Sermon Seeds: Abundance and Poverty

Sunday, November 10, 2024
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost | Year B
(Liturgical Color: Green)

Lectionary Citations
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 and Psalm 127 OR 1 Kings 17:8-16 and Psalm 146 • Hebrews 9:24-28 • Mark 12:38-44
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=p&d=84&y=382

Focus Scripture: Mark 12:38-44
Focus Theme: Abundance and Poverty
Series: Here I Am…Testing and Tested (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

The poverty paradox tells us that people living below the poverty line are more likely to give up to one percent of their income than those living above it. Further, having more wealth can be an indicator of less generosity despite having a greater share of disposable income. Some studies suggest that higher levels of inequality, when the gap between rich and poor is larger, the gap in generosity also increases. When there is less inequality or a smaller bridge between the socio-economic statuses, the rich tend to be more generous than their counterparts who live with greater inequities. While more research needs to be done to determine if the inequality is a cause or an effect, income disparities impact generosity among those with abundance.

In 2012, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported their findings on giving patterns in the United States by state, city, and zip code. What they found was that people in higher-income brackets gave less to charitable causes than people with less income. Persons earning between $50,000 and 75,000 per year gave 7.6 percent of their income to charity. People earning more than $200,000 per year, and living in areas where at least 40 percent of their neighbors shared their economic status, gave only 2.8 percent to charity. The divide between income and generosity encourages us to take another look at the widow’s offering in Mark’s Gospel.
Racquel S. Lettsome

The gospel narrative tells the story. Jesus has had a series of encounters with religious leaders, particularly scribes who serve as arbiters of the law. This group of people may not necessarily be the richest in material terms, but they do enjoy privilege and prestige in the faith community. Jesus warns against the scribes who flaunt their elevated status, who consider themselves holier or more faithful than others, and who use religious practices for self-aggrandizement and favorable attention. Here, the inequities are not financial but relate to social status nonetheless.

While rich people might sometimes act less altruistic, they aren’t inherently selfish: When well-off people in those studies were made to feel like they were of lower status, they actually became more generous, and when less well-off people were made to feel like they had higher status, they became more stingy. That suggests there might be something about the experience of elevated power and status that reduces our willingness to give to others.
Jason Marsh

Once again, power plays an important role in determining human response to perceived needs. Yet, it has only become a recent consideration in the interpretation of this text to critique the systems that allow and encourage the poor widow to give everything while the privileged look on still feeling superior to her despite Jesus’ rebuke.

Couched between Jesus’ scathing condemnation of the scribes and his foretelling of the temple’s destruction is the story of the widow’s offering. Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, and John Chrysostom lifted her as an example of faith and generosity. Based on his interpretation of this story, Calvin concluded that one who “offers to God the little that he has, is more worthy of esteem than that of him who offers a hundred times more out of his abundance” (Calvin, 3:113). From their earliest readings until the present time, scholars have commended the widow whose actions Jesus is believed to have extolled. Most recently, however, scholars have interpreted this story as an indictment of the temple system that victimizes the poor and vulnerable.
Racquel S. Lettsome

The widow demonstrates exemplary generosity and faith in her giving, yet it’s important to note that she was not asked to do that by Jesus. She gives from the urging of her own heart. While Jesus lifts her up in comparison to the others who may have given greater quantitatively but not proportionally, he does not prescribe giving everything one has as an ideal. Rather, it’s an indictment against those who give so little without any measure of sacrifice.

Jesus favored the poor, but he did not want them to continue to live in deprivation. One of the few occasions that Jesus responded with anger, rather than grace, occurred when Jesus observed the poor being exploited, especially in the temple system.

Mark’s juxtaposition of her story with the warning against scribes who deprive widows of their property implies that her poverty is the outcome of injustice, which should be rectified (see Malbon 1991). Rather, her extravagant generosity in offering up her life/livelihood in the service of God personifies the qualities of an ideal disciple.
Mary Ann Beavis

Once again, Jesus offers a reversal of understanding. The religious leaders are so proud of themselves; pride seems to be their objective. The widow is so humble that she does nothing to draw attention to herself. They give so that their gifts may be recognized; she gives because she recognizes the need. Their contributions come from their abundance of material resources; her contributions originate in her heart of compassion. Jesus advises his disciples to follow her example not theirs. She leads despite her poverty; they fail in their stewardship despite their abundance.

While her actions are exemplary, her condition is abominable. Why is she poor? She lives in a patriarchal society in which her survival would have substantially depended upon the generosity of her closest male relatives. She lived in a capitalistic empire in which economic disparities were entrenched in the system. She is not poor because resources are scarce. The Roman empire was rich in abundance, and those who were favored and privileged in that system were able to prosper. Their prosperity came at the cost to the masses who were unable to flourish even as their labor created the abundance.

Jesus’s teaching to the crowd in the temple precincts (12:37b) continues with a scathing condemnation of the scribes: “Watch out for the scribes—walking around in long robes, greeting in the marketplaces, and taking the first seats in the synagogue and seats of honor at banquets—who devour the houses of widows and make a great outward showing, praying; these people shall receive the greatest judgment” (12:38–40). The kinds of behaviors criticized here are typical of men in societies where honor is gained by the public display of wealth and privilege: they wear expensive “robes” rather than simple cloaks to the marketplace, where they would be sure to be recognized as high-status members of society. The “first seats in the synagogue” are the seats of honor, dedicated to the elders and benefactors of the synagogue in recognition of their importance in the community. Similarly, seats at banquets were assigned by social rank, with the host taking the first position, the most honored guest seated on his right, and so on.
Mary Ann Beavis

When religious leaders align and ally themselves with the systems of empire, there is a cost. Those at the margins pay the higher share. That’s not generosity; that’s exploitation. That’s not the realm of God, that is the system of the world economies that prioritizes and categorizes the Holy One’s creation into first second, and third worlds. It’s not just the individual scribes who fail the test with their inadequate giving; it’s the religious system that ignores the warning found in Psalm 146:3, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.” The powerful of the world rely upon systems that oppress and exploit; Those who rely upon the power of the Spirit find an abundance even in poverty. The test for the church is which power source we choose.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“There’s no way that Michael Jackson or whoever Jackson should have a million thousand droople billion dollars and then there’s people starving. There’s no way! There’s no way that these people should own planes and there people don’t have houses. Apartments. Shacks. Drawers. Pants! I know you’re rich. I know you got 40 billion dollars, but can you just keep it to one house? You only need ONE house. And if you only got two kids, can you just keep it to two rooms? I mean why have 52 rooms and you know there’s somebody with no room?! It just don’t make sense to me. It don’t.”
― Tupac Shakur

For Further Reflection
“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
“Once poverty is gone, we’ll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They’ll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society – how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.” ― Muhammad Yunus
“The wealth of a soul is measured by how much it can feel… its poverty by how little.” ― Sherrilyn Kenyon

Works Cited
Beavis, Mary Ann. Mark (Paideia: Commentaries on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011.
Fagan, Abigail. “Are Poorer People More Generous?” Psychology Today, June 21, 2022. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-helpful-brain/202206/are-poorer-people-more-generous
Lettsome, Raquel S. “Mark.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.
Marsh, Jason. “Are the Rich Really Less Generous?” Greater Good Magazine, December 22, 2015. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/are_the_rich_really_less_generous

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
This sermon series invites us to explore the call to Christian discipleship and to examine our response. Invite the congregation to consider their stewardship commitments.

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/after-pentecost-25b-november-10/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.