Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17: The point of the story is found in the last lines of the last assigned verse: "A son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, the father of David."

So through all these devious means, God provides for David to be born and for Israel to have her greatest king. The son was not really born to Naomi, as the story says. He was really born to Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. He was born because of the faithfulness of Ruth in not leaving her mother-in-law Naomi as the other widowed daughter-in-law Orpah had done.

Naomi and Ruth had returned to Naomi's homeland of Bethlehem. There they had gleaned fields, taken that which was left after the harvest to use for their own bread and sustenance. They set their eyes on Boaz, a relative of Naomi's and the owner of the field where Ruth had done her gleaning. They decided that Boaz should be their "go-el," their redeemer, the one who would buy the fields of Elkanah, Naomi's husband, and be the protector of the two women. Encouraged by Naomi, Ruth seduced Boaz after he had been drinking following the harvest. Following the seduction, Boaz agreed to purchase the fields and care for the women.

Boaz arranged a meeting with the elders of the city. One other man had the right to buy the property before Boaz, next-of-next-of-kin, could exercise his right to do so. In the meeting of the elders, the next of kin offered to buy the field. Boaz pointed out to him, however, that in buying the field he would also inherit Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of Naomi's son. At this, the man demurred. He was afraid the additional marriage would harm his children's rights of inheritance. So Boaz stepped forward, acted as go-el for the two women, and purchased the field. In doing so he announced to the elders that he was also prepared to marry Ruth, in a levirite marriage, in order that she may bear a son and continue the name of the dead son of Naomi.

Boaz married Ruth, and they had a son, Obed. So God, using laws and practices that we would not condone today, and acting through a Moabite woman who came from a tribe that Israel hated, brought to life David, Israel's greatest king, one who feared God and brought justice to the land.

Psalm 127: "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it." The "house" could mean three things. It could be a city; all the plans that go into the city have to be made with God's grace and God's demands in mind. It could mean the Temple at Jerusalem or in our day a church building. The purpose of these sanctuaries of worship can also be perverted. They can become little more than personal clubs for the pious, or even a means to build up our self-esteem by the personal wealth we pour into it. "House" can also mean "family." Unless our families are built around the plans and purposes of God, those of us who put our goods into houses and cars, grand vacations and sumptuous parties, are building them in vain.

The last verses of the psalm seem to indicate that the third meaning for "house" is most in mind. It talks of sons as the father's glory.

There is no place in the psalm for the welcoming of daughters into the family. This is not an oversight. It is a product of the patriarchal society reflected in the psalm.

One verse needs special treatment: "God gives to his beloved sleep." Sleep, says the psalmist, is the gift of God. It can still our anxieties. It must refresh our bodies. It can provide for moments of reflection on both intellectual and moral concerns. It is a gift of God given to all, and it needs to be accepted as that, the calming of the body for one-third of the day in order that we may serve God more fully in the other two-thirds.

Hebrews 9:24-28: Every Jewish worshiper knew that the high priest entered the Holy of Holies at the center of the Temple on the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The Letter to the Hebrews sees a heavenly temple of which the one in Jerusalem is only a model. He sees Jesus entering this heavenly temple for the atonement of his people. He draws out the implications of the contrasting acts of the high priest of the temple and of Jesus, God's own high priest.

Christ has entered into the true heaven, says Hebrews, to appear in the presence of God himself. Christ enters "once for all," a key phrase in this essay, while the high priest enters yearly. (For Christ to enter yearly means that he would have to be crucified over and over again.) Christ comes with the offering of his own blood, his own life; the high priest brings only the blood of animals. Christ died, as all humans must die, but his death was unique: by it he put away the sins of many. And he will appear a second time.

At this point Hebrews transcends the images of worship and sacrifice that it has been using. Christ comes a second time, not to deal with sin (he has already done that) but to save, that is to say "to make whole," those who are eagerly waiting for him. These words point to a whole new relationship with Christ, something that the temple does not offer at all. The temple deals only with sin and its atonement. The once for all sacrifice of Christ opens the believer to a new and fulfilling relationship with his Lord, with endless opportunities for fellowship with Christ and with those whom Christ loves. The Gospel of Matthew (25:34) puts this new relationship into a comprehensive and memorable phrase: "Come, o blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Mark 12:38-44: The passage begins with Jesus' denouncing the scribes. He does this not for their beliefs but for their practices. "They like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues (they were just beginning to establish the custom of sitting in front of the congregation and facing it) and the places of honor at feasts; they devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers." Harvey in his commentary suggests that "Men who eat widow's property" could refer to the obligation laid upon wealthy widows to give hospitality to travelling teachers and the abuse of such a practice. Derrett adds that this may refer to the lawyer who could claim his own expenses in settling a case for a widow: "Those that eat away the estates of widows and, with such an end in view, indulge in lengthy prayers - they shall suffer a heavier sentence." Masked by these pious practices, the set themselves to ruthless exploitation of the poor, especially the most vulnerable of the poor, the widows.

Contrasted to this pronouncement is Jesus' story of the gift to the temple of the poor widow. Jesus had gone into the temple treasury where 13 chests or boxes, trumpets (so called because of their shape) were placed. Into these chests contributions were placed. Made voluntarily or paid yearly by the Jews, contributions designated for the service of the temple or support of the poor were deposited in them. Each chest was for a different purpose. Priests, in charge, could inquire the purpose of the gift to ascertain whether it was brought in accordance with legal requirement and was in the right coinage. Jesus joined the priests by watching what was put into the boxes.

Many rich people put their contributions into the boxes. Then a poor widow came and put in two copper pennies. The value of each coin was approximately one-quarter of a cent. The coin was little more than a quarter of an inch in diameter, and 128 of them went into one silver denarius. In Rome it was unknown. The smallest coin in Rome was a quadrans, which was twice the size of the widow's coin. Mark had his non-Pa1estinian readers in mind when he said that "together they made a quadrans."

As she deposited the coins, Jesus called to his disciples. "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living."

This seems high praise from Jesus, and this praise has resonated through many a stewardship sermon. But is that the full story? Jesus, with his sensitivity to political and economic realities, may be thinking about something else entirely. As the Presbyterian Worship Planner asks, why would this widow be commended for giving to a Temple whose destruction was at hand? Does she not rather serve as a concrete example of how innocent people are victimized by the Temple authorities? Jesus' comments about the widow are a lament about her plight. They continue Jesus' earlier denunciation of the scribes, who instead of caring for this woman as the law directed them to do were robbing her of her last dime. Jesus is attacking the religious system of Judaism that taught this woman to offer her tiny coins, as though God would demand such sacrifices of the poor of the world.

As soon as Jesus leaves the Temple area, he will tell his disciples that the Temple is doomed. "Do you see these great buildings?" Jesus asks. Then he declares, "Not one stone will be left here upon another, that will not be thrown down."