"The Widow's Mite and Being the Church" Sermon for Pentecost 24 2015

Sermon:

Text: Mark 12:38-44

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who makes us the church.

            Our gospel text is one of those texts that you look at it and well, we all think we know exactly what it means. This woman gives all that she has, so we should give more to the church.

            Done and done. Right?  Ok, that’s not all. It’s some, we can in fact take that fact out, we have so much, and as we learned from our Children’s sermon, it all comes from God, and so we should indeed give it back to God.

            But, there’s a lot more going on here. This woman is not just poor, this is all she has. 2 mites, two coins that really have no value to them at all. This is not an example of time inflation where a penny would allow her to get something, she has nothing, and she gives her nothing to God.

            Would we do so? That’s the first question this text throws at us. Would we do the same in the same position? If you attended any of the chili with the bishops two-three years ago when we were just starting up the “That all may be fed” campaign to work to end hunger here in South Dakota, the Bishop frequently told a story of when he was a pastor in his first call in a rural town west of Pierre and visited an elderly widow and discovered that she was eating dog food so that she could still continue giving to the church. That is the modern day equivalent to this text, but this text goes further, this widow in our text does not even have dog food at home. She has nothing else. Jesus ends our passage saying “She out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

            This woman is doing her last actions, before death. And what she does is give back to God. In her last days, her focus is still on God. She is taking her last things, taking her life, and giving it to God.

            What’s our focus? If we had our last two cents what would we do with them? Do we put God first? What’s the important thing?

            To Jesus, in this text, this widow is the important thing. It passes us by, but it is vastly important that Jesus notices the widow. Do you think a single other person in the temple grounds noticed her? Probably not. She was certainly not showing off like the scribes from the first part of our text. No one else saw her, no one else cared about her. But, Jesus sees her, notices her, cares about her. Jesus says, all the others here are giving to show off their wealth, it’s their wealth and prestige that’s important for them, but here this widow? For her it’s God that’s important.

            That’s where we can often end looking at this text. A widow compared to the religious leaders, where she is doing the right and they are showing off. But, then we ask, why is this her last two coins? And why does this then send her to death? Where are the scribes when they read to care for the widow and the orphan?

            This text indeed asks of us, what is our focus? Is it on God or is it on the concerns of the outside world, power, prestige, money?

            But, then the text also asks, what is our church’s focus? This text is not really a stewardship text, even though this single passage is usually pulled out and used as such. It’s instead a critique by Jesus of the religious institution of the time. I don’t think he’s saying to the disciples, look how wonderful it is that this woman is giving her last tiny bit to the temple, you should do so too. I think he’s saying, how dreadful it is that this woman has no one caring for her from the institution that declares it represents the God she loves. Quoting Jesus from the line before this text, “[The scribes] devour widow’s houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.” They don't care about her like they should.

            And then right after this text as Jesus and the disciples walk out of the temple one of them remarks, look how grand this all is! Look at how amazing the temple is, how large and ornate the stone are. And Jesus says, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

            What use is this temple if it doesn't care for the people who come to it?

            This widow, gave her life to the temple, and they did not even notice her and instead built something that will not last, an ornate unnecessary monument to their prestige and sense of importance. That's what they did with her money and life.

            What Jesus did was that he gives his life for this widow he noticed. Just four days later from when our reading takes place, in fact if the widow had no food left at home as well, might have very well died the same day that Jesus did. What Jesus does for this widow who gives her life to God, is give his life for her.

            This text is indeed a stewardship text, but it’s more than a stewardship text guilting us into giving to the church, it’s a text that asks us, is our focus on God? and then is our churches focus on the mission that God has given us. Are we going to be like the scribes and strut how amazing we are? Or are we going to be like Christ and give our lives to those in need, the beloved children of God.

            I saw this post a few weeks ago on Facebook, it asks us are we a consumer church, where the church dispenses products for us, we come to church, and then leave church to go home. Where we simply go to Church. Or are we a Missional Church, where we don’t come here to be fed, but instead we come together to be fed, and then are sent out into the world to feed all those around us. Where we are the church, and it isn’t about this place, but it’s about us going out in God’s creation to serve and share the good news.

            That’s the stewardship question. Are you giving yourself and all God has given to you back to God and God’s beloved children and creation?

Are you being the church today?

Amen.