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
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