Abundance
(based on Haggai 2:1-9,
Luke 21:1-4)
Today’s story from Luke can also be found in the
Gospel according to Mark and has been called the story of the widow's mite – two
copper coins, the equivalent of less than a penny. These copper coins represented the sum of all
she had in the world and in dropping these coins into the treasury for her Temple
offering, she received the praise of Jesus as he addressed and taught his disciples.
The story is generally perceived to be
one about giving and clearly that element is there.
But
there is another element to this story that perhaps we fail to see, especially
if we connect it to the passages we read from Haggai this morning.
Jesus had just been watching the Pharisees in
their giving practices. Here’s where
we’re talking big bucks. And they were
quite open about their giving. Everyone
knew their giving record; indeed, they made a point that everyone knew it. It was in the light of that that Jesus
pointed out this widow. Picture Jesus
sitting now with the leaders of the temple—the Sadducees— observing the people
as they come in and watching their donations.
There is no paper money in Christ’s day, so the offering coins make quite
a loud noise as they roll down this long horn shaped object and fall into the
pool of other coins. So here comes this
little old lady and she has two small copper coins worth nothing and drops them
in. They barely make a noise. You can almost see the Temple leaders as they
roll their eyes and hope for better results with the next person who walks in
the door. Jesus then calls his Disciples
over and says, “This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.” To the Sadducees this woman is a waste of
time but to Jesus she is the stuff by which Kingdoms are erected.
Let’s go back for a moment to the story from
Haggai. The word of the Lord came to
Haggai in the second year, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day during
the reign of King Darius. This word of
the Lord was that Haggai was to go to speak to the governor of Judah, the high
priest in Judah, and to the remnant of the people that were back in the land
after their exile.
He told them to look at the ruins of the temple
and asked if any of them remember it when it was in its former glory. We could probably do the same today. One commentator I read about preaching this
passage said;
To
ancient Judeans, and to today’s church, the Word through Haggai summons us to
“take courage” — three times! And why? “The Lord is with you.” As Sam Wells
rightly named in his A Nazareth Manifesto, “with” is the most important
theological word in the Bible. God is
with us: this is the Old Testament’s constant story, the very nickname Jesus
was given (Emmanuel), and his parting words at his Ascension. God doesn’t fix everything or shelter us from
unpleasantness, but God is with us. Somehow,
ultimately, that is enough.
The
promise, “The latter splendor will be greater than the former,” is ostensibly
about a cooler, more magnificent temple yet to be built. We might read Haggai’s promise and wonder if
our church, with its crumbling denominations and ever-lessening profile in
society, will enter a new era of glory, not defined by size or institutions but
by holiness and a radical embodiment of what church was supposed to be about
all along.
Frederick
Buechner’s old quote might pertain: “Maybe the best thing that could happen to
the church would be if the buildings were lost, the bulletins blown away by the
wind, the institutions all gone — and then all we’d have left would be Jesus
and each other, which was all we had in the first place.”
Our building is not in ruins, but the pews are
less full than they once were, correct?
I could ask you the same questions that Haggai asked perhaps. How many of you remember the days when the
pews were full, and the building’s usage was in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?
Now, here is the word of the Lord that came to
Haggai to share with the people.
Yet now take courage, O members (of Olivet, of
Bethesda), take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I
am with you, according to the promise that I made you when I brought you out of
Egypt (or when you formed this worshipping community, when you erected this
building here in this town.) My spirit
abides among you; says the Lord, do not fear.
Once again, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the
dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations
shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor. The silver is mine, and the gold is
mine. The latter splendor of this house
will be greater than the former and, in this place I will give prosperity, says
the Lord.
Thus, at its heart, the widow's mite is not
just a story about giving, it’s really a story about whose we are and our motivation. The key phrases in the Haggai passage is; “My
spirit abides among you, do not fear. I
am with you, says the Lord.” That’s the
motivation behind what God is asking them to see and to invest in.
Why do we do what we do? What do we hope to achieve by our
giving? What is our motivation? The Pharisees and Sadducees gave to receive
peer recognition. And, as Jesus said,
they received their reward. People
praised them. The woman, on the other
hand, gave out of love for God because God dwelled in her. And according to Jesus, she also received her
reward. The rewards are as different as
night and day. One is measured by wealth
in material things and the other is measured in wealth that is immaterial,
personal, and can only be experienced…here…(thump chest) in the heart and soul
of a person.
The first motivation for giving is that we give
of ourselves. In speaking of his Gentile
churches, the Apostle Paul said: “First we gave of ourselves, and then we gave
of our resources.” Too many of us have
gotten it backwards.
Giving is an outgrowth of who you are. It is the inevitable result of a changed
heart. As we surrender ourselves to God
and to loving our community and neighbor then we will want to give our time,
our energy, and our financial resources too.
Secondly, your money follows your heart. Jesus worded it this way: where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. And
this principle is true in other areas as well.
Take the stewardship of time for example. Have you ever noticed how your time follows
your interests? You get interested in
something and you invest in it--both with time and money. We go where our heart leads us. We follow with time and money where our heart
has gone.
A third motivation is to give not because the
church bills need to be paid but because we are moved by a sense of
gratitude. I have long suspected that
the church universal has taken the wrong approach to stewardship and it’s one
of the reasons why I don’t push stewardship drives very much. In most stewardship campaigns people see a
line item budget that details what our expenses will be for the coming year. It’s mostly boring unless you’re the kind of
person that likes numbers and few people ever read it. Most people just look at the bottom
line. And it perpetuates the concept
that you are to give in proportion to what the bills/expenses are going to
be. Regardless of what our bills are
going to be, we should be giving out of a sense of thanksgiving and joy, not necessarily
just to pay the bills.
Are we willing to leap into God’s grace and see
where God is leading us? Not just your
money, but also your time and your energy and your life for God?
Just as a reminder; God is with us, we are all
in God’s hands, at all times.
The widow’s mite; her two small coins, aren’t
just about giving money. It’s about
giving of ourselves, following our hearts, out of generosity for all that’s
been given to us. If a dirt-poor widow
(one of the lowest on the economic and social order of Jesus’ day) can give all
that she has out of generosity for what has been given to her, we can certainly
give because of who’s we are, where our heart leads us, and out of our
extravagant abundance.
Thanks
be to God.
AMEN.
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