How to Give
Mark 12:41-44
The scriptural story of the Widow's Mite makes an appearance in a lot of churches' stewardship campaigns--the image of the poor widow sacrificially giving what she has to the temple is irresistible as a role model.
But if we look more deeply at the story, we discover that it actually has something even more powerful and profound to say--the widow with her two coins is actually showing us a way to live into the Great Commandments--to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
To help us enter this story, consider first how giving an offering to the temple differed from our own practices. In our churches, we pass the plates during worship, sending them up and down the rows, being honest, we watch to see who drops something in and who does not. But in Jesus' day, the offering box was outside the temple, and worshippers would drop in their offering on their way into the temple. It was a more private moment, one that many folks probably paid little attention to. Jesus, though, sits across from the treasury, just observing. As he watches, he sees something profound. The widow passes by, dropping in her two coins. Amazed, Jesus calls his disciples to see what happened--and, truth be told, they probably would have ignored the whole thing if Jesus had not made them stop and pay attention.
What did Jesus see that was so profound?
First, he saw a woman who completely understood the first of the Great Commandments. She gives all she has, committing all she has, to God. She offers herself to God. She holds nothing back. She hedges nothing.
She seems to understand something you and I tend to take for granted--everything we have--even our lives--is on loan. Nothing really belongs to us, for all comes from God. Therefore, we have what we have because God shares it with us for our use while we are here. The truest statement we can make is that we are on borrowed time--we are only here for a relatively short while--God grants us the time of our lives.
Follow this little meditation--very few of us made the clothes we wear. Someone else did. Yet, we claim the clothes are ours--we own them--even though we had nothing to do with their being made. Someone we will never know clothed us. Someone gave of themselves to be sure we were dressed. And, going further back, they needed someone else to provide the raw materials they used to make our clothes. And, still further back, someone provided what they needed to provide all those raw materials until we are back to God, the Source from whom all things come.
So it is with everything we have. It all comes from God. Nothing is really and truly ours, but all is a gift of God's providence. The world itself is a gift. Therefore, the truest practice of stewardship is to realize we are charged with preserving the world for all generations. What God gives to us is meant not just for us, but is meant for all who follow. God created a world that can meet every need we will have, so we are given the responsibility of caring for the world so it will feed not only us, but every generation to follow. Environmentalism is not some whacko impulse, but being faithful to God as we care for the earth so it will continue to feed generation after generation.
Realizing that, we begin to see that to love God with our all being is to commit all we have and all we are to the service of God. It is a sure and certain sign of gratitude. The widow returns what she has to God. She gives, recognizing the deep providence of God.
And that brings into a full frontal encounter with the second Great Commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The widow makes her offering in obedience to the great codes collected in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, probably the least read books in the Bible because they quickly become a tangle of "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" as they wind through the 632 commandments God gave to Moses. But she grasped the call held therein--she gives to God in faithful service, and she trusts that everyone else with her at the temple will do the same--i.e., they, like her, will commit all they have to God, which then flows directly into the second major pole on which the Law revolves--the compassionate care of the Least of These. We love God by loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Reading through the Law, an inescapable truth is that the heart of Israel will be judged on existence of poorest member of the nation. Prophet after prophet preaches judgment on Israel when she fails to care for the Least of These--when the widows and orphans--the poorest of the poor--fall into neglect, waste, and isolation.
Therefore, the widow trusts that her fellow congregants got the message. They, too, will give all they have, and she will be cared for as God's compassion gains real arms, legs, and hearts in the people of God who will serve the needs of all in obedience to God.
That service begins as we learn how to really see one another.
Jesus truly sees. He watches the offerings made to the temple. Some are astounding. Some are routine. And some are like the widow's--apparently so small as to be missed completely. But Jesus sees the truth.
Do we?
The truth is that we are swayed by appearances. Imagine for a moment the Deacons sifting through the morning offering, readying the deposit. Imagine the bane of their effort if they should suddenly encounter a pile loose coins. We can hear them--Who out THIS in the plate? Man, what a mess! Pennies?! Are you kidding me?! Pennies!!! You can't buy squat with a penny! Oh...look here! A huge fat check! Now there's an offering worth counting! We see the appearances, but do we see the reality of what we see? Do we see the HEART behind the gifts?
