November 12, 2006
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
For half of my mother’s life, she was a widow. Fortunately, my older brother and sister-in-law welcomed our mother into their household sparing me of having to care for my widowed mother. She moved in with them and occupied the smallest bedroom on the attic floor facing the front of the house. She owned all of her bedroom furniture and donated the rest of her living and dining room furniture to what became our extended family all under one roof. After some time, the only furniture that she could identify as her own was that in her bedroom.
In ancient Hebrew, it was a “widow-making” society like many societies then as well as today. Girls were expected to marry as soon as they could bear children. Brides were sometimes as young as thirteen or fourteen years old. The groom on the other hand, had to be “settled” and financially secure before he “took” a wife. So the husband was generally much older than the wife. Then, as now, men didn’t live as long, on the average, as women. So now you can do the math: many young brides plus many older husbands equals many widows: a “widow-making” society.
Unless she married or went to live with her parents, if they were still alive, or her son, if she had one, a widow’s situation could become desperate. Women had few property rights. They inherited nothing from their husbands. By law, the largest part of whatever there was to inherit went to the oldest son. Many families lived from hand to mouth. Widows were marginalized and often oppressed, the underclass of society. They are like the street people today.
Two Widows
Today we will look at two widows. Both were desperately poor. In 1 Kings, outside the city gate, we see a widow gathering sticks to make a fire to cook her last supper. She and her son were starving. All they had left was a little oil and a little grain.
The second widow in Mark 12:38-44, was so poor that she owned nothing more than two small coins. The King James Version called these, “mites.” In old England, two mites made up one farthing, a penny. After the widow put her last mite into the offering, she was literally “penniless.” Now we have a starving widow and a penniless widow. We might think that they are worthless.
The first widow became God’s instrument to save Elijah, one of the greatest, if not the greatest of the Hebrew prophets. The second widow was noticed and praised by the Son of God himself. Her tiny contribution has been remembered for 2000 years.
Two widows, one starving, one penniless were both in a male-dominated widow-making society with not a mite between them. Both widows were nameless. But both were women of power. God knew these women. God used these women. These women were mighty. They had widows might!
Both women were mighty with the power of trust and obedience in God.
The First Widow
In the first widow, Elijah, a stranger, came to her when she was at her lowest: weak, hungry, and afraid for herself and her son. They were literarily starving to death. Then Elijah commanded her to fetch him a drink of water in a place and at a time when water was scarce. They were experiencing a drought.
This widow had all the reasons to ignore Elijah’s demanding. She had enough of her own troubles to bother with someone else’s. Still, she could see Elijah was a man of God, so she obeyed.
Then Elijah made a second and more difficult demand. While she was getting his water, Elijah called after her: “And while you’re at it, get me a little bread.” That was the last straw. The widow got angry and said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug…I will go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat, and die.” This widow was desperate and frustrated and even a bit angry at Elijah for making such a command when she and her son were about to have their last meal together.
But Elijah assured her that if she would only trust and obey, everything would be okay. God would provide for her and her son. So the real miracle here is not the ever-full jug of oil or the never-empty jar of meal. The miracle is a starving mother with a child in her care, trusting and obeying a strange command from a stranger. She discovered that every day the Lord provided daily bread—not too much and not too little, but always just enough.
The Second Widow
Like the first widow, we know very little about the second widow. We can imagine her as older. Perhaps she has learned from decades of experience, that we “trust and obey’ then God renews us that very day. I can imagine her throwing her two last coins into the offering, not fearfully but joyfully. She was looking forward to how God would surprise and bless her that day.
The widow at the temple could easily have argued, “I need these coins a lot more than the temple. I’ll keep them both. Or if I give, I’ll give just one.” Her power came through her willingness to sacrifice and give God the very best she could. That’s why her gift was more impressive to Jesus than the gifts of the rich and famous. She gave without hesitations or excuses, and held nothing back.
The widows were mighty with the power of trust and obedience. God used them because they were willing to trust and obey. These women were mighty in self-sacrifice. They didn’t just give, each gave her all. The first dared to share her last meal with a stranger. The second gave her last coin to God’s work.
