Sermon for Today - November 12th 2006

November 12th 2006

I would like to begin today with an apocryphal story from a small prairie town. Other versions posit this story in larger centre, and change the grain elevator manager to a bank manager … Which ever way we take it – let us listen for the lesson within it:

A church in a small prairie town was in need of a new treasurer. They had been looking and asking for a long, long while. Finally the manager of the local grain elevator, a new man in town, stepped forward. He volunteered for the position on the conditions that 1) no financial report be prepared or given for the first year and 2) that no questions about the finances be asked during that time.

The people were surprised, but they knew him and did business with him and felt he could be trusted. So the agreed to his conditions and he went to work.

At the end of the year the treasurer stood and delivered his report on the year – the church mortgage that has been in excess of 100 000 dollars had been paid off,(I like this one) the minister’s salary had been increased by over 10%, the congregation’s pledge to the Mission and Service fund had been met and doubled for the year, there were no outstanding bills everything had been paid, and there was a cash balance in the bank of over 15 000 dollars.

The congregation was shocked – “how did you do this?” They asked – they had been struggling for YEARS and YEARS, and had never made headway on the debts and costs and yet, here this year they were in a surplus with all of their debts paid – “how did you do this?” they wanted to know – “where did all this money come from?”

The man smiled and answered quietly, “Well, most of you are farmers and do business at my elevator,” everyone nodded in agreement, “throughout the year I simply held back 10% on your behalf and gave it to the church in your name” – he handed out tax receipts as he said this – “and you never even missed it …”

Everytime I read this, I think – what a great story – but in today’s world, I’m pretty sure someone would be doing some jail time before this was over …

It is a story that speaks to us of transformation … a story that challenges us to change our views and our perspectives, and to be more open to God’s Holy presence in our world … A theme that runs through our readings today…

As we approach the story of Ruth there are a number of routes we can chose to follow. The first is that of the role of the foreigner in the life of the Jewish nation. Ruth is a foreigner, and outsider – in Judaism, the foreigner was to be feared and rejected yet, here we have Ruth – the great grandmother of a guy named King David … The story perhaps came into being as a way of justifying and even celebrating the role of the foreigner in ancient Israel. Moreover, on a deeper level the story of Ruth is a not so subtle reminder for the listener to look beyond his or her biases. The colour of one’s skin, the ethnic background or the things that make us human are not reason enough to shun, dislike or hate someone else … It’s a universal and long standing lesson for humanity … it still rings true …

The second route we could take to approach the book of Ruth is that of the role of women in our spiritual journey. Many books have been written highlighting the role of Ruth and the few other women mentioned by name in the Hebrew Scriptures, and that even though they are small in number they are huge in influence. Names like Sarah, Rebekkah, Deborah, and Ruth are known to us and their stories challenge us to new understandings of our own faith journey and our traditions. The Bible is not just the story of men and what they did and were about – women were there too as active and vital participants.

The third route, the one I would like to explore this morning is that of transformation from the most unlikely of places … The story of Ruth and Naomi begins with both Naomi and Ruth being widowed. Naomi sends her daughter in laws Orpah and Ruth back to their people. But Ruth refuses. Ruth proclaims that she will stay with Naomi no matter what – “where you go I shall go, where you stay, I will stay, your people shall be my people, your God shall be my god …”

So Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem and are forced to survive by gleaning the remnants of grain left behind after the harvest in the fields of a distant relative of Naomi’s. Boaz is touched by the plight of the two women, and by Ruth – so he instructs his workers to be generous with the edges of the field and to ensure they leave lots for the two women to harvest and use for their survival.

In time Boaz allows Ruth to come to his tent, and with perhaps the best indirect language in the entire Bible, the two of them sleep together and Ruth becomes his wife and bears him a child, and becomes the mother of the lineage that in time gives rise to King David and later to Jesus of Nazareth.

Ruth was in a place where she couldn’t go much lower – she was a widowed woman – a foreigner no less, living with her widowed mother in law and forced to survive on the gleanings of the harvest fields … Ruth was the quintessential no body … she was simply a woman with out value or with out a place in the society in which she lived … But big things were about to happen for her …

Ruth’s life would undergo a transformation. Her devotion to Naomi, her dedication to caring for her aging mother in law. Her steadfast attitude caught Boaz’s eye, and he played no small role in transforming Ruth’s life … This is a powerful story. Even today, it remains a powerful story. An outcast is not only welcomed in – but she becomes a central figure in the story and in the life of the nation. The foreigner is transformed from an outcast to a hero – a paragon of faith.

