Rev. Tara Barber
The Community Church of Sebastopol
November 9, 2003
Mark 12: 38-44
It was tax day. It came more frequently than April 15th, and these were temple taxes, paid in addition to Caesar’s taxes. Can you picture the scene? There were large pots for the money, with bell shaped openings – sort of like those coin collectors in the mall, where the quarter spins around and around before it finally plops and makes a splash onto the rest of the coins. All sorts of people were there to pay taxes and Jesus was among them. And it is through his eyes that we witness the scene. Pharisees, scribes and those who were rich and giving to look good, caught Jesus’ eye. Now, I can’t be too critical of those scribes and Pharisees. I know what it’s like to want to be noticed when I make a contribution. I would like the barista to notice when I put a tip in the jar at the Sebastopol Cookie Company, for well made a soy mocha. I know that I am more likely to put money in those Salvation Army kettles when I am shopping with Alec than when I am walking around by myself. I want to be seen as a good person, a generous person. So, I can understand being motivated to give out of a desire to do the right thing – and to be noticed for doing so.
Then Jesus turns his gaze to a widow as she approaches. Widows appear often in the scriptures. They are a real and symbolic way to remind us of those who are vulnerable, dependent, and in need of care. Widows were reliant upon other male relatives for their livelihood and widows also blended into the shadows. They were like the poor that Jesus said we would always have with us. Not noteworthy. No, the widow was not likely to capture anyone’s attention, especially not in this scene. Except for that radical Jesus. He noticed her approach. He saw her meager offering. And then he called attention to her giving. Not out of a place where there would always be enough, not out of a certainty of the next paycheck or dividend, not simply the amount allocated in the home finances budget found on Quicken for the temple tax, not out of any sense that she would be seen, no she gave all that she had. We are told that she gave all that she had to live on. I wonder what made her do that? I wonder what made her give her all?
Maybe some humor would help… I was on the Internet this week, on the “desperate preachers site”. Yes, it really does exist! It is a site that is not for single pastors who need a date, but where you can search scripture and enter into a conversation with other pastors around the country who may be wrestlig with the same lectionary text. It was fun for me to visit when I was looking for this text. One of the things I found was this joke: A chicken and a pig were walking down the street and came upon a church sign that read, “Help feed the hungry.” They thought about it for a moment, and the chicken said, “That’s a good idea. Let’s help. Let’s give the hungry ham and eggs.” The pig turns to the chicken and says, “Easy for you to say, but for me that’s a total commitment.”
That’s a total commitment. Is that what we’re being asked here? As I read and re-read the text, I found that again and again, the widow gives everything she has, everything she has to live on. Maybe it’s splitting hairs, but I think that there’s a difference between giving everything we have, and giving everything we are. Two coins wouldn’t sustain the widow, any more than it would you or I. The hard truth is that money isn’t really what we need to live on. When the going gets tough, and some of the tough have gone shopping, others rely upon something else for sustenance. What is it that truly sustains you? What is it that keeps you giving and living, especially when the going gets tough?
I wish I had that magic formula. Maybe that’s why Jesus was paying such close attention to the widow. She knew something about life and faith that we need to learn. She had some kind of trust in God and in the future that enabled her to let go of the coins, and give them back in faith.
Maybe she had a vision of the future that inspired her gift. Maybe it was a belief that the future would be better, brighter, if she contributed her all to make it so. One of my favorite movies, is, “Places in the Heart.” Sally Fields plays a widow who is determined to keep her family together, and hold onto their home, following the death of her husband. The movie is set in the 1930’s, and deals with racism, religion, relationships, and community. In the midst of the movie, Sally gets this idea to plant 30 acres of cotton. She calculates how much cotton sells for – I think it was 6 ½ cents – how much the cotton might yield and figures she could make her next mortgage payment after the sale of the cotton so that her family could stay in their home. Then when the price of cotton drops to an all time low, she not only becomes more determined to make it, she also wants to be the first to bring in the cotton, in order to earn a prize that will enable her to make up the difference and pay the next mortgage payment. There’s a scene where she is talking to her boarder and the hired African-American man that inspires me again and again. She says she is going to give her all, everything she has, to give her children a future.
Ted Loder writes, “The gospel says take the risks no matter how many times you flop. Take the risks as many times as there are risks to take to imagine yourself whole and loving and a blessing, to mend a breech between you and someone, to do something for the sake of justice, to say your truth at whatever cost, to exercise compassion, to create something beautiful, to lift someone left by the side of the road, or the pew, or your desk or house.”
What is it that keeps you going, and giving? What is it that sustains us? What did that widow know about life and faith?
Maybe she knew something about love, and wanted to show some.
“The theme’s going to be ‘If love touches you, you can touch anyone.’ I’m excited about it. It’s simple and just suggestive enough. We’ll run it with pictures of beautiful women, handsome men adoring them, different locations, you know. Overlay it with a bottle of the Love perfume…and at the end of the spot, we add the words, ‘Love by Poley.” Like it?” Kevin, the advertising copy writer, who dreamed up this ad in a brainstorming session, had second thoughts. How could he use something as basic and sacred as love to sell a product? Love is what inspires so much good in the world. The sentiment is true. When we are touched by love, we do have the power to touch anyone. Love that sustains, even when all else has gone.
Love, compassion, a desire to touch this world by offering all that we have. Is that what keeps you going, and giving? Maybe the widow knew something about love. Maybe the widow had a deep sense of being blessed, and wanted to return God’s blessing.
How have you been blessed? Ted Loder writes this testimony to God’s blessings: “I’ve scratched the ears of dogs, laughed at the ballet of cats and monkeys, elephants and pelicans and dolphins. I’ve heard the cry and gurgle of a newborn, played with children, rocked with grandmothers, learned from hundreds of teachers, some of them homeless, poor, and uneducated. I’ve been awakened to beauty and life by Bach, Bernstein, Streisand, and mockingbirds… I have tasted bread and wine, hot dogs and caviar… I’ve danced at parties, held hands with the dying, I’ve loved and been loved and forgiven beyond all deserving, and all breath to tell of it, by family and friends and you… I’ve been shaken, changed, blessed a thousand times, and still, by the prophets, and by Christ, and I’ve felt your touch, God, each time before I knew that’s what it was… And God, I see now that’s just for starters. How much is enough to be thankful and humbled? “’There’s been more in my life already, even if I never receive another thing… So these are the words I know you are saying to me: ‘Get on with it, my little friend, and thank me that you can.’”
Her gift of two coins said thank you. Thank you for all the love shown, all the blessings bestowed; for all that there is yet to come, thank you.