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If No Sound
The One Who Gave it All©
November 8, 2009
Ruth 3:1-5;
4:13-17
Psalm 127 or
Psalm 42 (UMH 777)
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Amy DeWitte
What would it mean for any of us to give
our last dollar to someone who is poor, or our last penny to the service of
God? Not just the last bit of cash that we happen to be carrying at the moment
– I’m talking about everything we have!
Not many of us would feel able to do that. Not
many of us would voluntarily give up everything we have. Given the chance, most
of us want more, not less. Most of us want comfort, not insecurity. And yet we
find in our Scripture readings for today a woman who chose to give it all.
Jesus out walking around in Jerusalem talking
to his disciples, warning them about the scribes who live rather lavishly, take
advantage of the hospitality of widows and pray long and loud so that others may
observe their piety. Just as he sat down to take in all the activity that was
going on in the Temple that day, right on cue emerged one of the very vulnerable
widows that the scribes had a habit of taking advantage of.
[Widows along with orphans and others who had
little support structure, we some of the most vulnerable members of society. In
fact, we see in our passage from Ruth today what profound dependence women had
on men even for their shelter and food. A woman left without a father or a
husband to make money for the things she needed to live would have very little
indeed. We’re talking the poorest of the poor people in this society.] So,
just as Jesus and the disciples are observing what’s going on in the Temple,
here comes forth this widow woman to deposit her offering.
This was something she was offering voluntarily. There we
other offerings that we obligatory, but this was a sum that she chose to give.
She could have squirreled it away for a rainy day. It’s possible that she didn’t
know where her next meal would come from. But no, she gave her last two copper
coins, amounting to about a penny, to the Temple.
Jesus said to his disciples, “You see there are
plenty of other people here who give out of their abundance, and when they have
given, they will still have an abundance, but she gives out of her poverty,
everything she had, all she had to live on, her whole life.”
Not many people would do that. Think about
what it would mean to give up everything in today’s terms: you’d give up your
house and your cars, cash in your pension, withdraw all of your savings and give
it all away.
And she gave even knowing the fallenness of the scribes,
how they were prone to living a little too lavishly. How could she be sure
where her money was going? Shouldn’t she just do with that money what she saw
fit, rather than trusting it to the religious authorities?
Not many people would
do what she did. And I think it would be ill-considered for me to stand here to
tell you that what you should do is be just like that widow. It’s easier said
than done. It’s just not that simple. And in any case, it’s just not prudent to
automatically put ourselves in the place of the hero of the story and say, if we
just did that, then we’d really be living faithfully. Problem solved, right?
Ah, but no. The truth
is that not many of us can give it all, and none of us would choose a life of
poverty so desperate as this woman. And so in this woman, this widow with her
mite, her little copper coin – in this woman we see not an exceptionally
faithful, generous version of ourselves that we might hope to someday be. In
this woman we see a picture of what it must be like to give it all, to give her
whole life. In this woman we see the face of Jesus. We see a foretelling of
what Jesus would give – not only pouring out his power and leaving the glory of
heaven, but giving his very life on behalf of all of us who he calls beloved,
who he calls dear.
I
would be amiss if I tried to convince you that we should all go out and do
exactly what the widow woman did. It would be too easy for me to say, and way
too difficult for us to do. That’s not to let us off the hook in anyway. What
I hope and pray for us is that we can see anew each and everyday the
self-giving that was Jesus, the love and forgiveness and hope, even unto death
that is Jesus for our sake, and that we can open ourselves to be made more and
more into his likeness.
Copyright © 2009 Amy DeWitte. All Rights Reserved. No portion of
this writing may be reproduced in any form without specific, written
permission of the author.
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