Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27B)

November 10, 2024

Text: Mark 12:38-44

            As he made his way into the building, little Jack Gulseth showed me the shiny new dime he’d found.  “Wow, you’re rich!” I exclaimed.  The Gulseths, as you know, had come to our capital campaign kick-off dinner.  It was a beautiful night, wasn’t it?  Made all the sweeter by the presence of our guests, friends from our mother Church, Messiah, Seattle, the circuit visitor and his dear wife, and the Gulseth Family from Concordia, a fitting expression of the healing and goodwill between our two congregations.  At any rate, as the evening was coming to a close, Pastor Gulseth appeared at my side, wielding the dime.  “Jack listened very carefully to the devotion and the speeches,” he said, “and he took them to heart.  And I want you to know, it is very important to Jack that you accept his dime as a donation to your capital campaign.”  Five years old!  It may have been the most touching moment of a very touching night.  And I immediately thought of our text.  Though Jack lives on the providence of his parents, it is nevertheless true: He gave all he had.  That’s faith!  And God will bless it.  God does not count money as we do.  He does mightier things by the pennies of widows and the dimes of children, given in faith, than we can even begin to imagine.

            Now, I think we’re too hard on all the other people putting money into the offering box.  Especially the rich people.  Thank God for them.  Of course, as I said at the dinner, in God’s economy, there is no such thing as a small gift, at least not when given sacrificially and cheerfully, for, as Paul says, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7; ESV).  I suppose a small gift in God’s economy is one given begrudgingly or miserly, whatever the amount.  But I think we can all agree, thank God for what are, humanly speaking, big gifts, as well.  Realistically, we need them, and you’ve given them.  Out of your abundance (and thank God for your abundance), you’ve given some of it, as did the people at the Temple that day in our text. 

            But the widow gave more than all of them, and that is something to give us pause.  Not that she gave more money.  Two copper coins.  Maybe they make a penny by today’s standards.  Why, then, does the Lord praise her?  Because proportionately she put in more than all the others?  True.  True enough.  She did, and that is good.  But do you think… not that most of us knows what anyone else gives, and where that stands in proportion to our various and variable incomes… but do you think that God declares you more righteous than your neighbor because you give a bigger proportion of your income than he does?  And do you ever stop to think that, if that is true, that would mean He declares others of your neighbors more righteous than you, because they give a larger proportion of their incomes than you do?  Just stop it.  That’s not what this is about.

            Why, then, does the Lord praise her?  He says, “she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all that she had to live on” (Mark 12:44).  And see, now our Lord’s sermon, like any good stewardship sermon (and therefore unlike most stewardship sermons), redirects our eyes from the amount put in, to the miraculous, God-given faith, the fruit of which is the sacrificial giving.  The point is this: In faith, the woman didn’t just give God two copper coins.  She didn’t just give God her whole income.  She gave God her life.  All of her.  The whole of her.  All she had.  All she is.  Trusting that He who gave it all to her in the first place, her life and all she had, would continue to provide for her, continue to give to her, continue to pour forth His all for her.

            And what makes this all the more remarkable, is that, though she appears here in the New Testament, she’s really an Old Testament believer.  Right?  We find her in the Temple, making her Temple contribution.  And that is to say, she is still looking forward to Messiah’s coming.  Trusting in the Christ who, as far as she knows, is yet to come.  She hasn’t yet seen the fulfillment of the Old Testament Promises (though that fulfillment is sitting off to the side watching her).  Yet she believes, she trusts, with her whole life… all she has to live on… that those Promises are true.

            And in giving everything, her whole life, in sacrifice… she is a prophetic picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His giving His all, His whole life, in sacrifice on the cross, for the forgiveness of our sins.  She is the Church.  This is what we get to be in our giving.  Icons of Christ.  Picturing for one another, and for the whole world, the redemptive sacrifice of Christ for us.  “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

            And there is another thing we learn from her.  She knows this, perhaps only implicitly, but here is wisdom to carry in your heart your whole life long: Whatever you keep back from God, in the end, you lose.  But whatever you give up to God, surrender to God for His purposes, you keep eternally.  And, in fact, as we heard recently, you are rewarded a hundredfold.  It is as Pastor Elliott preached to us at the dinner… On your death bed, you won’t be thinking about how much money is in the bank.  All of that will cease to matter.  You can’t take it with you, as the old saying goes.  But what will follow you are the people for whom God has used you to bring them to faith in Christ, or strengthen their faith, encourage their faith, sustain their faith.  Through your words.  Your example.  Your prayers.  Yes, your offering.  Think about little Jack’s words about his dime.  Think of his example to us.  Undoubtedly, his prayers.  Think of that mighty little dime doing the work of God’s Kingdom.  More than a mere 10 cents, I can tell you, will follow Jack into heaven.  More than two copper coins will follow the widow.  We will follow them.  Our children will follow them.  All those impacted by the Gospel ministry of this congregation will follow them.  These are the true riches.  Surrendering all, including their very selves, Jack and the widow have unimaginable treasure in heaven.  Because it is as Jesus says in another place in the Gospel: “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). 

            What is the pride of the scribes against which Jesus warns us at the beginning of our Holy Gospel, but the holding back of something (in this case, honor) for the self, and from God?  Right?  “Look at me.  Give me the place of honor in the congregation and at the feast.  Listen to my long and eloquent prayers.  And widows?  Give all you have to live on to me.”  The scribes, for the most part, like pastors today, lived on the offerings of the people.  Nothing wrong with that, as far as it goes.  You shall not muzzle the ox while it is treading grain, and all that (1 Cor. 9:9; 1 Tim. 5:18; Deut. 25:4).  But these widow’s needed charity from the scribes, not the other way around.  This is a warning to the clergy.  To the Apostles, who were in attendance at Jesus’ discourse.  To the Christian pastors.  But also, beloved, to every well-respected and pious Christian.  Don’t make it about you.  Don’t revel in the honor others bestow upon you.  Direct it away from you.  Toward Christ.  Don’t hold back the honor due to God for yourself.  He must increase.  You must decrease.  You are nothing.  He is everything.  Give even that.  All of you.  Your whole life.  St. Peter says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6).

            Now, if you are hearing this sermon as an admonition to put more money in the plate, you haven’t heard a word I’ve said.  But if you are hearing this as an admonition to lose yourself in Christ, who loves you, and gave Himself for you, all that He is, and all that He has, into humiliation and death for your salvation… that’s it!  That’s it!  You’ve got it!  Because to lose yourself entirely in Him, is to find yourself as you were always meant to be!  As God created you to be!  To take up your cross and die in that way, that is really to live!  In Him, the One who died for you, and who is risen from the dead.  That’s the widow.  That’s little Jack.  That’s you joined to Christ in the blest baptismal waters.  Crucified with Him.  Raised with Him.  We saw it again this afternoon, praise God.  God gave you all that you are and have in the first place.  It all belongs to Him.  God redeemed all that you are and have by the blood and death of Jesus Christ.  Now it belongs to Him doubly.  He is not going to forsake you now!  Quite the contrary.  “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).  You know the answer to that. 

            Beloved, rejoice in the self-sacrifice, the whole burnt offering, of our Lord Jesus Christ for you.  And then, be like the widow.  Be like Jack.  Which is to say, live in it.  Live in that sacrifice.  Embrace it.  Own it.  Be the picture of it in your own life of generosity and sacrifice.  Absolutely trusting that having Christ, you have everything.  In the end, you lack nothing.  Not even one shiny little dime.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.