Sermon Title: - "Reckless giving, Confident living" - Pastor John
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I read a funny internet joke this week.
Little Johnny comes into his Pastor very upset: his cat had died. “Pastor,” said Johnny, “Will you bury my cart?” Tenderly the Pastor explained, “I’m not sure I can do that. The church has not decided whether or not cats have souls.” Dejected, Johnny said, “Well, that’s OK, if you won’t Rev Smith done the street said he would do it for $500 dollars.” The Pastor re-thinking the proposition said, “Hold on Johnny, you didn’t tell me your cat was a Lutheran.”
Today's lesson from St. Mark's Gospel seems to be about money too, just like our joke. Money can make us do funny things, like offer to bury dead cats or such. Money is so powerful not because of what it is, but because of what it symbolizes to us, what it means to us. Money gives us security, or at least it seems to give us security. Money can provide a lot of the things that appear to make life meaningful. It can buy big comfortable, impressive houses or fancy cars. It can take us to exotic places or on luxurious cruises and vacations. Yet money has a dark side too. It can be used to manipulate us into using others unfairly. Money can be used to control even those closest to us like spouses or children - money or the threat of being cut off from money, an inheritan ce, can be used to bend people to our will. Money is a very highly charged, powerful motivator in our lives.
Yet, today's Gospel is not ultimately about money. It's about trusting in God and about thanking God for all the wonderful gifts we receive, and its about loving God. If we can understand today's Gospel lesson as a call to respond to God's love, then we have received its message.
The Gospel starts out talking about the scribes whom Jesus holds up as an example of religious successes who like to show off by wearing the signs of their learning and status in public. They like the honor they receive. Now, if we think of them merely as Jesus' opponents from the first century and write them off as greedy Jews, we won't get Jesus' point. Jesus' own disciples were as greedy for position and power as the scribes or as any of us are. It is part of our human nature to want to out do others, be successful and have public recognition of our achievements. Earlier this fall, John and James, the disciples asked Jesus to give them places of honor when he came into his kingdom. They wanted, they said, to be at his right hand and at his left. And he told them w hoever wants to be first must be last, and be servant of all. In Jesus' value system it is self-sacrifice, it is abandoning self and loving others, putting others ahead of ourselves that brings true honor.
In contrast to the scribes, Jesus lifts up the widow who makes her offering at the temple. When Jesus was in Jerusalem he was always at the temple teaching, worshipping. Her offering is small, but Jesus lifts up her offering as a model for everyone else to follow. She has almost nothing, yet she gives all of this meager, tiny, amount to God.
Why?
Why would a woman who was a widow- now this was first century Israel, she had no social security check to anticipate, probably little property because her husband's property had gone to her children - why would this widow give 100% to God? She had two coins, she could have given half Yet she gives both. Jesus tells us that it was all she had to live on.
Why?
Why would someone be that reckless, that daring? One coin would have bought enough bread to keep her going one more day. Or was she like the widow of Zarapheth in our first lesson just too tired of living to bother anymore? In that story, we see a woman ready to prepare her last meal, but like our Gospel's widow she is only too ready to share. This woman is conscious of having nothing. She knows, in a way that we can't, what total dependence on God is.
Jesus holds up her faith as a model because she remembers all the times God has been there for her before. God was there when she was born and when she gave birth, carried her through drought, poverty and disease. God had spared her countless times before, so she had been schooled in her poverty over years to love God and to lean on God come what may. She's a widow. She's buried a husband. God has seen her through that too, and lifted her up when the weight of her loneliness drove her to her knees. God had taught her to be totally dependent on him. She's no fool. She knows that all flesh will wither and die, but with her dying breath she is going to return thanks with her whole being. God has given her 100%; she's going to give it back.
Every week we have an opportunity to pass around the "temple" treasury - only we call it our offering plate. Some people mistakenly call it the collection - and look at the offering time as a kind of intermission from their real worship. Such an understanding misses the point. The offering is not a form of tax which we level on ourselves to support a charity. The offering is in a very real way an act of love.
When you return your offering to God it simply bears the form of money. What you put in that offering plate is a gift to God. It is a gift of your time - it took your precious time to earn the money in the offering envelope. It is a gift of your strength, health, imagination, creativity and vigor - all those you use to earn your money and all of those are gifts to you from God. What you put in that offering plate is really you. The question becomes then, what part of you are you going to offer back to God?
Tied up with that question are all kinds of complex emotions and feelings. How much do you trust God to be there for you? How grateful do you feel for all that God has given and continues to give? Ultimately, the question that is reflected in your offering is how much do you love God?
Lutheran theology tells that God gave 100% for us. Jesus is God's offering to and for us. We don't owe God 10%, we owe God all, because God give us all. Some people like the widow of our Gospel story or Mother Theresa, a modern model of faithfulness, give back everything. We all know those who give back nothing. God is not going to tell you what to give; you have to listen to your heart to tell. When you listen, know this, God adores you with complete, sheer and utter love - no matter what you give.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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