Would you invite someone to dinner if you had no food? Who gives when they have nothing? Apparently, that’s what the poor widow in our Gospel story did, as Jesus tells it:
A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, worth a penny. He called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have given out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Out of nothing – everything she had. This challenges the notion that you have to have something to give something, that you can only give if you have something left over. What would it look like if people gave whether or not they had anything?
When groups serve meals at shelters, they never ask the guests to give anything – but why not? Why do we assume that, just because they have no home or financial resources, they have no assets to share as human beings? We could ask them to pray for us or with us. We could invite them to help set up or take down the chairs.
What if we invited recipients of charity to give generously as well as receive? I don’t mean that people who come for a meal should sweep out the kitchen. I’m not talking about charging for help we give. I’m suggesting we create a culture of giving even among those who “have nothing,” as a way of fostering wholeness and integrity in community. We’d have a lot more empowered people filling our soup kitchens, and empowered people do a lot better on job interviews.
There is a spiritual principle at work here. We claim that God created the universe ex nihilo, out of nothing. We proclaim that Jesus, who had no earthly goods, poured himself out completely, giving his entire life and spirit to what looked like defeat. And on Easter we trumpet his victory out of nothing, celebrating an empty space, a void, where a corpse was supposed to be. Out of nothing, everything.
Lakota peoples have a tradition of the "give-away" during funerals. Families that are dirt poor will not only feed out-of-towners for funeral rites lasting several days, but will also host a gathering at which each and every guest is given something. The more honored may receive valuable gifts like quilts and beadwork; others might get plasticware from the dollar store, or hand-me-downs. The principle is the same: even in times of loss, even in poverty, we have something to give, and no one goes away empty-handed.
That widow in the temple might have given her last coins because she was out of options, out of strategies – she was casting herself entirely upon God’s mercy. She gave what she had and left herself empty and ready to receive. We all know how to give out of our plenty. Where do you feel you have little or nothing? What would it look like to give from that place? Where is God inviting you to try that?
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