Mite-y Stewards

23rd Sunday after Pentecost
8 November 2009
Bethesda United Church of Christ
Bethesda, MD

“Mite-y Stewards”
Based on Mark 12: 38-44
As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, 39and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! 40They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’ 41 -->
The Widow’s Offering
41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44For 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.’

By James Semmelroth Darnell

We hear this passage about the same time every year. It’s stewardship season—time to think about how you’ll support the church financially and make your pledge. So the widow and her mite are trotted out to guilt you into giving a bit more. In all likelihood, if you’ve been around the church, this church or most any others, you’re pretty sure what you’re going to hear in the next few moments. Well, due to my contrarian nature, I’m just going to have to disappoint you.
The traditional interpretation of this text—that Jesus is lauding the woman for giving all that she had to live on versus those who gave out of their abundance—fails to take into account the social and economic context of the widow, the disciples, and of Jesus himself. This text takes place in the midst of Holy Week. Jesus’ triumphant was past, and he had thrown over the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. He continues his critique of the temple leaders in this passage saying that they “for the sake of appearance say long prayers.” Richard Horsley and Neil Asher Silberman describe this situation in their book The Message and the Kingdom:
The villagers of Galilee were instructed to set aside a significant portion of their produce for priestly tithes, first-fruits offerings and various other sacred donations for the Temple in Jerusalem. By the first century every Israelite male was required to make an annual contribution of a half-shekel to the Temple. And even in seasons when drought or blight severely limited harvest, the tax collectors and priestly representatives still turned up at the local threshing floors and olive presses to make sure that every family contributed their due. Penalties for non-payment could be severe and violent when the farmers of a particular village or region did not willingly yield up the lion’s share of their harvest to satisfy the demands of the official representatives of the Jerusalem Temple.

So, in all likelihood this widow was not willfully giving all that she had to live on. She gave because to not give to the Temple was a greater risk. It is no coincidence that Jesus first says the scribes “devours widow’s houses,” and then sees the widow give her share. Indeed had the widow not given, the Temple leaders very well could have taken her house. It becomes quite probable then that the traditional interpretation of this text of Jesus lauding the woman is incorrect, and rather more likely that he laments the abuse of power and authority that forces this widow to give all that she has to live on. The Temple, which was supposed to care for the widows and orphans, exploited them instead.
This week I couldn’t help but think how some voters treated their gay, lesbian and bisexual brothers and sisters like this widow. You see, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in Maine all pay their taxes, and yet they are exploited by 299, 483 of their neighbors. The state allowed the majority to determine the rights of the minority—and the minority nearly almost always loses, but the minority still feeds money into the system. And here in the Washington, DC metro area—a supposed bastion of liberalism, in the past month there have been three anti-gay attacks against Georgetown University students. In August, a transgender woman was stabbed to death on an open street in daylight in Northwest DC. Last September, a gay man in Washington was fatally beaten in Adams Morgan, dying 10 days after the attack. The murderer, last month, was charge with a misdemeanor and was sentenced to a mere 180 days in prison. There is a popular myth that this will solve itself in a generation; that young people don’t care about sexual orientation, are fine with their gay and bisexual peers. But every attacker in each of the previous incidents was under the age of 30. The two 11 year-old boys, Jaheem Herrera of Atlanta and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Boston, who both committed suicide earlier this year because of anti-gay bullying would tell you otherwise. In fact, here in our own metro area, 30% of gay and lesbian teens report having attempted suicide—compared to 13% of their peers. This is not a generational issue, and that myth needs dispelled for once and all. Just last week, two men were beaten in a hate crime by a 23 year-old who told the police, “God made me hate gay people.” These victims, the same-sex couples of Maine and the other 30 states where our neighbors have decided our rights for us, are the widows.
It would be easy to point fingers at the Roman Catholic bishops and Mormon leaders who have often fueled fights against same-sex marriage, and say, “These are the scribes Jesus warns against.” Of course, I agree that they have done a great deal of harm in the name of the Prince of Peace and have sometimes exhibited the characteristics of the scribes Jesus railed against. But, we need to hold up a mirror to ourselves as well. As much as we would like to identify with the widow in this passage, or at least be in solidarity with her, the reality of most of our lives tells a different story. Dr. Henry Langknecht, a professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary writes:
Most of us North American Christians are the scribes of verses 38-40. Even when we live simply, we enjoy products and infrastructures whose provision devours the lives of the poor in the world. And no length of prayers can hide us and our love of what we have and what we've accomplished. Whether we live simply or not, we do like to be noticed by others... even if what we like to be noticed for is how hard we try not to be noticed. There is no way to untangle us from our complicity (certainly no simple way) but we can and must, in Christ, bear the "greater condemnation" of honest judgment and discernment. We've already heard from Jesus that salvation for the rich is only possible because of God.

