Readings: 1Kings 17:10-16; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
Myth and story play a central role in every culture. Myth can tell a deep guiding truth or a misleading untruth. In American culture, we have the myth or story of the noble savage, manifest destiny, and the lone hero, among others. Most myths are a combination of fact and fiction. Great myths and stories can tell universal truths. The story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath tell more than one great truth and exposes at least one falsehood.
The widow acknowledges to Elijah, “The Lord your God lives,” and speaks the first truth in this story. Though she is likely a Baal-worshiper she refers to Elijah’s God as the living God. Another truth in this story from the First Book of Kings is that we have a generous God who is never outdone in generosity. In feeding the prophet, the widow is repaid many times over by being provided for, for an entire year. Keep in mind that a kind act is its own reward. Keep in mind that the widow (not a child of Israel), showed generosity toward the prophet without knowing where her next meal would come from. Perhaps she trusted that the “living God” would preserve her one way or the other, in this world, or the next. I experienced such generosity while working on humanitarian projects in Central America. Local villagers would offer their own food; (not knowing we had brought our own provisions) and when they did not know where their next meal was coming from. This was a very humbling experience.
The falsehood that was dispelled by this story of Elijah and the widow is the myth of scarcity. The myth of scarcity says that there is not enough to go around and coupled with our fear leads to gathering more and more than we need until there is not enough to go around. This falsehood of scarcity and its antidote, generosity, is repeated throughout the scriptures. In the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21) the story begins with the disciples believing in the myth of scarcity. They report, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” The disciples ask Jesus to “Send the crowd away so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus takes the only food available, shared generously by someone in the crowd, and offers it to God. As always, God takes our meager generosity and multiplies it by grace to create abundance. I have witnessed more than enough modern-day stories to believe this is as true today as in biblical times. Generosity can be contagious as it dispels fear and will return abundance in place of scarcity.
The two parts to today’s Gospel compare and contrast the influential and important Temple officials in Jewish society with the humble and generous widow. The scribes exercise power from their position of wealth within the hierarchy of Jewish society, whereas the widow is representative of the weak, the devalued, and the outcast. Jesus points out that the scribes make offerings from their positions of relative comfort without the need to make any real sacrifice, while they make a show in front of others. The widow, on the other hand, provides a profound statement of faith and trust in God by giving what little she has to live. She does this without looking to see if anyone notices. This reminds me of the poor of Central America who were ready to share what little food they had with strangers. This also reminds me of the time I worked in the United Way Campaign at my secular employer. What surprised me was that the rank and file employees gave a greater percentage of their earnings to the sponsored charities than did the executives in the company. I found that their example of generosity better grounded me and caused me to look again at how much of my earnings I was willing to share with the poor.
It is important to note that the widow made her donation without expectation of anything in return. Her gift was her way of honoring her faith in God. Any security she experienced in God existed before she did anything with her meager resources. Her belief and trust was in God’s love, and in a God who would be true to his covenant with Israel – “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Jeremiah 30:22) This is the kind of faith we need today as we supply the needs of the weak, the devalued, and outcast in our midst. If we are graced with abundance let us share it with the needy with humility and generosity.
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