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Mark 12:41-44
I imagine a lot of us feel like that widow in our reading must have: with fuel costs rising and talk of recession and depression in the air. Some of us have been hit hard by the recent economic news. Some have lost money. Others have lost jobs. And those who haven't been hit yet are just waiting to see what will happen next.
Times are sooo tough � (How tough are they?) Times are so tough that I used to have a 401K, but now I have a 101K. I heard a recent retiree saying, "The government fixed my income and now I'm broke." Times are so tough that I know this guy who decided to sell his car because gas prices were driving him bankrupt - get it driving him � well. Someone was looking at it and asking his questions. How many miles does it have on it, how does the engine run? Finally the guy said, "Do the brakes work?" The guy shrugged his shoulders and said, "Don't know. I never used the brakes. They only slow me down."
We may think times are tough, but the widow in the Bible story today didn't have much, not even a 101K. First she was a widow in an age when a woman didn't have the legal rights that they do now. She was also poor. She only had two of the smallest copper coins used back then. And she gave them both to the temple treasury.
Jesus was watching as she was doing it. He called his disciples' attention to her. He said "she has given more than all the others. But people had put in large bags of gold and silver! Yes, they had, but she put in all she had.
Please don't misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not suggesting for a moment that those living in poverty should give all their money to this church or any church. I don't believe Jesus is suggesting that either. You remember he is also chided the scribes and Pharisees for "devouring widow's houses." I think Jesus is commenting on the woman's faith. The others gave what was left over, she gave everything.
I imagine this widow waking up one morning and realizing that these two coins are all she has. As she looked at those two coins she knew that they could not sustain her. But she knew that God could take care of her. God after all is the champion of the widow and the orphan. So she gave herself to Him entirely.
You see the coins were just a symbol or expression of what was happening spiritually in this woman. She had put her total faith in God and given of her self entirely into his care. The others had not given themselves entirely to God. Their faith was in their wealth or their power of their status. So Jesus commended the woman for her faith.
Sometimes we all feel like that widow. It may not be a matter of not having enough money to live on but it can be other things. I know sometimes I don't seem to have enough time to do all that I have to. I look at my list of appointments and things to do and I don't know how in the world I can get it all done. How do I make time for God?
For some people just living seems to take up all their energy. They don't seem to have enough energy to live. It takes all they have to just make it from day to day. How do you give some to God?
And for some people it is the money. There is too much month left and the end of the money. Some are buried under a pile of debt that they can't get out of. And they wonder how they are going to live.
Jesus knows how we feel. And so does the widow. Like her we need to give ourselves entirely to God. I am not talking about the money now. I am talking about giving our hearts our souls our lives to God. I am not talking about putting two copper coins on the altar but putting ourselves on the altar for God.
I know, today is Stewardship Sunday. I am supposed to tell you to tithe or give 10% of you income to the church. OK, you should give 10% of your income to the church. If we all did that then the one step chart would look a lot different and this church could do a lot more.
But I am talking about something more important than money. I am talking about your life: your time, your talents, your heart, your soul� Give them all to God. Surrender yourself totally and trust Him to care for you. After that money will not be an issue.
Oh, by the way, I know I said that many of us feel like the widow, but in reality very few of us are like her. Sure times are tougher than usual. Some of us may move down the chart this year and still be tithing. But most of us have more than two copper coins to live off of.
So give yourself to God: your time, your talents. Pledge your heart to Him entirely. Times are hard but God if good. Put your life in his hands.
Then let Him tell you what to do with your money.
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
And they lived happily ever after! That is the way the story appears to end. But there is more to the story. It is bigger than that. It is not just all happy endings. The story is one of sacrifice and danger - riches to rags to riches. A woman who finds love and loses it then travels to a foreign country and along the way she finds family and faith and then finally love again. It is a story of Biblical proportions.
It is the story of Ruth! We enter the story in the middle. I imagine Ruth recalling the series of events that brought her to this place. It had seemed so long ago that she was promised to an Israelite boy. She had wondered about their strange way. They ate different foods and dressed in a different way and they even had their own God. But she soon found love in her new family.
