10 Trinity Sq
Toronto, ON
M5G 1B1
416-598-4521
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Sun. 10:30 am, 2:00pm;
Wed. 12:15 pm

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The Poor Widow Speaks

Every day I went to the temple. I nearly lived there. It was one of the safest places for me. Of course the leaders took care of me - yi! Where they got the money from would have curled your hair. They stole my house and my money in the name of social order and then gave me a pittance back for living expenses. I may be poor but not stupid. I watched them and learned how to take advantage of them any way I could. They tended to be pretty self satisfied. Each one always wanted to be the top dog - smart, rich, big houses, BMWs. You know what I mean. Every generation has them in one way or another. Enough to drive you crazy.

But even among them some were nicer than others. Some seemed to see, really see. The problem was they couldn't cross some invisible barrier and act on their observations. That lot didn't have the nerve to speak up, to follow their best intentions. For a long time I'd get mad at them and call them names. Then I thought "what wasted energy." Eventually I came to see their grasping and realized were more to be pitied than anything. I eventually came to expect nothing from them and let them go. Poor dogs, they couldn't find their true voice. What else could I have done?

And what I saw around the temple. It was always such a busy place. There were buyers and sellers and money changers and lenders. You really had to know your way around and had to know all the back passages. Maybe I was born lucky to be widowed so early while I was still agile enough to manoeuver the stairs and get through narrow corridors. Yi! It was quite a life.

Well one day I was just doing my usual thing. I had two little coins, you know, the kind that fill up your purse and arent good for much of anything. These two little coins just banged around in my pocket - not enough to do anything with and I was tired. Tired of making do, tired of living this way. A prophet may have come to my ancestor at Zarephath and stretched the oil and flour for her but there was no prophet in my life. I didn't expect to see any miracle.

What did it matter. Like her I thought I was about to die, there was no oil, little flour for bread.. I knew those two little coins didn't mean much so I decided to toss them in the bin. I had always cast my lot with the religious folks. It was really quite religious. Yi - imagining that my two little coins would do anything. But I didn't want to be robbed of them. If I were to die, I didn't want them to get thrown out with my body. I wouldn't want grave robbers to have them. Such a mess they make of our cemeteries. Nothing is sacred any more. You know how it is.

Well, my two little coins, in they went with a tinny plunk, plunk and on my way I went.

I'd have never thought of them again if I hadn't tripped over that Jesus talking about me. He was a funny one, not funny peculiar or funny odd - but how he saw the most ordinary things and valued them. He said I had given my everything. He should hve known better than to talk like that -given my everything. I grew up believing that I was nothing without a relationship with God. So how could I give my everything- it was already God's and as I've already said, he should have known that. His mother did her best to raise him right.

He went on to talk about the Pharisees - here he went again - picking a fight. I told you he was stubborn. He said that they didn't get God. Mostly he thought this way because they hung on to things. He said hanging on got in the way.

Have you heard the story about the man with the beautiful rose garden who dies with a clump of soil in his hand? When he got to heaven he wouldnt release it so St. Paul said he couldn't go through the pearly gates. Day after day he sat there with this clump of soil from his rose garden in his hand. Eventually his wife died, came to heaven and saw him sitting outside the gate. She scolded him and finally convinced him to release the soil and to go through the Pearly Gates with her. He couldn't believe it. He was in a rose garden even more beautiful than the one he had insisted on clutching and holding tight.

I guess what I witness in this day and age, in this society is so much scarcity. Funny too in a country with so much abundance. You folks really have to watch. It is so easy to get sucked in even when you really dont want to. Every system is in trouble - money is the bottom line profit the Baal. I know that you want to follow your hearts into obedience and radical giving but it is so hard - so many temptations. But stewardship is a way of life. It is part of living in God. It all is sacred and to be shared among everyone. To live into God requires a heart constantly turning in Gods direction.

If you were at the parish day last week you would know that. The stories we told one another about our personal stewardship were different. It depends on where are in our life, what our situation is, what our past has been. Sometimes getting braces for your kidss teeth, paying your student loan, taking a nourishing vacation is the priority in the economy of God. It is all God's, not just the part we say is for others.

One of the things you white folks have trouble with is land. You seem to think you can keep dividing it up and charging outrageous prices for what isn't yours. (You have actually done this with other things too like water and oil and natural gas. You are actually trying to do it with intellectual properties too.) Where do you think this stuff comes from? Native people understood it wasn't theirs to hoard and squander. Some times I am so ashamed that I have to travel with you. Sometimes I imagine taking away the land beneath a big huge building spoonful by spoonful and letting the building fall down on itself. Oh, I wouldnt do it but it amuses me to think about what must be done to teach you. So much of what happens in all our lives teaches us.

May you be taught by my visit. See you later alligator. Or are you too sophisticated to enjoy a seventies joke. Thousands of years in our time is but a day in the mind of God. Give yourselves a break. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the gift of today.