Mark 12:41-44 (New International Version)

The Widow's Offering

 ⁴¹Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴²But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,^[a]worth only a fraction of a penny.^[b]

 ⁴³Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

Luke 16

 ¹³"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

 ¹⁴The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

Matthew 6

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 ²²"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

 ²⁴"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Introduction and DISCLAIMER

            I have a disclaimer for you before I preach today’s sermon. I am not preaching in order to make anyone feel guilty. If you feel guilty, do not ignore it but also please do not think that I am trying to manipulate you through creating guilt because I am not doing that. If you feel guilty, please do not immediately blame me for making you feel guilty. If you feel guilty, I want you to think about why you feel guilty but please, remember, that’s not my purpose. I want you to think about what I am talking about, that’s my purpose.  

Sorry to tell you, but it’s tax season. Get your tax return in the mail by Thursday evening or you’re in trouble. Some post offices used to stay open till mid nite so people could get their tax return in on time. Like three and a half months isn’t enough time!? Can you believe what we pay in taxes? When my son graduated from college just a short time back and started working, he got his first paycheck and boy was he in for a surprise. But he calls me up and he’s yelling at me over the phone because of what the government took out of his pay.  Patrick Henry, remember Patrick Henry ? Well Patrick Henry said that taxation without representation was a bad thing. . . well, he should see what it’s like today, with representation.

I’m not here to talk about taxes today. Some other day, maybe. I mean, everybody would get depressed if I talked about taxes. So, today, we’re going to talk about giving. This is where the guilt part comes in. Except that giving is a spiritual act. Giving is not separate from your faith, it is intertwined and inseparable from your faith. What you give and how you give is very much a direct representation of your relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Let’s worship together.

Sermon

A 100 dollar bill, a 20 dollar bill, and a one dollar bill were sitting in cash drawer one day. The 100 says, "I've seen the whole world during my lifetime. Why, I've been on cruises in Caribbean, safaris in Africa, and vacations in Europe." The 20 says, "Well, I've not done quite as well, but I have been to Atlantic City, Disneyland, and Starbucks." They both turn to the one dollar bill and ask, "How about you?" The one, not wanting to be outdone, says, "I've seen the whole country as well. I've been from church to church to church..."  Then the 100 asked, "What's a church?"

This is a sermon that comes with a lot of disclaimers. The second of which, because I’ve already given one, is that money is important. I am not going to stand up here and say to you that money means nothing. People say that money can’t by happiness but just about everybody wants to do a little research on that for themselves. So, I’m not going to try and convince you that money is not worth anything. That would be ridiculous and you wouldn’t listen to me for an instant. We all know the value of money and how hard life can be without it. Life is easier and more comfortable and happier if you have money.  George Lorimer said that “It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.”   

My third disclaimer is that I’m not sure that the church as a whole doesn’t have such a great record when it comes to money.  Embezzlement, misuse of funds in the church. You name it. The people who handle the churches money are as human as anybody and that definitely shows once in a while. Some people come from churches where it seems like they are always asking for money. Right?

A farmer lived alone except for the company of his pet dog. One day the dog died and the farmer went to his congregational pastor and asked for a service for his beloved pet. The preacher  told the farmer: "No, we can't have services for an animal in the church, but I'll tell you what, there's a new denomination down the road, and no telling what they believe in, but maybe they'll do something for the animal." The farmer said: "Thanks, I'll go right away. By the way, do you think $5000 is enough to donate for such a service?" to which the preacher immediately replied: "Why didn't you tell me the dog was a Congregationalist?"

In today’s scripture, we are observing along with Jesus and his disciples. He wants them to see what is going on for a couple of reasons. First, He wants them to know that God doesn’t need your money. Do you honestly think that God really needs your material wealth to get His work done? What you give says something about you. In fact, it says a lot about you.

M. McLaughlin, (The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966)  We know what to do when a burglar demands, "Your money, or your life."   But not a clue what to do when God demands it.

  Look at this widow. Now there were several courtyards in the structure of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Any of you ever get a big box as a present and you think oh I got me a nice present here. And you open it and there’s another box inside that one and you immediately know what’s going on. Cause inside that is another box and another box and another box until finally you get down to a little jewelry box about that big and there’s a gift card to Walmart in it. Well, that’s the way the temple was built, a box inside a box inside a box. Each box was a different courtyard. One of these courtyards was the women’s courtyard and it was as far into the temple as a woman could go. There were two other courtyards deeper in the temple but women could go no farther. In this courtyard, was where the people would give their tithes and offerings to God. Everyone would give their money here in this courtyard where anyone who was watching could see what they gave. This is where Jesus sat with His disciples. The Bible tells us that  a number of rich people came and gave big amounts of money. These were tithes. 10% of their income. That is what the Jewish law told them to give. 10 %. The Old Testament tells us that that is the amount we are supposed to give to God. We are told even that that 10% actually belongs to God. In fact, Malachi 3:8 tells us that we are stealing from God when we don’t give 10%.

Alright, fast forward to the present. Ron Sider did some research in 2008 and found out that 20 % of the people in mainline denominations, supply 90% of the total money that is given to the church. On the flip side, he also found that 20 % of the people give nothing at all. Only 12% of American Christians actually tithe with the vast majority averaging out at only 2.9% of their income. What do you think that says about our faith?

His research also found that the more money a person makes, the lower the percentage of their income that they actually give to the church. Poorer Christians are far more likely to give generously than rich Christians.

In his research, Sider also found out that over the last decade, as Americans increased in prosperity, the percentage of their giving actually fell. What do you think that says about our faith?

I have to be honest with you though, that’s not the point of this story. Giving 10% is not the point of this story. The rich people in this story who gave lots of money were giving a tenth of their income. They were doing what the letter of the law told them to do.

You know, in 2006, Warren Buffett said he was going to start giving away 85% of his wealth. Most of it to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Do you know how much he was worth? Anybody? 40 billlion dollars. I tried to calculate what 85% of  that would be but I don’t have enough zeroes on my calculator. But here’s the kicker, after giving away an absolutely, incredible amount of money, Warren Buffett will have to struggle to get by on a mere $6 billion. What a hardship! This is what Jesus means when he says, “they all gave out of their wealth”.  

So then this poor widow steps up to the collection box and drops in two copper coins.  What amounts to be less than a penny. Probably not even enough to buy herself dinner, but it’s all she has. What do you think that says about her faith? You could say that that was not too bright. You could say she’s not very good at math but Jesus said, “this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others”. Obviously God’s calculator works differently than ours does. God sees what it costs us to follow Him because sometimes it really does cost us dollars and cents if we are going to listen to Jesus words and follow them the way He wants us to.

I said that this sermon was not about causing guilt or making people feel badly about what they give or don’t give and that is still true. This sermon is about looking at how you give and seeing it as directly connected to your faith in God and Jesus Christ. Do you have a generous faith or a stingy faith? Do you share freely the financial blessings God has given you? Do you freely give what you have been freely given? It is between you and God. Totally. It is not about giving because of guilt. Or giving to meet a rule. Or maybe even trying to buy God’s good graces.  Giving is an outward expression of what you have already received in your heart and your soul from a loving God. It’s giving back. It’s an opening up. It’s a letting go of that which we cannot hang on to anyway and truly letting ourselves be free.