Ruth 3.1-5, 4.13-17; Mark 12.38-44
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …
So writes Charles Dickens in the opening lines of his famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities … for Dickens, it was Paris, it was London … the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror … Madame Defarge with her knitting needles and Dr. Manette in prison …
For us today, it’s Jerusalem, it’s Bethlehem … in both stories, the central figure, a widow … a widow with two small coins … a widow with her widowed daughter-in-law.
A tale of two cities …
We begin in the Holy City … the fabled city of David … where the Temple is center … the First Temple, built by Solomon, David’s son … destroyed by the Babylonians 6 centuries before Jesus … partially rebuilt 50 years later … and centuries later, when Jesus is born, lavishly restored and completed, under Herod the Great, a friend of Caesar and a violent man who orders the death of all the children in Bethlehem, when he learns of a “royal birth” from the Wise Men of the East.
Judeans from around the world dream of Jerusalem … as long as the Temple stands, God is with us … we’re a people with a purpose, we have a story to tell to the nations, we have the promises on which we stand, and the Commandments by which we live.
You shall have no other gods before me … honor your heritage, your mothers and fathers … don’t misuse my name for unholy deeds … keep the Sabbath … take time to worship and pray … don’t take life away from others … don’t tell lies … and beware of envy … it destroys the soul.
On any given day, and on High Holy Days, especially …
Judeans make the trek to Jerusalem… from the steppes of Russia to the sands of the Sahara, from Spain to India and North Africa …
Gentile believers, too, who affiliate with local synagogues, who follow the teachings of Moses and the prophets …
The local trades - the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker … shepherds with their flocks, cattle dealers, doves in their cages … money changers to exchange foreign currency for the local coin …
The financial and religious center of the city …
Accountants and attorneys,
musicians and priests,
teachers and tool makers,
carpenters and sculptors,
the high and the mighty,
the rich and the powerful,
working hand-in-glove with the mighty Roman Empire.
Jesus grows up with the Temple …
In the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to Jerusalem - he’s their firstborn, so he’s dedicated with a small sacrifice … as stipulated in the Law: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
Mary and Joseph go to Jerusalem for Passover, their 12-year-old son with them … with a hometown group … on their return, they assume Jesus to be with some friends, but at the end of the first day’s journey, Jesus is nowhere to be found.
Mary and Joseph rush back to the city, and what do they find?
Jesus sitting with the teachers, listening to them, asking them questions.
Mary and Joseph scold him for frightening them.
Jesus replies: What do you expect of me? I must be in my Father’s house.
Years later, Jesus and the disciples are back in the city …
One of the disciples exclaims, Look Teacher, what large stones, what large buildings …
Wealth and power are intoxicating, are they not?
Donna and I took an exchange student to New York City, to Manhattan, to Wall Street … taxies and subways, sidewalks jammed, everyone in a hurry, skyscraper next to skyscraper, mountains of stone and steel … I said to him, Here in these buildings, decisions are made that affect the whole world.
Think of any great city: London, Rome, Sao Paulo … Amsterdam, Cape Town, Cairo … Tokyo, Seoul, New Delhi … Washington, Moscow, Beijing.
Jesus watches the treasury … the parade of wealth …
And then, comes a widow … she gives two copper coins, a penny’s worth …
I wonder: did anyone else see her that day? … her two little coins … her simple clothing … meager possessions … yet in some corner of her heart, a great love … it isn’t much what she gives, but what she gives is all she has.
God sees the heart.
This woman, says Jesus, has given more than all the rest … what they’ve given, costs them nothing … she has given everything.
It’s a heartwarming story, isn't it … a poor widow gives her all for the things of God … isn’t that precious!
But there’s more to the story:
Jesus moves from sentiment to society … from religion to politics … Jesus is no one’s fool … he understands the flow of money … and how it works.
Beware of the scribes, says Jesus, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!
Marketplaces, religious gatherings, big-deal banquets … sound familiar?
Jesus goes on:
They take widows’ houses … and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.
“Long prayers” … to cover up ill deeds and malicious intent!
It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, says Jesus, than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.
A tale of two cities …
Jerusalem and Bethlehem …
And three widows …
The widow and her two little coins.
Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth.
A famine in the land drove Naomi and the family to Moab in the first place … within ten years, Naomi’s husband is dead, and her sons die, as well … leaving two more widows … you know some of the story … Naomi decides to return home, to Bethlehem … of her daughters-in-law, Orpah decides to remain in Moab … Ruth vows to go with Naomi, with some of the most famous words ever spoken:
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.
To an uncertain future … who will provide for us? … Naomi’s been gone 10 years … things change.
What’s Naomi to do?
She tells Ruth … catch the eye of Boaz, a man of wealth, and a kinsman on my husband’s side …
It’s a whimsical story, for sure … we smile and we wink … let’s have some fun, says the story teller - clever women and a kindly man … with a little perfume to work the magic.
In the end of our story,
Boaz welcomes Ruth, a Moabite stranger, and the widow Naomi …
he provides for their needs,
he offers his protection,
he honors the kinship laws of the land …
he gives them a future …
and unknown to all of them,
they give a future to Israel.
Boaz marries Ruth … they have a son named Obed … and Obed has a son named Jesse … and Jesse has eight sons, one of whom is named … David!
David? you say!
How about King David …
Many centuries later, Jesus is born … where? … in David’s town, Bethlehem … Jesus is called … The Son of David …
A tale of two cities … Jerusalem and Bethlehem … it was the best of times; it was the worst of times …
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
Amen and Amen!
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