A huge sofa filled the sidewalk in front of a home. Evidently the sofa had been taken out to the curb by the owner for trash collection. Since the sofa was in pretty good shape, a lot of people driving by slowed down for a closer look. But when they saw how big it was, they'd pass on by without stopping. Eventually a compact car pulled up, and two men got out. They removed all the cushions, turned the sofa upside down, and shook it hard. Then they picked up all the coins that tumbled out of the sofa, jumped back into their car and drove away. Have you ever noticed that some people have a gift for making money? It seems like everything they touch turns to gold.
Then there are other people who have missed out altogether on that gift and have no such luck. If money were a highly contagious and deadly virus, they would be healthy all their lives. Our scripture reading for today concerns a woman who had very little material wealth. Mark refers to her as "a poor widow." Can you comprehend or imagine how difficult it was in that day and time for widows? Almost all women were full-time homemakers. There were no other options. Many people, particularly men, died while they were still very young. Suppose your husband, whom you depend upon for financial support, dies at an early age? Besides the burden of grief, how would you put food on the table? There was no way a respectable woman could survive unless she came from a family that could help take responsibility for her. That is why there are those arcane laws in the Old Testament instructing a man to take his brother's widow and marry her. (e.g. Deut. 25) These scriptures reflect a duel concern for perpetuating the family line and taking care of family members with no other means of support. This is also why taking care of widows was such a priority for the early church.
Widows often still have it hard today. By biblical standards, however, the plight of the woman who loses her husband today is usually not nearly as dire as it was back then. When Mark says that this woman was "a poor widow," he was probably making a huge understatement. This woman was probably "dirt poor," as they say in the South. She probably lived on a subsistence level where every coin had to be accounted for. So it naturally caught Jesus' eye when he saw this poor woman putting two small copper coins into the temple treasury. These coins were worth only about a penny, but for someone in her situation, they might as well have been a million dollars. When your very existence is at stake, any gift is a sacrificial gift. No wonder Jesus said to his disciples: "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 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." (NRSV)
Most of us don't really know anything about sacrifice. Isn't that true? Thanks to our abundant and prolific economy, few of us are skating anywhere close to the edge. I know there are exceptions. Downturns like we have experienced these past couple of years can be cruel to some individuals, but many of us have never had it better, and most of us are grateful. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be poor. In a capitalistic society being poor is hard and demoralizing. I'm glad that I don't know about real poverty. To be sure, most of us wish we had more financial resources than we have. Some of us can relate to the young man who was being grilled by his girlfriend's father about his finances. "What will be your yearly income if you marry my daughter?" the father asked. "Sixty thousand," the young man replied. "Not too shabby," said the father, "And when you add my daughter's $45,000, that'll be a very comfortable income." The young man meekly said, "Uh, I already counted her 45 in with the 60!" That young man has a problem, at least as far as his future father-in-law is concerned. It's like the fellow who said to his wife, "I'd be happy to follow the advice "˜pay as you go' if we could only finish paying for where we've been." Some of us know what it's like to have too much month left over at the end of our money, but, for the most part, with a little discipline, we can meet our responsibilities.
We give out of our abundance rather than out of our poverty, and we can be grateful for that. Our giving to God reflects our values. It is an important spiritual truth that giving doesn't reflect our income, or the state of our balance sheet. It reflects, rather, what is of utmost importance to us. Jesus says in Matthew 6:21: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." People are funny when it comes to money. In a poll on money values commissioned by Family Circle magazine, men and women were asked what they would be willing to do for $1 million. This might set you thinking about what you would do for a million dollars. Eleven percent of these respondents would be willing to go on a restrictive diet for a year for a million dollars. Well, okay. That wouldn't hurt most of us. And 13% of people would give up all television for a year. You'd have to pry the remote out of the fingers of some of the men, but that seems like a reasonable bargain. Surprisingly, only 34% of respondents would be willing to swallow a worm for $1 million, and a shocking 41% of people would gladly run down the block naked for that amount of money. (1) Those numbers may sound shocking, but that's how the respondents answered. Now before any of you go streaking out of here, I don't know anybody who's offering a million dollars for you to swallow a worm or run down the block naked. There's probably a reality show on TV somewhere that will do so eventually.
