Good Shepherd United Church of Christ

Widows Gone Wild!                              Ruth 3:1-15
Nov. 8, 2009                                          Mark 12: 38-44
Metairie

By the time I got the sermon worked out, Noreen had already printed our bulletins.  I now have a new title, better suited to the drift of the sermon.  The new title is:  Widows Gone Wild!  Something akin to "Nuns on the Run"- a little racy (as is the text in Ruth) and a title that conjures up images of impropriety- maybe lil ole gray-haired ladies, like myself, in Roaring 20s flapper dresses, dancing their fannies off with glee.  Well, at least that's my vision.  What's yours?  What does "Widows Gone Wild" look like?  What does it sound like?  I hear a live band with plenty of horns.  So that's the title:  "Widows Gone Wild".

As we approach Bible readings we frequently make a mistake- we assume, wrongly, that the readings will have a moral point- as if at the end of every Bible reading, there will be a declaration:  "And the moral of the story is..."  Or we will hear God say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  Or we'll hear Jesus say, "Go forth and do likewise...go be like that."

Some times Bible readings are clearly prescriptive; they are teaching stories to show us what to obey- for instance the 10 Commandments come to mind.  Do thus...do thus...do thus...do not...do not...and so on.  But wait!  Maybe these are not only prescriptive- telling us what we ought to do- maybe they are descriptive as well- just telling us how life is...how life works out.  If you steal and slander and envy and murder, then your community certainly will not flourish.

In the case of the widows in the Book of Ruth, there is no suggestion that Ruth is rescued from her impoverishment because of her holiness (though she is a dear, loving, loyal and innocent character.)  Ruth is rescued because of the wisdom of the practical, wily widow woman, Naomi.

Really the editors ought to have named the book "Naomi" since she is the main character (though Ruth does get the best lines.  "Whither thou goest, I will go;   where you lodge, I will lodge;  your people will be my people and your God, my God.")  But Naomi carries the action;  Naomi knows the ways of the world- how to go along to get along.  Naomi knows how to work the system- where to go for food, when and how to approach a man.  So really it is Naomi who directs the action...  And she, in the end, is rewarded with a child at her bosom.  And it seems they will all live happily ever after, thanks to Naomi, Ruth's coach and Ruth's beloved, loyal companion.  So really the book ought to be named "Naomi", except that we are just a tad uncomfortable, aren't we, about naming a Biblical story about a conniving woman.

But this is not a moralistic teaching story.  It's not prescriptive- it does not say at the end:  therefore, go and do likewise."  Rather it is wisdom literature which simply describes how the world goes round.  People do have to make do when they are hungry and homeless.  That's what Naomi does- she's smart and savvy and figures out a way out of no way.

The story does say something about God- our God is a God who works through crafty characters like Naomi or Jacob, a tricky fella.  God works through a renegade slave, like Moses.  God picks fishermen, not Biblical scholars, as disciples.

So alongside a story of widows who go from bare survival to "happy days are here again";  from the end of the line to a women's party welcoming the child, from this story we turn to a New Testament widow- the widow who drops her two last coins into the temple treasury.

We are so tempted to make this into a prescriptive story- to make her a model for what we should do.  Especially during stewardship season preachers are tempted (wrongly) to put her on a pedestal as a moral example.  But wait!  Jesus does not say-  "Go and do likewise;  put all your money in the temple treasury like she does."  Jesus does not commend her action.  Rather, he notes that 2 pennies, in this case, is more than a million dollars.  He gives us a parable- not a moral to the story.

Any preacher who uses this story to get impoverished widows to give over their last pennies to the church treasury would be abusing the story and abusing the widows.  Indeed, Jesus warns us against greedy, self serving religious officials and he also warns us against investing in temple building projects in the very next paragraph.  So to use this story as a pretext for squeezing the last coins out of widows is lousy interpretation of the text at best, at worst it is manipulative.

We don't want our impoverished widows giving more than our wealthiest members!  That's offensive.  We want people to give proportionately- and remember, God wants us to keep 90%.

So the widow has gone wild- she is a wildly disproportionate giver.  She tosses in all that she has.  She is not a moral example- she is not representative of what the church expects you to do.  Not at all...

Rather what she does is prophetic:  she lives a reality that has not quite arrived yet.  She lives with abandon as if God will take care of her, as if there is enough, more than enough to go around- enough food, enough shelter, enough generosity and love.  She lives with NO FEAR.  She lives with no worries, no concerns.  She lives as if heaven has come to earth right here, right now.  She lives as if she inhabits the beloved community where all of us love God and our neighbors as ourselves all the time, with no hesitation or calculation.

