Does God Demand Our Last Two Coins? 1 Kings 17:8-16, Mark 12:38-44 November 9, 2003, Year B Proper 27 The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi We encounter two stories today about widows giving up the little bit they have left to support them. In 1 Kings, Elijah asks the widow to give him bread made from the small morsel of meal and oil which the she had calculated would be the last food her son and she would eat before they starved to death. In Mark, Jesus describes a poor widow who drops in two copper coins - two lousy coins that together equal a penny. As pitiful is her offering, Jesus tells it is all that she has, the sum of what was to sustain her. With parish pledge cards due back November 13, if I were a manipulative person, perhaps I would try to shame you into modeling after these two widows and giving more, perhaps beyond your means. To do so, however, would be incongruent with true stewardship and the stewardship we hope you will follow as you submit next year's pledge. To do so, I fear I may be misusing the Gospel text as I think others often do. To do so, I would be guilty of what I hear Jesus saying in this text. Elijah promised the widow her provisions would not run out. She followed his instructions, first feeding him and then herself and her son, and as they continued to eat in the days that followed neither the meal nor the oil were depleted. Jesus does not offer the widow, his disciples, nor Mark's readers any such assurance. She gave all that she had - period. I struggled how to preach on today's Gospel because I think most of the sermons we hear on it misrepresent the text. I, as I am sure you have, have heard sermons describing the story of the widow's mite as a story about boundless generosity and self-sacrifice. With this text appearing in the lectionary during the fall when most parishes gather their stewardship pledges, it is regularly preached, extracted from its context, offering this widow as a model to encourage giving to the church. Any time we take verses out of context, we risk misusing Holy Scripture. Is this text a call to sacrificial giving, or is it poignant and tragic evidence undergirding Jesus' judgment against the Temple state? When we read the story of the widow out of context, that is when we read only about her two coins in contrast to the giving of the wealthy, we can stretch the interpretation to include total self-sacrifice. However, when we hear this story where it actually is placed, in Jesus' warnings concerning the ways of the scribes, it suggests a very different reading: nothing short of a condemnation of the use of religion to victimize those who are powerless. He condemns a Temple treasury system that would demand this woman give her last two remaining coins. While I am one who hears this story as a condemnation of such a system, being the good Anglican that I am and understanding how folks can read the same scripture and result in different interpretations, I think we can glean something from both perspectives. First, except in situations as when Elijah assured the widow that God would provide, I do not think that our God ever demands that we give up everything. Who wants to worship a God who would demand us to give away our last meal and oil or our last two coins we posses when it would mean our sure demise? God does want us, however, to remove whatever we value more than God, more than God's love. Sometimes serving God in a world that often rejects God's ways can result in the ultimate sacrifice of our lives. Christian martyrs through the centuries have proven this. But God does not want us to rush into purposeful martyrdom. While Muslims who commit suicide attacks in the name of Allah baffle us, Christendom has advocated the same. During the Middle Ages, a doctrine developed among many that by being martyred for one's faith, one somehow created a special place in heaven. However, such a belief is an attempt to relate to God on the earthly basis of mutual exchange. This belief fails to recognize we do not have the means, even with our life to purchase from the abundance of God's grace. It is only received as a gift. Thus, Jesus praises the widow while he condemns the whole hierarchy of the Temple whose greed and avarice make such contributions necessary. Jesus offers the same condemnation of a system, a society, that sees the profoundly poor daily caring for each other while the privileged live in a world of opulence. Jesus offers the same condemnation of a society that requires a single mother to decide whether she will spend her last two coins for food or for medication that keeps her ill child alive. So where do we turn for role models for our giving? When you hear the word philanthropist, who comes to mind? Perhaps you think of Ted Turner and his huge gift to the United Nations. Perhaps you think of Bill Gates, who after being maligned during the hearings over Microsoft's violations of antitrust laws created his personal philanthropic foundation. Visit the MSU campus and see the buildings bearing the names of wealthy philanthropists. But, there is a problem when wealthy people are our only models for philanthropy. We can forget that true philanthropy (loving humanity,) like any sort of true loving, involves risk. We can too easily measure the importance of gifts and gift-givers in terms of the monetary value of the gifts, rather than in terms of the personal cost or risk. Here, Mark's story of the widow giving the two coins does apply. I hear this text as a condemnation of philantropy from wealth gained from the oppression of others, not a call to give our last two coins. But, I also hear it as an invitation, as we accept God's grace, to weigh what we consider necessary and what we consider optional. We have become too comfortable in thinking returning something to God, giving to the church, as optional. At the same time, what we consider necessary continues to grow to include cable TV (with the Premier channels of course), that certain toy for our child, grandchild or ourselves or status automobiles or wardrobes. In such a context, we can hear both Jesus' condemnation of the Temple treasury system and of those who only give from their abundance. The two copper coins whether dropped in the treasury by the widow in today's Gospel or into the alms plate by a struggling parishioner, once given in response to God's grace for the ministry and mission of God's people, those two tiny coins given in love take on the proportion of the large sums given by philanthropists from their wealth and are used by God to do more than we can imagine. God calls us to be cocreators in this world. This does not mean we have to give up everything. It means we have to let go of what we value more than God. It means we have to give proportionally according to what we have been given. Perhaps an email that seems to resurface every year or so serves as an example. It tells a story of the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less than today. A 10 year old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the sum of his coins: a quarter, a dime, two nickels, and five pennies. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents, "she brusquely replied." The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away, not bothering to check on him again. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came to wipe down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. Rather than letting our role models be philanthropists who give millions from their wealth, perhaps our role models should be a destitute single mother in a third world country who helps a starving neighbor or a 10 year old boy with 50 cents in a coffee shop leaving a 15 cent tip for his bowl of ice cream. Perhaps that is what good role models do. Rather than leave us complacent, they disturb us - disturb us into loving more fully.