“And he called unto him his
disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than all they that are casting into the
treasury.”
These last few days I’ve been enjoying a weekend at Bluestone camp, up above Hinton. Just me, the Youth
Council of Presbytery, and about 100 or so Senior Highs. If you see a lack of
Senior Highs in the congregation this morning it is because most of them are still there! The theme was “With my own
two hands.” One of the things about retreats is that those leading them
always have a lot of stories to tell. Such is a very biblical way of presenting things as we today heard Mark’s account
of ‘The Widow’s Mite’.
In this story Jesus challenges any who will listen, "Who gave the most?" - the rich man or the poor widow? A
new twist to that story can be found by asking, "Who had the most reason to be thankful?" Some times those who are most thankful
are the ones who seem to have the least to be thankful for. Like the widow. A widow was a non-entity. She had no rights or way of improving her station in life.
That's why in the New Testament letters churches are encouraged to take care of the widows and the poor amongst them.
The widow had nothing going for her. The rich man had everything going for him.
He was in the position of being able to make a sizable offering, which it seems he did.
But in the light of God’s economy, he never gave as much as the widow.
The widow gave her all. It was upon the widow that God's favor shined.
The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary makes this reflection:
"The story of the widow’s mite poses the same challenge to readers today
as it did in Jesus time. People usually think of giving to the church and to
charities as an option. The money for charitable giving comes out of the surplus after personal expenses have been
met. Those "necessary expenses" usually include many, many extras in terms of entertainment, clothes, food and playthings".
Here's a sobering statistic. The average Presbyterian gives more in tips and gratuities for the meals
they eat out during the week than they put in the collection plate of their local church.
I do know, and I am thankful, that here in this church there are some of you who are well above average
in the way that you give in your support of this church and its mission. But that doesn’t apply to everybody.
Now I don’t know who gives the most and who gives the least. I don’t know how that all
breaks down into percentages, whether some of you who have less income are proportionally giving a whole lot more of what
you get than somebody who gets a lot more than you do. I don’t know.
But you know where you are when it comes to how you financially support your church. Some of you have
yet to discover the blessing that results through tithing. Some of you just need reminding that you cannot reap what you do
not sow, that if you don’t plant seeds, then nothing springs up!
Listen, here is a basic principle in life. The harvest is always related to what is sown. You cannot
grow anything without planting the seeds. You cannot grow programs and new opportunities and new ministries within a congregation
without investing in them… with finance… but also with time and talents.
Now you may be sitting there thinking, “Listen Preacher, Stewardship Season finished a couple
of weeks ago! I’ve made my pledge… just typical of the church, you say you’ll give something and all they
want is more, more, more.”
All I can say is that this was the text set for this Sunday and it’s hard to talk about it without
bringing into it the idea of stewardship, particularly as we are also heading into the season of Thanksgiving!
The Pilgrim Fathers, who are celebrated at Thanksgiving, didn't have much to be thankful for. They had been hounded out of one country, tried settling in another but that didn't
work out. They fled persecution and sailed across the ocean in that bucket of
a ship they called the Mayflower. When they got here they were met with a land
that needed to be tamed, a hostile environment, new diseases, inclement weather, starvation, and challenges they had never
dreamed of. How did they handle it? They
gave thanks.
Our first reading this morning was from the book of Habakkuk. I'm glad Habakkuk wasn't a chef. What
a mouthful it would be to go to the bookstore and ask, "Can I have a copy of Habakkuk's Cook Book, please?" He didn't have much to be thankful for. Why? Habakkuk didn't have a Cook Book because Habakkuk didn’t
have anything to cook!
In verse 17 of Habakkuk, Chapter 3, the fig trees aren’t blossoming, there’s no fruit on
the vines, no food in the field, no sheep or cows in the stalls to provide meat. Yet
(and listen to this) he says, “Yet, I will exult in the Lord, I will be thankful, I will rejoice in the God of my
salvation. The Lord God is my strength.” (Verses 18-19)
There's that crazy thing again. Someone who had nothing
much to be thankful for is overflowing with praise to God. By contrast we have
a whole lot to be thankful for – thankful for each other...for a marvelous past history of faith and good fortune…for
a beautiful sanctuary and church facilities…for an active congregation that wants to be moving on with God…for
the programs that we have on right now, Sunday School classes, Bible Studies, Circles, Youth Activities…for the many
activities that take place here, Playschool, Community Groups and meetings…for the mission opportunities that the community
presents to us…for times of Worship enriched by gifts of song and music…for the experiences shared over many years…for
the memories and mountaintops too precious to put into words.
This morning I am not standing here and on the basis of this text asking anybody to give more money.
I am asking you if you genuinely have a heart of thanksgiving towards God. I’m
asking if you have the widow’s heart, prepared to give all; or the heart of the rich man who is busy calculating his
percentage. I’m asking you to take your spiritual temperature using as a guide how committed you are to building God’s
Kingdom through investing your financial resources within it.
Genuine thanksgiving always produces an outpouring of stewardship.
It causes us to think about our responsibility towards God in terms of our time, talents and treasures. We give because God has given to us His all, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our giving
should not be because there is a bill to be paid but a gushing out of thankfulness… a response of joy.
Some weeks I feel like I need some cheerleaders up here with me instead of the choir. You know, when
our faith is under attack, a few cheers of "Dee-Fence, Dee-Fence" wouldn't come amiss. What about when the collection plate
goes around, “Put it in, Drop it in... Goal!” How about an "Everybody
in the pews, Come and stamp your Good News shoes"…or something along those
lines to get us psyched up to the importance of what we're doing here as a church.
We should be challenged and disturbed by this story of a widow who gave all she had as an act of thanksgiving
towards God. We who have so much by comparison, give so little.
Her act of dedication foreshadowed the giving of Jesus Christ Himself who showed us through His death
on the Cross. He died that we may live, embraced poverty that we may enjoy God's
prosperity, and took on the mantle of service that we may learn the joy of serving each other.
As I said at the start, I returned from Bluestone camp this weekend having learnt about what we can
achieve with our own ‘two hands’. With her own two hands the widow gave her all. With his own two hands the rich
man demonstrated that he was still a long way from the kingdom of
God.
By
the example of this widow, through the action of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts, may God teach us how to live in a way that
expresses true stewardship, stewardship that flows out of our thankfulness and overflows in blessings towards others.
To God’s name be the Glory.
Amen.
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt
