I had finished my hospital calls one day, and I could not help noticing a sharp-looking, late-model sports car which stopped at the traffic light alongside me. Visually, it was a thing of beauty! It sat there in sleek elegance, testifying by its design and engineering to its exclusive price tag - undoubtedly some where in at least the $55,000 to $75,000 range.
Its driver’s identity lay hidden behind shaded windows. But the mere presence of it bespoke a certain air of individuality and distinction for its owner - paused briefly as it was before that regulating traffic signal, until surging out ahead of the pack when the light changed to green.
It was an impressive sight - bearing in it a kind of testimonial to the skill and ingenuity that could produce it and to the spirit that had both taste and financial wherewithal to enjoy it.
I suppose it would not be at all inaccurate to admit I looked on it happily - perhaps even longingly - until my eyes left the smooth and beautiful lines of the car itself and focused on a (bumper) sticker that had been affixed to it.
The words jolted me suddenly out of my appreciation for beauty and engineering achievement to an awesome wonderment whether they were displayed there in seriousness or in jest. For there, plastered on this expensive object of design, power, and beauty, stood out the words: “The One Who Dies With the Most Toys Wins.”
“The One Who Dies With the Most Toys... Wins!” Suddenly, all my admiration and appreciation and enjoyment of the sleek automotive lines were turned into a spiritual experience that can hardly be described. My mind, which moments earlier had been eagerly drinking in the emblems of recreation and authority and surging power, now suddenly was filled with images of a different sort.
I thought of starving masses dying daily in Africa; and I wondered to myself: Did they, then, lose? I thought of youngsters - 17,18,19,20 - men hardly needing to take the razor to their faces - who are lying buried namelessly from Vietnam to Guadalcanal to North Africa to Central Europe - men who gave life itself away when too young to know very much of its measurement at all - gave it in defense of freedom, justice, honor - gave it to make life livable for others, hopefully.
They died without many toys - no chance, really, to accumulate “toys” at all.
Did they also lose? Is that the game? Is it over? And those without many “toys” have lost?
I thought at last of a young Galilean carpenter from Nazareth. He was 33. He died with his seamless garment as his only property. He had no toys. Did He lose the game?
Now don’t get me wrong. I have no quarrel with the enjoyment of that graceful car. I could enjoy it myself, and very much! Why, even Jesus said once He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.
He had no quarrel with pleasure. He celebrated at weddings. He was criticized, in fact, by many of life’s more somber folk for taking too much pleasure and too great enjoyment as He went through life. He would have understood either the joking or the happy-go-lucky pleasures of youth.
I’m not quarrelling with pleasure here. It’s a matter of attitude and value. Who wins? Who loses, in this game called life? (Making the Most With the Least, MSS Cathedral Publishers, pp.309-310)
I’ve jumped ahead in Mark’s Gospel today, because of where we are in the life of the church - in the midst of our Stewardship Emphasis. Here is the world’s best-known widow, though only Jesus paid her any attention that day. Only Jesus even noticed her. Jesus told about her after describing important people who everybody noticed - important people who make a show of their importance.
“Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes, and have salutations in the marketplace,” he said. You know what that means. A salutation is a salute. So that means that they liked to walk about in public places in the uniform of their office and be recognized. Jesus goes on, “They like to have the best seats in the synagogue, the places of honor at the feast. They devour widow’s houses and cover it up with piety.” They are religious, in other words, not because they love God and love their neighbor; they are religious because they love themselves. It helps them to get ahead in the world. And Jesus condemns that. In fact, he says, “It will receive the greater condemnation.”
