One of my favorite TV shows when I was growing up was “The Twilight Zone.” Remember that show?  I loved all the stories.  But there was this one episode that I’ll always remember.  

This episode was set in the future. It centers on a man, who was sentenced to a year of punishment for committing a crime. In the future, society has found a new way to punish those who break the law.  This man wasn’t sentenced to prison.  He was sentenced to invisibility.  For a year, he would be completely invisible.  

How did they do that?  Well, they couldn’t actually make the man invisible.  But they could make everyone act like he was.  The man was branded with a mark on his forehead that indicated that he was a felon and was to be treated as if he were invisible.  Anyone who saw him would have to ignore him…completely…as if they couldn’t see him. As if he wasn’t there… You couldn’t look at him.  You couldn’t talk to him.  Nobody…not friends, family, his wife, grocery clerks, cab drivers…no one could even acknowledge his existence.  

Society chose this form of punishment because to be invisible…to be ignored…not even acknowledged as a human, was worse…much, much worse than being locked up.

So, the man spent a year being completely ignored.  It was terrible.

Now, while this story may be fictional, I think it sits on a foundation of truth.  To be invisible…to be unseen…it is terrible.  And there are people in our world who experience that.  There are people that we simply do not see.

Years ago, I was leading a youth group on a service trip in Baltimore. 

It was Sunday, a day off from the work site, and we had brought our group to downtown Baltimore for a picnic by the harbor, and to go to a baseball game at Camden Yards.  I remember our group of about 30 people, walking through downtown, making our way from the harbor to the ballpark.  Downtown Baltimore was buzzing…lots of pre-game traffic…lots of people walking to the game.  And I remember a significant number of people…folks we might call homeless, who were sitting on the sidewalks.  They were asking people walking to the game for spare change.  

I was just focused on getting our group to the ballpark…I was in “the zone.”  And so, I…and our group, we just walked with purpose.  And we walked right past all these people.  Except for Cindy.  Cindy was one of our adult volunteers.  At one point, someone in the back of the group hollered, and  asked us to “wait up!”  I turned and looked, (come on, people!) and I saw Cindy.  She’d stopped and knelt down in front of an older woman who was leaning up against a building.

Our march came to a halt.  From about 30 feet away, I watched, as Cindy spoke to the woman…quietly… respectfully.  And then Cindy reached into her backpack and pulled out a half of a turkey sandwich. “This is an extra.  Would you like it?”

The woman smiled, nodded, and took the sandwich.  Cindy smiled back at her, and stood and then kept walking.

The whole exchange…maybe 30 seconds.

That night at our group devotions, we were talking about the highs and lows of our day.  One of the young people said, “We all walked past this woman…like we didn’t even see her…like she wasn’t there.  But Cindy saw her.  And Cindy gave her food, and the woman took it.  That was my highlight.”  The whole group nodded.  Cindy blushed. 

But Cindy saw this woman.  She acknowledged her.  She talked with her.  And with a half of a leftover turkey sandwich, she showed her a little compassion.

It makes wonder:  What is it like to feel unseen; to have people just walk past…without even acknowledging your existence…like you’re invisible.  That has got to feel…terrible.

And I wonder what it was like to be the widow in our Gospel story today. I’m guessing that she felt invisible.  You see, in Jesus’ day, women only existed in relation to their husbands and married sons.  This woman was a widow.  She had no family to take her in.  She had no support…no money…no food.  Powerless and able to contribute nothing to society, she was invisible.  She would walk the streets, and no one would see her.

Until Jesus.

Jesus went into the temple, and he sits down with his disciples in a spot near the treasury.  The treasury was where people would give their offerings.  Jesus and the disciples watched people line up to drop their gifts into the box.  And then Jesus saw this woman take her place and pointed her out to the disciples.  “Watch this!”  The widow put two coins into the treasury.  Why would she do this, when she really had nothing to give?  Well, Jesus tells us that she was faithful.  And that she believed that it was right to give, and that God would provide for her.  This woman trusted.

