“Strange Logic”
Mark 12: 28-34
Mark 12: 28-34
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost November 12, 2006
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
* * *
A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."
* * *
Strange logic.
Looking at the sculptures around the Vatican City, while mesmerized by the beauty in grand scale, I kept thinking that it is very difficult to reconcile such pronounced wealth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As much as I appreciate beauty in and around the Saint Peter’s Square, I also noticed pan handlers and homeless people outside the Square.
The photo you see in the bulletin cover was taken right outside the Wall of the Vatican City, around the corner of the Missionaries of Charity Mother Theresa found. There were people of all ages begging. A few minutes before I took the photo, I saw a nicely uniformed Vatican employee walking equally well groomed dog by a drunken man lying against the wall. I was muttering to my self that the dog seemed to have a far better living condition than the street people around the Vatican City.
As I was walking around Vatican, I kept thinking about the movie, The Shoes of the Fisherman, where the Pope Kiril (Anthony Quinn) uses his authority as the leader of the Catholic Church to inspire the world and transform and renew the Church. “Wishful thinking,” I told my self.
A church building was being built in South Korean near a shanty town in the 1970s. The construction was progressing well but with one exception. The beautiful stained glass windows kept being broken.
When the neighbours were returning from work each evening, they would stop by the construction site, pick up a stone from the ground, and throw a stone at the stained glass window.
"How can you build such a beautiful building, a building you use once in a while, while we cannot even afford a descent place to live?” “How dare you spend so much money on church building while we are barely surviving?” “What kind of God would allow anyone to build such a large church building right by the shanty town?” These were some of the comments the poor neighbours uttered as they threw stones at the church.
The questions raised by the shantytown neighbours came to my mind as I was reading Toronto Star the other day.
These are the figures from Toronto Star (Tuesday, November 7, 2006). Rita Daly reports on homeless under the caption, “The ‘forgotten’ homeless’”.
65 – Number of shelters in Toronto
32,700 – Estimated number of people who used a shelter in Toronto in 2003
89% – Average occupancy rate in shelters
4,181 – Number of shelter beds
66,556 – Households on social housing waiting list (2005). The wait is for 5 to 10 years.
4,418 – Total households put into social housing (2005)
1,435 – Affordable and transitional housing units completed since 2001[i]
The reporter indicates that both David Miller and Jane Pitfield, two prominent candidates in the Toronto mayoral race, seem to agree that the issue of homeless ought to be resolved. The question is whether they are going to actually do much about the issue when either of them gets elected.
On the same front page, right under the article on homeless, is a report that two principal buyers offered $3.7 billion dollars for the Four Seasons Hotels Inc. The report indicates that the founder of the hotel chain would be making $288 million dollars if the deal closes.
We live in a city where luxury condos are sprouting everywhere and housing market is still hot while 66,566 families are on social housing waiting list. Rita Daly reports that “tens if thousand families – the so-called hidden homeless – are doubled up in rooms and crowded apartments due to high rents, low wages and a chronic shortage of affordable housing. About 67,000 households are on waiting list for subsidized housing in Toronto alone. The wait is for 5 to 10 years.”
I wish our city has a policy where a certain percentage for the affordable housing is allocated in relation to the luxury condos or houses being built in Toronto. It could be in the form of levy for the developers. Such practice will alleviate the plight of the poor regarding housing and force the developers and the speculators to think more carefully when they plan to build. A wishful thought as I think about the municipal election tomorrow.
“For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."
I grew up in a capitalist society where being and becoming a person of independent means is cherished as one of the virtues. Having immersed myself in such environment for so long, even with a socialist view on economy, the scene described in today’s passage sounds so absurd.
It is one thing for a person with enough disposal income to offer something to “donate” for something. But giving everything one has, like the woman in the story sounds so foolish and irresponsible. Did she give all she had because she has nothing to lose? After all, a penny is neither here nor there. Penny, in the end, will not get you much anyways.
Why would Mark record this particular episode? The clue is found in verses preceding the story of the widow who gave all she had. The story of a widow works as an illustration to the point Jesus was making.
