The two coins barely clinked as she dropped them into the metal treasury in the Temple court. Ordinarily no one would have noticed her. She was just another poor widow eking out a living the best way she could—cleaning other people’s homes, maybe taking in laundry, working in the fields at harvest time—day work. Some days you worked, some days you didn’t. Some days you ate, some you didn’t. The offering she made that day in the Temple was worthless, at least in terms of the Temple economy. What could you buy with a couple of copper coins, the least valuable of all? What can you buy today with a penny or two? There was a time when a kid could buy a bubble gum ball out of one of those little round headed machines, but not anymore. And yet Jesus, who had been watching, just watching, as people came and went making their offerings, took notice. The small gifts are not ordinarily the ones we notice. Are they? It’s the large gifts that make the headlines that grab your attention. It’s the large gifts that fund raisers target. Everyone knows that in any large undertaking success or failure is measured by the contributions of two or three really large gifts and then a second tier of lesser but still large gifts, followed by yet another level of average size gifts. Then down near the bottom of the donor triangle are the more modest gifts of the larger numbers of donors. I’ve often wondered what it must be like to be able to be among the donors in the first two tiers to a cause I really believed in. What a joy it must be to make a gift that really makes a difference! From Jesus’ perspective, however, this pitifully small gift of the widow was one that made a difference. Luke tells us that as Jesus watched people come and go in the Temple court he saw wealthy people putting their gifts into the treasure. They were doing what was expected of them—giving out of their abundance. Their gifts kept the Temple going. Were it not for them, the Temple treasury would be, as some put it, “in a world of hurt.” While Jesus did not at all criticize them for their generosity, what grabbed his attention was the generosity of this woman who dropped two small, relatively worthless coins into the Treasury box. To those near him he declared: “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.” it was quite literally her next meal and maybe the next as well. What motivates that kind of giving? Anne Lamotte tells this story—a true story—in her book about writing entitled Bird by Bird. “An eight-year-old boy had a younger sister who was dying of leukemia, and he was told that without a blood transfusion she would die. His parents explained to him that his blood was probably compatible with hers, and if so, he could be the blood donor. They asked him if they could test his blood. He said sure. So they did and it was a good match. Then they asked if he would give his sister a pint of blood, that it could be her only chance of living. He said he would have to think about it overnight. The next day he went to his parents and said he was willing to donate the blood. So the took him to the hospital where he was put on a gurney beside his six-year-old sister. Both of them were hooked up to IVs. A nurse withdrew a pint of blood from the boy, which was then put in the girl’s IV. The boy lay on his gurney in silence, while the blood dripped into his sister, until the doctor came over to see how he was doing. Then the boy opened his eyes and asked, “How soon until I start to die?” Love and love alone is what prompts that kind of gift. It’s the only thing that will explain it. Obligatory gift is rarely, if ever, sacrificial. Obligatory giving is what we can get by with, what we can spare. Guilt imposed giving is much the same. But love engendered giving reaches beyond the limits of comfort to the point of sacrifice. It costs you something. Love and love alone is what motivated the widow to drop her offering into the Treasury. She could have given one of her two coins and still have given fifty percent of her assets, but one would not do. It was all or nothing. God had done something in her life that had prompted this outpouring of generosity. Maybe it was the sheer gift of survival—she was still there, hanging on, getting by, enjoying her friend and family, enjoying the gift of life. Maybe it was the two coins themselves—a gift she had not expected to receive, a bonus for a job well done, pay from an extra day of work she had not expected to have. It could have been any number of things. The point is that she had to show her gratitude. Words were not enough. How do you show your thanks for the work of God in your life, the blessings of God that fill your life, the love of God that surrounds and embraces you, the grace of God that fills and sustains you? This woman gave the last two coins in her purse—all she had to live on. Of course, that kind of generosity might also be considered a bit foolish. If you give away all you have, who is going to take care of you? There were in the early church those who did something akin to that. Convinced that the second coming of the Lord was at hand, they quit their jobs, exhausted their resources, and waited, but while they waited they also lived off of the labors of others. They received but offered nothing. Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonian Christians in regard to this problem was extreme: “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. For such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.” We have a responsibility, inasmuch as we are able, to provide for our families and ourselves. To carry our weight, as it were. We also have a responsibility to participate in supporting the mission of the church for the cause of Jesus Christ. Christian stewardship is a matter of balance—neither giving it all away nor keeping it all for ourselves. As stewards we are responsible to decide how we will use the gift of life and the gifts that fill our lives. How much of our time, our energy, our attention, our effort, our money will we give away and how much will we keep for ourselves? Where is the line separating need and desire in your life? How much is enough? The Bible offers in regards to financial stewardship the teaching of the tithe. Ten percent belongs to God. The other ninety percent is to provide for our needs and desires. Some of us are still striving for that balance. Others of us have made it a life-long practice. And still others have gone beyond the tithe to even greater generosity. Jesus reminds us that it is not how large a gift you and I are able to make—whether we are at the top of the donor triangle, in the middle, or near its base—but what we give in relation to what we have. There are two questions I would ask you to consider this morning about the pledge card in your pocket or purse. First, is there a pledge card in your pocket or purse? If not, what does that say about you who are, whose you are, what you value, and what you understand about the meaning of Christian stewardship in your life? If there is one there, and I trust there is, what does the amount you have written on it say about who you are, whose you are, what you value, and what you understand about the meaning of Christian stewardship in your life. Some of you may remember the tongue-in cheek offertory prayer that I shared with you in a sermon a couple of weeks ago. It may be tongue-in-cheek, but it speaks, I think, a word of truth. “Lord, no matter what we say or do, here is what we think of you.” The gift of your pledge in relation to what you have is a tangible expression of the value you place on God in your life and the depth of your gratitude for God’s abundant gifts to you, not the least of which is the very gift of life. One preacher once said to his congregation: “I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that the church has all the money it needs for its mission in the New Year. The bad news is that some of it is still in your pockets.” How much can you give? How much will you give? Let your gratitude to God in Christ be your guide. Your gift makes a difference—a difference to you, to the cause of Christ, and to the Lord himself. J. Dudley Weaver |