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Jesus sat opposite the treasury and observed everyone
and saw the widow…
Some years ago,when my brother Paul was dying of pancreatic cancer,
I remember we were in the hospital at Stanford,
several weeks before he would eventually die,
but we knew the time was close.
I remember this time when my sister-in-law and I
were sitting with him
and the nurse came in and started to talk about the next steps.
Clearly, we needed to make some difficult decisions.
And so Paul propped himself up in the bed,
adjusted the bed, and proceeded to listen.
The nurse talked to my sister-in-law and me
but never said a word to him and never even looked his way.
Eventually Paul got irritated and said,
“Excuse me, excuse me, if you don’t mind.
I know I have cancer, but I am not dead.
And I can still hear and I can still see.
And as you can see, I can still speak.
So do you not mind talking about me but talk to me?
You are going to talk to me, not about me.”
She was a little discombobulated and then continued.
Part of the reason for this was Paul did not feel seen.
Paul did not feel valued in that moment.
They were so set on tending to the disease,
they forgot the human with the disease.
Paul and I had spoken early on in his journey with cancer
and I encouraged him to be the advocate for himself,
be the agent of his own care until he could no longer do that.
And then my sister-in-law and I would take over
and be an advocate for him when he could not do so for himself.
That is why he was so strong and did what he did.
Soon weeks would go by and
he would have no more strength to advocate for himself.
Then it was our turn to advocate for him,
to make sure that he was seen and valued
as a human being and not for the disease he had.
In today’s gospel, there is a very powerful line.
At the beginning, Jesus sits opposite the treasury
and observes as all who come forward to the treasury.
And in observing what takes place,
he highlights and advocates for the one who is not seen, the widow.
The widow would have been irrelevant to so many at that time.
She was after all, only putting in two small coins.
A widow would have been an outcast
because she had no one to care for her.
She along with orphans and children and the disabled
would have been bundled up and the cast to the side,
better off not to be seen.
But Jesus brings that light
and advocates for the one who is not seen, heard,
or who has no dignity, is not valued.
That is our role as disciples:
to advocate for those who are not seen,
who are hurting and struggling to be seen.
And for me, I am saying tonight, in a special way,
we are advocates for all of you who have lost loved ones
and we acknowledge your pain,
especially those who have just lost a loved one.
How hard it is.
Most often unseen, we suffer at loss.
Grief is a heavy burden to carry.
And people will often tell us, it is time to get over your loss,
but we carry the grief inside of us.
It is a heavy weight.
Sometimes it hurts,
but it is important that we recognize its weight together.
What we do tonight, in a special way,
is acknowledge the weight that you have been carrying.
We cannot take that weight away because it is your grief.
We probably do not even fully understand
the magnitude of the grief that you feel,
whether it be near or a long time ago.
But what we can do is see you.
What we can do is acknowledge your pain and walk with you.
And we hope that in walking with you, we can, in some way,
lighten the load if only for tonight.
We want to share in that.
Now, what is interesting is that,
it is not just those who have lost something here in a loved one.
Tonight, we want to acknowledge is that
there are many people who might have lost a job.
There are many types of losses.
Half the nation are grieving this week
because they feel they lost something profound,
that they have lost their candidate.
It is important for us to walk with them as they grieve their loss.
That is important for us to do
because we are one community regardless of how we voted.
We need to care about their pain,
about their loss, their their lost dreams.
They are grieving a loss. 47% of America are grieving that loss.
And so we must help them carry that loss.
We must see them and we must acknowledge their pain.
That is the righteous thing to do.
You see tonight, it is important for us as we carry
and help to carry each other is losses
here in our loved ones that you have given the pictures of.
And we will have a ritual for that in just a moment.
But what we do is acknowledge the grief,
we observe and see each other as human beings who are carrying it.
Now, one thing about grief is important,
that we should reflect on it just for one second.
While a grief cannot, in a sense be carried by anybody else,
we need to understand what it is.
It is a incredible transformative energy.
And if we can hold it,
carry it, harness it,
then instead of it making us bitter, it can give us blessing.
Instead of us being broken by it, it can make us beautiful.
But it is only with God’s grace that
this transformation can happen,
that we do that together.
The grief and the energy of grief
then can be transformed into blessing, beauty and goodness.
As we understand the love that we have shared
continues to feed us now as we recognize the loss of our loved one,
we recognize the presence of their love in our life
that holds us and that carries us.
And in the end it will complete us.
Tonight, as we come forward,
to remember our loved ones,
to light a candle, to bring that candle
and place it in the sand here tonight,
we help each other carry the grief
and to transform the grief into blessing, beauty and goodness.
It will be that, that will transform this community
into a community that is one in God who is love itself.
May God take all our loved ones to himself for all eternity.
And one day, we will join him as well.
Together we will be one in heaven.
Until then, we will ask those clouds of witnesses
to witness to us their love and
help us to carry our grief and each other’s grief.
We rely on the communion of saints a
and that great cloud of witnesses to carry the pain.
Jesus sat opposite the treasury and observed everyone
and saw the widow…
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