The Gospel lesson for next
Sunday you may know by the title, The Widow’s Mite. Jesus is in the temple precincts, and just
about everything he sees is making him sad and angry. This is reflected in what he says,
particularly in Matthew’s account – Jesus is in furious grief. He laments over Jerusalem, the temple, and the
apocalyptic events he sees are coming.
He turns ferociously on the rulers and religious leaders… hypocrites, white-washed tombs, blind
guides, snakes, brood of vipers, locking people out of the kingdom, full of
greed and self-indulgence, loading burdens on people but not helping to lift
them with so much as a finger…
He watches worshippers
arriving. They drop their offerings of
money into the temple treasury, thoughtfully situated at the entrance. Some people drop in substantial sums. A widow arrives and places there two coins –
two lepta in Greek equalled one Roman
quadrans, something like our old
penny. Jesus said it was all she had to live on. Now the normal take on this is… how
wonderful! She gave all she had. She gave from the heart – the others gave
from their abundance. They could spare
it, she could not. And so, we should all
take note of the depths of her love and devotion.
Well, count me out… She need never have given all she had to live
on. Neither should the church have
accepted it. The standard interpretation
surely misses the point. She gave all
she had to live on because she thought she should. She had been taught that God expects this and
it’s called sacrifice. People are taught,
in some places even today to “give till it hurts”, and that God’s favour will
be bestowed in return. With humble
respect to St Paul… I have real problems with his counsel to the Corinthian
church, where he certainly claims that the degree of blessing you receive is in
proportion to the money you have given (see II Corinthians 9:6-15) -- or more
accurately, the magnitude of your sacrifice… Paul writes: The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who
sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. And so we have, at the seriously shallow end
of the Christian swimming pool, what is now called the Prosperity Gospel, that
your receiving in life is directly linked to your giving, and perhaps to your
righteousness.
God loves a cheerful giver does not mean God loves reckless superstition. So much that passes for Christian these days
is actually a chronic refusal to grow up, as Paul put it, into Christ[1]. What Jesus teaches begins within – treasure in heaven, he calls it[2]. The God whom I expect to reward me for my
generosity and my upright years of service – but might withhold reward
otherwise – is not the God Jesus called Father, but idolatry. In contemplative life and prayer we are led
by the Spirit through this preoccupation with self. Our duty, as always, will be to do justice,
to love mercy and to walk humbly… as Jesus knew from the Prophet Micah long
before. The temple’s duty to this woman was
to care for her dignity and give her a future… not to relieve her of all she
had to live on. Another of Jesus’s
accusations against the pharisees was that they devour widows’ houses – which is, in a way, what is happening here. Jesus also says don’t bring your gift at all
if you are not at peace with your brother or sister. Always the real issue is within, a quietened
and obedient heart – which the Dalai Lama calls, with typical simplicity, a
good heart.
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