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Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

25th Sunday after Pentecost

Year B
November 10, 2024
Pastor Logan McLean Strike

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 and Psalm 127
1 Kings 17:8-16 and Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

 

Suggested hymn: ELW #587 There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

 

In May, I gave birth to my son, Beau. Never in my life have I been so responsible for another, and never in my life have I been so dependent upon others in those early days after birth. I will remember the nurses who cared for me so tenderly. I will remember the people who brought by food and made sure my bedside water glass was always filled. I will remember the support I received as I navigated that raw time of life. I will also never forget that around the same time I checked myself into the hospital, another young woman preparing to give birth was scrambling to find a place to land after being evicted from her home. When she was discharged from the hospital, who fed her? Who cared for her baby while she rested? I know very little about what it means to be utterly dependent on others. I know even less about a life with limited support.

The widow in today’s Gospel lesson would have been someone who had limited support. She likely was without voice, without legal standing, and few resources. I imagine the widow in our story was invisible to most—all except Jesus. We may find ourselves tempted to turn this woman into a “cheerful giver,” someone who gives and gives and is happy to keep on giving no matter her circumstances. But her circumstances matter. Such an offering would lead to destitution if not death. Jesus notices her, and causes other people to notice her. Why does he point her out? To lift her up as an example of what it means to entrust our life to God? If that’s the case, then why has Jesus been so busy teaching in the Temple and debating with the religious leadership since chapter 11? Why do the first verses of the passage condemn the scribes for “devouring widows’ houses?” Is he not calling our attention to someone who is being eaten up by a corrupt system? It might be helpful to read the passage following Mark 12:38-44, where Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple (13:1-2). Jesus doesn’t appear to be equating trusting our life to God with filling up the Temple’s coffers. Could it be that Jesus laments her offering?

This story of the widow had me thinking about another story: The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. If you’re rusty on the story, it’s about a boy who loves a tree. As he grows up, he visits her repeatedly. He takes her apples and sells them for personal profit, removes her branches so he can build a house, and chops down her trunk so he can build a boat and sail away. In the end, the tree has nothing left to give and is reduced to a stump. Some have interpreted the tree as Mother Nature and the boy represents humanity. Some have used The Giving Tree as a way to teach children environmental ethics and the responsibilities a person has for living organisms in the environment. What would happen if the boy planted some seeds with the apples he took from the tree? What if the tree hadn’t been cut down to a stump, but was surrounded by a whole forest of other trees? What if other children were able to come and visit the tree(s)? Imagining a different way brings a whole host of possibilities. A lot would change if the boy noticed the impact of his actions and greed.

I wonder if this Gospel lesson is inviting us to look with intention at the world around us. Are we like the elite, devouring widows’ houses? Are we like the boy, returning to the tree, again and again, with little thought of what happens beyond ourselves? There is an invitation here to look around and see each other—really see each other. We are called to notice creation, from monarch butterfly to beluga whale. We are called to notice the ones who are reduced to a stump by unemployment and the cost of living, those who have no social support network, and even those poor among us we deem “ungrateful.” Perhaps we are invited to not only notice them, but to care for them, to advocate for a world and a church that does not consume beyond restoration. Regardless of who is elected come Sunday, send your people out knowing that God cares about our circumstances and calls us to care, too. Suffering comes in this life, but it is never our end. As God raised Jesus from the dead, so will all things be brought to wholeness in time. As Julian of Norwich said: “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13).

 

Pastor Logan McLean Strike
Pastor Logan McLean Strike
Grants Pass, Oregon

Rev. Logan McLean Strike is a Lutheran pastor serving Newman United Methodist Church in Grants Pass, OR which resides on the land of the Takelma, Shasta, and Athabaskan peoples. She is mom to baby Beau and spouse to Paul. In her free time, she enjoys weaving, knitting, and cycling.

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