The Subversive Widow

24th Sunday after Pentecost

November 11, 2012

Mark 12: 38-44

“They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything.”

(Mark 12:44)

Devotion

These verses come from the parable of the widow’s mite. We’ve heard it before.
It is a sweet story of a poverty-stricken widow who gives a little. And that little is
everything.

But when read in context with the rebuke of powerful men just before this parable,
the words are quite stunning. Subversive, even.

The one with no status is celebrated over the ones with much status. The one of
no account is commended over those who hold the accounts of others. The
invisible one does more than the ones who desire to be seen.

Whom might you see, really see, this week who was once invisible? How might they
surprise you? How might you, like Jesus, tell the story of the one of no account to
those in power, so we all might be suitably stunned by the surprising mind of God?

Prayer

God, help us to truly see where we have not seen before.

Rev. Greg Smith
Shelburne United Methodist Church
Shelburne, VT