Then disaster struck. First her father-in-law and then both her husband and her brother-in-law died. There they were three women with no man to care for them in an age when women had no rights. But Ruth did not regret the decision not to go back to her father. Even though staying with her mother-in-law Naomi meant going to a foreign land. She knew that the love she had so briefly enjoyed with her husband somehow came from their strange religion of one God. So she claimed her mother-in-law and her late husband's God as her own.
There she was - still a woman without a man in a man's world. But she did what woman in all ages do: whatever she needs to, to survive. That meant gleaning in the fields. Her, a widow, working in the fields. But the owner of the field, Boaz, took notice of her. And he was a relative - close enough kin to claim her by the laws of Moses and redeem her from her poverty.
So there she was preparing to offer herself to him. Not knowing if he would reject her - she was a foreigner after all. She remembered the anxiety she experienced as a young woman wondering who would be chosen to be her husband. This was different She was a widow not a young girl. She knew what it meant to be a wife.
This time her livelihood and that of her mother-in-law were on the line. She could be ridiculed or ostracized. She could loose her rights to glean unhindered in the fields of Boaz. But she took her mother-in-law's advice and chose to trust the goodness of Boaz. She placed herself in his hands.
He did not disappoint her. Boaz didn't embarrass her. He did what he could. But there was a roadblock. Someone else had first rights to the widows of Naomi's sons. So Boaz went to him before the elders and in essence bought the right to marry Ruth. He redeemed her from her kinsman so that he could take her as his own.
And they lived happily ever after. But that is not the end of the story! Ruth had a son who would provide descendants for her deceased husband. And thus began a line that led eventually to the birth of David - as in David and Goliath - king David of Israel.
They lived happily ever after. But that is still not the end of the story - it is still bigger. David was not the last descendant of Ruth and Boaz. There was another famous Son of David that you may have heard of. His name is Jesus! And that leads us to another Love story of Biblical proportions.
Once upon a time there was a race of people who were without a protector or savior. They had no one to speak for them and they were in a foreign land of sin. So they took the advice of their elders and placed their trust in God. And God did not ridicule or embarrass them. Instead He came to redeem them.
Someone else, sin, had first rights to them. But God loved the people. So he paid the price, a death on the cross. God redeemed them from the hand of sin. God claimed them as his own.
Ruth is a love story of Biblical proportions. It is also a love story with a personal dimension. We can sympathize with the emotions that Ruth must have felt as she went to Boaz and offer herself to him and as she became his wife. There was the sense of hopelessness in her situation. How could she and Naomi live in that world and in that time without a protector? There is also a sense of hope that this man who had been kind to her would take her as his own. There was also the fear of rejection - what if she was not good enough for him? Then there was the joy when he did claim her and redeemer her from the hands of his kinsman.
Ruth's story is our story. We were in a hopeless situation. In a foreign land of sin we were destitute and without a protector. However, there was one who gave us hope. But would he reject us? What if we were not good enough for him? Many people do not offer themselves to God because they are afraid of rejection. He did not reject us. He redeems us from the hands of sin and claims us as his own.
Mark 12:38-44
Everyone swore the woman was crazy. She lived in a nice little house. It was a Victorian style two story cottage. Upstairs was an apartment and downstairs were four rooms just the right size for a widow like herself to live in. It was even in a nice location just across the street from a little Methodist church. She owned the house outright, yet she said that it belonged to Jesus.
There in lies the roots of her insanity. Now if that were the whole story people would have called her "spiritual" or "religious," but they knew the rest of the story so they said she was crazy. You see she and her husband had lived in that house for years. After decades of marriage he decided to run off with a younger woman. So he abandoned his wife and took up with a younger woman and filed for divorce.
In the settlement she got the house. The judge had decided and the courts of the state declared it was her house. Yet she insisted it was Jesus' house. But that�s not the whole story. If the story had stopped there, people would have understood.
