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The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost Today’s readings present us with an interesting juxtaposition of stories in which widows are among the main characters. Being a widow can be difficult in any circumstances, but being a widow in biblical times must have been particularly so. I n a world where men held all the status and power, and where women were excluded from inheriting wealth, becoming widow often meant loss not only of spouse but also of wealth and status. The Hebrew word for “widow’ actually connotes someone without voice, someone unable to speak, and that reflects the reality of the status of a widow in both the world of the Old Testament and in the 1st century Mediterranean society in which Jesus lived. In both of these stories we find the widows, who were no doubt marginalized members of society, who lacked the protection and support of a male, giving to others from the little they had—and in both cases what they had was barely sufficient to sustain life. The first story from Kings, tells of a widow living in a time of drought who is left with just enough oil and flour to prepare one last meal for herself and her son. This widow is approached by the prophet Elijah, who has been sent by God to ask her to provide him something to eat. Despite her protestation that she hasn’t enough left, she uses what she has to make a meal for Elijah, and as Elijah promised, her oil and flour continue to be replenished by God until the drought ends. And in our gospel reading from Mark we hear of the poor widow who deposits two coins into the temple treasury, two coins that represent all she has in the world. These two passages, particularly the one from the gospel are often held up as examples of generosity in giving, even of sacrificial giving; you’ve likely heard the story of the widow’s mite as part of a stewardship sermon. But in fact, in both cases, the situation is more complicated than that simple interpretation would indicate, and in the case of the gospel text, that interpretation may be downright misleading. I’d like to give this story a closer look and examine an alternative take on this passage. If you recall, in the gospel we just heard, the story of the widow and the two coins is only part of today’s text. Today’s gospel is part of a longer section in which we hear Jesus teaching in the in the temple; in this part he is cautioning his disciples about the behavior of the scribes he sees there. These scribes, he points out, are using their position to gain unfair advantage in a society that is by nature hierarchical and somewhat repressive. “They like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplace and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at the banquets.” That much we understand; these religious leaders are misusing the status and respect their positions afford them, exploiting it to gain unfair advantage in a world where status is very important. It’s the next part of Jesus’ teaching that I think we tend to overlook, and it is that next part that is critical to understanding what Jesus says about the widow and her two coins. They devour the widow’s houses. What does this mean? Jesus seems to be condemning a corrupt system in which the temple taxes required to maintain the lavish upper class lives of the temple leaders, the priestly families, are so exorbitant that the poor must hand over all that they have to live on, a system that asks its weakest members to destitute themselves. It is in this context that Jesus observes the widow putting her two coins in the box. And in this context we might hear Jesus’ comment about the widow’s giving not as praise for her generosity but rather as a critique of a system that would ask someone without status or resources to give all that she has to live on. It’s as if he’s saying, “See what I mean? Look at those guys in their long robes and then look at this woman who has give her last dime.” There are plenty of places in the gospels where Jesus commends giving to others, but nowhere in this text do we hear Jesus praising this widow for her giving. Nowhere do we hear Jesus holding her up as an example for others to emulate. Rather when we look at the whole text what I think we hear Jesus saying is “This system that exploits the poor and the weak in society to maintain the position of those at the top of the pile is not what the kingdom of God is like.” I don’t think that Jesus meant that people should not give of their resources to support the temple, or by extension to support the church (although I am not sure that Jesus conceived of the church as it exists today). Having a place set aside for worship, and even making such a place pleasing to the eye as a way of glorifying God has long been a part of our tradition, and is even mandated in scripture: read the texts in which God instructs the Israelites on constructing the Tabernacle. And giving back, caring for those who have less, sharing our resources which we recognize ultimately come from God, is also deeply embedded in Judaism and deeply embedded in Jesus’ teaching. What is distorted here is how those resources are shared and how they are allocated. Instead of allocating the resources to remove inequity, to ensure that everyone has the means to sustain a decent life, resources are used to maintain a system that privileges the already wealthy, that enhances the position of those who already have a high social status, and at the expense of those who are already disadvantaged. This is, I think, the crux of Jesus’ objections. It is the sharing of resources in a way that erases inequities, that ensures that everyone has enough and none have too much in a way that does not exploit one group in favor of another that Jesus lifts up for us. It is this kind of sharing that we find in our reading from Kings. Like the widow in the gospel, the widow who Elijah encounters is asked to give all that she has to live on—the oil and flour she intends to use to prepare one last meal for herself and her son before they prepare to die. But unlike the widow in the gospel, the widow in Kings is assured that she too will be provided for, that in giving up what little she has she will not be left destitute. And her sharing ensures not that someone’s high status will be maintained, but rather that someone (Elijah in this case) will live. This is the kind of sharing that Jesus calls us to, the kind of giving that we should be holding up as an example. This is the kind of giving we should celebrate. Ultimately all that we have and all that we are comes from God as gifts freely given. We are called not only to use those gifts but also to give back a portion of them, and to do both in a way that glorifies God and advances God’s kingdom. The story of the widow and her two coins should remind us that our aim is not to support a system that exploits anyone—not the poor, not women, not children, not the disabled, not the weak and disadvantaged, no one—to maintain the status quo. Rather our aim is to work so that none are hungry, none are oppressed and all experience the justice and love that come from God. Only when we do this we can truly celebrate in the glory of God’s Kingdom. AMEN
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