Reflect on this image for a moment--I have a million dollars. In a moment of altruism, I give 90% of it away--$900,000! That is a momentous gift, but I still have $100,000-- a year's salary that will keep you far away from the county soup kitchens. A smaller gift might represent all that one has.
It all depends on the heart behind the gift--do we see that what we have is meant to be shared so that all have enough?
Faithful obedience to God is to hear the call that what we have is to be given to compassionately transform the life of the Least of These.
Consider for a moment that we live in a country that produces enough food to feed the rest of the world multiple times over.
Yet hunger persists, and it persists even within our own borders.
Consider for a moment that we live in the wealthiest country in the world, a country wherein even the lowliest paid worker makes enough in a week to match a year's salary in another country.
Yet homelessness has become a national epidemic and health crisis.
Consider for a moment that we live in a country with the technical skill to send human beings into the reaches of space and bring them home safely.
Yet more and more parents place their children on a school bus with the truly terror-stricken thought, "I hope I get to see you at the end of the day."
Such conundrums exist because we do not see what is right before us. They exist because we haven't gotten the practice of loving our neighbors as ourselves correctly yet. We create imbalances and injustices, then declare ourselves helpless to do anything to rectify them.
The widow gives all she has to God, trusting God will use all to feed all, house all, clothe all, and care for all. She gives all she has trusting that God will do so by quickening hearts and minds to follow.
So, too, can we.
First, realize all we have is a gift from God.
Second, realize gratitude is being generous with all we have so all might know the bounty of God.
Third, dedicate all we are and all we have to caring for the Least of These, for it truly is the judgment of a community of faith in how it responds to the neediest of all. Have we captured the truth that God is love? And that if we are to truly adhere to God we will love in the same manner, emptying ourselves so all might know the fullness of God?
Then, maybe we can actually transform the world, feeding its hungry, housing its homeless, and lifting all from the horrors of crushing poverty.
We just need to learn how to give.
The scriptural story of the Widow's Mite makes an appearance in a lot of churches' stewardship campaigns--the image of the poor widow sacrificially giving what she has to the temple is irresistible as a role model.
But if we look more deeply at the story, we discover that it actually has something even more powerful and profound to say--the widow with her two coins is actually showing us a way to live into the Great Commandments--to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
To help us enter this story, consider first how giving an offering to the temple differed from our own practices. In our churches, we pass the plates during worship, sending them up and down the rows, being honest, we watch to see who drops something in and who does not. But in Jesus' day, the offering box was outside the temple, and worshippers would drop in their offering on their way into the temple. It was a more private moment, one that many folks probably paid little attention to. Jesus, though, sits across from the treasury, just observing. As he watches, he sees something profound. The widow passes by, dropping in her two coins. Amazed, Jesus calls his disciples to see what happened--and, truth be told, they probably would have ignored the whole thing if Jesus had not made them stop and pay attention.
What did Jesus see that was so profound?
First, he saw a woman who completely understood the first of the Great Commandments. She gives all she has, committing all she has, to God. She offers herself to God. She holds nothing back. She hedges nothing.
She seems to understand something you and I tend to take for granted--everything we have--even our lives--is on loan. Nothing really belongs to us, for all comes from God. Therefore, we have what we have because God shares it with us for our use while we are here. The truest statement we can make is that we are on borrowed time--we are only here for a relatively short while--God grants us the time of our lives.
Follow this little meditation--very few of us made the clothes we wear. Someone else did. Yet, we claim the clothes are ours--we own them--even though we had nothing to do with their being made. Someone we will never know clothed us. Someone gave of themselves to be sure we were dressed. And, going further back, they needed someone else to provide the raw materials they used to make our clothes. And, still further back, someone provided what they needed to provide all those raw materials until we are back to God, the Source from whom all things come.
