"Bad Religion/Good Religion"    San Williams

Mark 12:38-44

Nearly every November--just in time for the annual stewardship campaign--the story of the poor widow pops up as the Gospel reading for the day.  Chances are good that most of you have heard a stewardship sermon—maybe many stewardship sermons--based on what’s commonly called the widow’s mite.  Typical sermons on the widow’s mite shame the congregation by comparing our giving to that of the poor widow.  Look at this widow, we’re told.  She gave everything she had.  So give it up folks!  Give till it hurts.  

Well, this morning let’s take a mental eraser and clear our minds of this guilt inducing, inadequate interpretation of today’s scripture.  In its place, bring to mind the coins that Jesus tells us were dropped into the temple treasury. These coins, like all coins, have two-sides showing us two different images.  Just so, the scripture that we read resembles the coins in that it depicts two distinct messages. 

Looking at today’s scripture from one side of the interpretive coin, we see a withering critique of bad religion.  From Jesus’ first warning to “beware of the scribes” to his observation of the widow’s donation, this scripture is a lament.  It represents Jesus’ condemnation of religion that promotes itself while exploiting the weak and vulnerable.  But flip the interpretive coin over, and we’ll see an image of good religion; that is, religion that puts the needs of others, especially the poor, above everything else. The widow herself, like the copper coins she dropped in the treasury, has a double image.  We can see her as a victim of bad religion, and, conversely  as a type of person not unlike Jesus himself—a person who gives freely without counting the cost.

Consider first that this scripture is a lament from beginning to end. Like the prophets before him, Jesus railed against bad religion.  “Beware of the scribes,” Jesus warns.  Note that Jesus isn’t denouncing all the scribes.  Rather he’s warning against hypocritical scribes, those who like to wear their long robes in public so that vendors in the market will give them a clergy discount, and show them the choicest produce.  These are the religious figures who expect people to get up and offer them the best seats, and at banquets they expect to be seated at the head table with other dignitaries.  They offer flowery, lengthy prayers in order to receive comments on how wise and spiritual they are.  In short, they love to be in the limelight using their religious status to draw attention to themselves.

Alas,  self-serving religious leaders are certainly not confined to first century Palestine.  Homiletician Tom Long tells about a certain flamboyant Pastor named John who had a practice of delivering the benediction by striking a pose that looked like Superman about to take flight.  Pastor John said that he was proclaiming the resurrection, but the congregation wasn’t fooled.  They said that he was proclaiming Pastor John.  Jesus warns us about religious types who do things for appearance sake. 

But at the heart of Jesus’ lament is his reproach of pretentious religious leaders who prey on the poor. “Beware,” Jesus warns, “of the scribes who devour widows’ houses.”  In Jesus’ day, widows represented the most vulnerable members of society. For this reason, time and again the law and the prophets remind us that God executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the stranger. (Deut. 10:18)  This requirement to seek justice for the disadvantaged is the central focus of the law and the prophets.  Jesus wasn’t’ condemning all religion, but he was warning us against religious leaders who exalt themselves while ignoring the very heart of God’s law.

And Jesus’ observation about the widow’s gift to the temple should be interpreted in the context of Jesus’ lament. Typically, readers assume that Jesus was praising the widow for her gift, but given Jesus’ over-riding concern for the welfare of the poor, and his warning about a religious system that exploits them, Jesus may have told of this widow to further illustrate how a religious system can take advantage of the poor leaving them nothing to live on.  Didn’t Jesus always put the needs of people over religious obligation?  “The Sabbath,” he said, “is made for man not man for the Sabbath.”  Throughout his ministry, Jesus refused to separate the love of God from the practical welfare of our neighbors.  That’s why he warned people to beware of self-serving religious institutions and leaders who exploit people, people just like the poor widow in our story.

“Have you got good religion?”  That question, a repeated refrain in an old spiritual, was sung by enslaved African in the antebellum South. It was a not so subtle critique on the bad religion practiced by American Christians who declaimed a religious piety while exploiting human beings for their own gain.  This question “Have you got good religion” haunted the antebellum South and continues to haunt religious folks in every age.  It haunts us today.  Just this week, a man went on a violent rampage at Fort Hood evoking the name of God as he fired off his bullets.  Harm done to our neighbors in the name of God is always bad religion. Jesus warns us of the danger of religion—any religion that puts religious ritual, doctrine or obligation above the welfare of people.

But now let’s flip the metaphorical coin over and see in this passage a compelling illustration of good religion—religion lived out in self-giving love, justice and forgiveness.  Seen from this perspective, the poor widow’s gift signifies a total trust and dependence on God.  Hers is the kind of gift also represented by the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet, and most significantly as the kind of gift Jesus makes--he gives everything, his life, in total trust and dependence on God.  And just as the widow gave her all for an institution that was corrupt and condemned, so Jesus gives the whole of his life for something that is also corrupt and condemned; all of humanity, the whole world.  So on this side of the interpretive coin the poor widow reflects the image of Christ himself who, as Paul declared, “Though he was rich, yet for our sake became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich.”  (II Cor. 8:9).

Good religion is seen in people who, like the widow, place their trust in God and thus are free to be generous, compassionate and focused on the needs of others.  Descriptions of good religion sometimes pop up in surprising places.  For example, in the Presbyterian Book of Order the church ‘s mission is described this way: “The church is called to be a sign in and for the world of the new reality which God has made available to people in Jesus Christ.”  How will it be such a sign?  By “healing and reconciling and binding up wounds…ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless…engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger, and injustice…giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer…sharing with Christ in the establishing of his just, peaceable, and loving rule in the world.  The church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life.” 9G-3.0200).

Friends, no one of us and no church is a pure example of good religion.  Still, I think we know good religion when we see it.  Imagine, for example, a congregation that welcomes a person in tattered clothes smelling of stale tobacco and alcohol with as much enthusiasm as it welcomes a well-dressed person smelling of expensive perfume.  There, you can be sure, is a congregation practicing  good religion.  When a person with a post-graduate degree sits down in the children’s corner of the Micah 6 food pantry and helps a pre-schooler learn to color in the lines, that’s good religion.  When a congregation responds to the suffering, the sick and the dying with prayers, food and loving presence, that’s good religion.  Good religion is always non-violent; it is never used to sanction exploitation, abuse or violent behavior.  Good religion frees people, including religious leaders, to practice humility as instruments of God’s grace.

“Have you got good religion?’  Asks the refrain in the old spiritual.  Well, here’s the test:  Whenever religion empowers people to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God…that, my friends, is good religion!