The widow's economy

November 8, 2009
Time after Pentecost – Lectionary 32
Mark 12:38-44
The widow’s economy

We hear a lot about the economy these days. In fact, reading through the newspaper, the word “economy” appears a lot. It’s gotten to the point that when I read the word “economy” in the newspaper, I tense up, because I know it's going to be bad news…

Because the word “economy” is accompanied by crisis, downturn, troubled times, recession, housing market collapse, credit default, job loss. The economy has been spiraling downward. Friday the news came out that unemployment is now at 10.2%, which is double digit unemployment for the first time since 1983.
More and more people are going unemployed, underemployed and uninsured. We are realizing that no one is really safe from this economic system. People that once had stable jobs, are now losing them.

If we were to open up the newspaper 2000 years ago during the time of Jesus, let’s say the Palestine Times… What headlines would we read? The first one from Mark’s gospel lesson today might sound like this “Widow’s house foreclosed”
What do we learn about the economy at the time by reading the first part of today’s Gospel lesson? In this economy, we have the social elites, who have most of the wealth. They “devour widows’ houses”

The widow is society’s most vulnerable. The widow is one who lost her husband, who fell on hard times (like any of us could at any moment). In Mark’s gospel, we read in the preceding chapter that Jesus turned the tables of the Temple “den of thieves” and we learn a little more about the corruption that went on in the economy at the time.
In this economy, status, and being greeted with respect in the marketplace is very important. In this economy, the elite keep getting richer, while the rest have little to live on and are pushed further into poverty. It’s an economy based on profit, on taking as much as you can. The result is a disparity between rich and poor.

After this repudiation of the corrupt economy represented by the scribes, we read another headline: “widow gives everything she owns” Her husband has died, her house has been crushed, and she is the victim of a corrupt economy. Yet she puts in two coins into the treasury. The irony is that the coins the widow puts in the treasury is going in to support the very economic system that is keeping her down.

This widow put in two small copper coins, which was worth one penny or Roman quadran, one sixty-fourth of a daily wage, and this was all she had. As the widow was a victim of the economic system of her time.
We too have been victimized by the current economic crisis in some way. By job loss, fewer hours, loss of insurance, by anxiety of losing what we have. And so we look at this widow with bewilderment…
How does she give when she’s been taken from? How does she give despite a system that keeps her own? How does she give in the midst of an economy that clearly is based on getting ahead and taking what you can? How does she give fully knowing that she’s giving away everything she has to live on?

Her offering may have been the least, but Jesus says that she put in the most
Because out of her poverty she “put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (literally her whole life). The widow’s offering represents a very different economy. An economy based not on profit or taking; but on giving.
The widow’s economy.
Jesus is not only advocating the economy that the widow represents, but Jesus’ very life and death is a different economy, an economy based on giving. Jesus gave all he had to live on by ministering to the widow the orphan the poor and the oppressed. Jesus gave his whole life, so that we would live.

We live in Christ and therefore we are called to live out a different economy
An economy that is not based on how much profit you can make, but an economy that is based on selfless giving; an economy that doesn’t claim everything as ours, but an economy that acknowledges that everything came from God, and everything belongs to God.
Think about it… what would that be like? An economy based on giving rather than taking. What would the headlines look like?

The topic of the conference I attended this week was on stewardship. Our speaker, Dr. Mark Alan Powell, talked about how often the word stewardship in the church as code for giving money to the church to pay the bills and how the offering is understood as a fundraising ritual. On the contrary, the offering is historically the high point of the worship, where the faithful brought their sacrificial gifts to God. He said that the widow’s offering was her worship; it was her expression of her love for God.

Dr. Powell told the story of talking to kids about what they gave up for Lent. One boy said that he gave up kicking people for Lent. He told the boy: what you give up for Lent isn’t supposed to be something bad, it’s supposed to be something you like. To which the boy replied: “I like kicking people”
Giving is not something we have to do; it is something we want to do.
Just like my mom who just sent me cookies, she didn’t have to do it, but out of love, she did it.
During this conference we talked about how stewardship is about more than our money, but our time, our talent, and our treasure … giving our whole life (like the widow).

I think about when I lived in Mexico. I remember being invited to eat with a family, as I often was. I looked around the one room cinder-block house and the kids were barely getting enough food to eat. Out of her poverty she gave me an huge plate of food, steak, rice, beans, tortillas, jalapeños.
The widow’s economy. Even though we are living in an economy that takes, that is tumultuous, and that is unfair … may we live the economy of Christ, an economy of grace, that gives out of selfless love. Amen