Power is unleashed when we respond to God’s call and give our all. Jesus gave everything for you and me, dying on the cross. Through his self-sacrifice, salvation came to humankind. World history was changed. The widows’ might came from their willingness to put themselves at risk, as did Jesus on the cross.
God’s Providence
The widows’ might demonstrated by their willingness to trust and obey God was met by a mightier power, the power of God’s providence. When they emptied themselves and trusted God, God was there to fill them up.
Sometimes we worry that God is not sufficient for our needs. We are like Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher and evangelist from the nineteenth century. Spurgeon rode home in his carriage one night after a day of hard and grueling work, weary, discouraged, and depressed.
Suddenly, the verse “my grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9) popped into his head. Spurgeon compared himself to a tiny fish in the Thames River, afraid he would drink the Thames River dry. He heard God say, “Drink away, little fish. My stream is sufficient for you.”
Then he saw himself as a mouse, nibbling away in Joseph’s enormous Egyptian granaries, afraid he would eat up all the grain and starve. Again, Spurgeon heard God speaking saying, “Cheer up, little mouse. My grain is sufficient for you.”
Again, he saw himself as a mountain climber, at the peak of some high mountain, out-of-breath; gasping for air, and afraid that he might use up all the oxygen. Then God said, “Breathe away, O man, forever. My atmosphere is sufficient for you.”
So often we cling to things. We’re afraid. We feel we need constantly to watch out for and protect ourselves, to grip tightly to what we have; for fear that we might lose everything forever. We forget the power of God’s providence. In fact, it is often when we empty ourselves most completely that God’s providence pours in with the mightiest power.
When you have nothing left but God, then for the first time you become aware that God is enough. The two widows knew that. They gave, trusting God, obediently and self-sacrificially. They were neither foolhardy nor irresponsible. They were mighty, because they trusted in God’s greater might.
Mother’s Sacrifice
For half of her life, my mother was a widow. She would always save the best pieces of chicken for her children and grandchildren. She would pile high the rice on our plates and made sure there was always seconds. On her way home from the sewing factory, she would stop in Jordan Marsh’s bakery and buy a dozen of chocolate éclairs with the fresh vanilla pudding inside and rich milk chocolate on top and let us eat as many as we want.
My widowed mother was mighty because not only did she raise her children, she raised her five grandchildren from my brother and then she raised a number of her great-grandchildren too. She like the two widows gave of herself, trusting God, obediently and sacrificially that when she gave it all, she can still trust God for he is great and mightier. My widowed mother never had to worry because she knew that God is sufficient for all her needs.
Giving from Our Core
From the stories of these two widows, we once again see that things are not always as they seem to be. Widows who are seen by the world as unimportant and unworthy reveal to us what true giving and self-sacrifice mean. By their obedience and trust in God, they remind us of how Jesus Christ obeyed and trusted God with his life and in the end, we are given eternal life. The widow in 1 Kings trusted God and provided food for Elijah and in her acts of giving; she received sufficient food for herself and her son. The widow in Mark trusted God by giving both coins that caught the attention of Jesus, the Son of God himself.
It would be a mistake to interpret these passages to mean that you should “give until it hurts.” The merit of the widows’ gifts is not that it deprives them of their livelihood. The merit of it is that they gave away that which had central meaning to their lives.
True generosity comes from giving away that which comes from the center of who we are. When we give because we have to, or because we want to be admired, or out of that which is excess, it doesn’t have the same spiritual value as giving something that really matters to us. Real sacrifice is where giving it away really makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of those who receive the gift.
At the end, my mother who was a widow for half her life, gave all that she really had—the love and care for her family. In doing so, she became a worthy and important person in the lives of her family and made a difference in her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we want to follow your way, but we confess that we hold back. You call us to be your disciples, but we don’t want to risk all and walk with you. We are cautious, fearful, and timid. You are bold, decisive, and brave in your love for us. Teach us to trust and obey like the two widows we met today. Give us a spirit of boldness so that in our sacrificial giving, we too may have abundant life. In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.