10 November 2024 - Proper 27, Year B

 

Theme

This week’s readings invite us to worship God with our entire lives by giving generously, caring for God’s creation and not exploiting the vulnerable. In Mark, Jesus condemns the religious scribes and celebrates the poor widow who gives all that she owns to God. In Hebrews, Christ is exalted as the one who saves. In 1 Kings, a widow is blessed abundantly after she first cares for Elijah. The Psalmist reminds God’s people to put their hope and trust in God rather than worldly rulers and powers.

Scripture Readings

  • Mark 12:38-44 - Jesus warns against religious people who like to be noticed and respected. They abuse widows and say long prayers to look good. Jesus tells a story of a poor widow who put two small copper coins into the treasury while everyone around her gave large sums. It is the widow who contributed the most because she gave all she had to live on while the others gave out of their abundance.
  • Hebrews 9:24-28 - Christ suffered once so that all may be saved through him. Christ will appear a second time to save those who eagerly await him.
  • 1 Kings 17:8-16 - Elijah is told by God to go and live with a widow in Zarephath. Elijah tells the poor widow to make him some food before tending to the needs of herself and her son. After she does this, she and her entire household feasted for many days because of her faithfulness.
  • Psalm 146 - A Psalm of Praise and an encouragement for God’s people not to put their hope in worldly rulers but in the God who rescues and sustains them.

Communal Application

While Jesus’ story of the faithful widow in Mark’s Gospel has primarily been read as an example of sacrificial giving, there is much more to it than that.

While Jesus does lift up the widow as faithful and generous, his primary point is a critique of those who abused their religious powers and a celebration that God is turning the world upside down.

Jesus introduces his story by warning his disciples to not be like those religious scribes who flaunt their status while devouring widow’s houses. Widows were often economically vulnerable in the ancient world and susceptible to economic exploitation and oppression.

Thus we arrive at the story of the poor widow. How did she become so destitute? Considering Jesus’ introduction, it is quite likely that she was this poor because of the economic oppression she suffered at the hands of some of the religious elite.

While this passage does include Jesus lifting up a poor widow as faithful and generous, his main point in this passage is to prophetically condemn religious hypocrisy.

While it is always easy to point fingers at others being made an example of like the scribes in Jesus’ story today, are we sometimes guilty of religious hypocrisy or for acting “holier than thou?” How can we ensure that we are heeding Jesus and the prophets’ warnings about exploiting the poor and the vulnerable?

Personal Application

The irony of Jesus’ story in Mark is that this poor widow is actually more faithful, more generous and more righteous than the pious scribes who say long prayers and the rich people who give large sums of money out of their abundance. Their large sums aren’t so large after all, nor is their alleged holiness so holy. The poor widow, the very one they oppress and overlook, outshines them all!

The poor widow in this story does what the rich man in Mark 10:17-22 fails to do, giving “everything she had, all she had to live on.” The most accurate Greek translation of this phrase is that the widow gave “her whole life.”

The poor widow lived out Jesus and the prophet Elijah’s call to devote her entire self first and foremost to God. By living her life in this way, she declares along with the Psalmist that her hope and trust was in God as opposed to the worldly rulers and powers who have already failed her before.

How can we be more like the poor widow who devotes her entire life to God? How might we more courageously give our time, talent and treasure to more fully participate in God’s joyous work of lifting up the lowly and turning the world upside down?

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