Scripture: Mark 12:38-44
38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he 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. 44 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.”
Sermon: “Giving Our All”
I once overheard an argument between 2 middle-school-aged boys. (They were in a public place, and apparently did not care if they were over-heard, so I didn’t feel too guilty about listening in.) They were arguing about a tee shirt that one of them was wearing, which had a skateboard logo on it.
“You can’t wear that,” one of them was saying, pointing at the logo.
“Why not?” the other one countered.
“Because you don’t skateboard.” The first one said.
“So what?” The other one said.
“Because wearing that makes you a POSER!”
I had never heard that term before, so I listened to the rest of their conversation, and it became clear what it meant. The first kid was a dedicated skateboarder, threw his whole self into it, spent most of his free-time at the skateboard park improving his skills and enjoying the sport. He was deeply offended that his friend, who evidently did not have a passion for skateboarding, was trying to “pose” as a skateboarder simply to look cool in the eyes of others, to capitalize on the prestige of a sport he had no interest in. (I am no expert in child-development, but their argument seemed to be pretty advanced for kids that age! I was impressed!)
I think of this conversation every time I read today’s scripture, because it seems to me that Jesus was upset with the scribes in today’s reading for a reason very similar to the reason the skateboarding kid was upset with his friend. These particular religious leaders were not really interested in doing God’s work of caring for the poor and oppressed, the orphan and the widow, rather their main interest was to capitalize on the prestige that came with being in positions of power: nice clothes, sumptuous food, social status. To put it in middle-school lingo: Jesus is critiquing the scribes for being posers!
And then Jesus moves on from there to critique more folks who are also “posing”—the wealthy people who are making a show of putting big wads of surplus cash into the temple treasury (which, by the way, wasn’t a building, but rather a collection box for freewill offerings to help the poor.) Like the scribes, these folks were more interested in the prestige of being seen as charitable people rather than actually committing themselves to being passionately involved in caring about and partnering with people in need.
In contrast to these “posers,” Jesus points out the poor widow, who “puts her all” into the temple fund for the poor.
Now, before we go on, I want to point out something for the sake of clarification. Jesus is not calling his followers to literally follow the example of this widow and give away all of our material wealth. No. Jesus is challenging his followers to refuse to be posers and, instead, like the widow, passionately “give our all” to God’s work in the world. To give with integrity--to put our heart into our giving, not just go through the motions. For some, this could entail a drastic change in lifestyle or location, but for most of us, it means staying where we are and putting our time, talent and treasure into serving God through loving our neighbors as ourselves.
How do we do that? How do we passionately “give our all” to God’s work in the world? That, of course, is a question that each person needs pray about and answer on our own, in conversation with each other. I can’t answer for you what it means to give your all to God’s work, and you can’t answer for me, but we can talk and pray about it together and help each other see how God is leading us as individuals and as a church community.
In this stewardship season, as we each consider how to “give our all” to God’s work in the world, let me offer a few questions to help us in our decision making.
One way to think about giving is to divide it into the three traditional categories of time, talent, and treasure. I’d like to offer some questions for us to ask ourselves in each category.
First: time. How are you--how am I--spending it? If you are working, much of how you spend your time may be decided for you. The same can be true of people who are retired. How many retired people do I know who have told me, “I’m busier now than I was when I was working!” But whether we are working or retired, if we’re not intentional about it, our time can be gobbled up by events and activities that expand beyond what we expected.
It can be hard to do, but it is important to take stock of our time and dedicate it to God. It is important to recognize and prioritize the activities that BOTH feed our own souls AND build community in the process. It is also important to recognize the activities that sap our energy--and minimize those as much as possible.
Second: talent. If someone asked you, “What are your talents? Gifts? Skills?” How would you answer? Do you know what they are? Do I know what mine are? Are we using them in ways that build community and feed our souls?
Let me give you an example. We have a new dog walker--I’ve told some of you about him. He’s a retired state trooper. He decided to become a dog walker in his retirement--not to earn money, but because he loves dogs. And they love him. Whenever he comes to walk our Foxhound, Moosie, she nearly jumps out of her skin with excitement. For those of you who have seen Moosie on Zoom calls, I bet this is hard to picture, because Moosie is VERY low energy. Her favorite activity is sleeping on the couch. But when Michael comes to walk her, she can barely contain herself. She wags and jumps like she is welcoming home her long-lost best-friend. And the other dogs in the neighborhood whom Michael walks react in the same way.
And Michael is using his gift of caring for dogs not only to make the dogs’ lives better--but people’s lives as well. Michael chats with all of the neighbors he runs into on his walks. He tells stories and makes people laugh. He is contributing to a sense of caring community among dogs and people in addition to feeding his own soul.
Third: treasure. Rev. Steve Gray, who was the Stewardship Minister on staff at the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC for years, gave many talks to help individuals and churches decide how to use their money. He is long since retired, but I’ll always remember a children’s sermon he gave. He talked about how he taught his own kids to make decisions around money when they were growing up.
When each of his children got old enough to get an allowance, he gave them each 3 jars. One marked, “Saving,” one marked “Spending,” One marked, “Giving away.” And he told the kids they would each get $10.00 a week, in $1.00 bills, and it was up to them how they used their allowance, but he and his wife had one requirement. Each week they had to put at least $1.00--10%--in the savings jar. And they had to put at least $1.00 in the “giving away” jar. The rest, $8.00--80%--they were free to spend however they wanted.
The system worked really well. Every so often, after the “saving” jar collected some cash, the parents would go with them and the kids would deposit their money in the bank. And after the “giving away” jar accumulated some cash, the kids got to decide what to do with it. Being active church members, part of the “giving away” money always went into the offering plate. And part of it went to other things as well, charities the kids were interested in. And sometimes extra money from the spending category went to church and charity also, when the kids would get excited about a particular mission project.
I loved this system! (When I told my husband about it the other day he said, “You know, there’s an app for that now…”) Even before the computer age, Steve Gray and his wife taught their kids how to use their money to meet not only their own needs, but also to help do God’s caring work in the world.
My friends, in this stewardship season, like the widow in our Scripture reading, may we “give our all” to God’s work in the world. And, may God guide us as we prayerfully decide how to use our time, talent, and treasure to build community and care for our neighbors as well as meet our own needs. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA
(note: first part of this sermon was adapted from sermon written by marlayna for Nov 22, 2006)