What two coins reveal about a widow and us

 Pentecost 24, 2021 sermon delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY

Mark 12:38-44

The Widow’s Mite, the name of the reading we heard in this morning’s gospel, is a familiar story because it comes up in the fall when stewardship campaigns are going on. We hear about how a poor widow gave everything she had to the Temple treasury box, and how this is an example of faithful giving. The story can certainly be interpreted that way and be true, that we give to the church based on needs rather than on what we are willing to give. But there’s another side to this story that is not explored very often, one that examines the circumstances around the widow’s giving and the implications that has for her, and for us.

To provide context to the widow’s donation to the Temple treasury, we have to understand that the society she lived in was paternalistic and conforming, that is, a person’s life was determined in large part by the norms and customs of the larger society they lived in and men were in charge. People did not have a lot of choice in how they lived their lives, or have opportunities to break out of the difficult situation they could be in. Single women belonged to their own family until they were married and then moved in with her husband’s family. There was always a man present who managed her money and property and protected her legally. Widows and single women outside of a family had no legal or economic status or standing, meaning that they had no social support and were largely ignored. This makes the widow’s donation of her last two coins very significant: it was a dangerous act that would probably lead to disaster or even death for her, because she would have no other source of income, no support, and no way to buy shelter or food.

Jesus knew this as a man in this society, so her action caught his eye. We already know that from Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, and from Mary, Lazarus’ sister who covered his feet in perfume, that he held women in high esteem. He did not celebrate or condone the widow’s sacrificial giving, but instead brought attention to her situation. He described where she, and widows like her, were taken advantage of by men who looked pious, but who helped themselves to their property and money. He was pointing out an injustice where she gave everything she had out of faith in God, but that faith was not honored and God’s love was not reciprocated by her community or by the Temple. The Temple and society that was centered around it didn’t support her in her need, and if support was given, it was not always in her best interest.

Jesus speaks of wealth and poverty in this story, and where he speaks of money specifically, it is a symptom, rather than the cause of trouble for the widow. The true cause of her plight is the poverty of spirit of the people around her, not that she had so little to give, or that she gave it all away. Jesus elevates the widow because of the wealth of her faith and calls out those with an impoverished faith who have contributed to her economic situation, directly or indirectly. The people around her, on the other hand, were demonstrating their faith with long prayers or other very visible acts, rather than paying attention to her financial needs. The Temple was also unresponsive to her situation, the same Temple that she donated to, making that relationship lopsided and one way, from her to the Temple.

Jesus is telling us that wealth is not a sign or a result of faith, and holds the widow up as an example of wealth having nothing to do with faith. He is telling us that faith is not demonstrated by things we can see or have, but by attitudes that we hold in our heart. When we can break that connection between wealth and faith, we can move past our impression of the widow and the poor around us as having no spirit or will. We can move past questioning the decisions they make and instead see how to give to them as the widow gave to the Temple: as an expression of faith in God.

By bringing attention to the widow, Jesus calls the disciples, and us, to step into her life and experience it before she placed her coins in the box, and what she will experience in the days after. This is a very uncomfortable thing to do, because it makes us feel vulnerable when we see the ways that we could be like her, or see how we might be left vulnerable by the people around us. But it is precisely that feeling of vulnerability that can lead us to look for the widow in our own time: she is among women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, or people uneducated, undereducated, or underpaid. They are among us, contributing to our community in various ways, but when they need help, their requests are not honored, and God’s love is not shown to them.
 
The Gospel reading leads me to think about money and economic justice for the poor, and it makes me wonder how far we stray from God and Jesus when we look at our feelings toward the poor. Certainly not providing for them goes against Jesus’ teaching, particularly in this story, but it seems to me that the worst attitude, the most destructive attitude with the deepest roots is the attitude that the widow is not as important to the community as the scribes are. She is discounted, excluded, blamed, and looked down on because of her situation, as if it is entirely her fault. That is what puts distance between us and God and leads to a broken life on our part, rather than hers.

I wonder what would the lives of the poor be like if we instead changed how we saw them and then acted on that new attitude? What else could we do for them if we were to take that uncomfortable step and experience life as they do? How far we walk away from devaluing a poor person and walk toward God by loving them is not measured in how much they contribute, or how much money we give them, but instead measured by how much our attitude about them has changed. To be clear, we do not always bear responsibility for the situation that the poor find themselves in, but we are responsible for how we treat them, and that is what Jesus calls us to examine: how do we treat the widow in our time.