November 7, 2021

If anyone tells you that the Bible is boring, show them our first reading today from Ruth chapters 3 & 4. This story could be a premise for a steamy and salacious romantic novel – maybe it’s already been done. And for those who like to speak of the ‘biblical model for marriage’ here we have a mother-in-law instructing her widowed daughter-in-law to basically seduce one of her relatives, and after a baby is born of their union, the mother-in-law steps in to nurse the child! You’ve heard of all that lovely bonding between the breast-feeding mother and child? How would we like it if our mothers-in-law had stepped in and said: “Here, let me do that – you go vacuum the house, I’ll nurse the baby!’ And when Naomi instructs Ruth to watch Boaz eat and drink and then ‘observe the place where he lies’ (v4) what does she say next? “Go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do.” Uncover his feet?! As you may know, feet are often a euphemism for male genitals in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. This is also seen when King David tells Uriah to go home and wash his feet … after he, David, has made Uriah’s wife pregnant, but Uriah sleeps outside instead. Of course, David and his son Solomon had many wives and concubines as well … a much more expanded version of the so-called biblical model of marriage. There’s a lengthy and complicated section of the story missing in today’s reading, in which Boaz checks first if another closer relative of Naomi wants the land that comes with marrying Ruth; and then at the end of our reading we learn that Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of King David … so it’s ‘all in the family’ as they say.

Well, if we can calm down after that overly exciting reading, we can look at our fascinating gospel story today, which is often referred to as ‘the widow’s mite’. Again here -- things are not always what they seem to be. Last week I finished reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (have you read it?) and in the last few pages we find out, among other things, that Harry and his close friends have been completely wrong about which professor was out to destroy him. That’s also how PD James novels often go – the villain is usually a total surprise. In fact, predictable outcomes are boring, right? The Holy Spirit is full of surprises, and so are many good works of literature. A popular saying reminds us: Don’t believe everything you think!

So, I invite you to be a bit skeptical about this well-known gospel story as well. It’s traditionally been referred to as ‘the Widow’s mite’ with the presumed lesson that we should all try to be like this widow who, Jesus tells us, donated to the temple “all she had to live on”. This story has likely been used millions of times throughout Christian history to encourage – or is the word ‘extort’ – bigger donations from even the poorest among us. And in our own times, televangelist types are especially still known to ‘guilt’ the poor into giving way more than they can afford, using this story as an example – at least in Jesus’ day there were no credit cards to max out. Is that what Jesus intended – that the widow should become destitute and likely starve to death? Is Jesus actually approving of what she’s doing, or of what she’s been led to believe is the right thing to do? Or is he rather warning about the misuse of scripture to exploit others?

Just two verses prior to when the widow is introduced in today’s gospel, Jesus says this about how cruel and heartless the temple leaders are: “They devour widows’ houses … and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” They devour widow’s houses … what does that mean? I wonder if biblical literalists think that means that they actually eat these houses for lunch or dinner? Ridiculous, right? So this is symbolic language, and then four verses later Jesus shows his disciples exactly how those widows’ houses are devoured – by leading the widows and other poor people to believe that they should donate all they have to live on. After someone pointed out this way of seeing the story differently, I did my best to scrutinize the details and see if I could find anything that suggests that Jesus was approving and recommending what the widow felt called to do -- and I found nothing. When you take the leaflet home, have a closer look and see for yourself. Yes, Jesus is right to point out that the big donations of the rich were “contributed out of their abundance”. So doesn’t it seem quite possible that he’s pointing to the widow’s donation as a sad example of her being misled & exploited?

Today we still hear of many other churches asking their members to tithe. Hopefully most Anglicans do not, and I agree with Dean Ansley that tithing is cruel towards the poor, while being too easy on the rich. For instance, if someone earned about $20,000 a year and gave 10%, then they’d have only $18,000 left for all their food, housing & transportation expenses, etc. But if someone earns about $100,000 a year and gives 10% they still have $90,000 for all their other living expenses. Tithing is completely unfair and just increases the gap between rich and poor. So let’s not assume that we know what Jesus meant simply because that version brings in more dollars. Jesus is continually concerned about the poor, who in his day were mostly widows and orphans, so he cannot be condoning people going broke in order to donate more money to the church. And of course, there are countless gifts of talents and skills and many kinds of work that people donate to the church and the world every day.

Small gifts and actions do matter, as I learned again at the end of Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone. Clumsy Neville Longbottom ended up saving the day when he got the 10 winning points for Gryffindor House – for standing up to his friends when he thought they were headed onto a dangerous path. All of us can do small things to bring assistance or comfort or even warning to a variety of situations where others are in need or danger. Things are not what they seem, especially at this thin time of year. May Holy Spirit Wisdom help us see grace & love through the veil, Amen.