“Sonnets for Little People”

Ruth 1:6-18 and Mark 12:38-44

November 6 and 9, 2003

St. Paul UMC

Rev. John Fleming

I heard about the young man who was a year or two out of high school who wanted more than anything else to be a newspaper reporter. Ever since his days on his high school newspaper’s staff and his work on the year book, he dreamed of working for an important newspaper as a senior reporter. That was not a reality for him, not at first, so he took a job at a smaller newspaper in a nice sized town as that paper’s obituary writer. By the way, I learned a little something, a couple of months ago, as my family was preparing for my aunt’s memorial service. Newspapers, by and large, do not now have obituary writers. The writing of them is up to the family or to someone at the funeral home. Here is something else that I learned. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette will give you a few free lines, but not many. After those lines are filled, you have to pay for the letters. These above and beyond words are considered an advertisement. All that is an aside. I guess that our story takes place before newspapers changed who wrote up the obituaries. So this young man was hired as the newspaper’s obituary writer. He took the job because you have to start somewhere. He even dropped out of college because he believed that if you were going to be a writer, then, well, you ought to start writing. I do not necessarily agree with that. I hope that our budding writers will stay in school. The young man tells that it was immediately obvious to him the status that an obituary writer had on that newspaper’s staff. He says that there were offices all around him and several desks that were scattered throughout the middle of the room. The editor’s office was, of course, the most prominent. It was set apart with a wooden door, glass windows, with blinds that were drawn most of the time. The obituary writer did not have an office. The desk that he shared with five other people was near the back of the room, in a corner.

This budding reporter did other things. His editor gave him other writing assignments, but not the important ones. When the newspaper learned of someone’s death, it was this young man’s job to call the closest family member, to gather the facts of their lives, and to write the obituary. Of course he did not get the chance to write the obituaries of important people. That task was given to senior writers. So his job, really, was to write the obituaries for little people. The little people were those persons that no one else knew much about.

In those days, obituaries followed a certain form. This guy says tells that writing them was like painting by numbers. As a result of that, putting the words on paper was not exciting. But he did not look at it that way. Instead, he approached it as if he were writing a poem, a sonnet. You can imagine the form from which he had to operate. First, there was a person’s name. Then there was the place, the date, and the time that the service was going to be held. I admit that I do not know much about poetry, but my mother, the English teacher, advised me on this. The time and place of the service would correspond to an octave in the sonnet. Next came the sestet. That was where the person worked and the organizations that they belonged to. Then came the quatrain. That would be the family members. Then he would finish the obituary up with a couplet, the way good sonnets ended. Everyone else on the newspaper staff saw writing these things as drudgery and the job that they quickly wanted out of. But he did not see it that way. He saw it as writing sonnets for little people. Besides that, he said, “I feel useful. The family wants someone to pay attention to them. They want someone to honor their loved one. They were glad to talk to me because I was the guy from the newspaper and I could get the word out about their loved ones.” He tells that they would say things like, “I don’t know if you can get this in or not, but every summer, when we went to the lake, daddy, would swim across the thing. He did that until he was eighty-two. Can you believe that? It is nothing much, but it would be great if you could mention that.” He did get that in, but often things like that did not make it past his editor. The big obituaries were not limited in any way. They always read, “We will remember her for this or for that.” But this reporter’s job was to celebrate those things about which people usually said, “This is not much. It is not very important, but it would be nice if you could mention it.” Yes, this guy wrote sonnets for the little people.

I would like to point this out to you. The Bible is full of sonnets for little people. The two that we read this morning are great examples of that. First, there is the story of Ruth, our Old Testament lesson. It is a favorite story for many people. A lot of people are named for the Ruth in our Bible. In fact, the girl who decided that Susie and I would make a cute couple, was named Ruth. She was in our wedding. Her daddy was a preacher and he named all his kids with biblical names. The Ruth in our lesson was a Moabite woman. The good Jews who heard this story for the first time would have realized that that meant she was a foreigner. Being a foreigner to the Jewish people meant that they were not very important.

Naomi, her husband, and their two boys were good Jews who left their homeland and traveled to Moab. They did this when there was a famine in their land. This, of course, was a common experience in their day and not so uncommon in our day. My guess is that many of us know people who have left somewhere for greener pastures and the chance at a better life. Naomi and her family did that. They crossed into Moab and they settled there. They were there a long time, so long, in fact, that Naomi’s two sons fell in love and married. It was shortly after that that tragedy struck their family. The writer of this four chaptered book tells us that Naomi’s husband and then her two sons died. Can’t you just picture the trips back and forth to the cemetery? It is hard of us when someone that we love dies. There is a popular belief that death happens in threes. That belief says that when death happens once, it will happen two more times to people that we know or are acquainted with. In Naomi’s case, the three were her husband, and her two sons. Naomi is left grieving. Grieving with her are the wives of her two sons. Naomi decides that it is time for her to return home and when she announces that to her daughters-in-law, they want to go with her. She says to them, “You do not need to follow me. You have no obligation. Stay here with your families. I cannot give you any more sons to marry.” Her words convince Orpah. She turns back and goes home. Ruth will not do that. Instead of turning back, she says these great words, “Whither thou goest I will go. Where you dwell, I will dwell. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” That is it. That is all that Ruth did. It is all that she did, but she did give us a good picture of fidelity. By the way, I always try to keep a straight face when I meet with couples and they tell me that they want to use this scripture at their wedding. The bride usually loves these words, “Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, there I will be buried and not even death can separate us.” They are great words. I want to ask, though I never have, “Do you know that these words are about a girl and her mother-in-law?” Most brides and grooms do not have a high opinion of their mother-in-law. But of course I do. But sure and tell Susie that. She is out of town this weekend.