Such is the power of the Holy in our lives …

If we step forward to the Gospel Reading of Jesus and his disciples sitting in the temple – we are confronted with a widow offering two tiny coins – her might – in the treasury of the temple. The widow comes quietly and drops her two pennies in the box and moves on – she has, as Jesus noted given from what she needs to survive. Whereas the rich and luxuriously robed scribes have given from their surplus – this woman quietly gives from what she has to live on …

Who is more giving and generous? Asks Jesus. Are the scribes and the wealthy who give from their surplus, or is the widow who gave all she had to God’s service?

The answer is obvious, albeit painful to consider … as we answer the question we are forced to consider which person in this story we are ... from where does our giving arise?

I found this week a comment on the widow’s might. It reads:

What is the widow’s might? It is their commitment, and their willingness to give all they have to God. And it is here that the widows’ might might well serve as an example for all of us …
The widows’ might may be an example of God’s love for us.
The widows’ might may express Jesus’ own sacrificial death.
The widows’ might may teach us about TOTAL commitment.
The widows’ might may teach us how to respond to the bountiful gifts of God.
The widows’ might may teach us how to give everything (willingly & joyfully)
The widows’ might may show us all how God provides unceasingly for all our needs in life …

The widows’ might is an uncomfortable story – not because of what it says – but because of what it says to us about our values, our priorities, our faith, our giving (or lack thereof). It’s a story that casts an uncomfortable glow, because very few of us EVER give as deeply as this woman did – and here is Jesus himself saying – “Ah, here is the example we should all try to emulate …”

Collectively we ALL say – “oh oh …” because we are wanting in this … we are lacking … we are more like the richly robed scribes, then like the shabbily dressed widow … “Drat …” we say and we plunge our hands more deeply into our pockets and turn away …

Yet, it is in this moment – this moment when we feel uncomfortable that we are most open and most vulnerable to that gift of transformation …

When I served in Bella Coola the Native congregations wanted to buy the then new Voices United Hymn books. The collection of old blue and red and green books were getting rather tattered, and needed to be replaced. BUT – there was very little money in the native community to make it happen. But one night over tea following church we hit on an idea … in BC all cans and bottles have a deposit … and all over town there were dozens upon dozens of them lying about … So the elders decided we would collect pop cans for our new hymn books …

I volunteered our garage as the drop off point, and said when we had a pick up truck load we would take them back and cash them in … What struck me most was going to the basket ball games and seeing the elders and the members of the church plastic shopping bag in hand, gathering pop cans when the game ended. They scolded (in a nice way) their grandchildren and nieces and nephews who were scurrying to collect the cans for themselves. I laughed when I heard one of the ladies say – “you don’t need any more candy – the church needs these …” and a little boy meekly handed over his bag with a smile.

Week after week bags and bags and bags of cans were dropped off in front of our garage. Even the town troopers, the men who trooped around gathering cans and bottles to cash in to buy a bottle from the liquor store, got in on the act and donated some of their hard earned finds … It took a matter of weeks to gather enough money to buy a congregational set of hymn books – literally one can at a time …

What seemed insurmountable not only happened – we had an abundance … and were able to buy extra books, and send money on to other places like First United in Vancouver … literally one pop can at a time …

Two coins in a giving box – a gift that didn’t come from her surplus, but from what she needed to live on … the transformation began …

A widowed foreign born woman gleaning grain from the edges of a harvested field – an act of basic survival … the transformation began …

An old native woman with a bag of pop cans – an act of generousity for one who could have used the few coins themselves … the transformation began …

An apocryphal story about a grain elevator manager or a bank manager and an over looked 10% … the transformation began …

The promise of transformation is sound … the challenge for us is to open our eyes to it and to be willing to live it …

We can apply this gleaning to our upcoming building project … or to our ongoing weekly budget … or to another special project that may come our way … The challenge we face as a Church today is to allow the wave of transformation to wash over us and to recreate us into the Body of Christ, alive and active and moving into the world, sharing the Good News in its fullness … It is a story that begins with the simplest of actions … and an openness to God’s gift of transformation …

May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray …