Sunday November 7, 2021
Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:38:44
In our Wednesday morning bible study, it has taken us just over two years, but this past week we finished our slow read through the Gospel of Mark. All 16 chapters, at a rate of a couple of verses a week. We were aiming for depth, rather than speed!
Last winter, we read and discussed the story that we heard this morning – the story of the widow who put two small copper coins – everything that she had to live on – into the temple treasury. At the end of our conversation, I commented to the group that I wished that I had recorded our conversation, because I knew that we were going to be reading this story in November, and I could have re-played our conversation rather than writing a sermon, because as a group, we had explored this story so well! But I didn’t record that conversation, so I am going to have to rely on my memory for what was said that day.
Our conversations that week began with the widow, commenting on the depth of her faith and her devotion to put everything that she had into the offering box there in the temple where Jesus and his disciples were sitting. Some of our group members said that they wished that they could have the faith of the widow – to love and trust God so much that they would offer everything to God.
But we were doing a deep and careful reading of the story, and our problems began when we noticed, not what Jesus says, but what he doesn’t say with respect to this woman. Jesus sees her and what she is doing, then he turns to his disciples and says, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
If you listen carefully, you might see where this is leading. Nowhere does Jesus say, “Now, go out there and be like the widow.” Jesus doesn’t say, the way that he says at other times, “Go, and do likewise.” Jesus doesn’t even say about her, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
If you listen carefully to the story, Jesus doesn’t praise the widow, or what she is doing. He only observes her and tells his disciples what she is doing.
Our troubles that week at bible study continued when we tried to connect this story to other parts of the bible. The problem is, Jesus never wants people in poverty to give away the little that they have to live on. Instead, Jesus tends to do the opposite – Jesus tends to feed people who are hungry and heal people who are sick. Jesus’s ministry was focused on lifting people out of poverty, not pushing them further into it.
The problem deepened when we looked to what had come immediately before Jesus observed the widow. Jesus has just warned his follower to beware of the scribes, the religious leaders; and one of the things that he is condemning them for is “devouring widows’ houses.”
God wanted the temple, the religious system of that time and place, to care for people who were in need – all through the laws of the Old Testament, we hear God commanding God’s people to care for widows and orphans and foreigners who are living in your land. But here, Jesus observes that the system that was supposed to care for this widow, has instead been corrupted to take from her what little she had to live on.
So… what can we take away from this story? If Jesus isn’t praising the widow for her faithfulness but is instead condemning the system that keeps her in poverty rather than providing for her, I wonder if we are perhaps called to be, not like the widow, but like Jesus instead?
Jesus, sitting there in the temple with his followers, sees the widow put in her two coins and then points her out to his disciples, telling them what she was doing. I wonder if anyone else who was there that day noticed her? Some people were putting large sums of money – I bet that they were noticed. But I doubt if anyone else saw what that nameless widow had done.
I would suggest that our call, as the Body of Christ, is to notice the systems in our world that oppress some people and keep them in poverty. We are called to notice the metaphorical widows in our world. We are called to call out the systems in our world that keep some people in poverty. And as we try to live into the kingdom of God – this glorious time that we trust is coming when systems of oppression will be no more, and when everyone will be well-fed at God’s banquet – we are called to live as if that time was already here, sharing out of our abundance so that everyone has a place at the table.
For that time is coming; and when it gets here, do we want to be on the side of those who didn’t see the widow; or do we want to be on the side of noticing and of acting?
Amen.
Picture by Matteo Angelino on flickr
CC BY-NC 2.0
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