Why would Mark record this particular episode? The clue is found in verses preceding the story of the widow who gave all she had. The story of a widow works as an illustration to the point Jesus was making.
This is what Marcus Borg says in his book, Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary, about the world Jesus lived in.
“Honour was a central concern in the world of Jesus. To some extent the product of birth, family, and wealth, it was sustained by social recognition. It was not just social status, but also the regard one felt entitled to in virtue of that status.”[ii]
“Much behaviour was therefore dictated by the desire to acquire, preserve, or display honour and to avoid the opposite, shame. Honour and shame are still major motivators of behaviour in much of the Middle East as well as elsewhere.”[iii]
We Canadians are also part of this honour and shame game. In the passage read today, Jesus ridiculed the concern with honour. He actually mocked those who sought social recognition:'
"Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets!
Borg asserts that “Jesus chastised religious practices – giving alms, fasting, praying – motivated by the desire for honour.” [iv]
A widow, a woman without a husband, in Jesus’ time meant a person without social status since a woman’s life was utterly dependent on her father, her husband, or her son. But Mark, by contrasting the wealthy men, those with status of honour according to the customs of the day, against the destitute widow, a person without status, describes the wealthy men as those who are shameful.
Mark critiques a society where giving charitable donations in the synagogue has become, more or less, a “photo-op” for the wealthy while a widow, a destitute, gives all for the community. It was a criticism against those who were so immersed in keeping up with Jones that they have lost the sight on true nature of sharing wealth with their neighbours.
Jesus’ logic goes against the conventional wisdom of the day that still rules to our day – that the amount of the money is what counts in the end. Jesus tells his disciples, and us, that it is the amount of giving in relation to one’s wealth that really counts and that it is the genuine purpose of the giving that really matters to God. Some calls this strange logical way of seeing the world – a prophetic imagination.
Howard Thurman, an African American theologian who wrote Jesus and the Disinherited, was inspired by Mahatma Ghandi’s non-violence movement. Dr. Thurman, in turn, deeply influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and many other leaders in Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America. This is what he says about the discrepancy between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the organised Church of his time.
“Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the weak. This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life has too often been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to weak and defenceless people.”
Dr. Thurman’s words still rings true as a challenge to our denomination as we seek security and in today’s seemingly secular world where those outside the four walls of the church no longer pay much attention to what we have to say.
How do we respond to seemingly impossible task of witnessing to the Gospel that calls us to give all we possess?
Mother Teresa is a good example of how one person was able to transform the live of the poor in Calcutta with virtually nothing. He had no funds. She depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support came with volunteers. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work. She found “The Missionaries of Charity,” whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. Today the order comprises Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers in many countries.
What about from our own life contest?
I experienced something last Friday at our church that I would like to share with you as a sign of hope in our midst. I was at the Friday Lunch Programme our church offers to our neighbours. It was good to see so many of KRU folks at the lunch programme. It was good to see Helen Hicks at the table. I find her humour to be wicked. I also found out that lunch for Lee Beard consists of basically what we would normally call dessert!
What was fascinating about last Friday’s lunch for me was that the hotdogs were offered, along with the soup our Kevin made, to the guests in honour of a school principal who retired recently. Denelda told me that sharing hotdogs with the community was her way of honouring the retirement of the school principal she worked with for a long time. Through Denelda’s generosity, I experienced new ways of celebrating where the focus is in sharing, not just focused on the individual’s achievement.
We may not ever become like the poor widow who gave all she had in material possessions but there are many things we do here and in our lives where we strive to match the spirit of generosity of the poor widow.
I have seen people sharing their gifts of presence by visiting those who are living in the shut-ins. I have seen the sparks in the eyes of Sunday School teachers and CE Committee members when they talk about our children. I have witnessed the way friends share the burdens of life with one another here at KRU. We are called to make our life a context of such generosity where lives, including our own, are transformed by the experience of generosity.
Mother Teresa once said of her community’s work with the poor in India, “We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.” Such was the conviction of the Widow, that the two copper coins, nothing more than a mere drop in the donation box filled with money, would make the difference to those who are in need.
May our lives be enriched and be transformed as we participate in such a journey of radical generosity.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment