This sermon reflects on the contrasting behaviors of the scribes and the widow in today's gospel, highlighting themes of pride, power, and self-worth versus humility and trust in God. It emphasizes that true spirituality involves letting go of material desires and power to align with the great commandments of loving God and others. Ultimately, the message encourages self-reflection on how we hold onto our power versus embracing a life of love and generosity.

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November 8, 2024 32nd
Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B Princeton, N.J.
Today’s gospel is broken into two sections. The first half introduces us to the scribes who are strutting
around in their long robes, reciting their prayers, sitting in places of honor and using their power to take
financial advantage of the poor and widows. The scribes saw themselves as master teachers, future
prophets and they were held in great esteem…and thus were not pleased that Jesus was cutting into
their shtick. For Jesus had his own followers who were calling him rabbi and teacher – in addition, he
hung out with sinners, ate with the tax collectors, forgave sins and seemed to do all this and more on
the Sabbath Day showing great flexibility with many of the Judaic laws. In short, not only was this
radical Jesus cutting into the scribes means of revenue – he was preaching against the current
conventional wisdom by “rooting and anchoring” his followers in a new message. In today’s passage
the scribes were focused on themselves, their appearance, their wealth and on their own self-worth and
desire for power, prestige and possessions.
In comparison we have the widow who appears in the Gospel as well as the first reading…but this
evening’s lectionary only gives us part of the widow’s story. So, in order to pull the full meaning from
this reading taken from Kings allow me to flesh out the whole story.
It begins with Elijah finding that King Ahab and his people are worshipping their own prosperity, power
and wealth. So, Elijah prays to the one, true God to cease the rains in order that Ahab would learn that
all we have comes from God, to whom we must place our trust. And so the rains cease and drought
takes over the land for three and half years.
Eventually, even the stream that God gave Elijah to quench his daily thirst ran dry, so God brings Elijah
to the city of Zarephath where he meets a widow. Although she is running out of food and water, Elijah
asks her to share her last meal with him, trusting that God will provide. And so she feeds Elijah and
let’s go of all that she has, so God can give her even more! For the following year, Elijah, the widow
and her son ate all they required from a single jar of flour and a jug of oil. She was favored in her
response to the prophet’s need, and her ability to let go of everything due to her faith and trust in God.
Now let’s look at the second part of today’s Gospel where we hear Mark’s story of Jesus’ last visit to the
temple – a place divided into courts of worthiness rather than a place centered on God. At this point in
time the temple is the socio-economic center, where Jesus even refers to the Temple as the Treasury
as it accounts for 90% of the city’s revenue. It was designed to keep the rich in and the poor out. So,
we hear that Jesus and his disciples deliberately take a seat in full view of the collection box and watch
as each person drops in their donation. And when the service ends he points out the poor widow who
put in two coins - all that she had - into the treasury. Like the widow in the first reading, she placed her
trust in God and let go of all that she had – allowing God to provide. It is in this emptying of all that she
had, represented by the two coins, that Jesus praises her above the scribes who still held onto their
power and own self worth as being most important.
Actually, if you took a step back and took the time to go through all four Gospels and highlight those
passages that seem to be critical of the rich and powerful it would become clear of Christ’s agenda.
That it is not so much the money being the root of all evil, rather it is the power. For once ego aligns
itself with power it can no longer see the truth. It will be preoccupied with what I have and how best to
protect it… independent of Gospel truths.
Deacon Jim Knipper

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Love of power seems to be the primary demon. For have you ever noticed that anytime a purity code is
invoked, Christ has nothing to do with it because it is the attempt of one group to make itself holier than
others. How did we ever lose sight that bridges are more important than boundaries? When did we
begin to believe that making the mighty higher is more important than lifting up the lowly? How did we
forget that powerlessness teaches us more than falsely trying to maintain power? How did we ever
think that we deserve anything or worse yet think we can decide what others deserve or not deserve…
without realizing that all we have is a gift from God?
To understand today’s Gospel and frankly the Gospels in their entirety we have to stop counting and
measuring and weighing and feeling we are in total control and instead let go of what we hold onto so
that we can be open to Christ. When we look in the mirror and recognize that we are all weak, we are
all powerless, and we are all sinners but then allow ourselves to be emptied – it is then that are we
open to the grace of God.
Spirituality is all about letting go and placing our trust in God and allowing God to work with us, through
us and in us. We pray at each mass for thy Kingdom to come…but that requires each of us to let thy
personal kingdoms go.
So how do we begin this process of letting go? According to biblical scholars, buried within today’s
Gospel is the key to God’s answer to that question. To move away from the desire of holding onto the
material world…to be able to let go of our wants and desires...to cease focusing on our selfish egos…
we turn to the two coins. For it is the two coins that the widow holds which represent the two great
commandments that Jesus gives us in the passage from Mark that we heard last week: You must love
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…and Love your neighbor as
yourself….there are no greater commandments. Or using the words of Thomas Merton, “Our job is to
love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in
fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and then love itself will render both
ourselves and our neighbors worthy." Or perhaps it was Dorthy Day who cut right to the chase when
she wrote, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”
So, this week, let us set aside a few minutes to reflect upon our own lives, our own direction, and our
own journey. Do we find times that we are holding onto our power, talents and treasures like the
scribes and strutting around with all of our fine ware? Or are we more like the widows – recognizing that
by sharing and letting go of what we have and embracing the two great commandments of love we will
open our hearts, minds and souls to make room for God’s unconditional love, mercy and forgiveness.
Deacon Jim Knipper