The Widow's Club

November 8, 2009
The Widow’s Club
Twenty Fourth Day of Pentecost
Ruth 3-4
Mark 12:38-44
Year B

Why the Widow’s Club
Interestingly enough both of the scriptures for today are tales about widows. I think it is just a coincidence, don’t think it really means anything. A coincidence is just God wanting to remain anonymous.


The Widows in the story
Yet both the old testament and the new testament have a lot to say about widows. In many societies, it is a pretty significant thing to be a widow. So you paid attention to what they did.


A Widow’s condition
Friday night – we had a wonderful young adult group present to speak their poems. And one of the young women did a poem (I can’t remember the title), but her point was that as females we are taught that our whole lives revolve around a man.
Everything we do from a small child to an older woman is geared toward getting married, and even when we get married our lives are defined by that marriage.

Today in modern American society – we as woman can look back at that reflect that maybe that mindset of having a man define us is not all that there is to life. Today there are laws and social norms in place to allow a woman to survive and have an identity after she has lost a husband.
That has not been true for all women in all societies in all times. In biblical times a woman was totally defined by her husband. She was not allowed to speak in public, she was not allowed to hold a job, or to manage a household, or have an income. Without a mate a women was absolutely nothing – a non entity. People knew you were there – but you were nobody. If you did not have a man to take care of you – then you were totally dependent on the charity of others for every means of life.
You notice in the bible, that there is an obsession with taking care of the widows. Paul talks a lot about church being in mission and helping out – his whole point was that the widows of Jerusalem needed some means of support- and if the good people of the churches and synagogues didn’t give it to them – they had nothing.

As a matter of fact, the word for widow in Hebrew means nobody – bereft, to be without, to have a large empty space in life.

To be bereft – empty, left with nothing. I entitled this sermon the widow’s club – because this is a sermon about widows. There are widows in our stories that teach us about life – but in a sense I think that all of us can relate at some place in our lives to feeling like a nobody – like an empty space that longs to be filled, to be acknowledged, to be cared about and loved.

Perhaps that is why thousands of years later, we hear stories of these widows and the lessons in life that they still have to teach not just other widows – but all spiritual beings.





Our first lesson comes from the book of Ruth. Naomi and her husband have moved away to the desert in hopes of a better life. They and their sons and their sons wives have all relocated. But for some reason the men in the story do not survive. And after they have died, the women are left alone. And in the world she lives in, Naomi knows that there is no such thing as fending for themselves. They are widows, they have nothing, and they have now entered into the societies of nobodies. As an act of caring – Naomi sends her daughter in laws home so they can be taken care of by their families. And yet Ruth refuses, she believes that in some way they will survive. Naomi knows that in this world that is not a possibility – but she does have a plan.
Ruth actually does have property that she has inherited from her husband. But she can’t have it – her husband has to inherit it for her. And her new husband has to be a relative of her old husband. Because he has to be willing to carry on the family name for the dead man.
Naomi tells Ruth to lie down next to Boaz on the threshing floor. She is to lay facing his feet, and when he wakes up he will be willing to marry her. I have always thought that part of the story a little strange – there has got to be something missing they they are not telling us.
But is works and Ruth and Boaz get married and have a son – Ruth gives the son to Naomi – so that she can have an heir. The family name continues.
That is the moral of the story – here is a woman who with a husband and two sons had everything – when she lost them she lost everything in life – including a future. And yet through faith and love and relationships she gained it all back. Her grandson became the grandson of the greatest king – king david. When you read the lineage of Jesus – it is the lineage of the males in Jesus family – yet there are 4 women listed one of them is Ruth – a foreign widow

We have to create it
The lesson there for us is that if spiritually we are all widows – person with an empty space in our hearts – we have to means to fill it. When we are hopeless – we have to be hopeful that God does indeed have a plan for our despair , and when we look at the world and see that we have no future – we have to create it. We have to use our faith, our love and our relationships to move forward anyway – and God will do the rest.

Lesson from widow 2
Now I want to shift over to the lessons of our second widow story. The widow in the temple that Jesus notices as she gives everything.

Picture the story
Now the Hebrew Temple was divided into sections – the priest had a section, the men had a section, the women had a section, the gentiles had a section, and foreigners had a section. It was expected that you would bring your money to the temple, and it was collected differently in each section.
This story takes place in the gentile section – there would have been large pots placed to collect money – and as you walked in you through your donation into a pot.
It is not hard to imagine being to hear the clanking of the coins as each person gave their offering. If there were a number of rich people in the temple – you would have been able to hear the coins as each person gave.
What is hard to imagine is why Jesus would have been standing there watching and basically counting and taking account for what each person gave.
He notices the widow as she comes in, he probably talked to her in the street and knows that she has been begging. He hears the clanking of the man before her in line, but when she gives – there is no sound, the coins she tosses in are so light, you cant even hear them.
Only Jesus would recognize that the little she gives, is worth so much more than all of the rich people before her. They gave out of their abundance, she gave out of her need. They have money left over, Jesus seems to believe that she has nothing else. Others wonder is it really appropropriate for her to take what she has been given and give it away to God. Obviously she trusted that God will use the money for a better purpose. We can never beat God giving, no matter how much we give – so she trusted that what she gave would be returned.


She gave everything that she had

She trusted God for everything

She didn’t just give her best to God, she gave her all to God. She took seriously that command to love to lord your god with all of your mind, all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your pocket book. That is not written in the but it is implied.

2 lessons – have hope in the future and trust for in our darkest hour
That is the second lesson for us widows in spirit – to trust god – trust God with everything.
Two lessons for us today – have hope in the future to create it, and to trust God in our darkest hour.

3rd story of a widow
I want to tell you the story of a 3rd widow.
Agnes lives on a farm in Iowa. She is very astute and together, but kind of strange. Her clothes are always clean, but a little outdated. Clothes from the 1920’s and 30’s. when you meet Agnes she is always complaining about something in life. She attends a lot of funeral these days, not to show her sympathies, but to get the free lunches. She doesn’t waste her time coming to church – but loves fellowship hour, she takes the leftover cookies. Her pastor came to her son one day and asked how the church could help her financially, since like so many older people, she was struggling. Her son revealed that Agnes was doing quite well financially – she has enough stocks and bonds to be comfortable well into her life. And yet she was not willing to give to others. Agnes was a poor widow – but not poor economically – but poor in spirit. Poor in love, poor in relationship, poor in faith.
Three widows stories for us today – three lessons.
Have hope to create the future
Trust God with all that you have – God is good for it,
Fill our empty spaces with joy and the love of God.