Village Shepherd

A group of us from South Norfolk have recently returned from pilgrimage in Greece and Turkey, following in the footsteps of St Paul and visiting too the seven churches mentioned by St John the Divine in the book of Revelation. Most of the churches are now archaeological sites, but it's wonderful to actually step into the history of our faith in this very real way.

St John the Divine was exiled on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. He mostly lived in a cave, where he dictated his book (detailing his visions) to a scribe. We visited the cave, which is high up in the hills and were able to look out of the window towards Ephesus, the same view which St John had. The cave still has its rocky floor and ceiling and walls, but the interior is now quite grand. There is a case said to contain the relics of St John, which people bend to kiss as a mark of respect, and there is lavish gold and silver. Like the Orthodox Church we visited in Kavala, it was ornate, resplendent with riches.

It is so natural for human beings to want to praise and worship God and to afford God the best of everything. It doesn't seem quite right to worship God with cheap materials or cheap surroundings, so most churches contain something of value. Yet somehow it all seems a far cry from the Jesus of history who cleared the temple of the moneychangers and who criticized the scribes for strutting around in long robes in order to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets.

It seems far distant from the Jesus who had a particular concern for the poor and weak and marginalized, who hobnobbed with thieves like Matthew the tax collector and who allowed women to massage his feet with precious ointment and then dry them with their hair.

Perhaps the problem is that obvious signs of wealth so often go hand in hand with corruption. This is what had happened in the temple, both with the merchants who traded there supplying pilgrims with what they needed for sacrifices, and with the priests who were so much part of the culture of power that they were content to live off the backs of the poor.

Jesus constantly reserved his greatest condemnation for hypocrites, those who like the scribes in today's reading flaunted their religiosity by saying long prayers for the sake of appearance but who devoured widows' houses. Scribes who were legal trustees of a widow's estate usually charged exorbitantly for their services. The fee was a part of the estate, but some took the entire house of the widow. They could, of course, do this legally, and no-one questioned their right to do so. It occurred only to Jesus that what they were doing was wrong and he said that they would be judged harshly.

Jesus then contrasted the greed and hypocrisy of the scribes with the genuineness and generosity of a poor widow. As Jesus and his disciples watched people putting their monetary gifts into the temple coffers, the disciples were impressed by richness of some of the gifts. Wealthy people ostentatiously gave large sums of money to the temple. But Jesus looked at things differently, putting a different perspective on the gifts. Although the widow only gave a couple of small coins, Jesus said, "The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford--she gave her all."

We live in an age which encourages hypocrisy. We pay lip service to the poor and marginalized but celebrate the rich and famous. We throw up our hands over global warming but refuse to consider adapting our life-styles to any degree. We talk about healthy living but allow advertising of unhealthy food.

Jesus commended the widow because she gave her all, just as God gives God's all to us. Jesus condemned the wealthy because their large gifts hardly dented their pockets. What about us? Are we hypocrites or do we give sacrificially to God?