19 December 2015

Sermon 8 November 2015 Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17, Mark 12:38-44 Proper 27 Year B

         If you want to puzzle a youth group playing Bible Trivia, just try getting away from the stock questions because they’ve memorized those answers. So ask them this, what was Boaz before he got married to Ruth? The kids will all give you blank looks. Do you know the answer? You don’t? Well, Boaz was “Ruthless.” And, because Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi were in a helpless position without male protection, the Old Testament or Hebrew scripture lesson today, tracks quite well with our Gospel reading.
         Naomi decided to have Ruth gain that protection for both of them by marrying her to Boaz. And, in case you don’t know it, when Ruth “uncovered” Boaz’s feet, that is a euphemism for uncovering a different and more private body part. So Boaz then did something with Ruth that I won’t describe here. What that did was put Boaz under obligation to marry Ruth, assuming he was an honorable man. Lucky for Ruth and Naomi he was honorable. But, just like the widow in the Gospel today, Ruth and Naomi were hepless and unprotected in their society.   

Now I would certainly like to use the Gospel today as an easy tool to make you think about what you give to the church. Regrettably, I no longer believe this Gospel is about a widow being an example of the kind of stewardship God wants us to do. I realize the widow, as a model of exemplary stewardship, is one of the standard scholarly ways of looking at this text. However, there are, as always, multiple ways of looking at this story.
         The text itself does not really support Jesus commending the widow for her contribution to the temple treasury. We have no idea of either the emotion or the expression with which Jesus makes his statement. I’ll add that the original Greek is little help either. Jesus simply says, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For 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.”[1] To think about it in an all or nothing way, it helps to know the original Greek translates more like the widow gave, “her whole life.”
         Our cultural overlay, and our own experiences, tends to make us believers in Jesus complimenting the widow’s behavior. And maybe, possibly, our guilt about our own prosperity has something to do with our interpretation as well. A variety of scholarly interpreters, some of whom did not begin their lives as people of privilege, have pointed us beyond the standard interpretation to other ways to view this text.
Consider these things if you will. The text says Jesus was teaching in the temple. The first thing he does is critique the behavior of the scribes. He says the scribes like to walk around in expensive t-shirts and get the best seats at the OSU and Thunder games. Oops, I mean in the synagogues and places of honor.
And yet, those same scribes devour widows’ houses and spout long prayers to prove how pious they are. Then, when Jesus is done with his critique, he sits down opposite the treasury. There just might be something to that. Perhaps Jesus is making a statement by positioning himself opposite the treasury for what he is about to say.
         Rich people put in large sums of money at the temple. We know that in Jesus’ time some rich people foreclosed on the very widows who only had two small copper coins to put in the treasury. So if Jesus is not praising the widow’s action, just what might he be saying here?
         Is it possible Jesus has in mind stewardship after all? But maybe, Jesus has in mind a different kind of stewardship. Maybe the stewardship Jesus has in mind is a stewardship that thinks differently about ownership.
         And maybe, what Jesus has in mind is to remind us that steward means caretaker, not owner. God is the owner. We are the temporary caretakers of what God has entrusted to us. And maybe, just maybe, Jesus is taking to task the scribes by contrasting them with the widow.
         A good caretaker is focused on caretaking, using what he or she has been given to follow the owner’s wishes. We are deceiving ourselves if we believe we are the owners of what we have. We are temporary stewards. As the Spanish saying goes, “There are no pockets in a shroud.” And our temporary stewardship comes with a charge from God to listen and learn what God wants us to do with the blessings God has given us. Just as Jesus listened and looked at what happened to the widow, so we are called to look and listen to what is going on around us.
         A good caretaker stays focused on the owner and what the owner wants of the caretaker. A good caretaker carries out the wishes of the owner by being focused on the owner’s desire. And in this case the owner’s desire is for justice and mercy, for right use of property and money, and for being God-absorbed rather than self-absorbed.
         The God we worship and the Christ we follow asks us to focus on what God wants us to do with the gifts God has given us. The God we worship made God’s own self flesh and blood to live among us. We owe this God the gift our selves, our souls and bodies, all that we are and all that we have been given, to be loving and wise stewards of what God has entrusted us with. We are to be focused on God and to open our minds, to open our hearts, and to open our wallets to give generously in loving gratitude for all we have been given.
         We have a choice. We can be the scribes who profited from the widows in their self-absorption. Or, we can be the wise and loving stewards of what God has given us by looking, saying, and doing what God asks us to do. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”[2] Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Your heart will be with the wise and loving steward from who flow all blessings. AMEN.         

The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2015




[1] Mark 12:43a-44 (NRSV)
[2] Mark 12:30 (NRSV)

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