Even If They Devour Us

1 Kings 17:8-16

Mark 12:38-44

In our Scripture readings, we meet two women who have nothing. We don’t know their names, we don’t know many details of their lives. Yet, somehow their brief encounter with the holy makes it into our Bible. We gather together, we hear their stories and we wonder how their stories might inform the stories of our lives today. These women of meager mean offer all they have - one offers bread and the other, her two coins - and somehow, here we are, thousands of years later, remembering their sacrifice.

In the Hebrew Bible lesson from 1 Kings, the widow of Zarephath and her son have suffered much during a time drought - a drought predicted by Elijah - brought on by the wickedness of King Ahab and his worship of Ba’al. When we encounter her, the widow is just about to use the only grain and oil she has left to make a bit of bread for her and her son to eat before they die. And then Elijah approaches. Elijah asks her to give all that she has left for the sake of his life. The Lord the God of Israel promises her jar will not go empty until rain comes down from the sky. Trusting this word, she does as Elijah asks and the jar of meal is not emptied, the jug of oil does not run dry. The woman, her son, and Elijah - they all live. When death was imminent, this woman who had nothing left, trusts in God and finds new life.

In the Gospel reading, we find another widow. This widow comes to the Temple to put her offering into the treasury. She is surrounded by a large crowd of people who are putting in large sums of money into the temple treasury. And yet, she drops in her two small coins. The coins she drops in are the smallest coins circulated. It would take 64 of these coins to equal one denarius, which was one day’s wage. Knowing these coins were all she had to live on, Jesus sees her. He sees her and calls attention to the sacrifice of her offering.

Many times, these stories bring our focus to sacrifice and offering. These women sacrificed all they had, offering it to God. When we think about sacrifice, we think giving up something up, something of value or of great worth, for the sake of someone else. We think of all the people of the world who have sacrificed so much - Brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We remember their sacrifice, especially today on this Veterans Day. We think about people who have sacrificed so greatly - Faithful men and women who sacrificed their lives for the creation of a better world, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, newly canonized Oscar Romero. We remember them as saints who changed the world. In these terms, their sacrifice is almost like an exchange - lives for freedom, lives for a better world. But at its core, sacrifice means to make sacred. Sacrifice is offering something of value as an act of devotion to God. And our offering is not our money or our possession or materials things - our offering is our very being.

In the ancient world, without a man to care and provide for them, to protect and keep the safe, widows were the most vulnerable of all people. Yet, these two widows in our texts today offer all they have - all that is left of their very lives. Their sacrifice isn’t in what or how much they gave, but that they offer themselves as a sacred act of devotion, trusting that their gift is enough. The most powerful offering that we have to sacrifice is our very selves. There is enormous power in offering all of who we are to the rest of creation, trusting that we are enough, and God will use us for good.

That’s the hard part, though - trusting we are enough. That takes courage and vulnerability. I don’t know about you, but more often than not I get caught up in reminding myself of my own lack. I don’t have enough - enough time, enough space, enough love, enough stuff, and of course, there’s never enough money. I spend my head-space reminding myself of my own inadequacy. I am not enough - good enough, smart enough, talented enough, happy enough, successful enough.

Yet, as Jesus tells his disciples, the widow in her scarcity contributed more than those giving from their abundance. I may think I live in scarcity but even my thoughts of scarcity are worth more than abundance when offer all I am and trust in God to use it for good. Our scarcity doesn’t mean we search for abundance, but rather choose a different mind-set.

In her book “The Gifts of Imperfection,” Dr. Brene Brown says we must choose a mind-set of self sufficiency. She says: “We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mindset of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don’t be a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn’t two step up from poverty or one stop short of abundance. It isn’t a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.”

My friends, you are enough. And when you give yourself to the world, trusting that you are enough, you can find more passion, and meaning and purpose than you ever thought possible. These widows invite us to trust in sufficiency. All we are, all we have, is sufficient in the hands of the Creator.

Now, I'd like us to consider for a moment to whom these widows give their offering. The first widow gives the last of her bread to Elijah, which might not seem like a big deal at first. After all, he was a prophet of God! But a woman from Zarephath would not know that. You see, the people of Zarephath were Gentiles. Remember that the drought was said to be caused by King Ahab’s worship of Ba’al? The worship of Ba’al began when he married Jezebel, who was also from Zarephath. The widow sacrificed all she had left for an outsider - an “other” - someone she may have deemed unworthy.

And what about the widow in our gospel lesson? She gives her coins to the treasury of the temple. Abstractly, we might imagine her giving her offering to God - but who does she literally give her coins to? She offers her coins, all she has, to the very institution devouring her house. Remember the first part of our reading for today? Jesus points to the scribes who walk around in their long robes, demanding respect and expecting to be seated in places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. These scribes were the legal and financial gurus of the day, working for the religious authorities. One of their jobs was to oversee the affairs of widows, who with no husband, were in a defenseless legal and financial position. And so, these supposedly well-reputed and pious scribes who were to oversee the estates of widows, would instead use the estates for their own financial gain. Jesus warns his disciples about religious hypocrisy - those who profess to be faithful but whose power and elitist attitudes lead to corruption. The scribes were part of the very institution that was feeding on the vulnerabilities of the poor.

And yet, the widow offers the whole of her life to the very institution that exploits her poverty and social position.

Seems crazy, doesn’t it? But it happens all the time, even today. People send their money to televangelists so that they might be blessed by God with promised prosperity. People cast their vote for the very politicians who want to take away their health care and social services. I recently read “Killer of the Flower Moon” and what happens to widows in Jesus' time is very similar to what white men were doing to Osage women in the 1920’s when they would marry them to gain control of the wealth of their estate only to have them murdered.

Even in the face of otherness and corruption, the widows sacrifice everything.

Please do not hear me say that I am advocating for destructive relationships. I’m not justifying unjust systems, or condoning evil masquerading as care and protection. We must continue to stand against corrupt people and systems.

Instead, I would like us to consider that the widows’ stories aren’t too different from the path of Jesus. The story of the widow and her two coins is the last scene of Jesus’ public ministry in the Gospel of Mark. From here, Jesus tells of the temple’s destruction and the Passion narrative begins. But in this final scene of the widow’s mite, we are shown a glimpse into what Jesus himself is all about. Jesus is on his way to give “the whole of his life” for something corrupt and condemned: all of humanity, the whole world. He knows it, and he offers himself as a sacrifice anyway, offering all of who he is in a sacred act of devotion to God. Why? Because Jesus believes the goodness of God’s creation is greater than the darkness, the brokenness, the not-good-enoughness of the world.

When we offer whole selves to the world as a sacred act of devotion to God, we can trust that God believes we are more than enough and God will use all that we offer for the good of the world. Even when we ourselves don’t feel like we are enough - like the brokenness of the world is too big and we are too small - we are reminded that God’s grace is sufficient and our lives are too. Following in the way of Jesus, we are called - both individually and as a church - to sacrifice our lives as an offering to be shared with others. Even if the world will devour us. Even if the world is corrupt. Even if people are awful. Even if evil exists. 

May we too, as people of faith, offer our lives to others as a sacred act of devotion - even though the world may devour us - because our trust in God’s goodness is greater than the darkness of the world.