A Woman Who Gave Her All Preached on November 11th, 2018 At Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Mark 12:38-44 Today I want to tell you about Violet. Violet was a woman at my own home church in England. I cannot remember a time when she was not there. Violet was a middle aged woman when I was a teenager, a part of that generation of women who experienced a dearth of suitors during the second world war. I don’t know if Violet had ever wanted to marry, or whether she ever had a sweet heart. A number of the single women I knew in my childhood had lost their beaus in the war. But this was rarely discussed. Violet was a petite and quiet woman, who generally dressed in brown: dress, shoes, coat and hat. When she smiled, which was often, her eyes twinkled. Violet lived a modest life, in a small home rented from the local council. I picture her small brown teapot on the counter; a table and two chairs, one for Violet and one for a guest; and a comfy chair set in front of the rented TV. Many evenings were taken by church activities, but when Violet was alone she’d enjoy a little entertainment. Her community was the church, and a small extended family who lived elsewhere. The married women in the church were known as “Mrs.” There were several Mrs. Scott’s (including my grandmother) and then Mrs. Steel, Mrs. Meadows, Mrs. Grimes … Mrs. Barron. Both the adults and children generally called the unmarried women by their first names. Except, of course, me, since my mom insisted I called Violet “Miss Dixon” which felt awkward because no one else did. Now Mrs. Barron was Violet’s best friend. They were more or less joined at the hip. They taught Sunday School together and ran a youth group out of the church. Violet was also “Brown Owl” to the village Brownie troop that met in the fellowship hall. Violet and Mrs. Barron had a heart for the youth of the community. The teenaged girls would confide in them. The ones who did not have care and support at home depended on them. Unfortunately, the duo had little control over the youth group shenanigans. Windows were broken and property was smashed. There was evidence of drinking, smoking, and other inappropriate activities. The church leaders despaired and fretted over the property damage. And yet, Violet and Mrs. Barron, soldiered on, hoping the best for their beloved youth. As years went by, the impact of the church in the community diminished. The youth group closed. Mrs. Barron died and Violet became smaller in old age, as osteoporosis took its toll. The last time I saw Violet she was coming into church one Sunday when I was home on a visit. We hugged and I felt her tiny frame in my arms. She smiled, eyes twinkling, to see me again. When I asked how she was, she said “I’m fine, thank you … but I miss Mrs. Barron.” The church had owned two adjacent buildings when I was a child. The church itself: “chapel”, and the fellowship building next door. After I had moved away the chapel was sold, and the congregation moved into the fellowship hall. This was adequate for their needs, with classrooms, a full kitchen and room for a sanctuary. And still, it was an old and expensive place for the small group to maintain. They struggled on, committed to providing a place for Christian worship and witness in the village. Then, as so often happens, a major building expense landed on them. The little remnant of church members gathered with the minister for the area to talk about what they were to do. What the minister lacked in eloquence he made up for in passion. “We’ve gotta pray like stink, work like stink and give like stink,” he announced, paraphrasing John Wesley. The group shifted uncomfortably in their seats. People examined their fingernails or checked their calendars. How much more could they pony up? Then Violet spoke “I suppose I could give up my television” she said. In our gospel story today, Jesus is teaching in the temple in Jerusalem. We are reaching the end of Mark’s story, this is the final week leading up to the crucifixion. Jesus has hard things to say about the temple and the cooperation of the religious leaders with the Roman rulers. He is outraged by the lack of consideration for the vulnerable poor of the community, especially the widows. He has seen some of the religious elite, the scribes, flaunting their robes and taking the best seats in the synagogues and social events. He sees that those who have the responsibility to care for the poor are enjoying their power and privilege instead. For Jesus, there is a rotten-ness about the power structure of the temple. No matter that this temple is the center of religious life - the dwelling place of God - Jesus will predict that soon the whole place will be destroyed. For now, though, Jesus sits and watches people come to the treasury, the place where donations are being made. And he notices someone who usually goes unnoticed: a poor, stooped widow. I imagine her dressed all in brown, as she passes by quietly and deposits her two little coins. They are the last of her savings, and now her pocket is empty. She has given every last drop of herself for the sake of the religious institution. Jesus contrasts this with the ostentatious giving of the wealthy. They have deposited large sums, but they can afford it. They don’t sacrifice, they are giving out of their abundance. But, the widow gives out of her poverty, she has nothing left to live on. I don’t know what kind of a fundraiser the temple was running. I don’t know who had instilled this widow with the idea that she should give her very last tiny coins to the treasury. But I do see some parallels between Violet and the widow. For Violet the church was her home and her family. She had already given her all, in the care of the youth, the leadership of the little brownies and in teaching in the Sunday School. She has shown up for every service, every potluck supper, every concert and every meeting. Violet was willing to give up her one small luxury: her TV set to help the church, but I hope that she didn’t have to. What kind of loving community would require this sacrifice from someone who had already given so much? The area minister was not at all like the scribes Jesus was describing. The Methodist ministers in my home-town took a very modest salary, and they took care of several small churches at one time. And this particular minister did not have any airs and graces. Nor did he have much sensitivity for the circumstances of those he was asking to “give all they could.” Violet didn’t live much longer after that last time I saw her. Members of the congregation checked in on her as her health deteriorated. And they knew how to put together her funeral service when the time came. “Blest be the Ties that Bind” would be sung. This was Violet’s favorite hymn. You see, Violet wasn’t actually bound up in the bricks and mortar of that aging fellowship building. Her attachment was for the living breathing fellowship: the teenagers she counseled, the children she taught, the little ones she recited the Brownie promise with, and her dear friend Mrs. Barron. Here’s Violet’s favorite stanza of that hymn: “When we are called to part, it gives us inward pain; but we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again.” Violet did not live to see her congregation depart the aging building and take a weekly rental in the modern community building on the main street. Church meetings are not so anxious now that they have been able to let go the worries of maintenance and repair. And no elderly single woman is put in the position of having to give up her television. And I wonder, is this what Jesus was getting at, when he criticizes the scribes and the wealthy people? They have no clue, do they, of the plight of the widow. They’re too busy counting the large gifts. It happens that the temple will come to an end. And the faithful people will be devastated. And yet, out of this destruction there will be the birth of new groups of faithful people. Rabbinical Judaism will begin, with the focus on the small local synagogues and the home and family. And the Christian church will branch out from the synagogue. Sometimes something has to end for the thing that God is doing to begin. And so, I ask you to remember Violet, as you decide how you will support our church in the coming year. If you have the resources will you give so that others do not have to turn out their last coins from their pockets. And if you’ve given all you can financially, perhaps you can invest yourself in the community of the church. Violet would tell you that this is the wisest investment of all. It is a gift that keeps on giving long after the bricks and mortar have crumbled away. May all God’s people say Amen.
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Stories Change Things Preached on November 4th, 2018 At Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture:Ruth 1:1-18 Today we heard the story from the book of Ruth. Or to be specific we heard a part of it. Ruth is a short book, only four chapters, and so we can take in the whole story in one sitting. And that is what I intend to do today. It is a story that sits in our Bibles between the book of Judges and the first book of Samuel. It’s so short you could easily miss it. And yet, it has a powerful role to play in the greater stories of both the people of Israel and the followers of Jesus. And because of that powerful role, it also stands as a counter to a worldview that is strongly and lengthily presented in some other books of the Hebrew Bible. Ruth is named for a woman, like the book of Esther we read a few weeks ago. In the Old Testament, 23 books are named for men, and only two for women. And in the New Testament, 15 books are named for men and none for women. Ruth, like Esther, is an exceptional story … particularly as the woman the book is named for is a foreigner whose people are considered enemies of Israel. The story tells of Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth, who are migrants in the land of Judah. Years before the story begins, Naomi and her husband Elimelech, who are Israelites, move from Bethlehem in Judah to the foreign territory of Moab. They travel in search of food security because there is a famine in Bethlehem. While they reside in the country of Israel’s enemies, Naomi and Elimelech’s sons grow up and marry Moabite women: Orpah and Ruth. And then, tragically, this displaced family experiences more loss. All the men, Elimelech and the two sons die, leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law alone in a strange land. Naomi decides she must return to Bethlehem. The young women cling to her, and beg to go with her. She tries to send Orpah and Ruth home to their mothers. She has nothing to offer them, they would be better off with their own people. Orpah agrees to go home, but Ruth refuses. Ruth insists that she will stay with Naomi come what may. Ruth’s speech of loyalty and love is one that is often used in wedding ceremonies, it is so beautiful: “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God, Where you die, I will die – there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” The story goes on, with a wonderful surprise ending. Naomi finds a way for Ruth to approach the owner of the field in Bethlehem where they glean their grain. This man, Boaz, is actually a distant relative of Naomi’s family, and so he is responsible for taking Ruth as his wife. He does not take much persuading. And soon a child is born. And so the story ends with the birth of Obed, the one who will become the father of Jesse, who in turn is the father of the great King David. We Christians find ample foreshadowing in this story: a child born in Bethlehem! This is a story of the love and loyalty of Ruth and Naomi. It is a story of destitute women, of different ethnicities, receiving compassion and hope in the land of Jesus’ birth. While this moving story can stand alone, it also stands in defiant witness to some of the other parts of the Hebrew scriptures. This