A Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock
[1 Kings 17:8-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; mark 12:38-44]
“What difference does it make?” As I have confessed to you before, this is the most toxic question in my life. It lingers deep within my soul, triggered whenever my best efforts prove to be inadequate to the occasion. Despite my attempts to confine its crippling effects, this question, fed in spasms of fear, threatens to overwhelm me. And I am thrown into the conflict between my faithfulness and my doubts.
In an attempt to bolster my faithfulness, I resonate most autobiographically with the gospel story of Jesus healing the epileptic son of a desperate father. This father confronts Jesus and asks him for help. I think that this story (recorded in all three synoptic gospels)1 is an indication (at least to me) of what it takes to follow Jesus. This particular specific healing story starts when the disciples fail to heal the boy and turn to Jesus to bail them out. For his part, the father describes to Jesus the epileptic seizures that dominate the life of his son, with the father innocently pleading with Jesus, “If you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.”2 Sounding both a bit miffed and exasperated, Jesus replies, “If? There are no ‘if’s’ among believers …”3 To which the frantic father confessed: “I believe; help my unbelief!”4
The haunting question, “What difference does it make?”, has its roots in my fear, my doubt; but it does not stand alone. Faith and belief are also present in that darkness. In the darkness I simply need to be reminded of faith’s presence. Perhaps you do, too. Reminding you about the faithfulness in each of us is one of the things I try to do here.
Sitting outside the Temple precinct entrance, Jesus spied what the gospel describes as a “poor widow”. She was standing in line to contribute her offering to the Temple’s life and mission, an outward sign of her commitment to God and God’s life. That life and mission had two fundamental aspects to it. The essential aspect concerned remembering and responding to God’s covenanted faithfulness to Israel: that by God’s grace she (and all of Israel) belonged to God. From this primary “thanksgiving” offering came the second element of the Temple’s support. This support allowed the Temple as an ongoing institution to minister and care for the people.
It was Jesus’ piercing, discerning eye that recognized this woman as a poor widow. In that time and culture, widows (along with orphans) were among the most vulnerable members of society. Additionally, Jesus also commented that this particular widow was contributing two copper coins as her offering and that these two pennies were all that she had. In his knowing eyes, her meager offering exceeded all the other contributions because the widow gave from her faithful integrity, while everyone else gave from their convenience.
What difference does it make?
In today’s scriptures we have two startling stories about the actions of two widows. In the case of the “Widow of Zarephath”, in her desperate poverty, she prepares the last meal that she and her son will have, when the prophet Elijah (who at God’s direction) strangely invites himself to her last supper. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
As an unexpected guest and in lieu of bringing flowers, Elijah promised the widowed mother that in her expression of hospitality to him, her meager jar of meal and vial of oil would not run out, that, in point of fact, this would not be her last meal. Out of what I assume was a combination of desperation and faithful hope, the Widow of Zarephath shared what she had with Elijah; and (as promised) her supplies were not exhausted.
So, too, in the gospel lesson, did the widow at the Temple Treasury give all that she had, which caused Jesus to hold her up as an example of faithfulness in the face of overwhelming circumstances. The question from both widow’s stories is this: To what degree do their lives and actions speak to our lives and actions as people of God and members of Christ’s Body, the Church? I want to offer two responses to this question.
The first response directly confronts the toxic question I have named from my own life: What difference does it make? Anyone who is paying attention clearly knows that the contribution that the widow in the gospel reading gives has absolutely no practical impact on the Temple’s fiscal health or operating budget. In view of the costs to run the Temple, to organize and support all the animal sacrifices, to clean up the blood and the gore around the altar, not to mention what it takes to run and support the Temple school and the trinket shop, it would be perfectly understandable if the widow chose not to stand in line at all and not to give her two cents to the offering. What difference would it have made? In an accountant’s scorecard, what difference do these two pennies make in the face of such great operational need?
This same attitude has come into play in the hearts and minds of half the nation’s voting population in light of Tuesday’s election results. In light of those results, what difference does it make (for instance) to continue the prayer I have asked all of you to offer daily: namely, that God will keep this nation “under his care and guide us in the ways of justice and truth”?5 Now, many wonder: What difference does it make to keep such faith? In the face of overwhelming realities, do we fall into the temptation of absenting ourselves from “showing up” and contributing our two copper coins?
