This gospel we just heard about the widow giving away her last pennies in the temple offering might seem like it is a gospel about money and generosity. You might even be fearing that this could easily turn into a fund-raising homily, this gospel gets used a lot for that. But you’re safe on that front, in 30 years no one has ever asked me here to take on that assignment. At least not so far. So rest assured we’re not doing that today. In fact, let’s think of it today not as a gospel about money at all, the money here stands for something else. This is a gospel about taking risks.
Let’s start with the scribes in this gospel. Who could be more secure in life than they were? We probably think of the word “scribe” as some sort of minor, nitpicking religious functionary, but in fact scribes were distinguished community leaders. They had what a lot of us want. They were educated, put through an arduous formation process, the best in their class, perhaps well traveled and sophisticated, at least, that was the goal, and people who were generally materially prosperous and comfortable. They were pillars of the community.
And yet under the surface, things are not what they appear. Because they felt like they earned what they have been given, worked hard for it, so they held onto it with both hands. Many scribes come in for some of Jesus’ most piercing remarks, and what he criticizes is how their status and the money that rolled in have become much more important to them than the scriptures that were the foundation of their lives. They might be generous, but they can afford to be. But they could never give up the safety that came from being a scribe.
Even pulling back the camera a bit in this scene and looking at this temple, glorious in its scale and lavishness, there too things are not what they appear. Here are people lining up to give the temple money, into a whole variety of containers where you could literally hear the money clanging as it went in and they announced each person’s amount aloud, so that you could know who was giving a lot and be impressed by it. But in the very next verses of this gospel Jesus predicts that this great institution that people depend on, that they pour money into, it’s going to disappear and be leveled to the ground. And he was right. That is exactly what happened. So here again, something that looks safe wasn’t safe or stable at all.
But then there is the real center of the story, the widow. Here’s someone who had no security, no status in society, no legal rights, no way to make a living, one of the forgotten ones that are forgotten in every society. You could easily make the case that really it’s the temple that should be giving her money, not the other way around. But here she is, the person without anything, who is the one who isn’t worried about losing what she has. Unlike the rich man who couldn’t give away all his possessions, just a few weeks ago in the gospel, she is the one who isn’t concerned about what will happen to her if she is left penniless. Her instinct is to take a risk with what she has, she sees her duty, to risk her whole life, and she does it.
All through the gospel of Mark, Jesus is trying to convince us that there is a kingdom of God that works like this, and in that kingdom of God, unlike the kingdom we live in, we can live in complete trust that we’ll be picked up and cared for no matter what we might lose. Jesus wants us to see that the things we think are holding us up and that we can’t live without aren’t really what we can rely on, we could lose them, and we would be fine. In fact, by following what our heart hears from God that we need to do, we’ll be better than fine. It makes us dizzy to try to change the way we see that drastically. It’s like telling us to take a leap off a ledge into a place where there may not be a net to catch us.
But there is no getting around Jesus’s message here, and of course this is the story of his whole life and death — after all, this gospel in the temple with the scribes and the widow takes place just a few short days before Jesus himself gives everything up on the cross. He is afraid to do it too, but he does it. He risks everything for what he knows God asks of him.
Each of us has somewhere we could go or something we would do if we weren’t worried about losing what we think we can’t live without. I would love to tell you what this is for you, but unfortunately or fortunately, God works with us all individually on that front. We also all have something that we are afraid of losing, even if like the scribes we don’t even see how tightly we are hanging onto it. There are many times in our life when we hang onto something too long just because the prospect of change is always more frightening than no change. And yet the kingdom of God that we all want to live in is really a kingdom of risks. Generosity to people that the world rejects and demonizes is risky, saying something to people that they decide to take offense at is risky, calling attention to inequality is risky, taking on a new direction we don’t think we’re capable of is risky, criticizing or leaving a system that has rewarded or supported us for years is risky. But God leads us to these moments where we know we are facing a choice. It isn’t that all of these risks pay off; the pennies that the woman gave to the temple didn’t save it from destruction. And yet here we are all these centuries later telling her story, with Jesus admiring the way she chose to live. God can sometimes ask us to take a chance too, and when we do, we are where he has called us to be.
So to all of us who are risk averse: This is not a gospel in favor of gambling, per se, but it is about putting more of our chips on the table, doing something we wouldn’t ever do if we didn’t have the confidence that we are being drawn towards what God has asked of us. We let go of the things that don’t give life, and we reach towards the self-giving love that always does. No matter what it looks like in the eyes of the world when we do that, God promises that we are not going to lose, ever, if we do it.