You see this ex-husband of hers who had abandoned her and cheated on her got cancer. He was dying and he had no money and no one to care for him. Seems right after all he did to her. And there she was sitting in her home, excuse me, Jesus' home with an apartment upstairs. So what does she do? She takes the cheating adulterer into her, that is Jesus', house, puts him in that upstairs apartment and nurses the little cheater until he dies. And that is why everyone swore she was crazy.
I guess that is what people thought about that widow in Jesus day. When Jesus came to the temple he looked around and saw all the religious leaders walking around in the long flowing robes. They liked the position of honor and power that they possessed. They enjoyed the greetings from the people in the market and the invitations to all the best dinners. But Jesus saw their hypocrisy. They devoured widows' houses for their own personal gain and then made long pretentious prayers to make themselves look righteous.
Then Jesus saw this widow. She didn't have a long robe. In fact her clothes were obviously worn and patched. And she put two coins in the offering plate. The only two coins she had.
I am sure people thought she was insane. To give her last two coins into the care of the very people Jesus accused of devouring widow's houses. But Jesus praised her. She realized that these coins were not hers. They were God's. God had given them to her and she could do little with them. She could not feed herself for long with these two coins. Maybe the God who rained down bread from heaven could make better use of them.
This is a lesson in true religion. This is what it means to have faith in God. To truly surrender it all to God. The Pharisees had so much and made a show of their devotion to God. But in reality they had given nothing to God. This widow on the other hand had given all she had because she trusted God.
But that is all fine and dandy. We should all go around saying that our cars and houses and bank accounts belong to Jesus. It sounds a little strange, but that is acceptable. We are Christians and supposedly we have given our lives to Jesus so all we have belongs to him.
If you do that people will call you "religious" or "spiritual" and even applaud you. But that is not enough. That is just a pious show like that of the Pharisees. People will applaud you and ask you over to dinner if you do that. That is false religious, God wants; no, demands more.
Let me get more concrete. It is fine to say that you car belongs to Jesus. Like I said that is a little different but it is socially acceptable. It is quite another thing to loan your car out to your neighbor when theirs is broken. People will say, but what about the insurance? It is also another thing to loan it out when it means that you and your spouse have to share your other car or when you don't have another car to share.
It is fine to say that your house belongs to Jesus. People will accept that as a statement of faith and applaud it. But God asks more. It is another thing to open your house to those in need; even when they are perfect strangers. Even to open your home to the very people that hurt you in the past.
It is nice to say that all you have belongs to God. And it looks nice when you put that extra money you didn't spend last month into the offering plate or to give some extra time to serving God. People will say, "Isn't that a religious person." But it is quite another to give your two cents to God. That is crazy!
This is the lesson in true religion. What most people call religion is the kind of thing the Pharisees did. The world says you are religious if you go to church every now and then and give some extra income and time to the church. They say you are religious if you look religious. But true religion is quite another thing. True religion is sacrificing everything for God's glory. True religion is giving you home, your car, your very life for the will of God.
You want to know what true religion is. It is Jesus the Son of God, the author of life and Goodness, dying on a cross. That's crazy! A sinless person giving their life for a worthless wretch like me! That's insane! The author of life dying for a race of ungrateful creatures like us! Giving his body to be broken and his blood to be shed to pay for my sins!
But that is true religion. Don't just say you have given it all to Jesus. Really give your self totally to God. Be sold out for Jesus. People will say you are crazy, but Jesus will point to you in that last day and say, "This poor child has given more. This one was sold out for my kingdom."
Mark 12:38-44
"Preacher, what do Methodists believe about tithing?" The call came one night from a member of my church. This particular member was one who I thought should have known the answer. He was one of a group of lay people specially trained to teach stewardship. I told him what the Book of Discipline(1992) says. Tithing is the "minimum goal of giving in the United Methodist Church."(p. 157) Then he said to me something that has stuck with me. "In all of my years as a United Methodist I have never heard a Methodist Minister preach that. You haven't preached that."
