Twenty third Sunday after Pentecost
November 8, 2009
The Gospel: Mark 12:38-34
Sermon: "Keeping Up Appearances"
The Rev. Dr. Vicki L. Smith, Rector
The Gospel: Teaching in the temple, Jesus said, "Beware of the scribes, 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! They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."
He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."
Mark 12:38-44
Keeping Up Appearances Twenty third Sunday after Pentecost - November 8, 2009
I wonder if perhaps you know Hyacinth Bucket (spelled bucket but said boo-kay) from the television show “Keeping Up Appearances?” Hyacinth is a middle-aged British woman who is always striving to impress the “right” people with her candlelight suppers, and her royal Daulton china. She always makes sure to tell callers that she is speaking on her white trimline phone with redial feature and that her sister Violet has a country estate with room for a pony. Hyacinth is a caricature and she makes us laugh because she is so extremely desperate to impress.
And yet, there’s just a little bit of truth in her, just as there is in the scribes that Jesus warns us about in today’s gospel. Appearance is important to us—like Hyacinth and the scribes, we want to impress people and have them think well of us. Think about it. We exercise probably mostly for our health, but we like to look good too. And who among us hasn’t put the dirty dishes in the oven when unexpected company arrives? Just a couple weeks ago, I asked the church photographer to get rid of my double chin and wrinkles, and I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one to do that. Appearance matters to us; we care pretty deeply about what people think of us.
Those examples are all fairly harmless, but we know that sometimes our desire to impress can become desperate. Sometimes, our desire to impress takes us over and becomes something to hide behind, creating a false face to present to the public. Sometimes, we try to make people see our sparkling appearance so that they don’t see the uncertain, fearful, sinful person we are underneath. It’s like putting on a mask, so that people don’t know who we really are.
And it may work with people; it seems it often does; people may indeed be impressed with us and our illusions, but it doesn’t work with Jesus—that’s clear from this morning’s lesson. Jesus sees and notices everything—about the scribes, about the poor widow and about us. For good or ill, he sees beyond the mask, behind the efforts to impress.
Jesus notices the scribes hiding behind their appearance of piety; and he notices their behavior, stealing widow’s houses, that gave lie to that appearance. Jesus is not fooled by appearances. He notices whether there’s something behind our appearances, or not. He notices when our appearances are false, when we use our ability to impress to hide something shameful, sinful or unworthy, or perhaps simply our feelings of inadequacy and fear. Jesus knows which gestures are empty, like the scribes’ long prayers, and which are genuine, like the poor widow’s gift of two small coins. Like the scribes, we can put a lot of energy into appearances, and ultimately, Jesus is not impressed.
What Jesus is impressed by, are genuine acts of faith, no matter how small. Jesus sat in the treasury and watched what was going on. The treasury was an open courtyard at the temple, a courtyard where both men and women could come. There were several metal boxes around the edges, each with something like a trumpet horn on the top. Each box received offerings for some specific activity at the temple and because the boxes and the trumpet horns were metal, coins made a noise when someone put them in. When big coins, rich people’s coins, went in—there was a loud clang. When little coins went in, there was a small clink. Jesus heard all the loud clangs, everybody did; but Jesus also heard the small clinks. And Jesus noticed the widow who put those coins in, even though nobody else saw her at all. She was poor, not worthy of recognition, and virtually invisible to her society. But she wasn’t invisible to Jesus; he noticed her and he heard the quiet clink of two small coins. And he know what that meant, he knew that hers was a genuine act of faith. Neither the woman nor her contribution were impressive to the disciples, but they were both noticed by Jesus, and he was impressed. Jesus was so impressed that we know the story of the poor widow thousands of years later.
Would that we could be more like that poor widow; not necessarily giving away all that we have—I don’t think that’s what Jesus asks, but instead living as she did, offering acts of genuine faith from who she was and what she had. Would that we could do as she did—not wasting our time and energy on appearances but instead using all that we have and all that we are in the service of God with genuine acts of faith, compassion and giving. Keeping up appearances wears us out and is basically pointless—how much better it would be if we would work as hard to impress our God as we do to impress one another.
In Jesus’ name.