Mark 12:38-44
October 29, 2000
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Today’s passage has always been a threat to me. Jesus taught his followers to beware of scribes who like to walk around in long robes! I wear long robes! Jesus was criticizing scribes who crave public acclaim and like to sit in places of honor at big banquets. I enjoy a little respect now and then. Jesus condemned them for saying “long prayers.” I have been known to go on and on in prayer occasionally. You see, this passage makes me nervous.
Moreover, then Jesus sat down opposite the temple treasury. He observed that “rich people” were putting in large sums of money to God at the temple. Even though I don’t think of myself as rich, compared with the majority of the world’s people, I am rich.
This passage makes me very nervous.
After all the rich people in their fancy clothes have put in their large donations, a widow comes along. This poor woman comes and puts in two small copper coins that are worth only one penny. Jesus seeing this called his disciples together and taught them,
For all of them (the rich people) have contributed out of their abundance;
but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
In today’s gospel text, Jesus turns his disciples’ attention away from thinking about being prominent or powerful. He wants his disciples not to worry about sitting on his left side or on his right side. It’s not about the scribes with their long fancy robes and long sophisticated prayers. Jesus wants the disciples to focus on the poor woman.
Poor Widow
The poor widow puts in two copper coins that are only worth a penny. And Jesus says to the disciples, “Don’t focus on the size of her gift in comparison to what the rich people gave, but focus on how she gave to God everything she had. Out of self-abandonment, she gives all. All!
Here is a woman whom we would label as a victim. Her husband has died, so now she is the victim of the economic and social injustices of the world.
But look at what she does. She turns the whole system of accumulating and adding up our money upside down. She gives all. In so doing, she becomes a judgment upon the cautious, grasping, accumulating culture in which most of us live. You see, this passage is making me very nervous.
The poor widow in her actions shows us a different world from the one that we are accustomed to. It’s the same world that Jesus represents. And that’s the reason why Jesus praised her for what she did in front of his disciples. This passage should make you feel nervous too!
How Much Is Enough?
Today is Pledge Sunday. And for the past few weeks since you approved of the Proposed Budget for 2001, we have asked you to pray for your decision to support the ministry of Jesus Christ through this church.
We preachers don’t like to speak about money as much as the gospels speak about it. We are nervous about talking about money. But today’s story about the poor widow’s coins reminds us that Jesus had a great deal to say about money: where your money is, is where your heart is.
We need to ask the question, “How much is enough?” Now I am not going to bore you with all kinds of statistics and percentages on how much we have and how little the rest of the three-quarters of the world don’t have.
But have you ever sat down and asked yourself, “How much do I really need?” And better yet, have you ever gotten down on your knees in the very depths of your heart and hear God ask you the same question? Fill in your name _____, how much do you really need?”
There was a minister from West Africa who came for a visit in the U.S. First, he was astonished at the size of our trash cans. He could not possibly imagine having so much to throw away on a weekly basis. Our church has two 90 gallon trash cans that are picked up three times a week! Secondly, he was shocked to learn that not only do we have homes and second homes—all filled to overflowing—but that we also can rent extra space to store our things at one of the many commercial rental centers around the nation. How much is enough?
Like you, I receive lots of advertisements in the mail on a regular basis and especially in the Sunday newspaper. Some are very low-key in their attempts to get you to become more of a consumer. Others are quite blatant. Last week, I was stunned to find an ad from one of America’s department stores. On a colorful front cover were pictures of new shoes, a new sweater, designer bags, and a brilliantly designer name shirt and on top were written these words, “Say YES to more of everything.”
And that really is where we are stuck, isn’t it—believing that our only choice is to say YES to more of everything?
Sacramental Money
In Mark’s gospel, there is a barrage of criticism of the powerful, the influential and the rich. And Jesus teaches us that when our money has become idolatry, we need to have the gratitude and praise in giving that the poor widow showed in the temple. The widow models a Christian view of money that helps us see that our possessions are not our achievements, but are gifts from God. God first has given us money so that we might show praise through the generous offering of our gifts to do God’s work in the world.
