First Reading:
8Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.
10So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.
11As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
12But she said, As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13Elijah said to her, Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.
15She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Second Reading:
38As he taught, he said, Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.
41He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43Then he called his disciples and said to them, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.
She was on her last rung. She had held on for as long as she possibly could. There was enough food for one last meal for her and her son. She had no prospect of getting more food, so she had already resigned herself that she and her son would die. That's what the widow in our first scripture reading was telling the prophet who came to her asking for water and seeking food. She said, I am just now gathering sticks so that I can go home and prepare the little bit of food that's left for me and my son so that we can eat it and then die. There was nowhere left for her to place hope. She was beyond that until the prophet gave her just a little flicker of hope in the form of a promise. Don't be afraid, he said… I love that announcement because it means that something extraordinary is coming in the story… don't be afraid. Do what you said you're going to do, but first bring me something to eat.
In the Hebrew Scriptures there was a high demand for both compassion and justice toward widows and orphans because they represented the powerless people in society. So the request from a person claiming to be a prophet asking the poor widow to give him the last handful of food that she had saved for her and her son was crazy. He wasn't asking for much but because it was all she had to live on, he was asking for everything. How could he do that? The answer is, of course, that it wasn't her last handful of food… She only thought it was. Elijah told her that the jar of meal would not be emptied and the jug of oil would not fail her. Neither will run dry… until the rain comes, which is to say until the drought they were in the midst of was over and they would be able to provide for their needs again.
When Elijah told her to feed him first, she basically had three options… The first option is to tell him no (maybe have some sort of argument with him) walk away trusting in her own plan, eat with her son all of the food they had left and die, exactly as she planned to do before she met Elijah. The second option would be to avoid the argument all together… tell him yes, I'll be back with food, you wait here- and then to walk away trusting in her plan, eat a last meal with her son and die, exactly as she planned to do. The third option was to actually do what the prophet told her to do... to give him food and then to trust that God would provide for her and her son. It's quite a choice… To give up what you know in order to follow a promise of what might be: or to hold on to what you have because then at least you know what you're getting. The widow in our story chose to risk and to trust and so she gave Elijah food. And I hear the objection… yeah, but she was already resigned to death so anything that might help keep her alive would be good. And it's true she was in a life and death situation when she was faced with her decision. Thank goodness that's not the case for most of us And yet the choice whether to trust God, or to trust ourselves is a choice that's not limited to life and death situations… It's a choice that's at the heart of many of the decisions we make every day… how we interact with other people, how we use our time and our energy, and even though the stewardship campaign is over, where we place our trust still guides how we spend our money. In fact the question of where we place our trust is at the center of how we live our lives and the theme of trust runs through both of our scripture texts today.
In our Gospel lesson, as Jesus sat and watched the crowd put money into the treasury, he said that the poor widow put in more than all the rich people. Make no mistake, the treasury actually received many more dollars from the rich people… Those who tithed by giving 10% and even those who gave 5% of their income… regardless of if it was gross or net, before taxes or after… their dollar values were certainly more than couple of coins, the dollar or two, that the poor widow put in. From the point of view of the treasury, it would be a hard to make the case that she put in more than they did. But he praised her to the disciples, not because of how much she gave but because of how she gave. They gave abundantly out of their abundance… she gave everything she had even though it was merely a pittance. For the rich people who gave out of abundance, giving could have been motivated by a whole host of reasons. For the poor widow it's hard to imagine that giving was motivated by anything except trusting God. For the rich giving 10% may not have represented a risk, or even a significant difference to their way of life. But for the poor widow, who wasn't a 10% giver but rather a 100% giver, the gift made her even more vulnerable than she already was, it put her whole way of life at risk. She gave everything and trusted that God would provide.
Now given the condemnation Jesus spoke about the scribes, that may not have been such a good idea. You see, in verse 40, Jesus said the scribes devoured widow's houses. In fact there are many scholars who look at the context of this passage and say that the story about the poor widow who gave everything is really a continuation of the condemnation of the scribes. They say her story is an illustration of how the system took her last dime even though the leaders of the system were the ones who were supposed to have the most compassion on her. In last week's text Jesus told one of the scribes that he was not far from the kingdom of God… but on the whole, Jesus was thoroughly unimpressed with the behavior of the scribes. They sought honor and greatness and they trusted in their position to bring it to them. They got to walk around in long robes. They were respected in the marketplace. They got the best seats in the house at parties and gatherings. They were the people who claimed to know the scriptures. They were the people who claimed to know God. They were the ones who were called to serve and called to be compassionate. They were the people in position to help others spiritually as well as financially and even relationally. When other people looked at the scribes they saw people serving God wholeheartedly but it was all a façade. In our passage, Jesus condemned them because in reality they were only serving themselves.
And here's the context. Our story happened after Palm Sunday, after Jesus had thrown the money changers out of the temple and after a series of disputes with the Pharisees and the rulers of the day. It happened just before Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple. And, frankly, it's hard for me to imagine that this story was about the money. It's hard for me to imagine that Jesus would have been thrilled that this poor widow gave her last dime to the temple system that's already on the downslide… the temple system that he'd been railing against and antagonizing for the majority of his ministry… and yet, Jesus does single her out. Her gift was his teaching moment. He said to the disciples that she gave more than all the others. It wasn't because she gave all her money to the temple, it was because she wasn't afraid to risk everything she had in order to trust God. It may appear to be the smallest offering, but it was a great gift.
This is the only time we hear about the widow and honestly I wish we got to hear the rest of her story… In the Old Testament story we got that little bit of resolution…the text tells us the jar of meal was not emptied and the jug of oil did not fail. She trusted and God provided. But we don't get to know what happened to the widow from our gospel lesson. She gave everything she had to live on and I wonder what the point was… The temple eventually was destroyed so her donation didn't help out there. We don't even know if she walked away and starved to death. Of course I want to believe that didn't happen but we don't get to know how God provided.
And I guess that's part of the point. She trusted God and so she gave of herself 100%… she didn't know how God was going to provide but she believed that God would. Perhaps the story of the widow's offering suggests that faithful giving and faithful living isn't only for the sake of the people who are on the receiving end, but it's also an authentic expression of who we are as followers of Christ.
We've all struggled with question, what's the point?
The service I'm able to do isn't going to solve any of the world's problems… the money I'm able to give, the resources I'm able to save the people I'm able to help, they aren't going to make a dent in the world's need… and yet in choosing to live faithfully by serving, conserving, giving, listening, helping… in fact everything that we do because we believe that it's what Christ would have us do… those become expressions of our trust in God. We may not know how God will provide… we may not see how what we do will make a difference. And yet we do it anyway trusting that the end result is God's to determine and the faithful action is the part we play. Two small coins became a great gift because of the heart of the one who gave them and the faithfulness of the one she gave them to. And the good news in all of this is that when we trust in God, our trust is not misplaced. When we act in love our action is not in vain. God is trustworthy, God is faithful, God is honest and God is true. Thanks be to God, Amen
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on November 8, 2009.
© 2009 Daniel Holland
