Pentecost 23, Proper 27, Yr B, 11/8/09

Ruth 3.1-5,4.13-17; Psalm 127; Hebrews 9.24-28; Mark 12:38-44

When I started preparing for this sermon I did my normal things.

I got on my computer and printed out the collect of the day and all of the lessons.

Once I’ve read through all of that and looked at the hymns and songs we’ll be singing…

That’s when I normally start my process.

I read, I pray, I get quiet and listen for what leaps out at me.

But this week…OMG.

The story of the widow’s mite? You have to be kidding.

Believe it or not Kent and I actually feel pretty beat up by the time stewardship season is wrapping up.

We’re not preaching at you about gratitude and generosity and how rich we all are.

We’re preaching to ourselves, too.

And this story is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

This widow puts in her two, little coins...and Jesus is watching.

All of these rich people gave out of their abundance but this woman put in everything she had even in her poverty.

She sacrificed. She gave it all.

That’s annoying in a way, isn’t it?

I’m trying to get over losing all my recorded episodes of the TV show Fringe because our DVR had to be replaced, which is the ultimate in rich people problems.

And this woman puts in her last two pennies; she’s making me look bad.

Deep cleansing breath.

So I started to think about it differently.

What if I imagined myself as that woman?

Now for me scripture is both a window and a mirror.

Scripture is a window that allows us to look out and see something about who God is and what God is up to.

And scripture is a mirror that allows us, forces us, to look and see who we are in relationship to God and to what God might want for and from us.

Imagine that you are this woman, this widow who has come into the temple.

It’s a busy place, full of all kinds of people.

Rich people in fancy clothes.

Powerful religious people, scribes, priests, elders.

People of different Jewish sects: Pharisees, Sadducees.

The temple has this big courtyard and different walkways and these special inner areas for just the priests and for special rituals.

Around the courtyard are the donation boxes, the treasuries, each marked for a different thing: feeding the poor, or taking care of orphans, for the Honduran mission project.

You walk into the courtyard and look around.

People are sitting and standing in little groups, talking, listening.

But over there is that man Jesus that you’ve heard about.

The one some people are so upset about.

If you just hang out here a little ways away you can hear him talking to people as they come by and ask him questions.

It’s important to stay quiet, to keep yourself invisible.

Because there are a lot of very important people talking to him.

First off he tells some stories.

There’s one about a vineyard owner whose son gets killed by the tenants.

And then someone asks him about paying taxes and about marriage after the resurrection.

Tricky questions, hard questions.

One scribe asks him about the commandments and Jesus talks about the two commandments:

Loving God and loving our neighbor.

And after all of that Jesus is quiet for awhile and just begins to watch people as they come and put money into the donation boxes.

Imagine what you might be thinking by this time as that widow.

This man is clever, answering each question, taking time for each person.

But now he’s told the people around him to beware of scribes who are looking for power and respect and honor.

Jesus has just said that people like that will have the greater condemnation.

Shouldn’t rich, powerful people be honored?

Aren’t they entitled to that?

Can you imagine how Jesus might have appeared to this woman?

The look of him, the light in his eyes, the softness and strength of his voice, his words.

He is saying things that are upsetting to these other people.

But when he looks at you, you can barely describe what it is that you feel.

Acceptance, favor, a love that doesn’t have a shred of pity in it.

It might be hard for her to describe.

But there he is and here she is floored by what she hears in his answers and stories, what she sees in his eyes, what she feels from his presence.

In him she feels a kind of hope springing up that there is more to life than scratching out her existence each day.

As she stands just a little ways away from Jesus she is filled with a peace about her life that is new.

She sees clearly that whoever she is, whoever these rich people are, it is not enough.

She feels deeply a longing and lacking…a poorness of spirit maybe.

It’s odd because nothing has changed.

She knows she will still go out from the temple and have to find a way to eat and a way to keep clothes on her back and a roof over her head.

But somehow this hope and this peace fill her to overflowing.

