Year B

Mark 12:38-44

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

A Love That Gives Its All

Through the work of archeologists and historians, we have learned a lot about the Christians who lived in Jerusalem and Rome during the first two centuries. We learned that they sometimes met in the homes of widows. These widows may have been widows of Christian martyrs, or of men who had fallen out of favor with the successive tyrannies of the empire, or women who had been child brides to men much older than themselves who had now died. The law required civil penalties if these women did not soon remarry. But remarriage most often meant that their dowries and inheritances would soon enrich some other, usually pagan, gentleman. Televangelists in our own time have been known to have a similar scam that preys on lonely widows. When Peter and Paul arrived in Rome on their visits, they would stay in the homes of Christian widows. These homes became meeting places for worship and safe houses for the illegal Christian revolutionary movement.

Every revolutionary movement has widows. With the murder of their families many become willing to commit themselves, if they had not done so before, their lives and property, in witness to the justice of the kingdom of God in their own time and place. The Jesus movement has always attracted the poor, the disenchanted and the vulnerable. For the most part, widows have always been the most vulnerable to poverty. This may or may not have been the story of the widow that Jesus noticed just 48 hours before his crucifixion in the court of the women at the Jerusalem Temple in our gospel today. Thirteen trumpet-shaped boxes placed around the Temple would receive the gifts of the people, and Jesus noticed that rich people came and gave large gifts. And Jesus noticed a woman who drops into one of the boxes two little copper coins, the lepton, only about a quarter inch in diameter. Since this Greek coin was not used everywhere, Mark explains for his readers that they were worth a quadran or a penny. And together the coins amounted to half a denarius, a day’s wages for a laborer. We hear Jesus say that she gave all she had to live on—100%.

More often than not, the widow in this text, a story often called the widow’s mite is lauded as an example of faithful—even sacrificial giving. Her story is used to inspire generosity: if this widow can give out of her poverty, how much more should we all be giving out of our abundance? This story does convict and lead us to consider our commitment financially to God’s work. But just maybe this widow represents more than just a call to giving, as important as that is. Just maybe it’s also a call to justice. Perhaps Jesus is not praising her but lamenting the fact that she is part of an economic system so corrupt that it will take her last few coins.  Knowing the teachings of Jesus, is it more than likely that he was lifting the beggar-woman up as one who was barely living, as an example to open eyes to the crying shame of the plight of the poor. She represented the ongoing exploitation of the poor by the Temple elite.

The widow exists in our world today, not only as someone who has had a loved one die, but in the employees who are scheduled for long shifts on Black Friday, and sometimes even on Thanksgiving and other holidays. She appears in the form of workers who are underpaid so we can buy goods cheaply. And perhaps we, who benefit from these systems, have taken on the role of the temple elite. The temple was not just a religious institution—it was a huge economic force. The temple had hundreds of employees, and Jerusalem was what we like to call, a ‘company town.’ The temple priests and scribes lived high on the hog. They received a cut from every temple sacrifice and were the beneficiaries of a five-shekel tax on every first-born child. This generated great revenue for the priests, but even this was not all. Offerings or taxes, brought in even greater wealth, so much so that the priests got into the business of lending money, which means that they also were in a position to foreclose on property if the debt was not paid.

Like the temple system in Jesus’ day, it’s hard for us to separate ourselves from our own economic system; leaving many to wonder if we really notice the people like the widow who are all around us. Jesus actually sees the widow, but it seems that most, like his disciples wouldn’t even have noticed her. The day before this story takes place Jesus makes his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and rages in the temple courts turning over the tables to protest the systems that exploit the poor like this woman. And after this story Jesus comes out of the temple and hears one of his disciples marveling at its vast size. “Look teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” And Jesus answers “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”  The widow gives all that she had and soon Jesus will give all that he has. Her gift mirrors his, as each of them gives away everything they have left. Her gift falls into a corrupt system, and is lost. His gift, like the grain of wheat that dies to bear fruit, falls into a broken world, and grows toward God’s dream of justice and equality in the world.

As a whole, Americans are generous and to be sure, those attending worship today, much like the widow, are still faithful in presenting their offerings. Whether we like it or not, the church, like the temple is an economic system. It employees people and has to pay for the up keep on buildings, electricity, etc. We all are well aware that if we want the church to be here for generations to come we must give out of our abundance. But living generously is not limited to writing checks only because there is so much more we can give like our time, our hearts, and our compassion to work towards God’s dream of justice and equality in our world. This is the time of year when we as a congregation and as individuals gather to give thanks, and to faithfully discern how our offerings can be used for the ministry of God’s kingdom. Read our vision statement…

The widow’s sacrifice calls us to reflect on what it means to offer ourselves and our gifts to God. Perhaps the widow’s heartfelt contribution comes as a result of her faith that the world was about to turn. Giving away all she had, the woman displays radical dependency on God. She is under no obligation to give; instead, her act of offering resembles the gracious outpouring of God’s faithful love for her and for each one of us. And when we truly realize that love, we can do nothing else but love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. We can do nothing else but love our neighbor. This is the Jesus way of love; a love that gives it all and offers it all because God gave it all for you and me on the cross. The good news that it proclaims is that God will take what we have and what we are-when we give it to God- and will use the strength of our commitment, the power of our passion, the gift of our self that we give in faith and trust, to change the world.