The Widow's Mite

(Scriptures:       Ruth 3:1-18 4:13-22; , Hebrews 9:11-14, 24-28, Mark 12:35-44)

 

 

From Mark 12:41-44: “[Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury [of the Temple] and watched the crowds putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then [Jesus] called his disciples and said to them, ‘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.’”

In today’s difficult economy, some of the more jarring TV advertisements I’ve seen, usually on late night TV, are for companies who offer to buy peoples’ – quote, unquote – “unwanted gold.”    Let that phrase roll over your mind…..”unwanted gold”.    It brings up the image in my mind of some obnoxiously wealthy person complaining that they have all these piles of gold just lying around and they’re sick of looking at them  and tripping over them.   (And if you are so fortunate as to meet any obnoxiously wealthy people who truly do have piles of gold lying around that they’d like to unload, please invite them to join Emanuel Church, and inform them that they are most welcome to unload their unwanted gold right here, free of charge. We’ll even give ‘em a donut to eat on the way home.) Of course, the stories behind such sales of so-called unwanted gold are often very sad – a family has fallen on hard times, and so they have to start selling off articles of value in order to pay the mortgage.   But it’s instructive how the advertising industry can create such Orwellian terms as “unwanted gold” to make such painful sacrifices as selling off one’s family heirlooms in order to pay bills seem like normal, routine, everyday occurrences. 

This morning’s reading from Mark’s Gospel is among the more difficult and challenging passages in Scripture – multiple conclusions can be drawn from the reading, none of which are necessarily easy to live with.  Jesus has just gotten done wrangling with the Pharisees, who were very interested in the application of the law, over the topic of paying taxes to the emperor, and wrangling over the topic of eternal life with the Sadducees, the party of the Jews who controlled worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, and who did not believe in the resurrection.   Having concluded that lengthy and vigorous discussion, Jesus tells his disciples, “Watch out for the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to get the best seats in the house at worship.  They cheat widows out of their homes, and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.“   

We’re told that, at that point, Jesus sat down across the street from the Temple and watched people put their offerings in the Treasury.  We’re told that many wealthy people made impressive donations.  And then along comes a poor widow, likely dressed in threadbare clothing.  She drops two small coins into the treasury – the two coins combined add up to a penny – and goes on her way. 

And this is where I have to divert just a little, because after I printed up the bulletins, I realized my sermon title may be confusing for some.  Most of us think of mites as small, sometimes parasitic bugs that live on plants and on dust and such.  And while, given the sanitation standards of the day, it’s entirely possible the poor widow had those kind of mites as well, the kind of mite I’m talking about in my sermon title was a coin.  The coins the widow dropped into the treasury were in Jesus’ day called leptons.  They were the lowest denomination coin, sort of like a half-penny.  When the King James Bible was translated, the word lepton was translated as mite, which was the smallest denomination coin in the English monetary system at that time.  And even though modern Bible translations no longer use the word mite, the phrase “the widow’s mite” – m-i-t-e -  has stuck as part of our vocabulary.

Anyway….Jesus notes that “This poor widow gave more than everyone else, for the wealthy gave out of their abundance" – perhaps they were getting rid of a little of their  unwanted gold – "while the poor widow gave the last bit of money she had to live on to the Temple treasury.”

A bit about that Temple treasury.  As you might expect, the purpose was to hold monetary donations, though there were also receptacles for sacrifices of grain and such, on which the Levites subsisted.  Archeologists tell us that the treasury had 13 depositories – said to look either like trumpets or like horns – designated for various kinds of offerings.  Perhaps from the location of these depositories or from the sound of the coin dropping into the depository, onlookers could tell whether a large or a small donation had been made.   And so Jesus was able to see the wealthy putting in their large offerings, and the poor widow putting in her tiny offering, which given her lack of resources was for her a huge sacrifice.

What were the funds of the Temple treasury used for?  Well, then as now, religious institutions have expenses – and the Jerusalem temple especially so.  Herod the Great, the local puppet ruler put in place by Rome, undertook a dramatic expansion and remodeling of the Temple.  And, then as now, capital campaigns aren’t cheap.  We might compare this, in a more modern context, to the poor whose pennies, nickels and dimes went to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome – or the poor in America, many of them immigrants, whose hard-earned money went to build many of the large church buildings, Protestant and Catholic, we see throughout Philadelphia today.

This passage is situated in the lectionary for what many churches call Stewardship Sunday (as a text for the annual “money sermon”).  And, fair warning, today’s “money sermon” may turn out to be among the stranger Stewardship Sunday sermons you’re likely to hear.  But anyway - In many churches, our offering plates would be full, not only of this morning’s donations, but of pledge cards telling what members intended to give in the coming year.   The Old Testament standard of giving, which in many churches is held up as a standard of giving even today, is a tithe – ten percent of one’s income, right off the top.   But the widow in this account went far beyond that – as small as her gift was, it wasn’t 10%, but 100% of what she had on hand.  Clearly, the widow provides an example of sacrificial giving, giving till it hurts  – as we are taught, and as many church members indeed live out. The temple establishment barely noticed either the widow’s presence or her gift, but Jesus noticed and honored her giving.   And one can admire the widow’s great faith in God, that even though the widow parted with her last coin, she had faith that somehow, God would provide.

