Foretaste of the Sermon to Come
A little nibble using the Revised Common Lectionary.
Sunday’s texts are Psalm 145:1-13, Hebrews 9:24-28 and Mark 12:38-44
On Sunday I will be leading worship and preaching at Retsil, the Washington Veteran’s Home. I have resolved to use the same lectionary readings we are using at Silverdale Lutheran, and I have to confess I have been scratching my head about how the story of the Widow’s Mite will preach to disabled veterans living in a care facility on All Saints Sunday.
Let me set the stage for the Gospel reading. Jesus has just made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and is preaching at the temple. He has told one of the scribes that the greatest commandments are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In just about 3 days, he will be tried, crucified and buried. Our Gospel story starts out with Jesus calling out the scribes for parading around in their fancy robes and taking advantage of their elevated station by taking the best seats at the synagogue and at dinner parties. They use the temple treasury offerings to live a high life, at the expense of those like our poor widow, who could really use the financial help from the temple funds. The scribes are not loving God with all their hearts minds and strength; they are loving their wealth and station in life. And they are not loving their neighbor, the poor widow, as much as they obviously love themselves.
Jesus turns his attention, though, to the poor widow who gave all she had out of her poverty, 2 mites which were probably worth about 2 days’ wages for a first century laborer, showing how much first century laborers were valued in that society. It was all she had to live on, and she gave it with no mention of complaint or envy of the large sums others were giving out of their abundance. She knew she was loving God with all her heart, mind and strength. That is an important difference – the wealthy gave large sums out of their abundance, and the poor widow gave out of her poverty. She must have had faith that God would provide for her needs. And Jesus is showing what is of real value to God – and it isn’t our money. It’s our heart. In Matthew 6:21, Jesus says, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”, and that is what Jesus is really after, what he really treasures – our hearts. It’s our heart that is of value to God, and the person who looks to Jesus for their value rather than to their financial wealth or even dearth, shows that their treasure is placed correctly, in Jesus.
As I first read the Gospel, I pictured the Retsil residents regretting that they have little to give or thinking that their lives only had real value before the debilitation that took them to Retsil. But I am eager to challenge that – Jesus elevates the widow because she is giving out of her poverty. He doesn’t celebrate the size of the sums that come into the temple through the wealthy, he celebrates the size of the widow’s heart. He celebrates her faith in God’s provision. He celebrates her willingness to give her all, just as he will give his all for each of us on the cross in 3 short days. He celebrates her ordinariness. You can bet that the scribes and other wealthy people paid her no attention, because she wasn’t anyone to pay attention to. But that is exactly who we all are – we are ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God. And we can offer our ordinariness to God as our treasure, giving all we have and all we are. The residents have plenty of treasure in their hearts – gratitude to the staff and volunteers, compassion for their mates, and like all other church goers, attendance at worship rather than watching the game on TV. In fact, many of them are at Retsil in the first place because they gave their hearts, minds and strength on the battlefield.
That is not to say that the Church doesn’t need financial treasure, it certainly does. But the Church uses our financial treasure to do the work of our hearts. Even pain and loneliness can be offered to God, and God in Christ Jesus has given his assurance that he is walking beside those who suffer, enduring pain and loneliness as his own.
We are all sinners, and at the same time, through Christ’s work on the cross, we are all saints. The saints in heaven who we are connecting with on Sunday aren’t saints because they were extraordinary people, although I am sure many of them did extraordinary things. They are saints because Jesus Christ died for their sins and in exchange he gave them his perfect righteousness. And we are saints for the same reason. Jesus died for us and we are clothed in his righteousness, simultaneously saint and sinner. One day we will no longer be sinners, and on that day we will join the saints in heaven, holy because Jesus treasured us so much that he gave his life for us, not out of his divine abundance, but out of his human poverty.
Thanks be to God.
