Episodes
Tuesday Nov 13, 2018
Tuesday Nov 13, 2018
The Pressure of Poverty
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC Nov. 11, 2012, the twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost. “Under Pressure” series.
Text: Mark 12:38-44
In the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, I found myself increasingly concerned about reports of voter suppression in states like Florida, North Dakota, and Georgia—in many cases in districts where the population is primarily poor and black.[i] I’ve read stories of the only available polling places being located miles from public transportation, of street addresses being required in places where Native Americans generally don’t have them, of “inactive” voters being removed from registered voter lists, of a lack of sufficient voting machines or polling places and wait times upward of 3-4 hours, of hundreds of absentee ballots being rejected, of a group of elderly black voters being forced off a bus that was going to drive them to the polls. Of course, the populations most impacted by these and other tactics are the poor and disenfranchised—those for whom getting to the polls between two jobs or without a car or without a street address or “an exact match” on every official document—will be difficult. In the midst of these troubling reports, I also saw stories of folks who were doing whatever it took to vote—and saw images of long lines of people waiting hours to participate. I wondered what obstacles some of the folks had overcome to be there.
And when I read again the story from our Gospel text for today, I couldn’t help but wonder about the poor widow who stood in a different kind of line to participate in a different kind of civic duty and privilege. The Temple treasury in Jesus’ day consisted of thirteen contribution chests that received a variety of charitable gifts for use and administration by Temple leaders. The Mosaic Law specified that a portion of the offerings would be used to support those in need—dispersed Levitical clans, resident aliens, orphans, and widows. (e.g. Deut. 14:28) The treasury chests were located in an inner courtyard—the Court of the Women—so called because that was as far as women could go into the Temple structure.[ii] This courtyard is where Jesus is often found when he is teaching in the Temple. And this is where Jesus sees the widow making her way forward. What obstacles had she overcome just to get there?
We’re told this widow is poor. In addition to juxtaposing the treasury line to the voting line, I also thought about the widow’s poverty in light of a recent FaceBook rant from a childhood friend, angry about witnessing a family trying to get a hotel room without the funds to pay for it. The rant was the old saw—if you’re poor it’s because you’re lazy or don’t try or just want a handout and all the other things that folks often say. What of the poor widow in the story? What we know about widows in the time of Jesus is that, while all were not poor, those who had no other source of financial support (a son or a brother-in-law of means) were left destitute—without any recourse for sustenance. Widows, like orphans, had no voice in the legal, religious, political, and social eyes of society. The Hebrew word for widow, almanah, also means “desolate house” and one resource suggests another meaning is “leftover pieces.” Widows were considered empty places where life is no longer dwells, or as leftovers, the chaff that is thrown away after the important, useful wheat has been harvested.
The poor widow’s condition is not due to any laziness or misconduct on her part. It is the result of the lawcode, the systems of society, and the variability of family connection or status. Even if there were few obstacles between her and the treasury, just getting there would have required more effort and intention than others. And this unnamed widow steps up to the treasury and offers her gift, a gift that was worth a penny, 1/64 of the daily wage of the time. She put in everything she had, “all she had to live on.” Some translations say she gave “her whole living” or “her whole livelihood.” But the literal meaning of the Greek is: she gave her life.
And I wonder why she did it. Certainly, the temple didn’t depend upon her small gift to maintain its functions. And those who were charged with caring for her and protecting her didn’t always do so—she couldn’t trust that her gift would earn the care that she needed from the temple authorities. Perhaps this woman presented herself and her offering as a cry for justice, for inclusion, for her own dignity, for the recognition that she is not worthless, that she, too, has something to offer. Perhaps the poor widow was giving what she had simply because she wanted to do so, making her offering with joy and gratitude that she had something to contribute. Or, the more cynical option: the temple authorities (who were described by Jesus as “devouring widows’ houses” in verse 40) have manipulated this widow and others like her to feel obligated to give more than they could really afford. In this scenario, Jesus’ words (“this poor widow has put in…all she had to live on”) would be exasperation and disgust rather than the more familiar reading of admiration.