Whether we like it or not, most of us benefit from the exploitation of the widow. One needs only look into the parking lot at the automobiles parked there to see which classes we as a community draw from. It is a hard thing to look ourselves squarely in the mirror and confront our own hypocrisy and hear Jesus saying, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” But, if we preach compassion and justice, we have to live it too. That means facing up to the ways we benefit from the oppression of the minority—and being willing to let go of that privilege for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Martin Luther in his wisdom said, “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.” Indeed, our prayer should simply be, “Forgive us, Lord.”
This passage really is about stewardship. Now, you’re probably thinking---wait, he just said it wasn’t about Jesus commending the widow’s stewardship. Correct you are! Despite the mis-interpretation of this text, it is still about money. Now, I know money is supposed to be a bad word in the church. But, it is not a four-letter word, no matter how you count it. Money matters. Rather, this passage is about a broader vision of stewardship. The scribes were supposed to be the stewards of their religious tradition. But they got mired in the rule of law and enamored with the power that they could wield as religious leaders. Surely none of us has ever gone to an event in order to be seen with the right people, or wanted to be out in front where we’ll be noticed. I once interned at a Congregational United Church of Christ in the Chicago area that instead of a cross in the middle of its chancel, had organ pipes. Fake organ pipes—to make the organ, and I suppose the congregation itself seem more impressive than it really was. But, none of us would ever try to boast who we are, or our congregation for that matter. And of course we’ve never prayed prayers like this: “Dear God, thank you that we are not like those people.” Well…maybe once. It is just as easy to fall into a liberal fundamentalism of having all the right answers, of being more enlightened, as it is to be a conservative fundamentalist. We are stewards of our own Christian tradition, and as we find our roots in the tradition of the scribes, we should not be surprised at having some of the same impulses as they. But, when we see those impulses, and when we feel them in ourselves, we are to remember Jesus’ warning against such behavior. He calls us to resist the temptation to become gatekeepers, but to be faithful stewards of a religious tradition that is open, flexible to changing times, and transformative of the world around.
We are more than stewards of just a tradition of faith. We are to be stewards of that very faith. God calls us in each generation to translate the faith anew, and to share the Good News with both the ancient words passed down to us from the prophets, apostles, martyrs, patriarchs, and matriarchs; and with fresh expressions that speak boldly to the rapid pace of our ever-changing world. We are stewards—and yes this takes money, to proclaim the Good News in our local communities and communities far distant from us—of the faith in Jesus Christ, who taught, healed, was crucified, died, rose again, and lives yet today. The grace and peace of God we find in all this—we are share this with new generations of followers of Jesus as faithful stewards.
We are stewards of all the time, talent, and yes money that is entrusted to us in this community. The widow was forced to contribute to the Temple, which was bound by covenant to protect her as one of the most vulnerable in society, yet the Temple made her more vulnerable and exploited her. As good stewards we must work to ensure that all our gifts are used to enable us to 1) follow Jesus, and 2) transform the world. Following Jesus means being in relationship with him and with God, through prayer, worship, studying the Bible, and sharing God’s love. We transform the world by simply living as Jesus has taught us to, which isn’t so simple in a world which values greed over compassion and power over humility. But, a first step is to acknowledge, what one author famously calls the “knapsack of privilege” and letting go of it. We give our money as faithful stewards, in order that others might find the Way of Jesus and that we can work to transform the world. Nationally, we contribute to the United Church of Christ general fund known as Our Church’s Wider Mission. Our Church’s Wider Mission supports a vast array of ministries that seek to achieve this transformation—sending missionaries at the request of our partner churches across the world, fostering ecumenical dialogue with sister denominations, funding new churches and revitalizing existing churches, advocating on our behalf on a wide variety of social justice issues from the Washington Office on Capitol Hill, ensuring the financial stability of historically black colleges and universities related to the UCC, responding to natural disasters at home and across the wider world, training and equipping youth and young adults to be 21st century leaders, and many other things. In fact, just last weekend I was in Cleveland, our UCC “Vatican,” for a board meeting where we were told of a new justice leadership training program, that will train 300 justice leaders for congregations across the United Church of Christ. This is your stewardship at work, following Jesus, and transforming the world.
Good stewardship isn’t about the widow being forced to give to the Temple. Good stewardship is about releasing people from the oppressive chains that force them to support the very institutions that put them in chains. Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. My brothers and sisters at my home church gathered last Monday to commemorate this, marching from the church to Kogan Plaza. What a gift for them, especially those who fled East Germany as refugees, to celebrate this day. Yet, 20 years later too many walls remain. Walls of class are stronger each day. Walls of racism, though often subtle, and increasingly less so, remain firm. Walls of religious discrimination are tainted with the blood of our religious wars. Walls of sexism stand over those who have not been able to break the glass ceiling. Walls of homophobia legislate who can marry whom. Walls of ageism keep young people seen and not heard and the elderly’s wisdom silent. Walls that divide us. Walls that foster hatred, and greed, and lust for power and wealth. This is the only time you will ever hear me quote Ronald Reagan, “Tear down that wall!” Tear it down friends with all your mite, for Christ calls us, and that is good stewardship.