The word of the Lord came to [Elijah,] saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Mark 12:38-44
As [Jesus] taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “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.”
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Every year, as we cross into November, a few things happen. We look toward Thanksgiving and start to think deeply about the gifts God has given us. We start talking about stewardship and the ways that God is seeking to share his gifts through us to the world. We renew our faith through the remembrance of the saints that came before us, and we look with hope and expectation toward Christ our King, the one for whom we wait, the one who promises the rebirth of all things.
In the midst of this, we also take time to celebrate one of the important partner ministries of our church: the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, otherwise known as WELCA. This weekend is Thankoffering weekend, when we lift up WELCA’s work and we take a special offering for the good work they do in the world.
Now, let's be honest. When I said "WELCA," how many of you immediately jumped to an image of retired women gathering to sip coffee, polish the church's silver, and run the church kitchen? Maybe also a group of women making quilts in the church basement? Show of hands? You can be honest…
What most people know about WELCA are the ways that the women of the church serve their local congregations and perhaps do a few projects like quilt-making and assembling care kits. And this is valuable service, but it is only the tiniest bit of what WELCA is really all about.
If you take a swing by the WELCA website, however, you can read a much more robust description of the work that WELCA does: "We engage in ministry; we take action through advocacy; we promote healing and wholeness; and we support one another in our callings. We offer anti-racism training; address domestic violence, commercial sexual exploitation, and human trafficking; and support families with special needs. We assist participants in their desire to discern God’s call in their lives and to discover their spiritual gifts through workshops, retreats, resources, scholarships, and global education. We offer grants to not-for-profit organizations, both domestic and international, that support healing and wholeness for women of all ages through the affirmation and advancement of women’s emotional, physical, and spiritual health."
In 2014, WELCA made as one of their top priorities the ongoing work of education and advocacy to promote awareness and to combat human trafficking. Human trafficking covers a wide range of exploitative practices, all of which involve recruiting and coercing fellow human beings into situations of forced labor or sexual exploitation for the profit of the traffickers.
According to statistics complied by the Polaris Project and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence:
- More than 12 million people worldwide are trafficked for forced labor or sexual exploitation.
- More than 80% of trafficking victims are female.
- 50% of trafficking victims internationally are under the age of 18.
- Annually, an estimated $9.5 billion is generated through trafficking activities
The first step in bringing and end to trafficking is to see it. To notice it. To stop pretending it isn’t there. In our readings today, God extends a call to us to see the world with God’s eyes, which means noticing the unnoticed and seeing the vulnerable in our midst.
Both our Old Testament and Gospel readings today involve the plight of widows, who in their time would have been numbered among the most vulnerable and most overlooked people in society. And in both of these readings, it takes the eyes of God to notice women who would otherwise have been ignored.
In our gospel reading, Jesus laments that the very scribes who should be concerned with faithful execution of the religious law were the very ones who take advantage of the law to exploit the poor, devouring the households of widows.
As Jesus sits outside the temple treasury, he notices one of these very widows coming to bring her offering. The scribes and the disciples and the bustling city crowds: nobody notices the widow except for Jesus. This widow who had nothing left. Who came to the temple bringing all that she had, a pathetic two coins. The unjust economic system had already taken everything from her, and now the treasury was taking the rest. Jesus laments that she has now given all that she has. That's it. It's all gone now.
Her plight echoes the words of the widow Elijah visits in Zarephath: "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing; I am preparing to make a last meal for my son and me, and then wait for our death."
Again, God is the one who sees the widow and her plight. Elijah travels to Zarephath because the Lord sends him there. Elijah seeks out the widow because the Lord tells him to. God sees this woman in her need, and brings her a prophet who will not only see her, but save her.
What both of these lessons teach us today is that God notices those whom we overlook...and God turns our hearts us to notice them, too.
In another month, when we light our candles and sing our Christmas carols, we will tell the story of a Christ child who also entered this world unnoticed. A fragile baby entering the world outside the gaze of the powerful and the rich and the famous. (At least until that star and the magi and Herod got involved later on.) This unnoticed Christ came to save us all. And especially to bring salvation to those who have nothing left, who are scraping their knuckles against the bottom of the jar of meal, those who have had everything taken from them and who are still asked to give more. When Christ cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he cried out in the voice of all who feel like God and the world have forgotten and forsaken them.
God sees those who don't have a warm shelter in these chilly nights. God sees those who have to choose between food money and rent money. God sees the widows who mourn the start of another holiday season that only reminds them of their loss or loneliness. God sees those whose struggle with depression and anxiety worsens as the days grow shorter. God sees the sons and daughters who dread going home for Christmas because it means yet another year of hiding their sexuality from disapproving parents or grandparents. God sees the children in the sweatshops making cheap goods for our Christmas consumption. God sees the forced laborers and coerced sex workers who have been trafficked, taken advantage of, and who are trapped in modern-day slavery.
If you ever needed a compelling argument for the work of the church and all of its partner ministries, it is exactly this: we need the support of a community of faith to seek out the forgotten, to provide care and resources for the unnoticed, to enact Christ's self-giving love for the powerless and the forsaken. If faith were merely a matter of personal devotion, then we might as well all be sitting at home, sipping tea and reading a few lines of scripture alongside the Sunday crossword. But we come together to remind one another of our collective calling to serve as Christ served, to encourage one another in this task, to take up offerings so that we have the means to do the ministries set before us, to praise God for his gifts and promise to us and to the world.
When we shuffle up the aisle for communion, we walk as people unnoticed. People burdened by our griefs and our hopes alike, casting our eyes to the floor as we approach a God who sees all and knows all. In that unremarkable bite of bread and that ordinary sip of wine, our eyes are opened to the great mystery of a Christ who died for us and for all. Our eyes are opened to a God who does not just notice us, but who loves us, graces us, saves us, sustains us.
May the open eyes of God become our open eyes today. May the God who sees us freely give us the strength to see others and to serve them. May we work for justice and peace in the world, not because it is demanded of us, but because we cannot help ourselves.
Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see Jesus.
Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see you in the face of our neighbors.
Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see your salvation for all our unnoticed world.
Open our eyes, Lord. Help us to see. Lead us to act. Draw us to you.
Amen.
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