Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Ephrem Arcement
The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 27 B
1 Kings 17:8-16
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Click here for an audio of the sermon
Life
is full of contrasts. The young and the
old. The rich and the poor. The good and the bad. The wise and the. . . not so wise. Contrasts of color. Contrasts of opinion. Contrasts of personalities. Contrasts of beliefs. Some see these latter contrasts as
life-enhancing, others as life-threatening.
Some live lives that make space for “the other,” while some live lives
that dismiss, ignore, or exclude “the other.”
The tension that exists between “us and them” has existed from the dawn
of time and is one of the persistent themes in both our secular and sacred
writings since antiquity. But there is
one thematic contrast in our own Judeo-Christian Scriptures that may stand
above all others, which unifies to whole sacred story from cover to cover. It’s the contrast between power and weakness,
between the callous heart of pride and the wide-open heart of humility.
In
the Gospel of Mark, we are in one instance presented with the self-assured
scribe decked in his fine regalia basking in his notoriety and position of
authority and honor. In the other
instance we are presented with a poor, defenseless widow with zero
self-regard. One is a taker, the other a
giver. One is preoccupied with a façade,
the other with compassion. One professes
faith, the other lives it.
This
meta-contrast of power vs. weakness goes to the heart of the human story—and
even beyond to the story of creation itself.
If the evolutionary journey of creation is one of “survival of the
fittest,” embedded within our DNA is the ego drive to survive at whatever cost,
even if it is at the cost of another part of God’s good creation. Left unchecked, the ego mounts upon whatever
chariot is available to conquer and to control and to dominate—all to secure
the propagation of itself into the future.
It lives for immortality and can become consumed with fame, fortune, and
the fantasies of its own grandiose imaginings.
The unchecked ego, then, becomes isolated, cut-off from the rest of
creation exhausting itself by trying to live on its own terms, in its own
fabricated reality. And at the
foundation of its bloated pride is no foundation at all. There is nothing there but a small, insecure,
frightened child masked in a sometimes presentable, often times threatening,
persona expending its energy on justifying itself, on defending itself, and on
asserting itself.
The
dangers such a person or group of people that nurtures such egocentrism are
obvious enough. We see it in our civil
discourse. We see it in our politics. If we are not vigilant, we can even see it in
our religious communities. And, alas, we
see it in ourselves. If only we all saw
it in ourselves! But we don’t, probably
because it’s just too painful and uncomfortable. And maybe the greatest danger facing us
Americans at this critical time in our history is the validation, even
celebration, of ego-inflation and the denigration of humility and weakness.
It
is prophetic, then, that in light of today’s current events the church in her
liturgy holds up before us the dignity and honor of a poor widow. In the world of biblical patriarchy, a woman
who has lost her husband was among the most vulnerable of society. Without a source of income, without civil
recourse, without personal autonomy.
This is why the inspired authors demand particular care for widows. They are to be provided food and shelter and
even a husband, if possible. And those
who neglect and mistreat widows come under the strictest judgment. Particularly in the prophets, the care of
widows is the barometer for determining the health of the nation.
This
all explains Jesus’ righteous indignation at the scribes who are devouring
widows’ houses. Notice the connection
Jesus makes between the abuse of widows and the pomp that preoccupies the
scribes. For Jesus, they are intricately
linked together in one unhealthy, unholy alliance. The scribes religiously exploit the poor
widow taking all that she had to, in effect, beautify themselves, of course,
all “for the sake of the temple.” And
Jesus will not let such religious hypocrisy go by uncontested. And so he calls them out on it.
The
temple which the scribes were supposedly so concerned about was the place where
Israel’s God dwelled on earth and the place where Israel could go to dwell with
her God in prayer and find refuge and renewal.
Yet, time and again, the temple was exploited for personal
aggrandizement and its purposes obscured and manipulated…and its God along with
it. Jesus, in full prophetic mode,
subverts the scribes’ destructive egos by revealing where true power lies,
right there in the selfless choice of a poor widow who had the ability to give
all that she had, her two copper coins, to God.
There is the true manifestation of the presence of God.
There is the true temple.
Of
course, there is more to the story. And
we hear it in today’s passage from Hebrews.
The poor widow’s gift of all that she had prefigures Christ himself who,
as a priest, does not offer something outside himself, like the blood of bulls
or goats, but sacrifices his own self.
The Scriptures say that he did this “to remove sin.” Or, you could say, he did this to deal with
the unchecked ego and its abuse of power.
This, then, is the good news for us today: that when God, the
all-powerful, omnipotent Creator of all that is, chose to bear the divine heart
to the world, it was done through one who, like a poor widow, walked the path
of vulnerable humility and weakness, defenseless in the face of civil and
religious power structures yet completely free from the egocentric entropy that
those power structures create. And by
offering himself in total vulnerability on the cross, unleashes a power… you
can say a superpower…upon the earth that alone can transfigure the calloused,
power-hungry heart into a humble, open, and free heart that can give of itself
without counting the cost, just like this poor, holy widow.
Today’s
other widow, the widow of Zeraphath from First Kings, teaches us another
important lesson about such faith and about such a God. So extreme was her crisis that she resigned
herself to death, but she learns, through Elijah’s encouragement, that when we
give of the little that we have, God’s power is unleashed and the little that
we have can be turned into an unlimited source of life. This is a truth repeated throughout the
Bible, from barren womb of Sarah, to this widow of Zarephath, to the blood and
water that poured out of the side of the crucified Savior. And this truth extends beyond the Bible to us
as well when our simple, yet sincere, acts of faith break open the treasury of
God’s blessings and we come to know that power is made perfect in weakness.
This
has always been the church’s gospel, her good news to proclaim and live. But, I assert that it is more crucial now
perhaps than ever before that we as church understand clearly and live
selflessly this gospel mandate. Many
today have deep, legitimate concerns about both the state of our country and
the state of our world. Many feel
anxious and wonder if we’re heading all-too close to an irreversible
precipice. Many are confounded by the
abuse of power and the legitimization of hatred and violence that has crept
into our society, often at the expense of the most vulnerable in our
communities. And many feel that the
distortion of reality may make it nearly impossible to find common ground
between contrasting ideologies and fear the place to which this may eventually
lead. If you are among those that feel
these things, and I certainly do myself, allow me to offer three Christian
responses that may be helpful in light of today’s readings:
1.
Don’t allow the contrast between your worldview
and an opposing worldview cause you to demonize or dehumanize the other no
matter how demonic or dehumanizing their worldview may be. An “us vs. them” mentality will only widen
the chasm.
2.
The process toward justice and peace is a long
one full of setbacks and disappointments.
So, hold to the faith that God remains God even when the clouds set in.
3.
Never tire of preaching the gospel of our
crucified Savior. When the demonic head
of hate, division, and lies begins to rear its head, and it almost certainly
will, counter it with the gospel of love, unity, and truth. And don’t just preach it, live this gospel of
love in the face of hate, unity in the face of division, and truth in the face
of lies. Absorb these demonic forces in
the power that God provides, and put them to death by your refusal to retaliate
or propagate them.
Love covers a multitude of
sins.
Our Christ was consumed with a vision. He called it the Kingdom of God. It was a vision of a time when the demonic forces of hatred, division, and lies would be cast out completely and peace would envelop all creation. We’re not there yet! So, let us be consumed with this same vision and put our faith into practice and through our love for one another…all another…and our radical fidelity to the truth, let us continue to fight the good fight, not with the weapons of aggression and force but with the power that comes from God, hearts that make peace because they are at peace and hands that bless even when being cursed.
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