The Gospel for THURSDAY, June 16, 2005 (Joseph Butler)
Luke 20:41-21:4
He then said to them, ‘How can people maintain that the Christ is son of David? Why, David himself says in the Book of Psalms: The Lord declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand, till I have made your enemies your footstool. David here calls him Lord; how then can he be his son?’ While all the people were listening he said to the disciples, ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes and love to be greeted respectfully in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets, who devour the property of widows, and for show offer long prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.’ Looking up, he saw rich people putting their offerings into the treasury; and he noticed a poverty–stricken widow putting in two small coins, and he said, ‘I tell you truly, this poor widow has put in more than any of them; for these have all put in money they could spare, but she in her poverty has put in all she had to live on.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
The Widow's Mites
The least of the least: that's what a widow represented in Palestine in the first century. Women were purposely kept as ignorant as possible, as they were considered last-class citizens, lumped in with children, though widows lacked even the future potential that children possessed.
A Reflection
I was moved, coincidentally by an article [free registration required) in Sojourners online about the poor. The author points out that Deuteronomy assured Israel that the land given by YHWH was so plentiful that there need be no poor!
But all of that depended on each Jew complying with the Law and being fair and open with each person.
And we know how the story played out. It continues to this day, with our nation's concept of justice being tightly driven into the tiny box defined by lawyers.
Jesus was accusing the well-heeled teachers of the law (sorry, attorneys, they were the "lawyers" then) to their faces. He reaches through the millenia to confront us -- yes, all of us -- with the same accusation.
The widow was stepping out in faith, believing that the masters of the Temple would use her huge offering to benefit someone even less fortunate than she. She may have been ignorant; she may have been unschooled and unwise in the ways of the working of the world, but she was wise to YHWH's ways.
Unlike the rich man, she gave away all she had and followed her heart to God's great riches.
How many mites shall we put into the treasury?
The Collect
O God, who by your Holy Spirit give to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant Joseph Butler, and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.
9:04:31 PM 
|
|
