Worship - 19 October 2025

Summary of this week's theme

When I served as priest-in-charge of an Anglican parish in Canada, we shared our building with a United Church congregation.  Together, we ran a weekly food bank and soup kitchen, and during the harsh winters, offered shelter and meals in the church hall.  It was a living example of blending differences to make a difference.  Yet it raised a troubling question: where is the justice for those who rely on such ministries? 

In the years since, the need for food banks has risen dramatically - in Canada, across the UK, and beyond.  Alongside the growing need has come something more insidious: a hardness of heart.  Once, there was a sense of shared vulnerability - an understanding that any of us might fall on hard times: as Joan Baez sang: 'There, but for fortune, go you or I.'  Today, fear and polarisation have eroded that compassion.  Instead of seeing the image of God in the poor, we blame them for their plight.  We set ourselves as judge and jury, mistaking condemnation for justice.

The words of Jeremiah reminds us that it is not only individuals but society itself that has ‘eaten sour grapes’ and set children’s teeth on edge.  Pope Leo recently echoed that truth in his teaching on poverty: our Christian duty has been and remains to stand with those on the margins, not apart from them.  God’s law, written on our hearts, is the law of compassion.

Jesus’ parable of the unjust judge and the persistent widow drives this home.  The widow is not timid; she is fierce, relentless, refusing to be silenced until justice is done.  The Greek text even suggests the judge fears she might ‘give him a black eye.’  Her persistence shames him into action.  Jesus’ message follows an old Jewish rhetorical form: if even a shameless judge can be moved by persistence, how much more will God - whose very nature is justice - respond to the cries of the faithful?

Faith, Jesus tells us, is persistent prayer.  It is prayer that refuses despair, prayer that keeps hope alive when justice seems far away.  The parable challenges us to stand firm, not as judges who avoid discomfort, but as disciples who persevere in faith and compassion.

‘When the Son of Man comes,’ Jesus asks, ‘will he find faith on earth?’  May he find in us a faith that persists in prayer, acts in love, and stands alongside those whom the world would like to forget.