Proper 27 :: I Kings 17: 8-16; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9: 24-28; Mark 12: 38-44
This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given
at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon,
Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 8, 2015.
“LIFE
IS SHORT, IT PAYS TO GO FIRST CLASS”
(Homily texts:
I Kings 17: 8-16 & Mark 12: 38-44)
“Life is short, it pays to go first
class,” we used to say jokingly back in my Army days.
Today’s gospel reading presents us
with two very different definitions of what “first class” is:
- For the scribes (and for their allies, the other members of the ruling classes in Jesus’ day), first class meant being on the top of the social ladder and the power structure. Jesus points out that they like the security of being able to be recognized by their distinctive dress, to be able to be greeted with their titles, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and the best seats at feasts. Moreover, in order to maintain their secure position in the power structures of that day, they are willing to engage in deceitful ways to cheat even poor widows out of what little they owned.
- For the poor widow who made her way to the collection box to put her alms into the temple’s treasury, first class living involved a test of faith, a willingness to give up everything that would help to assure her future, a willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her relationship with God.
Oftentimes, the appointed readings
for a given Sunday involve parallel readings between the gospel text and the
Old Testament text, and today’s selections follow this pattern, for in both
readings for this Sunday, the faith experience of a widow is involved.
In I Kings, we read the account of
the widow of Zarephath, a woman who was a Gentile, living in the area which is,
today, located along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Lebanon, who hosted
the prophet Elijah. The text tells us
that she and her son were desperately poor.
They had enough flour and oil left to make one more meal for themselves,
after which, we are told, they will sit down and wait for death to come. Into this situation, Elijah arrives, and he
asks the woman to make him a meal.
Involved in Elijah’s directions to the woman are two tests of
faith:
- Will she be willing to give up the last remaining resource she and her son have?
- Will she be willing to make something for Elijah to eat first? Elijah assures her that the flour will not be exhausted, nor will the supply of oil run out, if she is willing to have faith that God will provide what they need in the coming days.
Here, the Old Testament text and our
gospel text diverge: We are told what happens to the widow of Zarephath,[1]
but we do not know what became of the widow whose two copper coins were put
into the temple’s treasury. We can only
wonder what her future was like.
Let’s back up to the definitions of
“first class” living as we find it in the attitudes of the scribes, and in the
attitudes and behaviors of the two widows.
The scribes are behaving in the ways
that we human beings might be expected to behave: They want to assure themselves of a secure
place in the society in which they live, and they want to accrue for themselves
as much financial security as possible.
Don’t these two goals seem
reasonable? Don’t these two goals
reflect the attitudes of many in our society today, including even devout
Christians? Don’t we all want to be
liked, to be noticed, to be respected?
Don’t we all want to have a healthy bank account and a good-looking
investment portfolio?
Of course we do.
But, in truth, a deeper reality
exists, and it is a reality that both widows in our readings experienced
first-hand: Having faith almost always
involves a test of that faith. Each of
the widows whose experience we read about today faced the prospect of having
nothing at all with which to meet the coming days.
Each widow was willing to give up
all that they had, in response to God’s call.
I suspect each one of them learned what dependence upon God really
meant.
At this point, it’s important to
think about the ways in which people whose lives are marked by desperate need
intersect with the lives of God’s people.
More specifically, what I am getting at is the idea that, like these two
widows, each one of us who has a faith walk with God are called – just as these
widows were – to be willing to sacrifice – to be willing to give everything up,
if necessary - to support and assist
others who are in need. Notice that God
sends Elijah to do two things for the widow of Zarephath: 1. To test her willingness to obey God’s call
to be willing to give up everything she had; and 2. To assist and support the
widow once she had faithfully obeyed God’s direction.
Each of us is called to do the same,
to come to the aid of those in need, and to support them in every way possible.
An aspect of this way of faithfully
living according to God’s commands involves spreading the Good News of Jesus
Christ (often called “evangelism”): The
early Church’s phenomenal growth was due, in part, to the fact that the Church
offered people a place where they were valued and loved. The Church also offered them a place where
its members genuinely and generously cared for one another, meeting each
member’s needs as they arose. We ought
to remember that the Greco-Roman world of the first century into which the
Church was thrust was a cold and very inhospitable place to live….many people
living in that world were without friends or family nearby, many were
desperately poor, living without hope in a place where life was cheap and where
life was often short.
We live in just such a world
today….our culture – it seems to me – is becoming more and more like the
Greco-Roman world of the first century, a place where many people are
desperately poor, living without hope and without love in a place where they
feel they have no worth, no value and no hope for the future.
But the Church is called to say an
emphatic “No!” to all of these destructive ways of living, for the Church is
called to offer the love that God has shown each of us to others who may have
never known that anyone – let alone God – loves them.
Our call is to affirm the call of
faith in each person’s life, showing them by the things we do and the ways we
act that when people find themselves in the positions of the two widows we’ve
been thinking about today, when people find themselves with no resources and no
hope with which to meet tomorrow, that God’s people will step forward to show
them that there is, indeed, hope for tomorrow.
That is our mandate from the
Lord. May that same Lord affirm in each
of us the ability and the willingness to meet the test of faith that is
required of us when that time comes before us by being willing to give of what
we have in order to provide hope for others who may have no hope at all.
AMEN.
[1] It is worth noting that the verses which
follow today’s reading from I Kings tell us that this widow’s son became ill
and died, and that Elijah restored the son to life again. See I Kings 17: 17–24.