In the Methodist Church we talk about Stewardship. And of course tithing falls under the heading of Stewardship. Stewardship is the biblical and spiritual understanding that all we have is a gift from God. And as Christians ultimately all we have belongs to God. Our possession, our talents, our time are not our own they have been surrendered to God. We are merely stewards or caretakers of God's property and gifts.
This is a wonderful understanding that grows straight out of the Bible. But unfortunately the issue of tithing tends to get lost in the discussion. We are good at discussing the general ideas but we fail to get to the specifics. We are good at saying we are all stewards but when we get to specifics of how to be good stewards we waver. Preachers get in trouble when they get too specific with telling people what they should do with their money. So we tend to just beat around the bush.
Jesus got into trouble for talking about money. One day Jesus was warning his disciples about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Some people giving gifts to God and Jesus saw the opportunity for an object lesson. He sat down opposite the treasury and wealthy people came by and put large sums of money in the treasury. Bags of gold and silver. Then a poor widow came and put in two small pennies. When the total was added up at the end of the day her two cents would not add up to much. The scribes who did the counting would notice the bags of gold and silver.
But Jesus noticed the woman's offering. "Look," he said, "that woman has given more than anyone else." The disciples started counting on their fingers to figure out this new math Jesus was using. Jesus explained, "The others gave out of their abundance what they had left over, but this woman out of her poverty gave all she has."
What must that poor woman have been thinking? How would she live? How would she pay her bills or buy her food? Because of her action she would probably end up on welfare. Did she think that God would maybe pay her back with showers of blessings?
No, I think she realized that her only hope was in the Lord. She had nothing, except two pennies - and faith. The two pennies couldn't support her, but her faith told her that God could. She wasn't trying to buy a favor from God. She was simply placing her trust in the only one who could support her.
There is a tragic irony in this story. Did you miss it? The real tragedy is not the poor widow who gave away her last two pennies. Ironically the real tragedy is the rich people. They placed bags full of spare change in the offering plate thinking they are doing good. They think they have something when really they have nothing.
The widow is the one who is truly blessed. Because of her poverty she realized that she had nothing. And because she realizes that she had nothing she castes all her hopes and her very life in God's hands, even to the point of offering her last two pennies. When the cold winter comes or the days of hunger, her hope is in the Lord. And after all the Lord is the only one who can ever really meet our needs.
The rich people, on the other hand have placed their hopes and their lives on their wealth. They thought that their money could protect them. But what is money? It is a material thing and material things rust and pass away; they are stolen and degrade in value. When marauding armies come would their money save them? When thieves steal all they have will their money save them? When powers beyond human control prevail will common currency save them? When God demands a reckoning for their life, would money save them? No, earthly treasures pass away, but spiritual wealth, like the faith and hope of the widow, those things are eternal!
That is what tithing is all about. Tithing is not just about giving ten percent of your income to God. It's that but it is much more. Tithing is about putting our trust and our hope in the hands of the Lord. It is about deciding to value the eternal treasures that God offers above temporal riches. It is about a faith that says, "My hope is in the Lord and the Lord alone."
Don't tithe because the church needs your money. News flash! The church doesn't need your money. All the church needs is the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. You might tithe out of mere obedience. That is a good start but there is more.
Tithe because your only true hope is in the Lord. Most of us are like the rich worshippers who give out of our abundance and like them we tragically miss the blessings of trusting whole heatedly in Christ. Many people find it hard to tithe because they think they need that money to live and to prosper. When in reality all we need is Christ to live eternally and abundantly.
If you are not presently tithing, I encourage you to do so. Not for the benefit of the church or ministry to whom you give, but for your own spiritual benefit. Sit down and figure out your income and decided to give ten percent to some Christian ministry. It doesn't have to be this church. There will be some slim months, but trust in God and the blessings will be eternal. Like that widow you will be set free from bondage to material things and you will have spiritual treasures beyond earthly value.