All of the foregoing is true – but all that said, for me, the passage this passage raises some truly uncomfortable questions.  Remember that  immediately before the story of the widow’s mite, Jesus warned his disciples to beware of the religious elite who in their corruption “devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.” (Mark 12:40) Right after this opening statement, Jesus’ words are played out – along comes this poor widow who gave all she had, who was faithful in the only way she knew, to a religious institution that perhaps really didn’t merit her fidelity.  After all, Jesus has been quite critical of the temple hierarchy, the Sadducees, and of the Temple in which they held power.  In fact, in Mark’s gospel, immediately after the account of the widow’s mite, Jesus prophesies that the Temple will be destroyed, not one stone left standing on another.   So in Mark’s Gospel – and also in Luke’s Gospel, which picks up Mark’s wording nearly unchanged at the end of Luke chapters 20 and the beginning of Luke chapter 21, these three images are presented together, in sequence,  one after the other after the other, like the cars on a freight train – Jesus’ critique of a religious establishment entirely willing to soak the poor for everything they have, with no pangs of conscience whatever; a poor widow being soaked of everything she has, and Jesus’ prophesy that the days of the status quo are numbered, that the Temple for which so many offered so much will soon be torn down, obliterated, not one stone left standing on another.

What are we to say about this?  It’s not difficult to point to similar examples in our own day.     Who among us has not passed some huge, ornate church or cathedral or basilica, richly decorated with beautiful carvings and gold leaf and such, and asked ourselves how many poor people could have been fed with the money that went into such architecture.   I’m certainly not making an argument for limiting the church to worshipping in wood shacks or for letting church buildings fall into rack and ruin,  but when is enough building truly enough? And likely some of us, myself very much included, shake our heads at those radio preachers and television evangelists who are endlessly dunning people of modest resources for costly sacrificial gifts and love offerings.   The cause always sounds good – we’re collecting money to bring God’s good news to this group or that group, or to construct this or that facility without which the spread of the gospel will come to a screeching halt.   But one can never be sure where the money’s actually going….and it bears noting that many of these TV evangelists and their families live lavish lifestyles.   I still remember the news accounts of the air conditioned doghouse and gold plated bathroom fixtures that graced the mansion of Jim and Tammy Bakker, that were paid for by the donations of minimum wage viewers who certainly did not have such things in their own homes, who in fact were barely scraping by.    It likely sounds like I’m being deeply cynical about the televangelists, perhaps offensively so, but I think it’s safe to say that, in many cases, when the TV and radio preachers tell you, “We’re collecting money for this, that, and the other”, the only words you can truly rely on are the first three - “We’re collecting money.”  Beyond those first three words, all bets are off.

It’s easy for me to point fingers.   But, as the saying goes, when you point one’s finger elsewhere, there are three fingers pointing back at you.   Given our current numbers, I’m grateful beyond words that Emanuel Church did not invest money in huge expansions to the church, that Emanuel Church did not develop, to use a pun common in church circles, an edifice complex,  that our lovely but modest building is such that even with our limited resources we can keep it in an adequate state of repair.  But, on this Stewardship Sunday, while I am asking and challenging the members of Emanuel Church – and asking and challenging myself – to be faithful in our giving, I would also ask and challenge us to look at the  ministry of Emanuel Church that is supported by our giving.   What is it that we’re supporting? When you – when I – give to Emanuel Church, in broad brushstrokes, our offerings support the upkeep and insurance on our building, maintenance of our organ, grass cutting and tree trimming for our cemetery,  the removal of snow, ice, and dog dirt from our sidewalks, and stipends for our organist and myself.    These are the material resources that are used by the ministry here.  We also have designated giving  - the Piggy Bank to support the Bridesburg council of churches food cupboard, and the change jar to support the ministries of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference – which in consequence of yesterday’s Conference meeting will look rather different going forward.   But, to quote the words of the song by Peggy Lee, “Is that all there is?”  When we come to Emanuel Church, are we only coming to see a building, to walk through a cemetery, to hear beautiful organ music, or to hear my not always beautiful preaching?  “Is that all there is?”  

I’m hoping when we come here, we find more than a building, a cemetery, and organ music, and the memories associated with all of these.  I pray that this is a space where together we meet God and God meets us, where we meet each other and share the love that God has given us.  I pray this is a space where children can grow up surrounded by the love of God and the members of the congregation.  I pray this is a space where we are fed, so that we can go forth from this place to bring God’s love to our neighbors.  I pray this is a place where, surrounded by conflict and injustice, we are inspired to work for peace and justice, as part of the calling to which God calls us.

Then [Jesus] called his disciples and said to them, ‘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.’”  My prayer is that God may multiply our sacrificial giving, the few loaves and fishes we have to offer, to feed the multitudes hungry for a word of hope, hungry for human connection, hungry for an encounter for the divine.  May it be so among us. Amen.