I will tell you, it is remarkable that this story is in the Bible at all. You can see why it is at the end of the fourth chapter. Ruth marries a relative of Naomi and the line of David stays intact. That is important. If it were not for that, I am not sure that these words would have made it in the Bible. The Jewish writers would have never included it. They tended to be exclusive. Christians are an exception to that, aren’t we? We do not separate ourselves into groups, do we? Methodists would never talk about Baptists, would we? Perhaps this story is here to say to us that God is bigger than any boundary that separates us.

The Bible is wonderful and full of surprises. Most of them can be found in sonnets for little people. The book of Ruth is such a sonnet. But so is the story of the widow in the Temple, the second lesson that I would like for us to look at this morning. Jesus sets the scene with a description of some very important people. He says, “Beware of the scribes, who go about in long robes, and receive salutations in the market places...” Salutation here means salute. So it means that these important people liked to go about in public places, like a mall. They go because that is where the people are. And because they are famous, it means that they will be recognized.

Mark tells us a little more. He says that these men like the best seats in the synagogue and a place at the head table at banquets. Jesus has talked about this sort of thing before, I believe! Mark tells us that these robe wearing people devour widows’ houses and cover it up with piety. Listen to this, they are religious because in their day, the way to success was religion. In that world, you got to the top by moving up the religious ladder. If you were a priest, then the way to go was to be elected as a high priest. In our world, it would happen like this. You would graduate from seminary, pastor a small church and then larger ones. Then you would become a district superintendent and then elected to the episcopacy. If that is the way to success, friends, then I say no thank you. I am perfectly happy here! But in those days that is the way that it was. And not just for priests, but for lay persons, too. If you had these positions, you wore vestments, long robes, as symbols of your office. “Beware of the scribes who go about in long robes and have salutations paid to them.”

That sets up our second sonnet for a little person, this poor widow at the Temple. It must have been in the middle of their stewardship campaign. Mark tells us that there were a lot of people there, coming in and going out, and putting money in the coffers. Others are milling around, hanging out, and noticing what others are giving. I think that they are looking to see who the big givers are. Jesus is there with his disciples. The twelve, like everyone else, are watching for the heavy hitters. When the heavy hitters gave money to the treasury, it made a lot of noise. The collection plates were horned shaped. Coins were the currency of the day and when a lot of them were dropped, noise was inevitable. In line with everyone else is a poor widow. She comes into the temple alone. No one notices her. No one has noticed her for a long time. There she is, in line with everyone else. When she drops her coins in, which were worth about a penny, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked, “Did you see that woman? Did you see what she did? She has given the greatest gift?” The disciples may have been thinking, “Did we miss it? We did not hear her donation!” We do not know a lot about this widow. The Bible does not give us her name. Look at her example. If you think that tithing is heroic, try doing what she did. She was a percentage giver all right, and her percentage was one hundred percent! Here is what I think. I think that Jesus noticed her because she reminded him of him. She gave all that she had. He was about to do the same thing, on a cross. When he saw her, it was as if he were looking in a mirror that was so clear, that he called his disciples over and said, “You have got to see this!” Ah, another sonnet to a little person. Her story is here as an example for us.

Let me ask you, what are the words of scripture saying to you this morning? Well, we are running out of time, so let me quickly say this to you. I know that I promised to preach about stewardship only once during once during campaign. If you are going to hold me to that promise, then listen carefully this morning. What am I up to this morning? I want you to hear that stewardship and making significant contributions to the church (I am not just talking about money) is not just for the important people, the big hitters. I have, every year since I was twelve years old, given something to the church. Listen to this carefully. The church is not just something that you give your money to, dues toward. The church is something that you give your life to. And it takes everyone, all of us, to make the church work. Maybe that is the reason that Paul compared the church to a body. You will remember that Paul said that it takes all of the body’s parts working together, to make the body work. Hands cannot say that they do not need the feet. Feet cannot say that they do not need the mouth. And, well, you get the idea. The church’s success is not dependent on its budget. Stewardship is more than money. It is taking care of the gifts that God has put inside of you. And everyone must do their part.

I heard about a church’s vacation Bible school. During a recreation time, the kids were playing Red Rover. You know that game, don’t you? There are two lines of kids. The kids decide who to send over and with full steam ahead, that person tries to break the line. If they cannot, then they become part of that team. It was late in the game and the opposing team called for Betty to come over. She squinted, dug in her heels, and then she plopped down on her knees and started crying. The teacher ran over to her and asked her what was wrong. Listen to what she said, “I don’t want to play anymore! I don’t want to play anymore!” When her teacher asked her why, she said, “They have everyone and all I have is me!” Can you see it? Everyone is important for our church, but especially the little people. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to Rev. Mark Trotter for the opening story in this sermon. Special thanks to God who has given us all gifts to use)