Then comes the story of the widow’s mite. The woman enters the temple for worship. It must have been in the middle of the annual financial campaign because there are a lot of people there putting in the coffers. Everybody there is noticing those who make the great contributions…they all watch them. Nobody notices a woman putting in two coins - that’s all, just two coins. They are called “lepta”, equal to about a penny. No one notices that, except Jesus, who calls over the disciples “Did you see that?” he asked. “That woman. Did you see her? She gave the greatest gift. The others contributed out of their abundance. She gave out of her poverty, so she gave everything.” “She had no ‘toys’.” (As retold by Mark Trotter, “Those Stubborn Ounces”)
So we want to look at this widow today - the world’s best-known widow. What do we learn from her - and from Jesus who remembers her story?
First, we are taught by this story that when we give, God uses it. Or put another way, God can use what we give. Don’t yawn at that. It sounds so simple that you may be tempted to casual response. It is the beginning point of thinking about our stewardship, our use of things, and our relationship to God. When we give, God uses it. A general premise, but a foundation of truth.
Jesus is not the only person in the Bible who remembers a widow. Chapter 17 of I Kings tells the story about the prophet Elijah.
“He had been given a terrible task. He’s just been to King Ahab, and his ill-tempered wife, Jezebel, and told them that the famine in the land is their fault. The King and Queen had established Baal worship in the land, which was an abomination in the eyes of God. Elijah tells them it was wrong, and, therefore, the famine in the land is the judgment of God.
Well, kings don’t take very kindly to subjects telling them how to do their business. So, Elijah had to flee, went off to the desert, east of the Jordan, where there was even less food and no water. He was fed by ravens, until God sent him to a widow in a little dessert village named Zarephath. That’s all we know about her. No, she’s the widow of Zarephath. No name given for her.
Elijah meets her as she’s gathering sticks for fuel to cook some food for her family. He asks her for a drink of water and she gives it to him. Then he asks for food. She replies, “All I have is some barley meal and a cruse of oil. I’m about to make bread for my children.” He asks her if he can have some. She gives it to him. She shares what she has for herself and her family, shares out of her poverty, because he’s in need. And behold, there is more than enough for everybody. It’s a miracle. It’s the miracle that happens when you give. It wasn’t much, but when she gave there was more than enough.
Now some commentators, uncomfortable with that, try to explain it away. That’s called “rationalizing miracles”. They say the widow’s generosity inspired her neighbors to do the same. When everybody does whatever they can, there is always enough. Well, there’s some truth in that. But there’s no evidence at all that it happened that way. All that is there in the text is the example of a poor woman with only enough food to feed her family. One day, I heard the cry of somebody else in need and gave that other person out of what she had. And it was more than enough to do what God wanted done. That’s the miracle. When we give, God uses it.
So it is no casual truth, but the place where we begin our thinking about stewardship. When we give, God uses it.
II.
Now, a second truth. How we give, not how much, is the key.
Again remember, Jesus was watching people give. He really wasn’t interested in how much, but how they gave. So, He told his story to communicate the spirit of the widow. She dropped in two mites, a penny or two. She did it spontaneously. She wasn’t concerned about what others were giving. The wealth of those who went in procession dropping their large sums into the treasury did not intimidate her.
I doubt if she gave any thought to what a relatively insignificant amount it was. That’s the reason Jesus acknowledged her and put her in our Hall of Fame as the world’s greatest giver.
Note this challenging fact: She obviously believed that all she had was a gift from God and belonged to him.
Earlier, Jesus had called the Pharisees to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar’s and to God the things that were God’s. “The widow believed that all she had was a gift from God and belonged to him. The Pharisees haggled over what belonged to God, and what belonged to Caesar. Jesus clearly declared that everything was God’s. He is the Lord of all life. What we render to Caesar is as much God’s as what we render to God. Life can be compartmentalized into the sacred and secular. We are as accountable for what we do in society as in the church. Giving our tithes offerings to God does not relieve us of the necessity of seeking his guidance as stewards in everything we spend or save. Some folks complain about the call to tithe…to give 10% to God, why complain? He let’s us keep 90%. And we need to remember that – how we spend that 90% is also important to God. The image of Caesar may be on the coin, but God’s image is on our souls. We belong to Him! (Lloyd John Ogilvie, Life Without Limits, Word Book Publishers, pp. 227-228)
It is not likely that we will ever give in the right way until we accept this truth. All we are and have is a gift from God. How we give, not how much, is the key.
