November 9, 2003; 22 Pentecost B Readings: 1Kings 17:8-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44; Psalm 146.   The Rev. Dr. Hilary B. Smith Fruits of the Spirit Jesus talks about the scribes and the widow. Neither the scribes nor the widow are what they appear to be. The scribes appear to be rich and endowed with authority. The widow appears to be poor and with no authority. What does it mean to be rich? What is true authority? We shall see that it is not appearances that matter, but, rather, the orientation of a person’s heart. "As Jesus taught, he 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 synagogue and places of honor at banquets!" People who observe the appearance of the scribes look upon them with respect. They are dressed in a way that gives the appearance of authority. They are greeted with respect in the market place. They have the best seats during worship. They have places of honor at community gatherings. None of those characteristics are negative in themselves. The problem that Jesus names is one of motivation. The scribes desire authority and honor. They are focused on attaining a position of privilege. The focus of their attention says much about who they are. Using theological language, we could say that their loves are disordered. They love authority, privilege and honor. They look to externals to define who they are. The scribes, of all people should, know that God is to be their greatest love. A few verses earlier in Mark’s gospel, Jesus and one of the scribes were discussing the Shema, Deut. 6:5-6, the most important commandment, "Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." Scribes are among those most learned in the faith. They have all the resources to study and to pray. And, yet, somewhere along the way, the scribes whom Jesus is describing lost sight of their calling. They lost sight of the One who endows them with authority. Immediately after teaching about the scribes, Jesus talks about the widow. Jesus is watching people put money into the treasury. He compares the rich people with the widow. The rich put in large sums; they appear to have more. The widow has only two small copper coins; she appears to be poor. Jesus, once again, shows that true authority and true wealth come from God. The rich give from their abundance, but the widow gives all that she has. Jesus implies that she is able to do this because of her faith. She is able to do this because her heart is oriented toward God. She has God and God’s promises in clear view. In this, she is rich and she has authority. She is motivated by love and not by self-interest. Because she is motivated by love, she is able to do much good. The scribes lost sight of the One who endows them with authority. Life gets really difficult when we lose sight of God. Even those of us who seek to follow God can get lost. St. Ignatius gave this meditation to those who were seeking to follow Jesus. Writing about Ignatius, Thomas Green, a Jesuit priest, explains that the meditation was based on an image from a medieval military practice. "[A]rmies fought under a flag in formation and the flag-bearer, or standard-bearer, was the crucial figure in the whole formation. The soldiers took their positions—knew they were in the right place—by looking up to the flag and checking where they stood in respect to it (Thomas Green, A Vacation with the Lord: A Personal Directed Retreat Based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000 p. 8)." Ignatius had a keen awareness of culture forces that draw us from following Jesus. We need to be looking to Jesus to see if we are on track. We want to follow the flag that is Christ. The problem comes in that the battlefield is a confusing place. Green states that, "[e]ven when we are committed to the Lord, it is still possible to drift into the wrong army" (Green, pp. 89-90). Two people can be doing similar activities but for very different reasons. How can we look to Jesus for our orientation? How are we to know when we are on the right track in the spiritual life? If you cannot know through appearances, how can you tell? One way to know about our spiritual health is to look for the fruits of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:22, we hear that, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control". When these fruits of the Spirit are present in an individual’s life or in the life a community, we know that the individual or the community is on the right track. All authority comes from God. All true wealth comes from God. When we look to God, orient ourselves to God, and trust in God, God’s power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21). Amen.