For Sunday, November 8, 2015 – Mark 12:38-44
To our detriment we arrange the world into opposing types: the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, the moral and the immoral, the teacher and the learner, the powerful and the lowly. Jesus warns us to beware this habit and to look again. The scribes, he says, like to walk around in long robes and be greeted with respect and have the best seats, yet they also are known to devour widows’ assets. They say long prayers but only for the sake of appearance.
Because we know that Jesus has recently affirmed a scribe for being very close to the kingdom of God, for understanding that love of God, neighbor and self outweighs sacrifices and offerings, we know he does not lump all scribes together, nor widows. Contrary to common thought, Jesus shows us a widow who, even in her poverty, is not helpless but has surprising abundance.
I once read about a 4-year-old boy who sent the American Friends Service Committee $53, with a note his mom had written saying he wanted to help relieve the suffering of people anywhere a war was happening. He had heard about wars around the world, and he and his 3-year-old cousin had raised money by selling pet rocks at Quaker meeting. They were so convincing that when their supply was exhausted, they sold a few people pretend rocks. Aren’t children precious and naïve? Imagine $53 up against the suffering of war. I am apt to smile, and then dismiss it as a sweet little story.
But it just so happened that during that same week the Washington Post published an article about a mother in Zambia who was struggling every day to feed her children because of the wars that had ravaged her country. She needed about $2 a day to keep her family alive. I heard Jesus cautioning me not to be so quick to smile at and then dismiss the naïvete of the powerless. When I do, I am apt to miss the abundance of small gifts, and the fact that $53 would feed this woman’s family for nearly a month.
Again and again, Jesus warns us not to assume we already know who is who and what is what in this life. Get to know the whole cast of characters. Expect something new. Learn from each other. Be surprised. Delight in the abundance that arises from unexpected sources.
