Rev Lisa Busby Sermon Sunday Nov 10. Christ Episcopal Church, Clayton NY

Please pray with me ….May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always

acceptable to you O Lord our strength and Our Redeemer

Amen

A friend said to me long long ago, way back in the days of discernment that the heart creates the most room for Jesus is one that is cracked wide open as a follower of the way of Jesus Christ.

 I Stand today with the poor widow and I'm about to do something this morning that I never do. I'm going to throw caution to the wind and I'm going to provide you with a translation for the word widow in both Hebrew and Greek. The Hebrew word for Widow is Almana which comes from the word Alum which translates to one unable to speak. In the ancient world a widow was

also in a sense unspoken for because as a Woman they had no voice and as widows they had no husbands to speak for them so they were considered voiceless and unspoken for and consequently they had no legal status whatsoever. The Greek word for widow is Thea which comes from the root word left without a husband were left without which means forsaken or left without. In ancient times women who were without legal status and without property with which by the way included custody of their children. That's right if your husband died you were left penniless. Everything that you owned was transferred to the next oldest male relative and this is the reason why we find stories in the Bible of widows who then went on to marry their husbands

Brothers after the death of their husband because a male was necessary to care for them now.

This background information and historical perspective are vital to our understanding of our scripture readings this morning in some ways it's a stark contrast compared to our current day because today widows are likely to receive life insurance payments marital property and be allowed to retain custody of their children. But I'd like to put that into a little bit of perspective this morning because it has taken a couple of Millennia to get here not centuries not decades

MILLENNIA! 

In last week's gospel lesson Jesus praised The Scribe for answering wisely. He said you are right teacher you have truly said that to love God with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one another's neighbor as oneself is the right thing to do. And Jesus praised that scribe for his faith. In today's lesson we have a contrast lesson because Jesus offers a caution against the scribes a reminder that not all scribes are worthy of trust, particularly those who are constantly calling attention to their Good Deeds. The ones who flaunt their success and their wealth the ones who devour widows houses the ones who through their actions put up stumbling blocks to the voiceless faithful ones and break hearts in the process all for the sake of maintaining their esteemed seats at the table.

Now I suppose I can avoid it no longer if I have even been successful at my attempt to try but I want to tell you that I have spent hour after hour after hour after hour this week in our sanctuaries praying for God's words hour after hour. Coincidentally I never looked at any of the hymns that Helen picked so as you're singing the hymns today pay attention to those words. But what God has placed on my heart I could not shake off so I'm going to take a minute to talk about maybe a few the Heartbreaks of this past week that has been profound. Now before anybody gets up and walks out I just want to say this is not a partisan sermon it is however political because Jesus was political. Jesus was radical. Jesus was counter-cultural.

The heartbreak for many people this week has been profound and during this past week my heart has ached for every young African-American youth across our country in multiple states who has received random racist text messages following our election saying that they were going to be waiting for a brown van to pick them up and take them off to their plantations to pick cotton. My heart aches for every immigrant family who in a new and very real way fears for the safety of their loved ones and their families and their mothers and fathers and children. And this time my heart aches for every person who identifies as LGBTQ Plus in this country. Who today is rightly concerned for their right to equality and equity that it may rapidly evaporate. My heart aches for every woman who will worry about whether or not she will ever again have a constitutional right to the privacy of her own body. My heart aches for every woman of color, every woman of this country, every child, every little girl whose future dreams might still be restricted by the bias of gender inequality that is so deeply woven into the institutions and the social culture of America. My heart aches for every follower of the way, who today is judged according to the behavior of dare I say the modern day scribes the Christian Nationalists and others who claim to know and follow the way of Christ yet so quickly abandon the teachings of the Gospel. My heart aches for every single person who has rushed to their social media accounts this week to put up ugly posts about a bold and courageous woman who is now unemployed or for all of those people who for months have put up those atrocious signs with F…. bombs on their front yards and on their t-shirts and on their hats. My heart aches for all of the others who brag and celebrate the hatred that so easily flows outside of their homes into the streets.

 My dear friends my heart aches for every soul that has been misled to believe that on one hand they can embrace bigotry and white super raceism and misogyny and hatred and then on the other hand think that they can still profess the love and mercy and Justice of Jesus. BECAUSE IT DOSES NOT WORK THAT WAY!   I am sorry to say it does not work that way. That is called hypocrisy you can't have both. That's the kind of behavior that is not any different from what Jesus calls our attention to in the gospel lesson this morning. Many rich people put in large sums out of their abundance yet this poor widow put in everything that she had. Why would she do that why would she do that because this woman has endured for millennium the burden of oppression and poverty and yet she still continues to love and hope and dream. This woman recognizes that her hope does not come from wealth or fame or the hypocrisy of this world. She recognizes that her hope comes from grace, humility, love, gentleness, mercy, compassion, and justice. Her help comes in the name of the Lord. How does that relate to us today. Our hope and our help comes to us. Our joy our light that we have to offer to the world comes to us the moment that we say, like she did,  a resounding yes to God.

In the words of Dietrich Bonhofer, your yes to God requires, your no to Injustice, your  no to all evil, your no to all lies, your no to all oppression and violation of the weak and the poor. Be like the poor voiceless widow… say a resounding yes to God and give it everything that you have … EVERYTHING …because it is that kind of integrity and humility that saves our souls. It is that kind of love that builds communities and relationships rather than tearing them down it's that kind of Courage that is necessary to stand up to a world that is full of Injustice and hate. It's that kind of character that overcomes and makes the impossible possible.

My dear friends I hope that you go forth this morning with God's peace washing over you and soothing your cracked open heart  may God's grace sustain you and may God's love inspire you to love more and to be more and to do more.

AMEN