Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 7, 2021 – 1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

When people get around to telling stories, whether it’s your family sitting around the Thanksgiving table or a bunch of friends out for the evening, the stories don’t often come in chronological order. What happens is this. Someone tells a story about something that happened at the lake, which prompts another story about something that happened at the lake, and then a third story. Or maybe someone tells a story about a memorable birthday celebration in a child’s life, which recalls another story about birthdays, then another story about birthdays, and so on. We connect our stories in very many different ways. And only rarely do we set out to tell a story – this, and then this, and then that, and then that.

The same thing is true of the gospels. While they follow a rough chronology, from the baptism of Jesus to the crucifixion and resurrection, the stories in between are frequently grouped in ways that are not automatically obvious. And so, if we had Mark open in front of us, we would notice that today’s first story came right after last Sunday’s reading. In last Sunday’s reading, a scribe – that’s the key person, a scribe – asked Jesus about the greatest commandment. Jesus gives the answer that we all know, and the scribe compliments him on the answer. Then Jesus says to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of heaven.”

Right after that we get Jesus’ condemnation of the scribes as a group, because none of them are even close to being close to the kingdom of heaven. Because they’re using their privileged position in the religious hierarchy to fatten their own pockets, even at the expense of those in society who are most vulnerable. Widows and orphans are mentioned constantly in the Old Testament and the New Testament as exemplars of the kinds of people whose very existence is threatened, who are always marginalized in their society. So that condemnation follows after the praise of one particular scribe. Why did Jesus praise that one particular scribe? Because the scribe agreed with him that loving your neighbor as yourself is the way in which we love God above all things.

Then comes the story of the widow. Remember I asked you, “Did you think that Jesus praised what the woman had done? Did he approve of it?” The answer is neither one of those things. Jesus doesn’t say, “Look what a great thing she’s done.” He doesn’t say it was a very wise thing to do. He simply comments on the situation. She has placed herself in great danger, great danger, of being marginalized by society. Why? Out of her attempt to love God above all things.

So the story is a radical illustration of the two great commandments. Because the money from the treasury was used, not only to take care of the temple and to pay the priests, but also to do charity work in Jerusalem and throughout the area. And so she has done two things at once. She has loved God above all things, and her neighbor as herself. It illustrates what Jesus and the scribe agreed was the right way to go.

So I think that the story leaves us with three questions. Very soon, about two minutes from now, at the most, we’re going to recite the Nicene Creed. Aside from a few literary flourishes, it captures, in just a few words, the fundamental faith of all Christians, the faith by which you live. The Nicene Creed, and its earlier version, the Apostle’s Creed, are bedrock Christianity.

So, I ask you, in the light of today’s scriptures, what do you believe? How strongly do you believe it? And what are you willing to give, what value do you put on your belief?