“The View from Jesus’ Pew”

Mark 12:38-44

October 2, 2005

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

There is an old preacher’s story that makes it around from time to time. It is the one about the husband and wife whose practice it was to give their three daughters a dollar bill each Sunday to place in the offering plate. The two of them were so proud to see their girls give as the offering plate passed their way; they hoped that they were teaching their children the importance of giving to God and His church. One Sunday, when the offering plate passed from the father’s hands to the mother’s hands and then to the children, the youngest daughter and the one that was just beyond their reach, passed the plate to the worshiper sitting beside her, without putting her dollar in it. Her parents, the ones who gave her the dollar for this sole purpose, saw what had happened. They wrote notes back and forth to one another during the sermon about what to do with their daughter and her apparent act of greed. They knew that they could not kill her there in the sanctuary. It was fine for her funeral, but killing her there meant witnesses. So they waited. The plan was that following lunch, the two of them would go to her room to have a talk with her.

That talk never happened. On their way out of the sanctuary, as their daughter and the others were shaking the preacher’s hand, their youngest reached into her pocket and pulled out the dollar. When it was her turn to talk to the preacher, she handed him the bill and said, “I want to help you. Please take this dollar. My daddy says that you are the poorest preacher that we have ever had. I hope this helps.” Yikes!

For what it is worth, I have never excused my inability or my hesitancy to pay for something by offering up these words: “I am just a poor preacher!” I have never done that because I do not want to give anyone the opportunity to say, “Yes, I know, I have heard several of your sermons.” By the way, this is the time in the sermon, when I hope someone will stand up and say, “Oh, no, John, all of your sermons are great and life changing!”

Well, the truth is that when it comes to poor preaching, some of our poorest ones are about money. I wonder why that is. I have never been one who looked forward to the Sundays of October and November when letters and pledge cards are mailed out and placed in the pew racks, nestled there with the hymnals, the Bible, and the offering envelopes. I can remember my growing up years at the First United Methodist Church during my formidable years, our senior pastor would preach three or four, sometimes even five Sundays in a row about stewardship, but mostly about money. I begged my mother to let me miss those sermons. When I did go, I usually found something to do during the sermon, like color in the picture of the church that lived on the worship bulletin cover.

And now, here I am, as a pastor of a church. I do not preach four or five Sundays in a row about money, but when I do have money as the subject of the sermon, I usually apologize and hope that the words will not offend you. I am not going to do that anymore. I am not going to apologize for any sermons that have to do with stewardship.

The truth is that faithful preaching will not allow me to preach just once a year on the subject. If you will open your Bibles and read the stories of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, particularly the parables, you will see that one third of them, one out of every three of them, has to do with money and possessions. So if I preach the way that Jesus preached, the subject will come up thirty-three percent of the time. I am just not fond of the subject of money and possessions.

I have a friend who is a seasoned preacher, which means that he’s been at it for a while. He tells me that when he was fresh out of seminary, he wanted to set the world on fire. He says that he never backed down from preaching about money. He told me this, “I liked to see the generous people smile and the other ones squirm!” Well, that is not true for me. In a book whose title is Plain Talk about Churches and Money, one of the authors says that preachers are intimidated and anxious in the face of money, and because they are, they often remain silent about one of the most important spiritual issues of our day and one that touches our lives more deeply than any of the other ones.

Jesus, like I said, was not one of the preachers who was intimidated by the subject or how we feel about our things. In our scripture lesson for this morning, Jesus offers words of warning to the Pharisees and the Scribes who do things like take seats of honor in the synagogue, places of honor at banquet tables. He warns them against long robes and longer prayers. Then, to set up the scene that is the second part of our lesson, who warns against devouring the widows. By that he means not taking care of them, which in his day and our’s, is everyone’s responsibility.

Mark tells us that Jesus positioned himself across from the Temple treasury. He also tells us that he watched the crowd as they dropped off their offerings. The money, in those days, were coins. And the offering plates were coffers, horn shaped collections vessels that were big at the top and smaller at the bottom. Our money is user friendly. We usually drop a check, sealed in an offering envelope so that we will get proper credit for the gift. Or we have bills that we place in offering plates that usually have a cross-stitched pad in it so that the money won’t make a lot of noise when it is dropped. That is not the way that it was in Jesus’ day. Back then, those who brought their gifts wanted their donations to be noticed. The way to do that was to drop many coins into the coffer.