So it is with everything we have. It all comes from God. Nothing is really and truly ours, but all is a gift of God's providence. The world itself is a gift. Therefore, the truest practice of stewardship is to realize we are charged with preserving the world for all generations. What God gives to us is meant not just for us, but is meant for all who follow. God created a world that can meet every need we will have, so we are given the responsibility of caring for the world so it will feed not only us, but every generation to follow. Environmentalism is not some whacko impulse, but being faithful to God as we care for the earth so it will continue to feed generation after generation.
Realizing that, we begin to see that to love God with our all being is to commit all we have and all we are to the service of God. It is a sure and certain sign of gratitude. The widow returns what she has to God. She gives, recognizing the deep providence of God.
And that brings into a full frontal encounter with the second Great Commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The widow makes her offering in obedience to the great codes collected in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, probably the least read books in the Bible because they quickly become a tangle of "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" as they wind through the 632 commandments God gave to Moses. But she grasped the call held therein--she gives to God in faithful service, and she trusts that everyone else with her at the temple will do the same--i.e., they, like her, will commit all they have to God, which then flows directly into the second major pole on which the Law revolves--the compassionate care of the Least of These. We love God by loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Reading through the Law, an inescapable truth is that the heart of Israel will be judged on existence of poorest member of the nation. Prophet after prophet preaches judgment on Israel when she fails to care for the Least of These--when the widows and orphans--the poorest of the poor--fall into neglect, waste, and isolation.
Therefore, the widow trusts that her fellow congregants got the message. They, too, will give all they have, and she will be cared for as God's compassion gains real arms, legs, and hearts in the people of God who will serve the needs of all in obedience to God.
That service begins as we learn how to really see one another.
Jesus truly sees. He watches the offerings made to the temple. Some are astounding. Some are routine. And some are like the widow's--apparently so small as to be missed completely. But Jesus sees the truth.
Do we?
The truth is that we are swayed by appearances. Imagine for a moment the Deacons sifting through the morning offering, readying the deposit. Imagine the bane of their effort if they should suddenly encounter a pile loose coins. We can hear them--Who out THIS in the plate? Man, what a mess! Pennies?! Are you kidding me?! Pennies!!! You can't buy squat with a penny! Oh...look here! A huge fat check! Now there's an offering worth counting! We see the appearances, but do we see the reality of what we see? Do we see the HEART behind the gifts?
Reflect on this image for a moment--I have a million dollars. In a moment of altruism, I give 90% of it away--$900,000! That is a momentous gift, but I still have $100,000-- a year's salary that will keep you far away from the county soup kitchens. A smaller gift might represent all that one has.
It all depends on the heart behind the gift--do we see that what we have is meant to be shared so that all have enough?
Faithful obedience to God is to hear the call that what we have is to be given to compassionately transform the life of the Least of These.
Consider for a moment that we live in a country that produces enough food to feed the rest of the world multiple times over.
Yet hunger persists, and it persists even within our own borders.
Consider for a moment that we live in the wealthiest country in the world, a country wherein even the lowliest paid worker makes enough in a week to match a year's salary in another country.
Yet homelessness has become a national epidemic and health crisis.
Consider for a moment that we live in a country with the technical skill to send human beings into the reaches of space and bring them home safely.
Yet more and more parents place their children on a school bus with the truly terror-stricken thought, "I hope I get to see you at the end of the day."
Such conundrums exist because we do not see what is right before us. They exist because we haven't gotten the practice of loving our neighbors as ourselves correctly yet. We create imbalances and injustices, then declare ourselves helpless to do anything to rectify them.
The widow gives all she has to God, trusting God will use all to feed all, house all, clothe all, and care for all. She gives all she has trusting that God will do so by quickening hearts and minds to follow.
So, too, can we.
First, realize all we have is a gift from God.
Second, realize gratitude is being generous with all we have so all might know the bounty of God.
Third, dedicate all we are and all we have to caring for the Least of These, for it truly is the judgment of a community of faith in how it responds to the neediest of all. Have we captured the truth that God is love? And that if we are to truly adhere to God we will love in the same manner, emptying ourselves so all might know the fullness of God?
Then, maybe we can actually transform the world, feeding its hungry, housing its homeless, and lifting all from the horrors of crushing poverty.
We just need to learn how to give.
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