Caring for widows, orphans and immigrants was a part of Jewish teaching and culture going all the way back to the book of Deuteronomy.  God had made this covenant with the Jewish people…and God had said that caring for the most vulnerable was the very “soul of the covenant.”   

But to care for those in need, you have to see them first..

So, what are we to make of this story?  Well, there are a couple of possibilities.

First, we could take the standard approach and look at it as a stewardship story.  The woman gave all that she had.  Jesus is saying that we should follow her example, right?  Well sure…that could be the point of the story.  And it is stewardship season at Trinity, so we could just take that as our object lesson and say “Amen.”

But I think there is something else going on here today.  Another possibility is that Jesus is telling us that it is time for the people…for us…to open our eyes.  We should see, recognize and then provide care for those who are “invisible”…”unseen”…those who live on the margins.  The first step to compassion, is to see.

Those people…the unseen…they exist…they are all around us.  I have quoted in sermons before the numbers that come from our school district:  That last spring, school social workers had identified over 170 children in the Owatonna public schools who are identified as homeless.  Over 170!  People come up to me after I tell them this, and they don’t want to believe me.  They say “Pastor, that can’t be right.  We don’t see kids like that.  We don’t see homeless people in Owatonna.”

Of course not.  Because they are hidden.  They are invisible.  For whatever reason, pride, embarrassment, whatever…their families are not advertising their situation.  And we aren’t looking.  But that doesn’t mean they aren’t real.  They exist.  The schools know who they are.

And it’s not just these young people.  

• It is the hungry.  
• It is those who are lonely in nursing homes. 
• It is immigrants.  
• It is those who have lost their jobs.
• It is those who have experienced racism, or sexism, or any other “ism” the denies them basic human rights.  
• It is the sick.
• It is victims of human trafficking.  
• It is anyone who lives on the margins.

The point of our Gospel story may not be the generosity of the widow.  Instead, it might simply be that Jesus sees her.  

Maybe that’s our takeaway.  All too often in our lives, we are so busy going from one place to another, from one appointment to another.  (Come on people!) Our minds are full of our business, our own thoughts, and our own problems.  So, we are not paying attention…we are in the zone…we are not genuinely present.  And so, we don’t notice the neighbor who needs us.  We just rush past them, our eyes and minds fixed on our next task or appointment.  

Today, maybe God is reminding you that you need to slow down and to look.  You need to open your eyes…the eyes of your heart…to see the one whom you are called to love in a practical and concrete way.

I’ll be honest.  I worry about these people that we don’t see…these people who are functionally invisible.  We live in really challenging days.  And I think it is going to be up to faith community to step up, and to care for the people that the rest of our nation chooses not to see.  It’s going to be up to you…and me.

This can feel overwhelming.  But through Jesus’ love and the work of the Holy Spirit, there is power in being the church…the church together.

• Together, we are a great cloud of witness for the poor and the powerless, and we can support organizations and systems that do this important work.
• Together, we are a great cloud of witnesses and in the church, we can speak a word of welcome and hope into the lives of people who don’t experience welcome…and hope.  
• Together, we are a great cloud of witnesses, and we can care for those on the margins.
• Together, we are a great cloud of witnesses, and we have a voice…a voice to speak for the poor and the powerless.  
  

We do this because of Jesus’ love, and because of the way that Jesus sees…he saw that widow in the temple…he saw that woman on the sidewalk in Baltimore… he sees each of you.  God sees you. Completely.  And God loves you.  Completely.  Even on those days when you feel invisible…inconsequential…separated…unnoticed…God says “no…no, I see you.  I call you by name.  You are mine.” 

Here’s what I want for you:  Open your eyes.  Look.  And see.  Face to face, eye to eye.  See every single person as God sees you:  A beautiful, beloved child of God.  And make sure that no one…no one…no one…ever feels invisible.  

Amen.