Ruth [3:1-5; 4:13-17]; Psalm 127; Hebrews [9:24-28]; Mark [12:38-44]
You may have noticed our sign on the corner this week which says:
WITH HER PENNIES
THE WIDOW SHOWED US
THE SPIRIT OF GIVING
This Gospel reflection probably says more about us than it does about the widow in the Gospel message from Mark. Because we can get quite distracted by the widow and by her meager gift. How in the world, we ask, could a couple of pennies be considered a greater offering than something more substantial. Like the people we know would give. How could that be?
This very line of thinking reveals a sad aspect of the human condition. We're trying to think things through-and come out ahead-rather than let our hearts lead us through the process. The widow's heart was full of thanks to God and she gave what she had without worrying about what percentage it was of her income, assets or how it might impact her future. She gave because it was what her heart told her to do.
This morning's Hebrew Bible concerns the story of Ruth, another tale of a generous heart, a woman who stood by her mother in law through famine and disaster and who was rewarded with a good life. Time and again she was encouraged to leave her mother in law behind, to find a new husband, and she declined. Her famous line, not in today's reading, is "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die."
These stories and our experience tell us that God is more interested in the state of our hearts than the condition of our wallets. God loves us when we're flush and when we're poor. We try to love God back as best we can.
The Saints of God
We just had a Sunday where we spoke of the saints in our lives. At the 10 am service the Hymns included the old chestnut "I sing a song of the saints of God." But when you get down to it, what is a saint?
We often think of those who have been canonized, such as our Patron St. Paul. The reality is that there are many ways the word saint is defined. A saint can be "an extremely virtuous person" or those whom God has called; God's possessions, or even those who have dedicated themselves to the worship and service of God.
In other words, there is not a single way to define a saint. The variety of definitions, combined with the variety of people we all selected says to me that we can find saints everywhere. I think that is very important, because it means that saints are accessible to us. That accessibility means that we are surrounded by examples of what we can be (and should attempt to be).
This gives real meaning to the last line of the hymn about the saints all around us: "...and I mean to be one too." --Warden Pete Bedrossian