But regardless of her motivation, if Jesus hadn’t noticed the woman, no one else would have. It is possible that Jesus highlights the widow’s gift as an example of profound faith and trust in God’s love and care. It is also possible that the writer of Mark’s Gospel is using this story to illustrate the life of Christian discipleship as a life of sacrificial, self-giving love. But I also wonder whether Jesus calls attention to this widow and her gift as a way to highlight the injustice of a system in which some people have so much and others have so little, a system in which laws put people in poverty and then blame those same people for being there, a system in which some receive honor and prestige because of their large gifts that don’t really cost them much (gifts out of their leftovers), while others who give all they have (for good or ill) are ignored, mistreated, and forgotten (I can’t help but think of the number of veterans who are living on the streets), a system in which those responsible for creating or maintaining systems and policies that leave people in destitution simply go about their business as if the lives of the poor have nothing to do with them—as if they bear no responsibility. Today, we hear Jesus condemn the scribes for their hypocrisy. They revel in their positions of worldly power and pray “long prayers” so that they will look pious. But in reality they are not attending to the real work of God. Through intentional funneling of treasury funds into their own pockets or through thoughtless neglect, they support the system that “devours widows’ houses” rather than work to challenge the system that discounts vulnerable human beings as “leftovers.” //
As I was preparing for today, I did a quick review of statistics for poverty in the United States. We tend to think that poverty in other countries makes American poverty look like extravagance. This is simply not true. Study after study and report after report documents that all around us there are people who are either caught in generational cycles of poverty or who are falling into poverty not as a result of laziness, but as a result of a variety of societal and political realities, values, and policies.[iii] Angus Deaton, a professor of economics and international affairs and the 2015 Nobel laureate in economics states simply, “There are millions of Americans whose suffering, through material poverty and poor health, is as bad or worse than that of the people in Africa or in Asia.”[iv] In our backyard, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute reports, “Poverty is higher than a decade ago, workers without a college education have seen their hourly wages fall, and DC has one of the largest income inequality gaps in the country.”[v] Ed Lazere, Executive Director of DCFPI writes, “our youngest residents are among those most likely to be living in poverty, with 26 percent of DC children growing up in families working hard to make ends meet. The vast majority of children living in poverty are children of color. These are signs that the legacy of racism and current barriers facing residents of color—in our workforce, schools, housing, and more—continue to prevent too many residents from being part of our city’s growing prosperity.”[vi]
Some of us here spend our daily lives working to change this reality, to change unjust policies and to be in solidarity with the poor. Many of us here will understand the deeply interrelated challenges for a person who is poor—from healthcare to food to housing to education to employment. Often, the most impoverished among us become invisible.
But Jesus sees. And because Jesus notices the poor widow, we are blessed to know her. And from this ancient story of her witness, we are given an invitation to do the right thing by her and all like her through the centuries: namely, to work for justice, to care for the least among us, the widows, the orphans, the forgotten, the vulnerable, the oppressed, the silenced. To do the right thing is to keep our eyes open—to “stay woke”—about unjust policies, dehumanizing laws, and those who are actively doing harm without any sense of compunction. To do the right thing is to actively challenge these things and to work for a world in which every member of the human family will have enough to live, a world in which no one will be manipulated or coerced into greater poverty by greedy leaders and unjust systems, a world in which no person is systematically denied what they need or denied their dignity or denied their vote, a world in which all persons are lovingly embraced as whole persons—a world in which there are no human “leftovers.” This is our call as followers of Jesus. We may have different political philosophies or legislative strategies for how to fulfill this call, but it is very clear in the Gospel that any follower of Jesus should be actively bringing good news of justice, equity, and dignity to the poor.
Foundry is actively engaged in this work in a variety of ways. Our own I.D. Ministry, Racial Justice Ministry Team, and Sacred Resistance Ministry Team are ways we directly engage and impact intersectional issues related to poverty. Washington Interfaith Network and Project Transformation are just two of our partners with whom we address challenges within our gentrifying city—and today you can join our Racial Justice team for a visit to the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum to raise your consciousness about the changing neighborhoods in DC over time. I encourage you to learn more about how you can participate in these initiatives—to increase your awareness and to see if God might be calling you to do more to serve the poor in our midst. These critical ministries are also another important piece of what our financial contributions support. Pastor Ben and his lay leaders are looking for witnesses (those who can show up), listeners (those who can intentionally listen to neighbors), organizers (those who can prepare events and actions), and prayers. Information about our Social Justice and poverty-related initiatives can be found at foundryumc.org/resist and on a handout available at the Welcome Desk.
Today, Jesus helps us see that the poor widow’s life is on the line. As you read ahead in the story, you’ll see that less than a week after his encounter with the widow, Jesus gives his own life in solidarity with her. The question for you and for me as followers of Jesus is: “How am I offering my life for the sake of those who suffer the pressure of poverty?” What are you doing? What will you give?
[i] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/01/here-are-chilling-tricks-weve-caught-georgia-using-disqualify-voters/?fbclid=IwAR33pDcmeRu4XO0kHzrw2hDLHqjbWHd1-ZMThLGH9cvamXl7K4l9VQAejdc&noredirect=on&utm_term=.59de78bbd449
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45986329
https://www.splcenter.org/news/2017/02/01/systematic-voter-suppression-—-not-voter-fraud-—-real-cause-concern
[ii] https://www.bible-history.com/court-of-women/the_temple_treasury.html
[iii] https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/audit/
http://www.twodollarsaday.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/opinion/poverty-united-states.html
http://www.evictedbook.com/
[iv]Angus Deaton, “The U.S. Can No Longer Hide From Its Deep Poverty Problem,” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/opinion/poverty-united-states.html
[v]https://www.dcfpi.org/issue-areas/income-poverty/?_sft_issue=featured
[vi] Ed Lazere, “DC’s Growing Prosperity Is Not Reaching Black Residents, Census Data Show,” https://www.dcfpi.org/issue-areas/income-poverty/?_sft_issue=featured
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