Watching and Seeing Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost Stewardship Sunday November 11, 2018 Gordon Wiersma. Text: Mark 12

Transcription

1 Watching and Seeing Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost Stewardship Sunday November 11, 2018 Gordon Wiersma Text: Mark 12 I suppose that people-watching must be one of the oldest spectator sports of all shared across all generations and including every demographic as participants I can t imagine there s anyone who hasn t done some good old-fashioned recreational peoplewatching. I know that it s a bit nosy, and truth is often you re making some judgments as you do so but you can rationalize a bit and say that it s just that you find people so fascinating! Going to the Mall used to be the prime place for people-watching but I haven t been to a Mall in a while, and it seems I m not the only one; for me, I think airports are the place for people-watching way too many people in one place, often for way too long of a time prime conditions for people-watching. You have to be stealthy about it though, you can t be caught staring there is a subtle art to advanced people-watching. I wonder if Jesus was advanced, or subtle, or staring but regardless of his technique, Jesus clearly did engage in the time-honored spectator sport of peoplewatching. It seems that in Jesus day, the temple in Jerusalem was the prime place to hang out for people-watching a bit like a Mall in its own right: the temple was 1-stop shopping for one s religious, social, and political needs - the marketplace for sacrifice, worship, negotiation, news and THE place to see and be seen; that s where Jesus went with his disciples to do some people-watching. In the first part of the passage we heard, I get the impression that they are doing something of a stroll through the temple, and Jesus is making some observations to his group of followers as they walk along. Jesus begins with some observations and critiques of the scribes, who were part of the religious establishment of the day: who insist on walking around in long, formal, religious robes (indicate my own robes) hmm! who

2 desire to be greeted with respect perhaps something like Reverend? or even Reverend Doctor?! - who insist on the best seats in the synagogues (indicate my seat) hmm! those who say long prayers in public settings hmm! Well I can t think of any modern applications of this passage, can you?! Clearly Jesus is critiquing the religious establishment of the day and clearly the connection can be made directly to today; but will you be generous and let me include all of us together in that critique today, not just the ones in the robes and with the titles? To be a part of organized religion these days - and for you to be here means in some way or another you are thus associated - is to be confronted by what Jesus says: the temptation, the tendency, the danger of religion becoming a place of hypocrisy, appearance and privilege and the need for us together as a community to lean against those pitfalls of religion. But if you re willing to join me in taking to heart that critique from Jesus be careful because it opens us up to a critique that is even harsher, more serious. In the midst of what Jesus says, he throws in this bombshell: they devour widows houses this isn t just vacuous religion, this is active harm, done to the most vulnerable. Jesus is not just making casual observation but serious accusation organized religion as a source of harm, feeding off the vulnerable for its own survival. Is that a critique we need to listen to too? So the people-watching continues. Jesus settles down at a spot opposite the treasury watching people deposit their offerings: they see people who had a lot to give, and it seems those givers make quite a show of it; then they see a woman she is described as a poor widow I m not sure what people-watching skills they applied to know this was the case, but they do, and they know and this poor widow puts in a couple of coins, worth very little. Seems that s enough people-watching for the day, as Jesus calls his disciples together and has something to say something to say about the difference between watching and seeing. If one is just watching what unfolds there at the treasury, it looks to simply be some people giving a lot and someone giving a little; but Jesus wants to 2