This same response needs to be made when as members of St. Philip’s we prayerfully consider our own financial pledge to the life, mission, and ministry of this place. What difference does it make?
I believe that the answer -- the reminder, if you will -- lies in what Jesus quietly taught in and through the widow’s example. It was the widow’s example of “showing up” and contributing what she had that caught Jesus’ eye. This is the very same thing that I have regularly pointed out to you about the necessity and power of your “showing up” among us. Remember? You never know who needs to see you here at church; to see you on your knees at prayer; to see you at the altar rail receiving what each of us needs and cannot provide for ourselves. The point is you will never know how your “showing up” and offering what you can – you will never know how life-saving your example is to someone who needs to see you. Someone needs to see you and to receive your offered example. And for what it’s worth, that somebody is often me.
In both scriptural cases, the widows didn’t need to do what they did. They had every reason to run away or to be self-appointed martyrs or socio-economic victims; but that was not the choice they made. No, rather the widows “showed up”; and even though what they offered barely caused the needle on the Temple’s financial “Richter Scale” to waver, in God’s hands their offering and their example began to birth new life; and it was God’s life. Showing up.
The second response to the example of the widows, particularly the widow in the gospel, stems from the point I just made. If we choose to “show up”, if we offer something of ourselves in response to what God gives us, then we grow in heart and soul and mind. Yet, we need to ask about what kind of personal stewardship is it to give away everything you have? It’s not realistic. It is not practical. It can also most likely be irresponsible. What kind of example is this!? What is Jesus doing pointing to the widow as our example ?
It has to do with living in thanksgiving and deepening and expanding in our lives what the “12 Step Movement” calls an “attitude of gratitude”. In both widows’ cases, their quiet message about living in and with “an awareness of all God’s mercies”, leads to the establishment of a truly grateful heart, to the extent that we may show forth our praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives…6 The widows’ quiet message about possessing this “attitude of gratitude” is to “practice, practice, practice…” In a very real sense, we need to develop the “spiritual muscle memory” by practicing gratitude for what God-in-Christ has faithfully given to us.
A month ago, you may remember that we encountered the gospel where a rich, young man came up to Jesus and asked what he needed to do “to inherit eternal life”.7 Loving him for even asking the question, Jesus said that he should sell all that he had and follow him. Crestfallen, the young man turned and went away because (we are told) he had many possessions.
At the time, we spoke about the hard and practical fact that (like the rich young man) some people need to give away all they have so that there is room in their souls for God and the God-life. Having ignored the regular, day-to-day practices of gratitude and sharing in one’s life, we tragically can forget and soon reject the very offering we need: God’s Christ and the life beyond fear and death.
It seems to me that this is the very serious nature of “Hell”: namely, that receiving what God alone can and does give in Christ to all creation cannot be received because it is so alien and threatening to our way of living. So, it seems to me that the offering of both widows is a snapshot of one day’s sincere practice of gratitude; and in both widows’ cases, that practice opened up an entirely new, unexpected, and trustworthy life.
Practice. Practice. Practice: Like a spiritual muscle, we use gratitude; or we lose it. In our step-by-step, day-by-day practice of gratitude, we in fact enlarge both our “awareness of all God’s mercies” and increase our capacity and our willingness to receive what we need and only God can give.
So, what difference does it make? – our “two pennies”? Such giving – beyond dues paying or the grudge-giving that is so common among us – it makes a difference –a sizable difference -- to us who give, to us who share. Much to our amazement, in such heartfelt giving, what we have is not depleted. Rather, by sharing the gift we have received, we find that we have more than we need.
The last thought I want to convey about this gospel lesson lies in Jesus’ description that the widow gave “all” that she had. Don’t miss the overarching point here! Only Jesus gives his “all”, which in Mark will begin to be demonstrated in two more chapters when Jesus enters the time of his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. As for us and giving our all to God, as Robert Frost has rightly said, we “have miles and miles to go before we sleep.” But with practice, we can keep following Jesus and learn how to live life on God’s terms.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Mark 9:14-29; Matthew 1:14-21; Luke 9:37-42
Mark 9:22b
Mark 9:23 – The Message
Mark 9:24
Book of Common Prayer. Morning Prayer Suffrages, p. 98
Book of Common Prayer. The General Thanksgiving, p. 101
Mark 10:17-31
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