November 8, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
1 Kings: 17: 10-16 + Psalm 146 + Hebrews 9: 24-28 + Mark 12: 38-44
We have made it to Jerusalem with Jesus where it is one constant confrontation with the authorities. But today, there stands before him, someone different from all the others. They come with all their money, their wisdom, their experience, their authority
She comes to teach what they cannot, and to reveal what they cannot imagine.
When we finish telling this story however, we have to ask a question: is this Gospel story about the widow or about the scribes? In the context of this Gospel our attention is being called to the Scribes. The widow is used as an example. If we want to hear what Jesus is speaking of, we cannot read back into the Gospel what we want to think about. The Jerusalem which Jesus has entered is not a place of welcome for his message. He has nothing to offer those in control of the place. There is nothing in his message that interests them or can improve their comfortable, safe, and protected lives.
The bottom line of this story is that this widow is supporting and helping the very people who ought to be taking care of her. Jesus is not talking about her. He is talking about them: the ones who like to sit in the front seats of the very synagogue she supports with out of her need.
Instead of sitting back and admiring her, we ought to be wondering what’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong with a situation or an institution; or a nation or a culture that allows the most needy to take care of those who have the most? What’s wrong with exploitation of the most vulnerable, weak, and helpless by those who because of their gifts their wealth and their knowledge ought to be, by God’s plan, taking care of those vulnerable, weak, and helpless?
This Gospel is no glorification of poverty or of the generous poor. Somehow, those who work with the poor discover again and again that the poor are always the most generous with the little that they have. This Gospel is not urging some shallow interpretation that motivates generosity. This is the Word of the Lord teaching disciples. It is the voice of Jesus speaking to disciples about the “establishment”, so to speak. There are three points of focus in these verses of chapter 12: the scribes at the temple, the poor widow, and the disciples to whom Jesus speaks. We need to figure out which of these we belong to, and what to do with the message. A disciple of Jesus has already stepped out of the first group. Jesus has not invited his disciples to this kind of poverty. He warns them to beware of hypocrisy and avarice. He warns them not to exploit anyone, and proposes that they reflect upon the causes of hunger and poverty
and do something to eradicate them.
My dear friends in Christ, work of that sort will take everything the disciple has. The question today is: “Are we up to the task?” “How much longer are we going to ask the poor of this world to take care of us?” Some will find this a hard question, and some will dismiss it as a “political” message. I found it in the Gospel. It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with justice, with greed and hypocrisy, and with justice.