We all have a money story, whether we recognize it or not. The worship series “Our Money Story” invites us to discover and tell our money stories in light of God’s money story of liberation and justice. This series will encourage us to transform our stewardship practices into more full expressions of who we are and what we believe.
Two weeks ago, we Remembered many things! We remembered the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples on World Communion Sunday. We remembered stories from the Bible about love, justice, and forgiveness. Last Sunday we Released many things: The money stories that no longer serve us, whatever is holding us back from trusting God wholeheartedly, our fear, our shame, our guilt, and our regrets. This Sunday we will Reimagine! Scripture calls us to reimagine a world where our social and economic systems are not built to disparage or impoverish, but instead to provide for and benefit all.
Here are this Sunday’s scripture readings:
Leviticus 19: 9-10; 25: 8-12
“When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God.”
“Count off seven weeks of years — that is, seven times seven — so that the seven weeks of years totals forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet blown on the tenth day of the seventh month. Have the trumpet blown throughout your land on the Day of Reconciliation. You will make the fiftieth year holy, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee year for you: each of you must return to your family property and to your extended family. The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee year for you. Do not plant, do not harvest the secondary growth, and do not gather from the freely growing vines because it is a Jubilee: it will be holy to you. You can eat only the produce directly out of the field.
Mark 12: 38-44
As he was teaching, Jesus said, “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They want to be greeted with honor in the markets. They long for places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.”
Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.”
Consider these resources for the texts:
- The Bible for Normal People Podcast: “Reimagining Scripture for a Suffering World”
- PBS: Matthew Desmond on America’s Poverty Crisis
Now consider these questions:
- In Leviticus, Moses receives from God instructions for how the Israelites are to live after generations of enslavement. One such way provides a means of social welfare by which farmers were to leave gleanings for the poor. Another practice is that of Jubilee, when, in a fifty-year cycle, imbalances within the economic structure are rebalanced. Can you imagine a world in which we adhere to these instructions today? What would it take to make this a reality? How would the world change, especially for those living on the margins of society?
- Most importantly, how do you feel when asked the questions above? Why do you think you feel that way?
- Before the destruction of the Temple, the treasury was the method used to fulfill the demands of Torah for the collection of alms. The widows and perennially dispossessed were to be cared for through safety nets that were created, yet the systems weren’t working and needed reimagining. This widow gives all she has and the system fails her. What if Jesus tells this story to show us, in contrast, a new – and yet ancient – way of sharing, distributing resources, and caring for people?
- How can we reimagine systems of charity that inevitably fail to honor and uplift, that fail to provide true transformation and liberation?
- How can we reimagine how we earn and how we distribute resources as faith communities?