How do we free ourselves from making money idolatry? For Christians, the only use of money is a sacrament—a sacred and holy use to restore the world to Christ. This means that money has little to do in supporting the operations of the church. The church does not represent just another charity to be subsidized either out of your generosity or your obligation. When we ask you to give out of charity or maintenance of the building, we end up abetting the idolatry of money.
We see this in our worship service today. Idolatry happens when we regularly dramatize in the offertory what we regard as the “collection.” The offertory almost is like an “intermission” in the worship of the people. When we think about the offertory as our way of paying our “admissions” to come to worship, then our money becomes idolatry.
Are you getting nervous now? Well, it’s going get worse before better!
Listen to what we sing in the Doxology,
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Doxology reminds us that all the money that we have we give back to God from
whom it came from. The offering time is offering ourselves and all the blessings that we did not deserve in the first place but received, back to God to do God’s work in the world.
The offering always implies our confession that our money is not our own because our lives are not our own, but by the example of God’s own love, our lives belong to God and the world.
Kingdom of God
When we see that God has given us money, we are grateful and thankful. God has given us money so that we might show praise through the generous offering of our gifts and resources to God’s work.
That’s the reason for our canvass theme this year, “With GLAD hearts, God ADDS!” In Acts 2, we see that in the life of the believers, there were remarkable things happening. Awe came over everyone because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. And when they sold their possessions and had only enough for everyone, they had glad and generous hearts. The Bible says, “Day by day the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved.”
With GLAD hearts, God ADDS to FCBC! Look at us today. God is continuing to add and multiply our numbers so that our newly retrofitted church is still too small for God’s people to come together to praise God! We are a sign of God’s in-breaking kingdom in the world! We had to close the sidewalk in order to celebrate our Christian fellowship a few weeks ago. We are translating English to Chinese and Chinese to English because God is using us to in-break his Kingdom in the world! Being monolingual is not enough, we need to praise God in many languages because God’s kingdom is breaking out into the world when his people show praise through the generous offering of God’s gifts.
If your are still nervous about money, don’t be! Be more nervous about being a part of God’ plan of breaking out his kingdom in the world through you and me. God wants to use us: all of our resources, all of our gifts, all of our lives to do his work in the world.
Expressing God’s Kingdom
When the Kingdom of God comes near, the world breaks forth into various kinds of praise and thanksgiving. One way that we praise God is through the offering back of money to God. The poor widow gave from more than a sense of duty or obligation. Her generous, self-giving strikes us as an overflowing of gratitude and praise. Her gift is seen by Jesus, not as a harsh sacrifice, but as an expression of the kingdom
When the Kingdom of God comes, there is healing, exorcism, and joy. We need to be healed of our love of and worship of money. We need to be exorcised of the demon of materialism that holds so many of us captive. We need to discover the joy of giving like the poor widow who gave out of gratitude and praise to God.
Today we can express God’s Kingdom through the pledges that we will make. When the Canvass Committee was meeting to see how we might be able to raise the pledges, tithes, and contributions to support next year’s ministries, we discussed how much each one would have to increase their pledges for us to make the budget. We soon discovered that a large percentage of the pledges come from retired people.
As Jesus teaches the disciples how much more the poor widow gave out of her poverty in comparison to the rich people who gave out of their abundance, we too can see that it’s the widows and retired people in our church who are giving their all. They are giving all because they have a different view of the world. They are grateful and praise God by giving to God’s ministry in the world for all that they have originally came from God. What we need to do is to infect our entire congregation with the faith that our widows and retired people have at FCBC!
Still Nervous
Are you still nervous? I am. I’m nervous because the longer I am here, the more generous I have become. I’m nervous because I see how generous and loving this congregation has been for the past 120 years in praising God for all the blessings that have overflowed.
I’m nervous because when Joy and I give our pledge to the work of Jesus Christ in the world, I’m not just giving the loose change on top of my dresser, but we are giving our lives to God.
And I’m nervous because I don’t like infections! The more I am here, the more I see that the widows and retired people and all of you who love Jesus Christ will infect me so that I will give my all to God.
God asks us to give our all. And may God help us all!
Let us pray.
O Gracious and loving God, we praise you for all the blessings that we have received from you. At this very moment in our lives, lead us to dedicate all that we are to the work of your kingdom. Thank you for giving us examples of giving like the widow who gave out of her love for you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.