If you really want to know what a person values, though, you would do well to look at their credit card receipts or their canceled checks. A person's giving usually does not reflect their income, and that's a shame. It would be so easy if we gave according to our income. Then we would set up an automatic withdrawal program at the banks around town and each month 10% of each member's income would automatically be taken out. Then your pastor could drive a new Mercedes and the fixtures in the church bathrooms would be gold-plated. We would have more money than we would know what to do with, if everyone gave their fair share. But someone would complain that this system wouldn't be fair. The person at the bottom needs their 10% more than the person at the top. What planet did you fall off of? Statistics show that the wealthier you are, the less you will give, percentage-wise. It's weird, but something happens to you when you accumulate wealth. The more you have, the more difficult it becomes to share that wealth. That is another reason Jesus said that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
The truth of the matter is that our giving does not reflect our income. Our giving reflects our values. An interesting study appeared in the January 13, 2003, issue of Time magazine. It was a study ranking each of the 50 states' personal income levels as compared to their rate of charitable giving. The results were surprising. For example, the citizens of New Hampshire ranked 6th overall in average personal income, but ranked 45th in the percentage of their income given to charitable causes. On the other end of the spectrum, the citizens of Mississippi ranked 49th in average personal income, the second poorest state in the nation. Yet, Mississippians ranked 6th in the nation in their percentage of charitable giving. (2) Now that'll make you think. But that's how it works. The more you have, the less you give. Your giving to God does not generally reflect your income. What it reflects is your values. Where your treasure is, said Jesus, there is your heart. Unfortunately, some people don't value their relationship with God very highly.
This poor widow trusted God with everything she had. She only had two copper coins, but she placed them in the Temple treasury anyway. That's faith. She didn't know she was being watched. Others before her had been parading around making a display of their gifts. This poor widow was embarrassed that she had so little to give and she tried to be as inconspicuous as she could be. But one person saw her put in her gift and he just happened to be the only person who matters. Jesus saw how much she contributed and he praised her gift. He said it was greater than the gifts of the wealthy who were making a show of their giving. It was only a penny, but it reflected her devotion to God. What we do with our money reflects what we value. Sound values grow out of our relationship with Christ. A missionary from India told about an army officer who stopped to have his shoes shined by a poor Indian boy on the street. The lad launched into his task with such enthusiasm and vigor that the man was utterly amazed. Instead of an ordinary, slipshod performance with an all-too-eager outstretched hand for a tip, the boy worked diligently until the leather sparkled with a brilliant luster. The officer asked, "Why are you taking so much time to polish my boots?" "Well, sir," was the reply, "last week Jesus came into my heart and now I belong to him. Since then, every time I shine somebody's shoes, I keep thinking they're shoes that belong to Jesus, so I do the very best I can. I want him to be pleased!" (3)
Our gifts to God grow out of our response to what God has done in Jesus Christ. We have been in a series of messages that have emphasized Christian discipleship. It is important that we understand that discipleship is not an attempt to buy off God or even to please Him. Discipleship grows out of a keen awareness of our connection to the Lord of life. Christ has given himself for us. He loved us even when we could not love ourselves. Out of our love for him we bring our tithes and offerings to sustain God's work in the world. Our giving simply reflects the importance of God's grace in our lives. It is a reflection of the condition of our inner selves. Some unknown poet who understood that the willingness to share is a matter of one's spiritual condition once put it this way: Six humans trapped by happenstance in dark and bitter cold, each possessed a stick of wood, or so the story's told. Their dying fire in need of logs, the first woman held hers tight, for one face around the fire was one for whom she felt spite. The next man looking "˜cross the way saw one not of his church, and couldn't bring himself to give the fire his stick of birch. The third one sat in tattered clothes; he gave his coat a hitch. Why should his log be put to use, to warm the idle rich? The rich man just sat back and thought of the wealth he had in store, and how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor. The next man's face bespoke his greed, as the fire passed from his sight, for what he saw in his stick of wood he would need for himself the next night. And the last man of this forlorn group did naught except for gain: giving only to those who gave, was how he played the game. The logs held tight in death's stilled hands, were proof of human sin. They didn't die from the cold without, They died from the cold within. (4)
There was no cold in this widow's heart. She gave, even though she did so at an enormous cost to herself, and Jesus praised her. Through the centuries there have been many who have followed in her footsteps. That is why this church is here today. How about it? What is in your heart? What do you value?
1. "Can Money Buy Happiness?" by Gini Kopecky Wallace, Family Circle, April 15, 2003, pp. b64-68.
2. Time, p. 17.
3. Illusaurus
4. Source unknown.