3 look deeper, to see something more, something different: Jesus sees some people giving what is not as costly for them to part with, and one giving everything she has Jesus sees the less as greater than the more. Let me say that I want to delve into how important this is, what Jesus sees as he watches and for you to also know that I m going to push us to see something more here, something more to the story. But first, even on its surface, this story is already very deep: we have to be honest with ourselves that we are exposed by this story that we cannot deny that it is deeply imbedded in our religious, social, economic consciousness to pay attention to and seek after those who have more and can give more; and to not notice, to not value those who have less and less to give. One way to say that is simply that I cannot think of any examples of buildings in our community named for a 2-penny donor right? Although that example is too safe, because it s just about other people, since I can give more than 2 pennies but not enough for a Wiersma Fieldhouse; what strikes closer to home in what Jesus sees and says, is that I can recognize how much I am complicit in paying attention to what is splashy and extravagant, while not seeing, not valuing, the true generosity expressed in small, abundant, sacrificial ways around me. So that could be enough from this passage- there is some chastisement for us here, a bit of contrition and a touch of shame about our attitudes that s pretty good for a Sunday! And along with it there is also a spark of motivation and affirmation calling us to see with a new perspective, noticing generosity and abundance in new ways; affirming the simple, small, costly gifts that many share that you share that are seen and valued by God. That s good. But I want to try out with you seeing something more in this passage too because right away when I first read this passage this past week, there were a couple of things that left me feeling unsettled: the first is this is it actually a good thing that this widow gives everything she had all she had to live on? I wonder; and the second thing is did you notice that right after Jesus says that brutal bombshell about religious leaders devouring 3

4 widows, that the next thing we see is a widow giving all she has to the treasury? might there be a connection there? Could I invite you to be unsettled by those things too? And what I mean is, that once Jesus teaches us not just to watch what is going on, but to see deeper substance and meaning to what is unfolding well, then, it opens up to the possibility that there is even more to see here. For example, as we watch, are we meant to see this question: why is there a poor widow at all? don t the Hebrew scriptures say that it is the responsibility of the community to care for the widow and orphan? yes! the very Scripture that was read in the temple where Jesus was watching. So, when we see a poor widow, what we really see is a community indicted by the fact that there is a poor widow at all this should not be. Could that lead us to go even a step further? lead us to hear in what Jesus says about this woman that there is a judgment on the religious institution that accepts this gift of all she has; or at least, a judgment on a religious institution that accepts her offering and uses it only to perpetuate itself that uses it only for long robes, and honorific titles, and best seats, and long prayers; an institution that devours the generosity of one giving sacrificially, but never sees her impoverished circumstances as having anything to do with the religion it perpetuates? So here I am, preaching in long robes, Reverend Gordon Wiersma, best seat in the house, and a long prayer or two under my belt; here I am, preaching this sermon, as money is being spent to prop up this old temple you can see the cranes outside; here I am preaching this on a Stewardship Sunday, as Hope Church asks many of us to give out of our abundance. So, with all that: might someone watching see us simply as the hypocrites that Jesus critiques? Well, if that s what someone sees, I would not want to respond to defensively, but I would want to tell them that there is more to see in what is going on here. I would want someone to see that we as followers of Jesus are learning in new ways not just to see that some have more and some have less, but to ask why? learning to look at the structures of 4

5 our world that create such disparity learning to be a community that not only offers charity, but that seeks justice learning to be a church that sees its calling both to be at the Community Kitchen serving soup and to be at the City Council discussing affordable housing. I would not want to respond defensively, but to say: I know that we do things to perpetuate ourselves certainly, we do our best to keep this Hope Church institution going. But I do truly believe, that Hope Church knows it does not exist just to perpetuate itself. At our best in our mission and calling this is a place that exists to equip and encourage, to chastise and call, faithful people who are seeking to use God s gifts as a blessing to God s world; that this is a place that lives into the promise of God s grace for all and of the daily provisions and dignities of life for all. That s what you could see here. I would want to say something like that about us. There s a lot to watch at the temple a lot to watch in our world: people; politics; policies; poverty; elections; events; abundance; need; suffering; joy but we are called to do more than watch - we follow the one who calls us together to teach us to truly see: to see beyond appearances to realities; to see beyond symptoms to causes; to see beyond judgements to understanding; to see beyond divisions to connections; to see beyond fear to hope; to see beyond charity to justice; to see beyond giving our money to giving our lives; to see others and ourselves as created by God for a community of wholeness which is for all God s children to see ourselves as a part of how God brings such community into being. AMEN. 5