Widows, Women, and Others:
I often hear people say, “Oh how wonderful to have been born
in the Victorian era”… or some other bygone era and they ask me what era I
would like to have been born in…. My
answer is this one right now with air-conditioning and flushing toilets thank
you very much.
And along with our technological advancements, of which I’m
appreciative, I’m also appreciative of the rights that women have and the move
towards some kind of equality. Now don’t
get me wrong, I’ve not ever been called a feminist, but I surely have cried
over some inequalities and the readings today touch on some pretty sensitive
topics for me.
Our readings this week speak of three widows. Two are in the first reading, Naomi and Ruth,
who lived many generations before the birth of Christ. The third widow is the one who put her two
measly coins (all that she had to live on) into the treasury.
While the plight of women today is still in a state of striving
for justice, women in Biblical times were generally treated as beings of little
consequence other than a necessity for child bearing, Widows were particularly susceptible
to all the dangers of life.
In the time of the Scribes in the Gospel, the customs were
such that the person who knew the most about God’s law was the person most
respected. This is why they were greeted
with honour and give the best seats etc.
It was also considered a shameful thing to jeopardize your social
status. Therefore, the widow who put in
all she had to live on, actually did a shameful thing… because she is
completely jeopardizing her status & ability to care for herself. However,
she was caught between a rock and a hard place because it would have also been dishonourable
to not give to the temple. And THIS is
how the Scribes devoured widows’ houses, because they took from these poor
women, but did nothing to support them.
Ahhhh… but this would never happen in our generation would
it?
I actually know of a lady who only about a year ago told me
how in her early days of marriage, used to go without lunch at work so that she
could put the money she saved into the collection at church. I’m guessing her husband wasn’t a church man
and I’m also guessing that her story is not as unique as we might wish. That lady eventually divorced, in an era when
divorce was very much a scandal – especially in the Church. She is still one of the most giving and
generous ladies I know.
Would we have labelled her divorce as scandalous?
Have you ever been in that kind predicament like our Biblical
widow, where it was a no win situation?
In education training we learnt about Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs. A smart cookie who came up with a
way of describing what all humans need in the shape of a pyramid. It explains that people need physical needs met
before they can go on to have other needs met, but it is also an acknowledgement
that human needs are more than merely physical.
After the basic physical need of food, water and shelter is the need for
security and safety… then the need for love and belonging, after that the need
for esteem, followed by the need for purpose and meaning and then self
actualization. I’m reminded of a story I’ve
heard about an experiment with babies who were given the basics but not love…
not held. The experiment was cut short
when the babies began to die…. While we
might think that the basics are all that people need, this might cause us to
think again.
While these Scribes were busy making a show of themselves
with long prayers and honourable seats, there were widows who were supporting
the scribes by their giving, who didn’t have their basic needs for living, and
these means for living were being happily accepted by the scribes to enable
them to ensure their own status.
Last week we had the story of Ruth and Naomi, and this week
the story continues and I hope that with this understanding of the widows’
predicament you will appreciate the precarious position of Naomi and Ruth.
Ruth happened to be gleaning barley in the fields of one of
Naomi’s husband’s relatives- the term used is “Kinsmen Redeemer”. In God’s law there were many ways that
acknowledged and cared for the poor. One
was with the idea of the Kinsmen redeemer, which means that if a man dies then
his brother or closest relative should take the widow as his wife in the hope
that a son will be born who will take on the name of the husband who has died –
but also, most importantly, to care for the widow.
Also in the law was this idea of gleaning the fields. The parts of the harvest which missed the
initial collection was to be left in the fields and were to remain there for
the widows and the poor of the land.
Ruth had spent the season gleaning and all had gone extremely well, but the
harvest was done and the winter was coming.
Naomi hatched a plan – it was dangerous, it was desperate and
potentially scandalous. But let me tell you about scandal; many generations
prior, the ancestor of Boaz, a lady by the name of Tamar, was almost burned to
death for a similar deception where she dressed as a prostitute because her
father-in-law had failed to give his son as her kinsmen Redeemer. When all was revealed she was proclaimed as
being more honourable for the action she took – likewise was to be the outcome with
our Ruth.
Ruth dressed up and went in secret to the place where the men
partied…. Kind of like the traditional cane cut out party, but then take it up
a notch. Lots of festivities would have
included wine and possibly even prostitutes – certainly it was a man’s affair.
Ruth noted where Boaz lay down for sleep and lay down at his
feet. Would we have labelled it
scandalous? We would have, which is why
Boaz said to not let it be known
that a woman came to the threshing floor.
But wait, he also praised Ruth for her faithfulness in requesting a
relationship with him, rather than running after someone younger.
While outsiders may have gossiped and made this event into
something scandalous, these people were faithful and honourable. Boaz promised to communicate with the closer
relative to see if he wanted to take Ruth as his wife, and if not she would certainly
become Boaz’s wife.
Lives were put on the line because lives depended on it. All was given, all was surrendered in the hope
of something better.
Just as lives were put on the line, Jesus freely surrendered
his own life as a sacrifice to remove sin.
It’s crazy stuff… it is dangerous
– what if the people he died for didn’t receive the gift he was giving? What if they didn’t understand and kept
distant from God because of their sin?????
Oh and this does happen – anyone who has ever said that they can’t set
foot in a church in case the roof falls in is expressing their “badness” in comparison
to God’s goodness, and not understanding that Jesus has removed sin. Which sin?
Was it the sin in the past or the present or the future? Hebrews tells us that this was done once and
for all. The implication is that all is
paid.
To the people who were looking on the events that we read
about, on the outside these events look scandalous. On the outside, here and now, there are many
things we might think of as being scandalous about other people. I love the saying, believe only half of what
you see and none of what you hear. We pretty
much never get it right from the outside, but need to remember Ruth – labelled as
faithful, kind and honourable, maybe if we understood God’s perspective on
supposed scandals we might find those who are generally devoured with unkind
words and whispers, are actually more honourable than we are.
We have God’s law written in our hearts and minds and we may
be those with respect, but like the Scribes, if we make judgments on others, we
have the potential to devour others who are just trying their best to live, giving
all that they have to live on, while we make ourselves feel superior by adding
to the rumours.
Jesus was most harsh with the religious of his day, but if we
don’t examine ourselves applying the same measure – as we are the religious of
this day, we risk making the same mistakes as those scribes.
Jesus laid down his life to remove sins. Love covers a multitude of sin. The love of God, and his mercy in our own
lives, should move us to, like Jesus, stand beside those who’ve been judged as
lesser. God’s heart breaks for the
broken and the broken hearted, for those labelled or treated as less.
As the hands and feet of God we need to be heartbroken for
them too and stand alongside. We have a choice; be a modern day scribe- who
keeps the law, makes a show of being a righteous person and devour people by
our judgments, or live like Jesus, putting our own life on the line to show
love to others. On the flip side, we may
feel like Ruth, Naomi and the widow, we may not feel we have anything physical,
emotional and spiritual left to give, but keep going – God cares for the broken and God’s favour
rests on you.
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