Mark 12:38-44
Proper 27 (32) - Year B
As always, what we see depends on where we stand. Listen to this note from the NISB - "Given the immediately preceding reference to 'devouring widows houses' (v. 40), it is hard to know whether Jesus' example of the widow giving all she had should be taken as a good thing (more than the wealthy give) or as another condemnation of the workings of the Temple (all she had to live on is gone)."
Given the larger context, instead of just focusing on a snapshot, I opt for the condemnation perspective.
That which does not move toward increasing love of G*D and Neighbor contains the seeds of destruction. If it's not building up, it is preparing to come tumbling down.
There are certainly equivalents in today's world of people who so readily vote for proponents of policies that in both the short-run and long-run run counter to their best interests. We get so caught up by the forces and rhythms of the culture around us that we willingly suspend our belief and put in our last two cents rah-rah-ing the current structures. Eventually people self-censor their own conscience and best interest to prop up loosing propositions. Is this not the history of the fall of the Roman Empire and every Empire before and since. That which can fall, will.
Weep for widows, literally and figuratively. Their houses are taken from them and they willing invest the last of their life's saving in one scheme or market or another and so willingly step into a gas shower. And how different are "widows" from you and me?
No wonder the stones here are not cornerstones but stones waiting to crumble.
A contrast here might be the Ruth story.
Would that more would get up and go for what was needed, even if culturally suspect, rather than be co-conspirators in their own demise.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/november2003.html
When called to put in to life all we have, it is helpful to have little. We don't have to sort through tough decisions about what to save when a fire is bearing down on us or the flood waters are rising. When it is very clear that we only have this cup of flour or these two coins, we might as well offer them now rather than wait for another hand - sort of like going all in when short-stacked - it is the only reasonable decision in an uncertain world.
Our senses are heightened when everything is on the line and, at the same time, there is a blessed quietness. This combination of choice and non-choice leads to the type of living that will force action. When in this space we are open to doors we never would have considered and, if nothing else, we are a blessing to any who observe our response to a dilemma - invest where you can your reputation, resources, and hope.
- - -
a house is being built
a habitat for humanity
rises from random materials
a foundation here
a stud there
insulation blown or blanket
paint all around
a house is being built
a model of participation
sweat equity
partnering with G*D
and one another
pick your skill set
and use it well
a house is being built
its transformation
to a home
is in vain
without today's risk
sleeping with Boaz
cooking for Elijah
a house is being built
that requires
everyone's hands
to raise it up
not even G*D
does this alone
without a widow's help
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
To bring this passage up-to-date, be sure to substitute "pundit" and "TV evangelist" for "scribe". No matter their good intentions, celebrity status accrues and care-for-self takes first and only place.
Can one give away all that one can live on? From a perspective of money, of course not. Even John Wesley, as he expects generosity no matter what one's financial state, doesn't expect anyone to give to the point of needing assistance or harming their health. It makes no sense to give up one's ability to further invest.
Can one give away all that one can live on? Of course. The widow is a parable, in and of herself, reflecting that G*D's creation is rich enough to provide for all of creation to flourish. If there is poverty, it is because some in the creation have taken more than their share and filled their pockets first. The widow's action is high prophecy. She reveals how far short we have fallen from caring for one another as Neighbor, as Image of G*D.
The paragraph above takes much from Provoking the Gospel of Mark by Richard W. Swanson. Among the several suggestions he makes about how one might dramatize this pericope, the following extended comment is intriguing:
"... What if [Jesus] attacks the scribes' alleged practice because he has the scribes in his sights, and the widow is simply a rhetorical image that he found ready to hand, serviceable for a generic political attack on an opponent? Somehow in election years everyone is the friend of the deserving poor. Even politicians whose policies in every other year are corrosive to the connections that hold rich and poor together in bonds of mutual responsibility, even such politicians can demonstrate, in an election year, how electing their opponent will be bad for the poor. That is because the poor have no real standing in such wrangles, they are just there as a figure of speech. When real policy-making demands real attention to the causes and effects of poverty, it will generally emerge that figures of speech do not vote or make campaign contributions or lobby effectively. Or, as in the scene at hand, they show up as stock figures that can be used to illustrate something else entirely.
"What if Jesus were revealed in this scene as such a politician? Christian expectations will surely militate against such tellings of this story. Jesus is, and has long been, the right answer to every question, the solution to every problem, without ever having to demonstrate any effectiveness whatsoever. Before you decide how to read this scene, soak in it for a long time. Remember, it is possible that Mark is telling a story that carries an embedded criticism of Jesus. That may not be an expected practice, but that does not mean that this old script does not preserve something that is foreign to the contemporary world, something strong and surprising, something that may turn out to be a key to other locked problems in the text." [pp. 246-247]
= = =
If you were to make a chart and put it on the refrigerator to check your daily balance of being beholden to the economics of the day or beholden to the fecundity of creation, where might this week fall? Is that the balance you are looking for in yourself?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html