Monday, November 9, 2015

Our Whole Lives

Proper 27 B
Mark 12:38-44
The Rev. Joshua Rodriguez-Hobbs


Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard a sermon on this morning’s Gospel reading about how we should be like the unnamed widow and give sacrificially to the church. Raise your hand if you want to hear a sermon like that this morning. That’s what I thought.

That’s the tried and true interpretation of this story. It sounds perfectly straightforward. The widow gives, and Jesus holds her up as an example of true faith, a foil to those hypocritical scribes he’s just talked about. Except that he doesn’t. Jesus never says that this woman should serve as an example to us. He says nothing about imitating her. We add that to this story, because we have heard so many times that this is what it is about, so it must be in there. All Jesus says is this: Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything that she had, all that she had to live on. Jesus is simply stating the facts. It’s up to us to draw our own conclusions from them.

There’s plenty of evidence in Mark that the conclusion we draw from this story shouldn’t be to imitate this widow. Earlier, Jesus condemned the practice of giving money that should have gone to support a person’s parents to the Temple instead. Our Gospel reading this morning began by denouncing the scribes, the experts in the Law of Moses, for devouring widow’s houses. Immediately after the story of the widow and her two small coins, Jesus tells his disciples that the Temple will be destroyed, and one stone will not be left upon another. When we look at this story in context, the obvious conclusion is that this story is an example of how the scribes devour widow’s houses. This is not a story about how we should give. Though it may be counter-intuitive, maybe that’s why we need to hear it now, in the middle of our God the Giver stewardship campaign.

When we make this story about stewardship, we’re missing the point. We package it up nicely, tie a bow on top, and make it a moral lesson to put into practice in our lives.We assume that, however much we give, we’re being more generous than our neighbors. After all, we can say, I pledge, I give. In psychology, this is known as the Lake Woebegone effect. It turns out that every parent thinks their children are above average. In study after study, people have rated themselves as more generous, more attractive, more kind than they actually are. This story can play right into that, if we let it. Or it can point us toward the less palatable truth of the Gospel.

The widow in our story gives her whole life. That’s what the Greek literally says, not the softer version we heard today, “all that she had to live on.” There are only two people whom Mark says gave their whole lives: this widow and Jesus. At this point in Mark’s story, Jesus’ passion is about to begin. Jesus is about to give his life, just like this woman does. We talk about how this woman gives sacrificially, but she is literally giving herself as a sacrifice.

Is that how you think of your life? As something that should, in its entirety, be given to God? I’m not talking about proportional giving, here. This isn’t about the tithe as a biblical standard of giving. This is much harder and more difficult. Even in stewardship season, when your pledge card is sitting at home on the kitchen table, it might be easier to hear the traditional interpretation of this story as a challenge to give more. Because in stewardship campaigns, you’re only asked to give a little bit more. But the Gospel asks us to give everything.

St. Paul says in his Letter to the Romans, I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. The unnamed widow in our story this morning makes the same appeal to us. So does Jesus. God is not interested in a percentage of your income; God is interested in you, all of you. It’s easy to preach the Gospel when it’s about abundant life, when it’s about receiving grace and forgiveness and acceptance. But the Gospel is also about picking up our own crosses and following Jesus. Not ten percent of the time or even twenty, but every day, offering our selves, our souls and bodies, upon the altar, just as we offer bread and wine each week.

Part of that is making a pledge of your time, talent, and treasure, but there is so much more. Michael Curry, our new Presiding Bishop, has called for a new “Jesus Movement” in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Curry believes that God is calling us to be crazy Christians, holding nothing back. It’s scary, I know. But he’s right. This is what God is calling us to do.

The widow’s sacrifice is an example for us, if not the one we thought. This unnamed, unknown widow shows us how to follow Jesus. We’re called to sacrifice ourselves, so that Jesus can make us sacred. That’s what sacrifice means: to make sacred. We’re called to risk much, follow Jesus, carrying our own crosses. The paradox is, of course, that we will find ourselves in losing ourselves. We will find our deepest pleasure in meeting the world’s greatest need when we cease chasing our own happiness alone. For it is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

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