Among those standing in line to give an offering, was a widow. She is by herself, of course. She has been since her husband’s death. She had been all alone to take care of herself and the household. I do not know if anyone devoured her life, but for sure, no one really took care of her. Still she came with an offering. Mark tells us that she had two copper coins and that she put them in the horn shaped coffer. What possibly could have motivated her to give? Let that question live with you for just a moment. It is obvious that the amount is not the issue. Her gift was worth less than a penny. When Jesus saw what she did, he called the disciples over and said to them, “...this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty put in everything, all that she had to live on.”

Should she have done that? Should she have given all that she had? The coins could have helped her with some groceries or one of the medicines that she needed to take. I don’t know. It doesn’t sound very smart to me. What I do know is that this is where the story ends. Jesus and his disciples move on and the gospel of Mark flips over to the thirteenth chapter. The truth is that we do not even know what happened to her. We do not know if she went home and silently struggled the rest of her days, or if a different future awaited her. Her story, in one sense, says something to us about how she trusted God with her future, knowing that God would take care of her.

Let me go back and pick up the question that we asked of the widow. What motivated her to give? You will have to come up with your own answer. I would also like for you to consider what your motivation is for giving to God and His church.

Will Willimon tells the story of a large church that hired a fund raiser to raise money for its ambitious financial campaign. There was a strategy, of course, and the hired hand said that he wanted the membership to visit in one another’s homes. There was a quick resistance. A member of the finance committee said that their church had a high number of retired folks on fixed incomes. They couldn’t expect to pledge. The fund raiser then asked to see the confidential records of giving. At their next meeting, he told the committee what he had discovered. He had discovered that most of the top givers were widows on fixed incomes. He said that from those widows came sixty percent of the church’s budget. He said, if you want to improve the giving in this church, go and talk with the women first and find out why they give and then try to infect the rest of the congregation with their faith.

On Tuesday, we had a memorial service for one of those widows, a spiritual giant in many of our eyes. One of the things that Lucille said in a stewardship moment some years ago was so simple, and yet so important. She said that you should never let an offering plate pass by you that you do not put a little something inside of it. One of our members heard Lucille’s words about stewardship, pulled the pledge card out of his shirt pocket, marked through the amount that he planned to give, and upped his family’s pledge. I wish that Lucille were here to give that speech this year. Why do we give to God and His Church?

I will tell you why I give. I give because my need to give is so great. I know a church, a big church in our city, who this year, isn’t asking their members to turn in pledge cards. That seems a little crazy to me. We won’t do that here. The idea is that our need to give is greater than our need to raise a budget. When I look at our budget, I don’t see facts and figures. When I look at the budget, I see Annie Grace and the ministries that benefit her. I see a Halloween Carnival and an Easter Egg Hunt. I see a Children’s Choir and a Child Care Center that is top notch. When I look at our budget, I see Shana Harrison and her ministry in Chile with handicapped persons. When I look at the budget, I see dreams and visions and hopes for the future. What about you?

What is your motivation to give? What gift will you bring? What percentage of your income will you pledge. Every gift counts. One Sunday in a Sunday School class, the teacher asked her eight eager children if they would give a million dollars to the missionary. “Oh Yes” they screamed at the top of their lungs. The teacher asked if they would give a thousand dollars to our missionary? The boys screamed out, “We would! We would!” The teacher asked, “Would you give a hundred dollars to our missionary?” Again the eight children said that they would. “We will, we will” they screamed. Finally she asked, would you give a dollar? Seven of them said that they would. Johnny didn’t. The teacher looked over at Johnny and asked, “Why, Johnny, did you not say that you’d give a dollar.” Johnny was clutching his pocket. He said, “Well, because I have a dollar!”

She, out of her poverty, Jesus said, put in everything, all that she had to live on. Some of us dream of giving a lasting gift to the church. Some of us are tithers, we give ten percent of our incomes to the church, that is the biblical teaching. Others of us are working towards it. But you have a dollar. Right now, in your pockets, you have a dollar. Start with it. You have a skill, use it. Right now you have a talent, use it. Start there. Right now. Start there and let’s see what will happen. Let us pray.