And in that moment she reaches into her bag to find whatever coins she has left and she knows that she will drop them into that box.

She will sacrifice these two last coins, she will give all that she has.

Who does that remind us of?

If we look at this story as a window, what do we see?

What is God up to?

God is telling us about what really matters in life, about real, true love.

When really big, bad things happen, it often does that for us.

Things like losing a loved one or getting a cancer diagnosis.

Those kinds of things can bring into focus what really matters in life.

God can seem closer, more real, more actively involved.

Things like DVR’s don’t matter so much.

But here’s the thing, God is trying to make ways for us to know what is important in life in the ordinariness of each day.

God is asking us to see that comfort and control and cleverness and even being on top do not have eternal value.

That was hard for people to grasp in Jesus’ day and it’s hard for us to really grasp now.

This story gives us a window into the heart of what matters in eternity and into what God asks of each of person.

To love God and to love our neighbor.

To really know how poor we are without God at the center of our lives.

If we hold up this story as a mirror what do we see?

This widow is a foreshadowing of who Jesus is.

Remember that verse from the second chapter of Philippians?

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.

While we were yet sinners Jesus offered himself for us.

When you look in this mirror do you see someone who is humble or who is willing to be humbled?

Do you see someone who is willing to be transformed by the love offered to us by Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice?

Do you see someone who is willing to sacrifice?

I know that your lives, all of our lives, feel like they’re full of sacrifice.

We have a million things on our calendars.

And we have a million goals and dreams and aspirations for ourselves and for our kids.

We are frantic with busyness.

God does have a clue, God gets that.

But we humans tend to have a kind of spiritual ADD.

Anything and everything can distract us in our attempts to focus on putting God at the center of our lives.

The widow in this story could have been distracted by the rich people putting in such big bags of money.

She could have been distracted by Jesus pointing out how badly the scribes were treating local widows.

She could have felt angry and neglected and used and resentful.

And she could have used Jesus’ own words to justify her feelings.

But she wasn’t distracted by those things.

Instead she was transformed by the mercy and justice that she heard in Jesus’ words.

And she found a hope and a peace growing in her that made sacrifice feel ordinary and normal and every day.

She knew her poverty of spirit and she longed for a different way to live.

What do we see about who God is through the window of this story?

Mercy, love, and sacrifice.

What do we see when we look at ourselves in the mirror of this story?

Do you see poverty, humility, love, sacrifice?

Don’t wait for a crisis.

Don’t wait until you have time.

Don’t wait until you’re not too busy.

Don’t wait until you aren’t distracted by other people’s shortcomings and hypocrisy or your own shortcomings and hypocrisy.

Each day is offering its own chances to see with the eyes of Jesus into what matters in eternity.

Read a little scripture and then use it as a window and a mirror.

Pray for a minute or two or more and listen to yourself.

And listen to God.

Find someone, somewhere to do something for others.

Say grace.

Go to church on Sunday and sing and pray and listen.

Pray with your kids before bed.

Pray with your spouse in the morning by the coffeepot.

There are a thousand little ways each day for us to give our time, sacrifice our time to strengthen ourselves as Christians.

You know I went through a spell in my 20s when I thought that it shouldn’t take work to be a good Christian if God were really real.

I’ve changed my opinion on that.

Anything that matters for eternity is bound to take work.

God is patient, I know.

God is expectant, too.

And God gives us ways to be less distracted, stronger in our faith, more reliable in our faith.

God gives us ways to fill our longing for a life that matters.

And God expects that to involve sacrifice.

That is our example.

It’s not just about throwing a few coins in the pot.

It’s about learning our great need and then giving our whole selves.

We heard it in Hebrews today.

But as it is, Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.

That is what we see when we look through the window.

A God who longs for us to see our great need and to offer our whole lives, all that we are and all that we have.

So just imagine that Jesus is looking over your shoulder…

What do you see when you look at this story of the widow as mirror?

Who do you see looking back at you?