III.
Now, this final truth – it is a rather scathing one, and we will feel the pinch of it - even the judgment. If you give only what you won’t miss, you are not giving s a Christian – you are not showing much faith. TO GIVE OUT OF ABUNDANCE MISSES THE POINT OF CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP. Christian stewardship has to do with faith. That was the measure of the widow’s gift - not the amount, but her faith.
Think about that. If you give only what you won’t miss, you’re not showing much faith.
I think of David here - King David. Whatever David did, he did in a big way! “When he sinned, he sinned boldly. When he played, he played skillfully. When he fought he fought vigorously. When he loved, he loved passionately; and when he worshipped, he did so with integrity and conviction. Small wonder that we think of him as a man after God’s own heart.”
There is a verse of scripture in II Samuel - II Samuel 24th verse that points the way for the way we are to give, and illustrates the point that if we give only what we don’t miss, we’re not showing much faith.
David was “at the point where the nation” was under divine judgment for attempting to take a census in opposition to the will of God. Just why this census was forbidden is not clear. But the pestilence that followed in its wake was all too clear and real.
God in his mercy cut short the punishment. David, out of a sense of profound thanksgiving, determined to offer up a sacrifice to God. He approached a farmer by the name of Araunah in the vicinity of Mt. Moriah. This humble citizen, awed by his majesty’s intention, offered his threshing floor and an oxen to the king free of charge
“But David insisted on paying. His words commend themselves to our consciences even to this day: I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.”
In that light, we need to ask ourselves are we really giving to the church. Is our pledge any sort of sign of our faith? If you only give what you won’t miss, you’re not showing much faith. Think about it. Do you have a strain to pay your pledge? Does it really out you anything? If you have to strain, why? Is it because you have lived so extravagantly with little thanks of God’s Kingdoms needs? A $2,000 a year pledge for a person earning $40,000 isn’t much of a pledge. It doesn’t show much faith. The tragic thing is that there are people in this church 60-80-100,000 dollars, who give $2,000 or less.
If we only give what we won’t miss then we aren’t really giving. So, Jesus and world’s best-known widow teaches us. They teach us, one that God uses what we give.
Two, how we give, not how much we give, is the key.
Three, Christian stewardship has to do with faith – if you only give only what you won’t miss, you’re not showing much faith.
Let me close. I’ve been sharing a story with some of the leaders of our church a thrilling story, which we all need to hear.
In 1930, George Pepperdine, who was the owner of Western Auto, sold all of his Western Auto stock and went to Los Angeles. He endowed a college for three million dollars it was named Pepperdine College. Everyone thought that college was secure forever. A $3 million endowment in 1930. But as the years passed, it became hemmed in there in Watts in the heart of L.H. I think there was only 15 acres of campus. Dr. Binowski, a young president came to Pepperdine with a great dream. He raised 100 million dollars and moved to that college to a hundred acres of the most-beautiful property in Southern California – Malibu, over looking the Pacific Ocean.
The college has become a great university, with the name Pepperdine University. It has a huge great endowment, a growing student body and an expanding national reputation. George Pepperdine would have never dreamed the legacy he was leading upon the world in 1930.
In 1950, George Pepperdine some unfortunate investments, and lost everything. In 1962, he was virtually broke, except for Pepperdine College, now Pepperdine a university. Pepperdine wrote a book entitled, “Faith is My Future”.
That book argued with the bumper sticker I saw on the sports car. “The one who dies with the most toys wins.”
The opening sentence of that book is, “All that I have today is what I gave away.”
Who is right? George Pepperdine or the driver of the sports car?
By which philosophy are you living? He who dies with the most toys wins - All I have today is what I gave away.