Online Sermons
The 23rd Sunday in Pentecost: November 8, Barbara Schlachter
Welcome to our website. You are here: The Word --> Online SermonsSome of you know that I consider chocolate one of the basic food groups. I love my chocolate in all ways, and I was delighted when I learned that dark chocolate is actually supposed to be good for you. What a fine justification. As someone once said, “Chocolate is God’s apology for broccoli.” So you can imagine my consternation when I received some information just before Hallowe’en, the chocoholic’s favorite holiday about the problem of forced child labor on farms that grow cocoa beans, and that low cocoa prices have left farmers in perpetual poverty.
I was happy to learn that there is Equal Exchange Fair Trade Chocolate, however, which means that I can choose to buy chocolate that helps farm families in Central and South America. But that isn’t sufficient solace to relieve the sadness of children in other parts of the world laboring so our children can have cheap chocolate for Hallwe’en.
Then I read that if we drove on highways at a steady speed of 55mph we would use less gas and reduce our carbon footprint, since this is a speed that is highly efficient. I tried that the other day on my trip up to Cedar Rapids from Iowa City and discovered two things: I enjoyed the scenery a lot more, and it was less stressful because I had to pass absolutely no one. But I also discovered that it took me only 5 minutes longer. It was great. I could enjoy the countryside more and I didn’t have to worry about passing anyone!
Now that I know it. Now that I know about chocolate. Now that I know about gas efficiency and time, what difference will this enlightenment make in my life?
There was a song popular a few years back, “Sometimes I wish my eyes hadn’t been opened. Sometimes I wish that I just couldn’t see.” Because now I am wondering about many things—where does this come from and what kind of conditions did people labor under to produce it or grow it? Are there other ways to reduce my carbon footprint that I have thought impossible?
But enough. Let’s take a look at today’s Gospel to see what is there. The Widow’s Mite has been a popular stewardship sermon topic from the beginning of financial campaigns for the church. When you heard this Gospel, didn’t you see the woman as Jesus’ star example of how we all should contribute much more to the church than we normally would? We are uneasy because we hear about the rich folks giving out of their abundance, and they are not as blessed as the poor woman who gave her last 2 cents. And we know we are more like the rich folks, probably.
But then I did some further work on that Gospel and came to see it rather differently. What proceeds this story about the woman in the temple? Jesus’ condemnation of the scribes’ and their hypocrisy. They live for their image in the community while they devour widows’ houses. Whoops. Is it an accident that just after this condemnation he sees a widow drop her money in the temple treasury, all her money? Was Jesus really telling the disciples that her action was a good thing? It may appear that way until we think about how Israel was to treat its widows.
If you read the Old Testament with a bit of care, you come to see the widows and orphans as the canaries in the mines. As they were treated, so was the society going. For Israel to be expecting impoverished widows to be giving, rather than receiving, was a real reversal of values. The greed of the temple officials was causing them to take houses and land from the vulnerable and improve their own circumstances. No wonder Jesus spoke against the temple officials, here and elsewhere. He thought that the good old fashioned virtues of his ancestors were the good ones, the true ones, for a society to have.
So this virtuous woman becomes part of not such a pretty picture. Tough to hear, especially on a Sunday that we are going to talk about stewardship. Or have I helped deepen an awareness, another way of seeing, not only this passage but perhaps about other things as well.
How we see affects what we see, says theologian Richard Rohr. To sharpen our vision, our awareness , our perception, to be open to other ways of seeing is a Gospel value that Jesus taught. Things aren’t always obvious. Can we teach ourselves to look deeper, to look beyond what is on the surface? Can we learn to suspend our judgment—to pause—and see if there is another way to see something or someone before we judge.
Do you remember the story Joel Barker shared in his video on Paradigm shifting a few years back? He shared the story of a father of three boys on the subway. The boys were out of control, annoying passengers with their running around on the moving car, and the father seemed totally oblivious to their behavior. People were getting increasingly aggravated with all of them, and finally one person asked him to control his children. He shook his head and said, “Oh, I’m sorry. We just left the hospital where their mother just died, and I am in a state of shock I didn’t realize they were a problem.” Well, the atmosphere on the subway changed from one of frosty irritation to one of warm compassion as people looked at this single parent father and motherless boys in a new way.
Jesus always seems to be opening people’s eyes or encouraging people to see things in a different way. Yet, it seems to be human nature to come to quick judgments about the actions of others. Of not wanting to see what we don’t want to see. I wonder if we might all be a bit better off if we could learn we suspend our judgment of others, to be less reactive, to train ourselves to pause and say, “Is there another way I could look at this?” It might save us all a lot of grief, first ourselves and then others. And it might give Jesus some time and room to work. We might come to have more compassion if we paused. Not only compassion for others, but for our own selves, because sometimes our rush to judgment is condemnation of ourselves. Is there another way to look at this? That pause might give the Christ within us some time and room to work.
The Good News here is not that there isn’t a lot wrong. We know there is. But the Good News is that we are Gospel people and we know that eventually justice and truth will prevail. It may take awhile, but things that seem impossible do happen. Two hundred years ago it looked impossible that slavery would end. Now it is no longer legal, and there is no legal slave trade. We are Gospel people and we will work to become part of the answer, the solution, to build the just world that demonstrates that God cares that fair wages be paid to workers and that children not be enslaved laborers. In the meantime we pray and live with care and compassion and hope.
Amen.