The Widow's Mite

Wealth. Poverty.  

These are words that should convey absolute truths. You’re either wealthy or you’re not. You’re poor or you’re not.

And yet these are words which are relative.

We shared a meal last night with a wonderful woman who spends her life in a remote part of China, where she helps in whatever way she can to improve the lives of people living on the edge. I mean really on the edge. She lives in a place where people trafficking is rife, where careless words cost freedom, where freedom of movement is limited or denied, where children all receive education in boarding schools controlled and run by the state. 

She has returned to the UK for a visit, and expressed surprise at what she has found. While still abroad, she read of the tough times imposed on many here by the austerity budget and poor economy, and yet she fails to see poverty as she knows it. 

I write that while working on the setting up of a local food bank to help those who are going to bed hungry in this area. We have identified a need; she fails to see real deprivation.

Jesus sat outside the Temple with his friends. A poor widow approached the giving bowl and dropped in a couple of tiny coins. Mites. So small they failed to make a noise – the ostentatious givers made sure their gifts clanked and rattled when they put them in, so that others would notice and remark on their generosity.

The widow gave to God everything she had because she loved and trusted him.

Jesus looked at her and he loved her. He knew that she was giving away everything she had to live on, trusting God to provide for her. In a society with no social safety net, she threw herself on God’s goodness to look after her. 

Does all this talk of austerity and tightening the belt inspire people to give more to help the growing number of poor (however that is defined), or to give less because they fear the future?

Society will only be as caring as we make it ourselves. It’s not up to the government. It’s up to you and me, digging deep.

Jesus saw the widow, and he loved her.

In Agreement

Today I risk sounding a little picky. But there’s a point to my complaint.

I am participating in a community Bible reading project in my church, and we are committed to reading through the whole of the New Testament in about 8 weeks. The book reads more like a novel in some ways, as its order is rearranged to better reflect the chronology of the writings and there are very helpful introductions which fill out the picture of what lay behind some of the letters and books.

I’m enjoying the challenge and managing to keep up with the reading demands of 10-ish pages a day. 

What is irritating me is that the editors of this publication have played fast and loose with a basic grammar rule – the rule of agreeing the subject and pronoun. For instance, ‘anyone who has ears to hear, let them hear.’ Ouch! Let him hear. Or her. But not them.

At least the editors are consistent. They make the same mistake every time.

Now most readers probably will barely notice the errors, but the sound of the sentence structure will slowly saturate their brains until they, too, speak and write like that, believing they are using grammar correctly. 

It’s exactly the same in society. As rules of behaviour are consistently flouted, people forget there ever were such rules. Many of these rules are undoubtedly silly and deserve to be forgotten. A man standing up when a woman enters the room, for instance.  

Others, however, reflect a cultural mind-set which creates a better society for all. Executives readily admitting responsibility when institutions over which they governed have failed their clients. Police. NHS Executives. Banking CEO’s. Politicians taking their punishment for laws they have broken. 

Generosity rather than greed. Humility rather than hubris. Integrity at the top. 

Selfish attitudes from the top filter down to become the norm. People at every level begin to believe that it’s not just ok to look out for number 1, but it’s foolish not to. It’s foolish to put others before oneself.

I’m grateful that although irritated by the grammatical mistakes, the message I am hearing from Jesus and his followers of the first century consistently rejects selfish ambition.

In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. 

If only that message could subliminally permeate our minds we would have a better society for all.