Widows among us

 1 Kings 17:8-16; Mark 12:38-44

I was collecting things to read for the sermon this week, adding them to a file I would eventually print. This comment struck me and wouldn’t let me go. “Why was the widow poor?”

Yes, indeed, why was she poor? In both circumstances, from First Kings and from Mark’s Gospel, there was no explanation. Apparently, poverty in widowhood was so common, it needed no explanation.

In addition, there was a cultural tendency to blame the poor for being poor. “Everyone” knew that God blessed those who were righteous by giving them power and wealth and children. The widow, or her ancestors, must have sinned, must have done something bad, to cause her current circumstances.

… In the case of the widow of Zarephath, it was the result of a famine. Which itself was the result of Elijah’s condemnation of the rule of King Ahab and his Queen Jezebel. At the time of their encounter, the woman, a widow, has a son, and just enough food for a final meal before they would succumb to starvation.

But hospitality reigns, and when Elijah asks her to feed him first from the meager supply, she agrees. I imagine she thinks, “At this point, what’s a little less for us? There is nothing left after this anyway. With her compliance, Elijah promises her that the supply of meal and oil will not run out until there is rain. I assume he really means until the rains produce a harvest.

Why was this widow poor? We don’t know why she was a widow, but it is clear no one was looking out for her, seeing that she was fed and cared for. Many around her were also hungry, too. But the main cause of her poverty, her situation was the poor leadership of King Ahab, who strayed from worshiping only the Jewish God.

… In the Gospel reading, again we don’t know why the woman is a widow. We only know that she is faithful, and generous. We congratulate her on her generosity, but worry about her future. Is she going to be like the widow of Zarephath, starving to death from this moment? Or does her Social Security Check arrive in the mail next week?

Jesus’ point is NOT that she gave up everything, but that she gave proportionately so much more than the wealthy persons did. I want to be clear that Jesus doesn’t want her, or anyone, living hand to mouth, scrounging in restaurant rubbish bins for leftover food.   

Jesus’ point, like the author of First Kings, is that the leaders were not paying attention to the people, all the people. They were allowing the poorest people to starve to death instead of making sure they were provided for. They were ignoring the demands of the Torah to care for the widows, the orphans, and the foreigners in their midst. I found 6 mentions of this in Deuteronomy, so the educated leaders would have been familiar with them!

… A couple weeks ago, when Mike had what seems to have been an episode of chemical imbalance, I watched as a laundry cart rolled by. Then I realized it was a scrawny old woman pushing it. Well, she looked to be my age – or maybe her life circumstances had aged her prematurely. But I question why someone my age needs to do such work to survive? Are we caring for our own elderly, whether they are widows or not? … It's not just the USA, of course. In Hong Kong, old women collect cardboard for money to live on. 

Since tomorrow is Veterans Day, I want to acknowledge the widows and widowers that have resulted from wars in the last couple of centuries. As a nation, we have not always done such a good job of caring for them, or for those who have come home eternally damaged by the experience of war. I thank all who have served, or now serve, our country.

… The persistence of poverty in our nation, in our world today, is shameful. About 40 years ago, I read a book called Rich Christians in an age of hunger, by Ron Sider. It was reissued in 2015 to update the data. Here is what the book jacket says.

In an age obsessed with wealth, Christians seem to have forgotten that scripture encourages believers to give to the poor. Why do 1.3 billion people live in abject poverty? And what should Christians do about it?

Despite a dramatic reduction in world hunger, 34,000 children still die daily of starvation and preventable disease, and 1.3 billion people around the world remain in abject poverty. Dr. Ron Sider, a professor of theology, examines the issues of poverty and hunger in modern society. While the Bible is full of instructions to care for the poor and warns against being seduced by riches, it’s been statistically proven that the richer countries become, the less they give. Finding that Conservatives blame morally reprehensible individual choices, and Liberals blame constrictive social and economic policy, Dr. Sider finds himself agreeing with both sides.

… As a nation, under any administration for almost 250 years, we have not done the best job of caring for the neediest among us. During election cycles, candidates promise to fix these problems, in different ways, and sometimes in radically different ways. As citizens, we are responsible for voting for those we believe will best resolve the problems, like hunger, that we are concerned about. And then to call to account those we elected to actually do the fixing they promised.  

But since the time of Elijah – and hundreds of years prior –leaders have failed at caring for the needy. Hungry people, sick people, disabled people, young and old people, do not have what they need each day to live. So, it ends up being us, the individual, the group, the congregation, who do the caring.

At Gloria Dei, we are justifiably proud of the way we feed hungry people each month. So are thousands of other organizations justifiably proud of the way they feed the hungry people. The gifts we give to the church, to support the car show and other fundraisers, are essential to those who need what we share. [The Christ of the Breadlines, Fritz Eichenberg 1950]

Though we are not having an official Stewardship Drive, in preference of year-round stewardship messages, I want to remind you that whatever we put in the offering plate is given to the mission Jesus calls us to, and ultimately to Jesus himself.

One last story. Years ago, I was in Chicago at a weekend-long Women of the ELCA event for about 15 leaders. We went as a group to a restaurant for supper one evening. Since our rooms did not have refrigerators, we left food on our plates as we headed back to the hotel. All except Mary, who took hers in a to-go container. As we walked back to the hotel, Mary looked down the alleyways until she saw a person. She offered her meal to them, and the hungry person smiled in gratitude.

So, this week, I encourage you to notice those around you, as Elijah did, as Jesus did, as Mary did. I hope that you see poor persons as one of God’s needy children, one of our siblings, and seek ways to help them in their time of need.