Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Nov. 10/11 2018
Scripture: Mark 12:38-44
So today we have one
of the well-known stories of Jesus’ ministry.
The story of a poor widow who puts all of her money – two copper coins –
we might say two pennies if we still used pennies here in Canada – she put all
of the money she had into the collection plate at the temple.
Now I could probably
make the Stewardship committee and the Treasurers happy if I stood up here and
preached a sermon on increasing our offerings to the church each week. Just look at the widow – she was so faithful
that she gave not just some but all of her money to the church of her day! Look at how Jesus points out what she is
doing! After all, this is how this story
has been interpreted so often over the centuries.
But sorry, Stewards
and Treasurers. I’m going to save my
sermon about how we should all give everything that we have to the church for
another day. Instead, I’m going to
invite you to look a bit more closely at this story of the widow. If you want to flip open a bible in your pew,
go for it. If you have a close look at
this story, you will see that nowhere does Jesus commend the widow for her
actions. We don’t have Jesus saying to
her, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We don’t have Jesus saying to his disciples, “Now go and do
likewise.” If you look closely at this
passage, all that we have is Jesus noticing her actions and pointing it out to
his disciples.
So if Jesus didn’t
want to praise her for her actions, what else might be going on here?
We might jump to the
opposite extreme. Maybe, instead of
commending the widow for her faithfulness and devotion and sacrifice, maybe
Jesus was condemning the economic system that forced her to live in poverty and
give away all of her money.
This story of the
widow is found right after a powerful condemnation of those who are the
opposite of humble, those who like to be the centre of attention. Jesus tells us to beware of those who walk
around in fancy clothing, those who like to be greeted with respect, those who
like to have the best seats when they gather to worship where they could
influence worship, those who liked to be seated at the head table at banquets,
those who say long and empty prayers.
And in the middle of this list, we encounter the curious phrase, “they
devour widows’ houses.” Scholars have written
pages and volumes trying to figure out what that phrase means. It might mean that the wealthy took advantage
of those who couldn’t say no; or it might mean, as some scholars have
suggested, that since widows weren’t considered capable of managing their own
finances, their property and possessions were managed by the Scribes which led
to a system of exploitation.[1]
So coming after this
powerful condemnation of the group of people who sought honour and power, what
if we saw the story of the widow as a continuation of this? What if, by pointing out that she was forced
to give away all of the money she had, Jesus was continuing to condemn the
systems that led to some people being rich and powerful and others being poor
and hungry? The Jesus that we see
elsewhere in the gospels never supports systems and actions that make poor
people even poorer, more vulnerable, and even dead by starvation if she had no
money left to live on.
But what if there’s a
third way? What if this isn’t a story
about money at all? What if this isn’t
about Jesus praising the woman for her generosity; and what if this isn’t a
story about condemning economic systems that lead to poverty?
What if we look at
this story as a story about power? Who
has more power, and who has less power?
If we take both halves
of the reading together, we start with the Scribes. They have the power in the world where they
lived. They were authorities in the
Temple, like a cathedral in their culture.
They wielded religious and political influence. They were greeted with respect in the
marketplaces and they were given the seat of honour, seated at the head table
at banquets. Everyone wanted to be close
to the Scribes in case some of their power and influence and prestige rubbed
of. Power by association.
And then we have the
widow. She has no power. In a patriarchal society, a true widow had no
male relative to represent her in the public sphere. She had no voice, even by proxy. She can’t even wield influence through her
wealth, as we’re told that her entire income was 2 cents. Even by giving away all of her money, she
wouldn’t have been noticed by anyone.
She is at the very opposite end of the power spectrum from the scribes.
Now, let’s take
Jesus. Jesus had some power in the world
in which he lived. He was male, to begin
with, and he was Jewish which put him as part of the dominant culture and religion. His power was decreased somewhat because he
came from the backwater of Galilee, and he came from a background of poverty
rather than wealth. But he did have the
power of a voice. He had a group of
followers that would hang on to his every word.
And if we step outside of the story for a moment, from a Christian
perspective, Jesus had all of the power of God.
So how did Jesus use
his power? He could have used his power
to dress himself in fine robes, and get himself invited to the best
banquets. But we don’t see that
happening very often in the gospels.
Instead, in todays story, we have Jesus using his power to draw
attention to someone with no power. We
have Jesus noticing someone who had probably not been noticed in quite some
time. We have Jesus truly seeing her –
seeing her for who she was. We have
Jesus pointing her out to his followers so that they can see her too. Jesus used the power that he had in order to
give power to another – the power of being seen.
I witnessed an example
of power being used to create space for those with less power this past
summer. The General Council of the
United Church of Canada meets every 3 years, and there was a meeting last
summer in Ontario. I couldn’t be there,
but since they live-stream the proceedings, I was able to watch a lot of it that
week. The meeting ran from Sunday through
Friday, and so late Friday afternoon the meeting was finishing up with any
outstanding business before the closing worship after supper.
Throughout the week,
the meeting had paused several times to allow one of the Intercultural
Observers to make a short presentation.
These were people attending the meeting who brought a slightly different
perspective because of their personal background. Anyways, late on Friday afternoon, one of
these Intercultural Observers, Paul Walfall, a United Church of Canada minister
of Caribbean origin, was invited to share one final observation. He stood up, and said in very clear language
that he hadn’t seen himself or his background reflected in any of the meetings
or any of the worship. When he was done
speaking, the room, in good United Church fashion applauded, and then the
meeting resumed.
Paul Walfall addressing General Council 43
Picture from The United Church of Canada Facebook page
About 15 minutes later,
two delegates at the meeting came to the microphone and said that there had
been a very powerful opportunity missed in which the church could have listened
to those who were marginalized. And
after a few minutes of discussion, the moderator, Jordan Cantwell, invited
people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to share their stories. And nothing happened at first. She then asked the white people lined up and
waiting at the microphones to please step away to make space. When they only moved back a step or two, she
became more blunt and told all white people to sit down and shut up. And what followed was 2 hours of very
powerful story-sharing. People who
hadn’t felt welcomed or safe at the microphone came forward and shared their
stories and experiences of racism in the church. People from every corner of the world who are
now a part of our United Church came forward – some people shared positive experiences,
but many of the stories were very painful.
And the rest of the meeting sat and listened.
One person, Moderator
Jordan Cantwell, used her power to create a space where people who were
vulnerable, people who were marginalized, people who didn’t feel safe to speak
and were often overlooked were able to come forward, were able to share their
stories, were able to be seen and heard.
One person used her power to empower the powerless.
As followers of Jesus,
we are called to grow in our Christ-like-ness.
We open ourselves to the Holy Spirit so that we can be transformed into
the image of Christ. And so the question
that I want to ask is how can we use our power to give power to those who don’t
have any? Because I would suggest that
if you woke up this morning in a bed in a warm house or apartment, and if you
know where your next meal is going to come from, then you have more power than
many people in our world. Who in our
communities is overlooked, unseen like the widow in today’s story? How are we called to create a space so that
those who are vulnerable can be seen, and those who are powerless can be heard?
How will you use your
power?
[1] See, for example, Ched Myers, “Say to This Mountain” Mark’s Story of
Discipleship (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996), 165.
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