The fancy Biblical scholar word is "proleptic".  It's an event that shows us what the world will be when God's reign is finally and fully realized.  An example of the words of the last book of the Bible, "Revelation" which puts it like this:  "there will be no more crying and weeping;  there will be no more loneliness or hunger or persecution.  There will be communities of angel choirs, dancing and praising God.  Sort of like down on their luck folks suddenly dancing in the streets.  Like a second-line, where the music and the dancing do not separate rich from poor, black from white, servant from master, man from woman or any other kind of separation that we humans impose on one another.  In that day in that place, we will all be only brothers and sisters, children of God.

The widow who tosses away her entire livelihood is like the family with too many pets, too small an apartment, too busy a schedule, too small an income, who adopts one more rescue dog, anticipating that they can accommodate more than seems practical to an outside observer.  In that moments, when the adopted dog comes home to the other pets, and the kids, and the cramped apartment, and the still busy schedule, and more bills than income- well in that moment there is a bit of heaven, a taste of the kingdom to come, where we inhabit a loaves-and-fishes type world, rather than a world where widows like Naomi need to side step common morality, need to be conniving, need to go along to get along, just to survive.

I think Jesus' story about the widow is an encouragement story- he reminds us that a better world is on the way and the widow already lives there...  She does not need to clutch her possessions because she trusts providence.  She trusts she will be cared for.  I for one am envious of her contentment.  Imagine what it would be like to trust your community that much, that it will provide, when you have nothing.  Imagine a place where there is so much love and confidence in one another that no one needs to hoard.  Where all elders are cared for beyond their savings account or social security or Medicaid payments.  Where government systems are unnecessary because we are all so convinced and convicted of the reality of the loaves-and-fishes era.  Imagine a place where everyone eats at the banquet table and no one is dumpster diving.  Imagine a place where all children have safe streets, lots of books and science labs and arts classes, where all babies, even AIDS babies, have medical attention and biological or adoptive parents who nurture them.  If we cannot imagine this, then we surely exclude ourselves from this place...  "Without a vision, the people perish."

We are still in a world more like Naomi's- where people need to go along to get along, where a little manipulation or deception are used to put food on the table, shelter over your head.  But the widow in Mark's gospel gives us a glimpse of another realm, a commonwealth of God , where poor widows confidently clunk their last coins in the collection plate, secure in their prosperity.  When we let our longing for the loaves-and-fishes world direct our activities we come close to the realm which Jesus proclaims.  When we fearfully clutch and hoard, say in our financial planning at church, then we begin to create an anxious system of our own making but not God's intention.

Some churches (and I do not see this much at Good Shepherd) do harbor an impoverishment mentality- fearful and cramped in mission.  Other churches have an expectant loaves-and-fishes attitude:  God makes a way even when we see no way.  As we journey through our stewardship season and as our Council determines our financial game plan, we have a choice:  in what kind of world-vision do we choose to invest?  An attitude that trusts God's provisions and invests in a loaves-and-fishes, plenty to go around vision?  Or an anxious, cramped "better hold onto what we got" mentality?  A proverb suggests:  Penny wise and pound foolish...

Jesus talks about money a lot.  And so ought we, as his disciples...  How we use our money is a spiritual issue and discussions of finances alerts us to our values.  That's why I do not feel shy about discussing proportional pledging or asking you to donate to support your values.  Money is good way to get in touch with values and getting in touch with values is a great spiritual exercise.  Here's one you might try.

Go though your checkbook or your credit card accounting or your on-line banking and just see how you choose to spend your money- and does this accurately reflect your values?  Your values about family?  education?  basic needs? saving for a rainy day?  home ownership?  celebration with friends?  your church?  If your expenditures better reflected your values, what would change about your budget?  your expenditures?

You could do the same with your calendar- does your expenditure of time reflect your values?  None of this is intended to end up judging yourself as "good" or "bad".  This is not a moralistic enterprise.  But it does align with Jesus comment about relative value- that 2 pennies can be much more than a million dollars- go figure.

As you contemplate your values and money, I remind you that God wants you to keep 90% for your own purposes, but someday, God promises, you might just get a glimpse of the loaves-and-fishes reality, and who knows, you might just get transformed into a widow gone wild.  And they we will all get to see heaven breaking through- thanks be to God.

Let the people say, "Amen."