Are We Givers or Takers?

David Orendorff · Mark 12:38-44 · November 5, 2006

Two things happened on the way to the pulpit. First the Holy Spirit, as I understood her, and the scripture as I prayed it, kept pushing their own agenda. The sermon I had was an old sermon that just needed updated. It was about what brings us a true, deep and lasting serene joy. There was a great story about a dog’s lessons on life which I fought giving up. But no matter how hard I tried to make the sermon the way I wanted it, it wouldn’t go that way. So the sermon title is no longer “Joy.”

Secondly, the Bishop will be our guest and preacher next week so you better be there, we will be taking role. When the Bishop sent me his scripture for next week it was the same scripture I am using this week. I thought about changing scriptures but the Holy Spirit, again as I understood her, wanted me to stick with this scripture. So you will not get the sermon I promised and you will have to listen to two sermons, two weeks in a row, on the same scripture.

So I begin with apologies to the Worship Planning Team and to Bill who chose music to go with the sermon I am not going to preach; my apologies to the Bishop for using his scripture while he is Mozambique for UMCOR; and my apologies to you for not preaching what I told you I would preach.

Then to make things more embarrassing, the Holy Spirit didn’t give me a whole lot to say so the sermon came out pretty short, which is why there is this rambling introduction. I hope you don’t mind.

What stuck me over and over in this scripture from Mark was the contrast between the scribes, the rich and the widow. Jesus is not pointing out all the scribes but a certain set of scribes who “like to go about in long robes (thus setting themselves visually apart from the common folks - sort of like wearing a suit here on Sunday), and to have salutations in the market places, and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts (that is, they want to be known and recognized, they like and take prestige and power), who devour widows’ houses (they take temple taxes from the poor for their own use and demand more until the widow, orphan and poor have no more to give) and for a pretense make long prayers (they pretend to love and speak with God when their real concern is themselves and looking good).

The folks Jesus is describing are the takers of life. They are the people of the world who take the gifts of God and hold them for themselves in their mistaken quest for power, prestige and wealth.

Then Jesus contrasts these takers with the widow who puts two copper coins (less than a penny) into the offering basket at the temple saying to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.”

Jesus does not commend the widow for being poor, for there is no glory in poverty, but for her generosity. Unlike the scribes who take and keep, and the rich who begrudgingly give of their abundance, the widow gives all she has for the adoration of God and the care of the poor.

And there is irony here. The poor and generous widow is giving her last penny to the very people who have devoured her house. She is giving her offering to the scribes. Her poverty supports their wealth, her powerlessness supports their power, and her sacrifice supports their greed.

What Jesus sees to commend in the widow apparently has nothing to do with her penny gets used but with her attitude and sacrifice in giving. She is giving it as a sacrifice to the temple for the adoration of God and the care of the poor. That is enough and it is good.

It is the scribes who misuse the widow’s penny that will receive condemnation by God. For they have taken a great sacrifice of servant love and used it for their own self serving wants. The takers of this life abuse the gifts that have been entrusted to them by God, widows and orphans. And for this there will be a judgment.

And then we come to the rich who drop handfuls of coins into the offering and think they are they better person for it when in fact they have given very little of their abundance to either God or the work of God in the world. It is the widow with her nothing of an offering that is her whole life who shines with grace and love.

We are in the midst of our financial stewardship campaign and the implications of the contrast between the takers and the givers, the stingy and the generous is pretty plain. I am aware of the great economic diversity within this congregation. There are some of us with a lot of money and some of us barely scraping by. I want to say to those who have less, thank you for your generosity, for giving out of your poverty to the adoration of God and the works of compassion that is Bear Creek.

And I want to say to those who have more, think carefully about your giving. Consider whether you have the self centered faith of the scribes or the sacrificial faith of the widow, whether you give but a little from your abundance or are generous to the point of your own sacrifice.

We have great challenges before us as a congregation. We have a large debt to pay for this building, we face the true needs of the poor among and around us, we need staff for our Children’s Ministries, we have desperately needed mission to do locally and in a world of great violence and poverty, we have discipleship to teach and to live. If we all adopted just 10% of the widow’s faith we could make radical progress for the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.

There, that is what I believe the Holy Spirit drove me to say. I pray I heard God rightly.

Shalom and Amen.