A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

What initially appeared to be a small, dark dot turned out to be a mosquito. As I peered closer, I realized that it was resting comfortably – inside the net. Over the next several minutes, I became a prisoner of the tiny, deceptively harmless insect. Having captured my now restless imagination, I grew increasingly fascinated by its presence. Did it just move? Was it going to bite me? How had it gotten in?

Although it did not move from its resting place, I became so distracted by its presence that I could no longer focus on what I had been doing – saying my prayers. In just a matter of minutes, this fragile, seemingly powerless insect had begun to loom larger than the God of the universe. Even when I tried to refocus, images of the mosquito sitting ever so imperceptibly on my arm, piercing my skin and robbing me of my blood flooded my mind.

I returned to one of my original questions: How had the mosquito gotten in? Maybe there was a hole in the net. Maybe I inadvertently let it in when I had gotten up in the middle of the night. Maybe it was inside the net even before I had gotten into bed. Whatever the reason, I knew that the net – which was supposed to protect me from mosquitoes – was not functioning as it was meant to.

Like the net, the temple has not been functioning as many hoped it would. The place where faithful Israelites came to worship their faithful God has become a den of robbers – robbers who used their position to suck the life out of others, especially the most vulnerable members of society.

In The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’ Final Week in Jerusalem, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg remind us that “throughout the Hebrew Bible, widows – along with orphans – are special objects of God’s compassion, for, without a man to provide for them, they were the most vulnerable people. Their treatment was the measure of the justice or injustice of the society.”

But something is wrong with the current system – because the mosquitoes – greed, self-righteousness and false piety – are on the inside of the temple. Maybe there are loopholes in the system. Maybe someone inadvertently allowed the mosquitoes in. Maybe they were there from the beginning. Whatever the reason, Jesus sees that the temple – which is supposed to protect the Israelites from that which would rob them of life – was not functioning as it was meant to.

Instead of seeking justice for the vulnerable, those who are entrusted with that responsibility – the religious leaders – use the system to their advantage. They collude with the system, fattening themselves at the expense of the needy – even if that means devouring widows’ houses.

So how do the scribes devour widows’ houses? Crossan and Borg suggest that, “most likely . . . the scribes’ activity as a literate class working for the wealthy (meant that) they would have administered loan agreements and then foreclosed on widows’ property when the loan could not be repaid.”

Into this system enters a widow. There she stands - born into a system which tries to imprison her mind, body and spirit. But:

Unlike the wordy but false piety of the scribes, hers is silent but genuine.
Unlike the scribes who collude with the present system, her actions are guided by another system.
Unlike the rich people who give out of their abundance, she gives two small copper coins.

Sitting across from the treasury, Jesus watches them all. The one who is about to offer all he has – his very life – notices the one who’s giving all she has. He points her out to his disciples, including us, and tells us that she is poor. She is poor – which means that she likely does not have a man – husband, brother-in-law, brother or son – upon whom she can depend. Then he points out that she has done an amazing thing – she puts all that she has into the treasury.

This widow, releasing the smallest units of money of her day, offers us a fresh perspective. Her speechless example speaks volumes to those who would hear.

By putting in all that she has, she reminds us that our life ultimately does not depend on a human being.
By putting in all that she has, she reminds us that we can be in the system but not of the system.
By putting in all that she has, she reminds us that we can define ourselves instead of allowing the system to define us.

This trailblazing risk-taker reaffirms for us that it is God upon whom our life depends. Her actions encourage us to focus on the fact that we, like her, are children of a living, life-giving, freedom-bringing God. By not allowing herself to be distracted, dominated, or imprisoned by the greedy, fear-based system of her day, she invites us to do the same.

Last night some of us attended the second annual dinner of the Friends of the Cathedral during which The Rev. Dianne Warley received the first Canon Clinton Jones award for her work in prison ministry. During her speech, Deacon Warley shared with us some of her experiences serving at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic. She noted that many of the 1,400 women at the facility were “smart, gifted and compassionate women” whose gifts usually were not recognized and who often suffered from low self-worth. As a result, she added, they “had not learned to live responsibly in a way that blesses them and others.”

Like their male counterparts, many of these women were prisoners – of abuse, fear, and injustice – long before they were incarcerated. But even folk who are physically free can be just as bound by the system in which we live – a system in which fear, greed and injustice on the part of some leaves many without the basics of life – food, housing, health care.

How can we be in the system but not of the system?
How can we see ourselves and God with fresh eyes – in a way that ensures that we don’t mistake deadly mosquitoes for harmless dots?
And will we, like the poor widow, allow our actions to be guided – not by the greedy, fear-based system of our day – but by the life-giving, freedom-bringing system of our gracious and faithful God?