8 November 2015 - the fatherless and the widow he sustains

We sometimes worry that we don't have enough to contribute. We let that feeling stop us from giving anything at all. Are we really more interested in giving enough that we can feel good about it? This is what the scribes are like. They are more interested in long robes, greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues and places of honor at banquets than the spiritual things they do as a pretext.

Jesus wants us to be free to give and to love whether or not it seems significant in the eyes of the world, whether or not it brings us any honor. If we're really honest we aren't very impressed by the widow and her two coins. We think about this as a lovely sentimental gesture. But after all what good are two coins in a vast treasury? We're thinking as humans do and not as God does (cf. Mat. 16:230. God calls does not call us to what this world defines as success. He merely calls us to be faithful. After all, the cross looks like the biggest failure in history until the resurrection. And the thing is, when we are faithful, he is able to do much more with two coins than we expect. He is able to do much more with a measure of flour than the widow expects.

God is actually able to draw more from us than we believe that we have to give. He is able to do this when we come to depend on him rather than ourselves. The two coins or the flour seem like all we have. We grasp them so tightly and refuse to let go because we imagine that our whole existence relies on them. But it does not. It relies on God.

For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,
'The jar of flour shall not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry,
until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'" 

Jesus offers himself for us, once for many. By doing so he allows us to share in his own love and obedience. He enables us to give not just the superfluous things which are tangential and unimportant to us. He enables us to give our very selves just as he first gives himself for us.

The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.