Don’t Miss The Widows Transcript

If you were here last week, you may remember that we talked about the walk to Emmaus, where the disciples traveled along the road without realizing that the stranger in their midst was Jesus. They couldn’t see him. They didn’t recognize him—until that moment when Jesus broke the bread. Then they recognized him, and immediately he disappeared from their midst. What a letdown that must have been. They finally saw who he was, and then he was gone.

Today’s story also involves a kind of unseeing, but this time it’s the early church that couldn’t see clearly. In the narrative lectionary, we’ve reached that odd part of the year where we skip over the Pentecost reading—we’ll get there in June—and dive into Acts. So today we find ourselves in Acts 6.

The community was growing. The Holy Spirit was being poured out. The named twelve disciples were leading the church and proclaiming the word. And yet, we get a taste of difficulty. A problem had arisen: not everyone in the community was being seen when it came to the distribution of food. The Hellenistic, or Greek, widows were being overlooked, while the Hebrew widows were being taken care of.

People noticed, and they came to the disciples and said, “Hey, something’s going on here. The people we should be caring for are not being cared for. What are we going to do about it?” The church was not seeing everyone in its midst. This probably wasn’t out of malice. It was likely just inattention. We tend to divide ourselves into groups. The Hebrews hung out with Hebrews. The Greeks with Greeks. And most of the twelve disciples were Hebrew-speaking and traced their lineage through Israel, not Greece.

When we’re surrounded by people like us, we often become blind to those outside our group. That’s what was happening here. Those outside the in-group were not being seen or cared for. Even in a community experiencing new life and transformation, people were still being overlooked.

The disciples had a decision to make. Should they stop sharing the gospel just to make sure food was being served? Instead, they chose a better way. They said, “Let’s find people in the congregation—people alive in the Spirit—who can take on this ministry.” They empowered others to ensure that everyone was fed.

This story mirrors our own world today. Our busyness, our blind spots, our biases—they all impact who we see and who we don’t. The challenge is the same now as it was then. When someone says, “Wait, these people are being left out,” we must pay attention. We must open our eyes and see with new vision.

I appreciate how the apostles didn’t try to solve the issue themselves. They didn’t say, “Okay, we’ll take care of it all.” Instead, they turned to the community and said, “You identify the leaders. You find those who can be trusted.” The solution came from within the people. They found gifted individuals, empowered by the Spirit, and trusted them to lead.

This wasn’t just delegation. It wasn’t saying the work was beneath them. It was about identifying Spirit-gifted people to serve where they were needed most. In the Wesleyan tradition, we call this the priesthood of all believers. Everyone has a role. Everyone has gifts. And when people don’t use their gifts, the ministry suffers.

Just like those disciples on the road to Emmaus missed Jesus, we too can miss Christ in the vulnerable around us. I know I do. Not out of malice or inattention, but sometimes because I don’t want to intrude. I tell myself that if someone needs me, they’ll come to me. But that’s not always how it works.

Why do we miss people? What are the reasons we don’t see others? Who are we not seeing—individually and collectively? Who in our community or our nation is suffering in the shadows, like the Hellenistic widows, not getting what they need simply because they are not seen?

For the good news to truly be good news, it must be lived out in justice, in compassion, and in shared responsibility. That’s the only way the church can function. It can’t rest on one, or on twelve, or even on the five who were chosen. Others had to step up.

So who in our congregation or neighborhood is not being seen? What needs to be done that we notice, but assume someone else will do? How can we be that someone? How can we use the gifts the Spirit has given us to serve others?

Because if the work only rests on a few—the leadership team, the usual volunteers—it’s not enough. There’s too much to be done. Too much will be left unseen.

How can you use your gifts in a new way? How can you support a ministry of justice or mercy? How do we practice hospitality—inviting someone to coffee, lunch, into our home, or into our church community? How do we pray daily for open eyes, asking God to help us see who’s missing and give us the courage to respond?

Like last week, don’t just walk along the road without noticing who’s beside you. Ask God to open your eyes to see Christ in the forgotten, in the lost, and in the hurting. And then—serve. Because when we do, we might just see Christ in the faces of those around us.

Amen.