worth that change may just happen.  Today’s parable that Jesus tells is not one of his most famous, but perhaps it is one of the most hopeful in our current context.  The judge did not grant the widow justice because it was the right thing to do.  The judge granted her justice because she was bothering him so much.  Persistence can pay off.  Tenacity can pay off.  Keep the faith.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Verse 4 of “Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart” Words by George Croly and Music by Frederick C. Atkinson in Worship & Rejoice, #132.
[2] Luke 18:3, CEB.
[3] Deuteronomy 24:17-18.
[4] Footnotes on Luke 18:1-8 in The CEB Study Bible with Apocrypha, 148 NT.
[5] Luke 18:7-8.
[6] “Bread and Roses” https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/bread-and-roses-song/

Photo by Laura Michalski on Unsplash