Many of us may be thinking that the timing of this Sunday’s Gospel reading, on ‘The Widow’s Mite,’ was purposely chosen for the fall fundraising season (‘Stewardship Season’ is the norm in Episcopal churches this time of year). It was selected, you may be thinking, as a way to guilt the pew warmers into coughing up more money for the church and also make an example out of this poor widow; that we are not acceptable to God until we sign over everything we own to the Church. “Yes, you can make your checks out to St. David’s in Southfield, Michigan…”

But what if we were to read this text a bit differently, as some theologians have suggested, and look at this encounter not as a lesson in selfless giving, but as an example of selfish pride run amuck. Not, of course, on the part of the widow, but on the part of the Temple elite who had concocted a shady religious system in which God was not the main beneficiary, they were. Let’s take a closer look.

As we know, this story (found both in Mark and Luke) comes on the tails of Jesus’ observations regarding the religious leaders of his day. Jesus warns, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes…” He then points out their self-centered prayers, processions through the market places, and the taking of the best seats at worship services and banquets. This observation is followed by another, that of the widow giving all she has to the Temple Treasury. Jesus says, “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.”

Try reading this last statement like the first - as a simple declaration as to what’s going on. Now imagine this paraphrase, “What a tragedy for religion to look like this! That poor woman has to give away everything she has to meet Temple approval. She has been taught and encouraged to donate as she does, now she has nothing left to take care of herself or anyone else who might be in her household.”

The two texts, if they are interpreted this way, become a unified declaration against what has been called our biggest, most lingering sin: pride. For it was a prideful clergy that concocted such a self-perpetuating, get rich scheme as this in order to line their pockets, not to prepare for the Kingdom of God. It was a prideful system that did not recognize God even when he walked up and introduced himself. It was a prideful system that led to death rather than life.

Whenever Scripture describes the colliding of kingdoms, as it does here, I often think of the ways that I may be contributing to the wrong side. In what ways does pride weasel its way into modern religious life? In what ways do our frameworks of introducing others to Christ get derailed and sidetracked by our own desires for respect, honor and praise?

Religious shammery (if this is a word) has been around for a long time as we, too often, choose the comforts of religious frameworks over the difficult and liberating work of giving ourselves totally (another theme in this reading) to the call and work of Christ. In what ways might we identify and address these?


Reading
The Five Love Languages – Gary Chapman
A People’s History of Christianity – Diana Butler Bass
Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes – Kenneth Bailey
To read more about this take on ‘The Widow’s Mite’ see http://www.visionsofgiving.org/widowsmite.htm