November 7, 2021 Sermon

Sermon title: "The Widow's Mite"

Scripture: Mark 12:  38-44

{{Other lectionary suggestions include Ruth 3: 1-5 and 4: 13-17,

Psalm 127, and Hebrews 9: 24-28.}}

          Mark 12: 38-44

Jesus Denounces the Scribes

          38 As he taught, he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."

The Widow’s Offering

          41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

          The title of today's sermon is "The Widow's Mite", and the term "mite" means something very small. We of course have terMITES, and they are very small! You have probably heard of some small bugs called "mites", and THEY are very small! So the term "the widow's mite" means the small, small amount of her offering in the Temple treasury.

          Before I continue, I want to share with you a line I read on Thursday morning, the day I started this sermon. The line was, "The opposite of love isn't hate. The opposite of love is GREED." Now I don't know if that's true or not, but it is worthy for us to consider. And it's especially worthy of us to consider during stewardship season, and during this sermon on what we heard from Mark's Gospel. All these rich people seem to be putting a lot in the Temple treasury, and this widow puts in two cents, and Jesus says she has given more than the rich people because she put in all she had.

          Let me be clear: not everyone should put in everything he/she has into the offering plate or into all the good charities that exist. Jesus is simply making a point about a woman giving her ALL, and Jesus himself is about to give HIS all. Look where we are in Mark's Gospel: the end of chapter 12. There are only 16 chapters in the Gospel acc. to Mark, and Jesus gets crucified in Chapter 15! So we are near the end, and Jesus knows he is nearing the end, too. Perhaps that's one reason the widow giving her ALL made such a big impression on Jesus, because he was about to give his ALL, too.

          Before the passage about the poor widow, we heard Jesus lay into those religious folks who would do things for show. I think we would all agree that Jesus cares about the heart. In another passage, Jesus says that when you fast, don't mess up your face and try to look as if you're suffering!  And when you give alms, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing! (That's a great line in itself, isn't it?!) The point is, give from the heart, and nobody else needs to know about it!

          As most of you know, I got into the ministry rather late in life, and I determined I wasn't going to look at the church's books to see who gave what.  That is still my practice, and the reason I do that is that I don't want to treat some parishioners different from others based on what they give. For example, if Sadie gives a million dollars to the church but Herkimer gives only a half-million, I don't want to treat her any better than I treat him! Now there are of course disadvantages to that approach, but there are advantages, too. Also, I firmly believe that what you give is totally between you and God. I do hope you'll give to the church - but I know there are other good causes, too, and they may deserve your support as much as the church does.

          But back to Jesus: he seemed to be SO against doing things for show, and the ultra-religious who showed off their religiousness seemed to irk him no end! And apparently those mentioned in today's Scripture lesson were quite religious on the Sabbath but during the week they figured out ways to take away widows' houses! They could say long prayers, but they could also steal from the poor. Maybe what I said earlier is right: the opposite of love is GREED, and those ultra-religious people fed their greed by stealing from the poor. We have such stuff going on in our own society. We have members of Congress who have traded stocks on inside information - secretly, of course! and made a bundle because they knew something the rest of us didn't know about. Again, GREED may be the opposite of love, not hate. When I read the Scripture to Harlane, she pointed out that one of the elements of being a person of faith is that just because you can give a lot of money does NOT mean that you don't have to do anything else! And that's a good point. You may be in a financial position to give more of your personal wealth than the next person. but that doesn't mean you can sit on your laurels. I remember a scene from "Schindler's List", starring Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who, under Adolf Hitler, made money making weapons for the Nazi war effort in WW II. He also saved many Jewish lives, having them work in his munitions factories, claiming that they were necessary for the German war effort. Near the end of the movie, even after all he has done to save so many Jews from the concentration camps, he is in tears, as I recall, as he looks at an expensive ring he is wearing, and he wonders, "How many could I have saved if I had not bought this?" And I think he looks at his expensive car and wonders, "How many more Jews could I have saved if I didn't drive such an expensive car?" The point is and Neeson's character understood the point - even with all Schindler did to save lives, he realized he could have done even more. So maybe one of the points of today's Scripture reading is even if you CAN give more than the next guy, and we thank you very much for your generosity (!), look around! There still may be other ways that you can serve the Lord!

          The Scottish scholar William Barclay said that two things determine the value of any gift. There is the spirit in which it is given, and there is the sacrifice which it involves. He said a gift that is given with a grudge or as a display loses half its value. Perhaps that is how we are to understand what Jesus and his disciples saw in the Temple that day: those donating huge sums made sure other people saw how much they were giving! Also, the gifts of the rich didn't cost them that much, acc. to Barclay.but what the poor widow gave was everything she had. Barclay quotes a verse of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross". "Were the whole realm of Nature mine, That were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine Demands my soul, my life, my all." And Barclay concludes his remarks on this passage by saying this: "Only a completely insensitive person could read the story of the widow and her two {{coins}} without searching and humiliating self-examination."

          Again, as I have said before, God doesn't want you to go live under a bridge somewhere. And I'm sure William Barclay lived in a nice house in Scotland! But we should realize that all we have is given to us by God, and we don't OWN it. We are stewards of all God has given us, and I think we are called to be as generous as we can be. And each of us can probably do more. But that is between you and God. In what ways can you do more?

          Amen.

          Pastor Skip