SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
Mark 12:38-44
Today Jesus is teaching at the temple in Jerusalem one last time. The temple, an architectural wonder that had been rebuilt by King Herod. It is bigger and more magnificent than anything people had seen before.
The temple has become a huge religious and commercial center, and a large staff and the maintenance of the buildings require seemingly endless amounts of money. By enforcing strict religious laws and rules the priests and scribes have become powerful and influential. Few rich become richer at the cost of many.
The injustice that is done by the temple cult, by the ruling power of Jesus’ day is what Jesus is pointing out. He openly criticizes the scribes and their fancy outfits. Their demand for honor and special treatment during public outings. Their especially long prayers to demonstrate their holiness. But above all Jesus criticizes the scribes for squeezing ruthlessly the last pennies out of the common people, even the weakest, in order to keep up their status, their power, and their life style. The scribes take their greed out on the vulnerable and the powerless. “They devour widows’ houses”. And the system works smoothly. For those in power. And those of lesser status suffer. They are oppressed in the name of religion. That is what Jesus points out today.
This story of the poor widow is often used to get us to put more money into the offering plate. We are told that we shouldn’t be like the scribes by giving out of our abundance. But instead we should be like the widow who willingly and joyfully gives all she has. We are told that we are pleasing God when we give all we have. Yet, this is not what Jesus is actually talking about! With not a word is Jesus praising the widows offering. With not a word is Jesus saying that God loves this poor woman more, now that she gave it all. The widow has been told by the religious leaders that giving to the treasury is the only way of keeping to the law. And she has been told that God loves those who keep the law. Not the poor, not the unclean, not the marginalized. The poor widow gives all she has in the hope that God will still remember her – while the temple priests and scribes become richer and more powerful. Jesus uses the poor woman as a prime example of the injustice that is done to the common people. “Look,” he says, “these scribes don’t hesitate to take the poor woman’s last two coins. They take all she has.”
Im a single mom. I live in the basement of a run-down apartment building on 22nd Street in Saskatoon. The dodgiest area in town. Sadie… my daughter is very sick. She has trouble breathing because all the mold and mildew in our place makes her sick. I have a low-paying job, no benefits. And I can’t afford her meds that she needs to get better. And today my landlord came. He’s breathing down my neck to pay him last month’s rent that I still owe him. But I can’t pay him. I missed a couple days at work when Sadie was too sick to go to school. What am I supposed to do?
Who are the widows in our society today? They might look like inmates, the mentally ill, single moms. And maybe even our farmers… Big, national corporations break into the family farm system. By running huge corporate farms they not only destroy the land, but dictate the prices on the market. Farmers today are worse off than during the depression. Family farms are on the verge of extinction. This is a great injustice that squeezes many people in rural SK out of their existence.
We all are victims of the injustices in this world one way or another. And we all have part in the injustices in this world one way or another. We all are single moms on 22nd street, and we are all landlords demanding rent. We are all farmers loosing our family farm, and we are all part of the big corporations killing the family farm. By living in this part of the world we all use our wealth and power we have to secure our life style, our riches, our influence. And with that we oppress many.
Injustice has many faces. Exercising power and gaining advantages and riches at the expense of others breed injustice. The injustice of oppression squeezes the life out of its victims. Movies, novels, even newscasts show us what injustice looks like, and how we react to it: Injustice is repaid with more injustice, with violence, and the imposing of more power. The heroes take matters in their own hands. The results are war, hunger, violence and death. And if today’s story would be made into a movie in Hollywood Jesus, the super-hero of the story, would kick the scribes’ behinds big time! He would use some super-power, … maybe even violence to bring down the unjust, overpowering, self-serving temple system of his day.
Yet that’s not what Jesus does. Jesus is not the super-hero we expect. Jesus doesn’t come into the world with super powers. Instead Jesus has become one of us. And today Jesus sits at the center of the injustices of his day, and openly points to the wrong that is done to the poor, voiceless widow and all those oppressed.
God stands with the poor, the marginalized, the unclean. And the powers of the world treat the widow and God in the same way. The scribes, the national and international corporations, the landlords are standing by the offering plate to watch and making sure that the widow, that everyone gives accordingly; making sure that the money keeps coming in. Their power rests in shamelessly devouring the widows’ houses. Their power rests in taking all that people have. And they are determined to take God’s life because God is too uncomfortable. God is too outspoken, too challenging and threatening their self-serving dominance. God has to die.
And the widow, with nothing left must walk out of the temple treasury. She gave her two coins as she was supposed to, but where does she go from here? Today she doesn’t know, what tomorrow will look like.
And yet, in a few days from when she walks out of the temple treasury with nothing, Jerusalem will be launched into chaos. Jesus will be betrayed, tried, mocked, beaten and then led to the cross by the powerful.
And Sunday morning the rumors will start. While this widow walks to get water in the morning she might pass Mary and Mary on their way to the tomb. On her way back she might see Jesus’ frantic disciples running all over town, and she might begin to hear the whispers and the stories by lunch time. “He’s alive… the one that the temple authorities tried to put to death. They tried to kill him, but he would not stay dead, He has risen!!!”
And where there was no hope, where there was only certain death waiting, this poor penniless widow might find hope. She might see that there is hope for her. She might see that God is indeed working in the world, and that there is a place for her with Christ.
Today Sadie found a flyer in our mailbox. It’s from the church down the street. They invite people to their service. It says that Jesus invites us all to his table. I even could bring Sadie since they offer child-care. And there will be lunch afterwards. So, I don’t need to worry about a meal for that day.
God is still working in our world. God is still working to bring about change where power is abused. God is at work in organizations like Canadian Lutheran World Relief, food banks, fair trade co-ops, Christmas Hampers, Inner City Ministries, Habitat for Humanity, and so on, whose mandate it is to reach out to the poor, the marginalized and the forgotten. God is at work in communities that open themselves up to invite and greet all people. God is at work here in Medstead in the support we offer to each other, in how we treat one another as neighbours and friends who help and care for each other. God is on that combine that joins another to finish the harvest. God is in the hands that carry the casserole to a sick neighbour’s front door. God is here, in this place, nourishing us at his table with his body and blood, and binding us together into the ONE body of Christ, the family of God.
Today, Jesus points out injustice in the midst of the temple, and here too in our midst, and Jesus promises that injustice will come to an end. “The death-giving powers of this world will receive the greater condemnation.” But for God, the great condemnation is not devouring repaid with more devouring. Instead it is life over death. The powers of the world try to devour Jesus, try to take Jesus’ life. But God is the never-ending source of life. God infused life back into the world in the resurrection of Christ. And God is infusing life back into the world in us for we are the works of God in this world! Jesus comes into our lives to move us. The Spirit moves the church, moves us to reach out in love and care, in order to give the world hope that the widows, the single moms, and those on the outside are not forgotten.
Amen.