is possible because Judaism is a tradition that is in conversation with itself. There is no “one way” to interpret any scripture ... something that I discovered through my seminary’s relationship with Hebrew College in Newton. While I was at Andover Newton Theological School, there were many opportunities to join in group activities with the Rabbinical students at the college. And no matter what the purpose of the gathering was, there would be Havruta learning. This is a reading a passage of scripture which the students then discuss one-on-one. This process begins even before the professor (or Rebbe) teaches a class. I love the idea of it, because it empowers the students to ask their own questions and put forward their own ideas. In fact, there is no excuse. Everyone has to participate and contribute to the discussion. I remember one occasion when a couple of students were disagreeing. The issue? What were the motives of the captain of the ship that took Jonah away from Ninevah. You might think, like me, that this is a pretty minor detail in the scheme of things. But these two students argued their points at length and with passion. When I observed that they were getting a little heated, they laughed. This had been an incredibly polite exchange by comparison with the noise you would hear coming from a typical session of Havruta in the Yeshiva … Hebrew school. And so, I can easily imagine some lively Havruta learning going on over the book of Ruth, especially in relation to some of the other books of the Hebrew Bible. Many scholars believe that Ruth was written to counter the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These longer books tell of the remnant of Israel returning to Jerusalem following their 100 year exile in Babylon. The trauma of the exile and separation has made them determined to re-establish their home and their identity. They set up boundaries. Marriage to “foreign” women is expressly forbidden and existing foreign wives and *their* children are to be expelled and sent away. Ruth may have been written to counter these double-down measures, but it certainly isn’t another book of proclamations about what is unacceptable to God. Nor is it a book of counter arguments that lift up the values of inter-marriage and diversity. Instead we simply hear the story of these two migrant widows, who journey together through wilderness country and who depend on the compassion of Boaz of Bethlehem. This story poses a challenge to a worldview that the people of Israel are threatened by the people of the neighboring lands. It reminds the Israelites that their survival as a tribe has depended upon their giving hospitality to and receiving hospitality from strangers. Arguments and disagreements do not usually break into our worldviews. But stories might. Over the past few weeks, here at Wollaston Congregational Church, some of our members have been gathering for a “Circle Process” after worship. This is the method we have chosen to discuss the way we hold our relationship with our nation together with our relationship with God. We tell stories from our own lives, because storytelling reaches people on many levels – emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual. We have tried to move our conversation away from one opinion versus another, and toward a setting in which one person’s story can sit side by side with another’s. We try to practice active listening to one another, because our stories will not be effective unless they are listened to. Why listen to stories? Why should we listen to someone who has a different perspective on the flag, or on immigration, or on marriage, or on race and diversity, from ourselves? It is because most of us here will never have the experience of those two destitute women migrating from one land to another. Most of us here will never know what it means to look visibly like an enemy in the only place that can offer security. Most of us here, will never know what it means to survive by picking left over grain from a field that has already been harvested. Does the story of Ruth break into your worldview? Do the stories of your fellow church members challenge what you thought was right and true? Over these past weeks, I have had the opportunity to listen to some stories. They have been stories from some of you in our Circle time. They have been stories from people I have met in my daily life. And they have been stories that are woven through the daily news cycle. How do these stories challenge my worldview? I cannot know what it is like to be a visibly gay or transgender person and experience verbal and even physical abuse when I go out and about. But I can listen to your story. I cannot know what it is like to be a member of a minority religion, such as Judaism, and live through the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue and a see graffiti, in the shape of swastikas, daubed onto my house of worship just this past week. But I can listen to your story. I cannot know what it is like to immigrate, as a child, from a different culture and to be teased and provoked in school because I do not understand the language and seem to be stupid. But I can listen to your story. I cannot know what it is like to fear for my children on a daily basis, because people see them as suspicious and threatening simply because of the color of their skin. But I can listen to your story. I cannot know what it is like to travel through hostile lands, away from violence and fear and toward a hope that may never be realized. But I can listen to your story. And in listening I can be changed. Yes, the story of Ruth and Naomi stands alone. It is a heart-warming tale that explains the lineage of King David and our savior Jesus. And yet it is more … a tale that turns upside down expectations of where greatness will be found. It is a tale that upends a worldview of xenophobia, self-protection and boundaries … Many all God’s people say, Amen |
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