The Widow's Offering (Rev. Gail Miller)

Jesus is in Jerusalem.  He has made his entry atop a colt, greeted by shouts of Hosanna.  While Jesus and his disciples continue to make forays out of the city to Bethany, his focus now is Jerusalem and the action begins to intensify.  We are given story after story of Jesus engaging with those who hold power and authority.  There are conversations and questions from the Herodians, the Pharisees, the Sadducees.  Very soon the story will turn toward the cross.  It is here that Mark places his story about the widow and her offering.

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=219397771

Mark's gospel is always a challenge for me because there isn't a lot to chew on.  I don't find him to be much of a story teller.  He does not use dramatic tension.  He is not given to creative embellishment.  Nothing wrong with that. But I tend to "feel" my way into bible study.   What a story feels like is important to me.  My heart looks for an energetic hook.  Then later my head joins the conversation.


So let us gather . . . on the rough stone steps of the temple court, amid the noise of the crowd.  It is chaotic. Your eyes dart around taking in the sights and the sounds.  Each person you see holds a story  . . . any of which you could just dive into.  Which one catches your attention?  Is it the teacher of the law, dressed in long flowing robes walking as one with authority, across the court?  Is it the one dressed in fine linens who has just placed a  large sum of money into the temple treasury . . . coins glinting in the sunlight?  Is it the wild looking one over in the corner with the dust of the road still on him?  Yeah, he has a magnetism.  It is hard to peel your eyes off of him.  Is it the group of equally wild and dusty ones gathered around him  that catch your eye?  Or is it her?  Over there  . . . the burdened one . . . a woman . . . alone . . . no fine linens  . . . only two very small and dull coins.  She is reaching out now and dropping them into the treasury.


It happens in slow motion . . . yet so quickly you wonder if any one other than Jesus even noticed. What do you notice?  How does your heart make sense of this?  What draws you in? And how does it feel?


Lectio Divina
Those who walk a contemplative path or tend toward the mystical may be familiar with the notion that our ancient text is alive.  Rather than mere ink and paper, more than the sum total of its interpretive history,  it is actually the sacred presence of Christ.   Christ living in and living as the Word.  As we engage in study and reflection of the biblical text we are hosting a holy guest.  "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  (John 1)

The following is a method for doing a sacred reading (lectio divina) of the text.  You will need to take 15 minutes or more if you have time!

• Take a few minutes to become still and quiet.
• Invite the Spirit to be present.  Ask for an experience of God.
• Read the passage out loud and very slowly.
• Read the passage through a second time, but this time pause on any word that catches your attention and slowly repeat that word, until it feels like it is time to move on.  This may be as far as you get in the passage.  The intention is not to finish the passage as much as to listen for what God is saying to you.
• When you have taken whatever time you need, give thanks and take a "Word"  - a word or a short phrase -  and let the presence of Jesus Christ living in that Word be your companion, a gentle teacher revealing a deeper wisdom.