November 12th, 2006
You know what’s a really cool thing about the Bible? One cool thing is how a story in one book might talk to a story in another book. Like a story from Exodus might talk to a story from one of the gospels, or something one of the prophets said will talk to something that St. Paul said in one of his letters. Sometimes stories from one part of a book might converse with a story in another part of the same book. There are these ongoing conversations, the ones that we have with our holy scriptures and the ones that our holy scriptures have with themselves. Picture all of the authors of all of the books of the bible as a section of the communion of saints, some getting along well, others arguing passionately with each other. It points to the richness of our biblical tradition, and I know I’m a bible geek, but I find it fascinating. I find also that it offers us insight into the stories that we read on Sundays.
What I see this morning is a conversation with two stories within the gospel of Mark. Today’s gospel, called the widow’s mite, I believe has a dialogue partner in another story, known as the cleansing of the temple. In both stories, Jesus is in Jerusalem and he’s in the temple. The temple is the center of religious life, and there’s only the one, in Jerusalem. This is the temple that is later destroyed, some years after Jesus is killed. The temple is also the center of religious power. So this being the center of religious life and religious power makes it an interesting place, and some interesting stories with Jesus are set there. So we have these two stories: one, this woman, a widow, whom Jesus notices and watches as she puts in the treasury two copper coins, each worth a penny. It’s not much on the one hand, but on the other it is all she had. Jesus notices this, and he points it out to the disciples. This happens just after Jesus does some teaching in the temple that was critical of the scribes – who want the best seats and the places of honor, and whom Jesus tells are corrupt. So there’s today’s story, which I see as in conversation with a story that in the gospel narrative happens not long before. That’s the story of the cleansing of the temple, when Jesus knocked over tables and drove our the merchants from the outer courts of that holy place.
I think these stories are connected, that they are in conversation with each other. I think there are some important things going on in these stories, that are worth looking at. One thing that is important when we start with today’s gospel is that this is a widow we’re talking about. This matters because in Jesus’ time, widows are invisible. They have no status. They tend to be poor, because they have no husband to support them. And because of this, because they are a vulnerable part of the population, the people of Israel are commanded by God to care for the orphan and the widow. A widow is very literally ‘the least of these’, and Scripture tells the people of God that they must care for a widow. It’s not optional. Now remember, Jesus has just finished criticizing the scribes – those who are too cozy with power and prestige – and one of his accusations against them is that they ‘devour widow’s houses.’ So in this story today, this woman – this widow – is in the shadows. She’s not only not important, she’s invisible. Except to Jesus. He sits down in the treasury and he watches the people going about their religious business, and of all of the people he saw, the one he points out to the disciples is this woman, this widow, and her action of putting her very last coins into the treasury.
Her being a widow is important then, and so is this act of offering these coins. One could say too that another thing that this story is about is money. I want to start looking at the money part of the story in conversation with the cleansing of the temple. We should ask regarding that story, what is being cleansed here, and why? It’s important to note that it’s not the money that is being cleansed or that needs cleansing. It’s the system. They way it worked was this: the temple is the center of religious life, and the center of life in the temple is making sacrifices to God. The idea is that you would give commensurate with your resources – the idea of the tithe, right? But over time, this had deteriorated to an attitude of, the grander the sacrifice, the more God would take notice. And eventually, those with an eye on profit figured out that they could make some money off of this system. They could make money off of people trying to express their faith and their piety, making their religious observance. They did this by declaring that everyday money couldn’t be used in the temple. Money was dirty, was the thinking. Only clean money could be given to God. And how you got clean money from dirty money was to exchange it – at a profitable exchange rate for the money changers, of course. Also by selling the ‘right’ animals for sacrifice, pigeons for those too poor to buy anything else and other, more impressive animals for those with the resources to afford it. So when Jesus drives out those selling and those buying from the temple, when he overturns the tables of the money changers, and the seats of those who sold doves, and tells those making money off of this system that they have made this house of prayer into a den of robbers . . . he does a few things. He makes some enemies, for one; he messes with the system, for another; and he also reminds us to be wary of what corrupts.
The underlying message – about the corrupting potential of systems, and the corrupting potential of power and prestige, has often been misunderstood, I think, by thinking that there is something negative about money itself. You know? That money is bad, money is dirty, or money is somehow not what we can comfortably or politely talk about in church are all habits that sometimes die hard. And the old tradition in our churches of what we did with the money that we give and offer to God for the ministry of the church bears some looking at here too. It used to be, and in some places still is the custom, that the offerings of money were taken away to be hidden out of sight. Money wasn’t to be seen, so it went to some out of the way place until it could be appropriately and discreetly taken care of. But the tradition I was taught in seminary is very different from this way. I was taught that the offerings of money go on the altar next to the other offerings we make, the bread and wine. Because it’s all connected; because it all has holy purpose; because it is all everyday stuff made sacred by God’s presence. So that’s what I’ve done since I’ve been here at St. George’s – put the money offerings right there on the altar - though I just recently found out that wasn’t necessarily the tradition before I got here.
Our stewardship speaker Kirk Kubicek told a great story which I particularly loved, out of all of the great stories he told that night he was here. It was his first Sunday at his new church. The gifts came up; he put the bread and wine on the altar, elevated the gifts of money, went to put it on the altar when it was whisked away by an acolyte. It went off to the side room where the counters started counting it while the eucharist was going on! The next Sunday came around, he elevated the gifts of money when they were brought up – and as the acolyte came to whisk them away he dumped it all out on the table – envelopes and checks, change and bills, right there on the altar. And he passed the empty basket to the acolytes. And he told us, Now the counters come to the Eucharist. I loved that story, probably because I love the audacity of it, but also because it makes the point so dramatically, that money is part of our lives and can be talked about, and seen, and touched in church. I have to tell you that the first time I saw this altar it was clear to me that it’s made to have all of the gifts on the table – including the basket that holds our monetary gifts. This table is big enough to hold all of us, including those. Whatever the amount, whatever the sacrifice it represents.
I think that sometimes we hear this story of the widow giving her last few coins, and it hits us as a double whammy. Oh great: it’s about money and it’s about giving a lot – more than we want to. We get grouchy, sure that this story was put in the gospels only to make us feel guilty about what we give or don’t give to the church, about whether our sacrifice is enough. But that would be missing the point. I think there’s something else going on here which is important, and it has to do with where and when this story takes place in the ministry of Jesus. When Jesus cleanses the temple and observes this widow, he is in Jerusalem. This matters a lot. It matters because Jerusalem is where Jesus will die. Jerusalem is where Jesus will die soon. At the time of this story of our gospel today, Jesus is only a few days away from his death. He has already rode in to the city to hosannas and palm branches, so time is running out. When Jesus notices this woman, this widow, giving literally all that she has to give, he is not long away from his final giving of all he has to give – his very life. I believe that this awareness – not necessarily of his death, but of where he was (in Jerusalem) and the danger Jesus knew being at this center of both religious and political power put him in may have been at the forefront for Jesus. Remember he has had run-ins with both the religious and the political authorities, and Jerusalem is where that power and authority is strongest. In today’s story, he has just criticized the scribes, not long after kicking over tables and making a ruckus in the temple. Jesus has enemies, and his even coming to Jerusalem has put his life in danger. The awareness of all of this perhaps gave Jesus more heightened vision, so that the one who caught his attention wasn’t the one pledging the largest amount out of their abundance – it was someone generally invisible, a woman, a widow, giving all that she had to give. Foreshadowing Jesus’ final giving of his life, without which God would not have the chance to show us the power of resurrection.
So perhaps we need then to ask ourselves, why this story, why now? We are nowhere near the final days of Jesus’ life; we are much closer in fact to the preparations for his birth in our season of Advent, which starts three Sundays from now. And maybe that’s the key. One cycle is ending in the next couple of weeks; another is beginning. Ordinary time, our season after Pentecost, is coming to an end in two more Sundays. Advent begins, getting us ready for Christmas, which starts the most sacred cycle of our church/liturgical year: from Christmas to Easter; from incarnation to resurrection. We are going to go from birth and incarnation to death and resurrection over these next months, starting in a few weeks. And I suspect that, metaphorically speaking, we hit the high note of this story and what it represents now, so that we have those tones to sustain us while we change our tune and sing soon of anticipation and birth.
But let’s not forget what’s important in this story today and of the story it is in conversation with. Let’s not forget about the expectation, the command, that we care for the orphan and the widow – that we are to care for ‘the least of these.’ Let’s not forget that money is not to be hidden or not talked about, but that it is part of our lives and that as people of faith we have to figure out how to use it faithfully. Let’s not forget the sacrifice this one widow makes, noticed by Jesus because the time and place highlight for us his coming sacrifice. As we come to the end of ordinary time these next two Sundays, and get ready for the birth of the Christ child, let’s remember what’s important.
Amen.