November 12, 2000 - The Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost

1 Kings 17:8-16
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

The Reverend Vernon L. Suter

Some recent headlines:

Bedlam reigns in Florida

Israelis track down, kill paramilitary leader - Paramilitary comrades vow vengeance

Videotape of police brutality sparks outrage in South Africa - TV broadcast shows beatings, dog maulings.

All one has to do is pick up the morning Desert Sun or turn on your television set to read or see such stories about the headlines I've just mentioned. We can read or watch a little longer and find out that we may have to go on water conservation, or that we have lost a bundle in the stock market. It begins to sound like things simply are not going very well.

Some time ago I got a call from a lady who was looking for a couple of beds for her children. They were sleeping on the floor. It didn't sound like things were going very well for this lady either. However, as bad as all this sounds, things have been worse.

Every once in awhile I think about the fact that my parents had to raise my brother and me during the great depression. I don't remember those days, since I was just an infant, but I'm sure they were pretty bad. As bad as that great depression was, things have been worse. Let's take a look at the time Mark's Gospel was written. Those were really bad times.

In Mark's time, the Christians were living in fear of being thrown into the arena with its hungry, wild beasts, -- or being coated with tar and strung up and ignited as living torches in Nero's gardens.

In addition to all this, there was also a great amount of poverty in the land. No one had much to give away. Some didn't have enough to take care of themselves. The widow in Mark's Gospel had only two coins.

Going back to our Old Testament reading, in Elijah's time there was a drought and famine in the land. The widow Elijah encountered had only enough food for one more meal.

And then there's Jesus. What about him? What did he have to give? The answer, of course, is that all Jesus had to give was his one life. In spite of all this poverty and these adverse circumstances, each of them, the two widows and Jesus, gave all they had. They gave what they had so that others might have.

One of the most dominant message running through our readings for today is about giving. Actually, it's about more than just giving. It's about sacrificial giving. Sacrificial giving is very different from simply giving. The important point about sacrificial giving is that it is not measured in terms of amount. It is measured in terms of the cost to the giver. In other words, it's not the size of the gift that makes it sacrificial, but the fact that it is, indeed, a sacrifice. Real, true generosity is a generosity that imposes on us, the giver, in some way.

The widow in our Gospel reading gave her last two coins, yet others gave much more. Now, I don't think the message here is that we have to become poor in order to be a sacrificial giver. In fact, I think giving all one has in order to become poor and sacrificial in our giving could conceivably be seen as a cop-out; ---a sort of martyrdom for attention, if you will.

So, when we think about the definition of sacrificial giving, how do we explain it? Perhaps a good way to do that is to look at what sacrificial giving is not. It is not sacrificial giving when we make absolutely certain that before we give anything, we have taken care of ourselves in every detail. There is no sacrifice in that kind of giving. That is simply giving whatever might be left over after I've taken care of myself.

Well, I don't know about you, but if I were to make sure I had all there was that I wanted before I gave anything away, I would not have anything left to give.

In all this talk about giving, the implication is that I'm talking about money, but money is just one small way that we can give of ourselves. I remember a time, a very long time ago, when I was living in Minneapolis. I had quite a huge crisis in my life. I needed someone to talk to that might understand. I called a friend of mine just to talk on the phone a few minutes. I talked a few minutes and suddenly he interrupted me. He said he was coming right over; that he'd be there in twenty minutes. I cannot tell you how much that meant to me. He dropped whatever he was doing or planned to do at the time, and came to my aid. Though my need was not financial, the emotional need was, in my mind, all consuming. The care that he gave me could not be measured in financial terms. He gave of himself. He sacrificed his own needs for mine.

Recently, when the plane crash occurred in which the pilot attempted to take off on the wrong runway, I was reminded of another plane crash that occurred many years ago. I bring the example to this sermon because it, to me, represents the ultimate in sacrificial giving.

An airplane crashed into the Potomac in Washington D. C. Those of you who watched the TV coverage saw a man dive into the icy waters to save a woman who was unable to hold on to the lifeline from the helicopter. This apparently humble, almost bashful person in front of the TV cameras, said he would do the same thing again if need be.

Another situation relating to the same tragic event was one of a man who did not survive for a TV interview. Every time the helicopter came back to pick another person from the icy waters, this man would help someone else to the lifeline rather than saving himself. Sadly, he was not able to hold out until the helicopter returned to get him. There were others killed in the crash, so no one ever knew who this brave person was who sacrificed his life while giving to others.

William Barkley, an Anglican theologian, once wrote, ". . . Jesus called his men, not to a comfortable ease and not to a lethargic inactivity; he called them to a task in which they would have to spend themselves and burn themselves up, and, in the end, die for his sake and for the sake of their fellow men. He called them to a task wherein they could win something for themselves only by giving their all to him and to others."

I sincerely hope none of us are ever faced with the decision to put others first in the tragic ways I've just mentioned. However, I believe that we can all examine our everyday lives and ask ourselves how often we put ourselves first, without any further thought for others. I believe that I must challenge myself over and over again, asking the question as to whether I'm truly following Jesus, or whether my time, effort, and money is given only if I have any time, money, or effort left over, - - after I've taken care of myself. I must admit that very often I don't like my answer. The question and the answer, when I don't like it, puts me back into the place that I need to be if I am to be the person that I think God wants me to be.

We are constantly being challenged to help, - -to support, - -to reach out. We are constantly challenged to be courageous and humble, as opposed to the worldly temptation to be complacent in the status-quo, merely thinking of ourselves. We are constantly challenged by our very presence within the body of Christ, and by having his presence in us and among us to be sacrificial givers in whatever way we are needed to be. We can never forget that Christ is present whenever there are people helping people. It takes faith and trust to give sacrificially.

Would we be willing to, say, miss a plane that is to take us on vacation, in order to take the time to help a friend? Could we trust that the sudden interruption in plans would work out somehow, the way God would have them work out? If a situation like that presented itself, could we have the faith to not worry about it and just do it, - - as the widow did with Elijah? I wonder about my own answer to that question! I wonder, because there are so many seemingly rational reasons not to respond.

The giving that Jesus was watching in our Gospel for today was sacrificial giving to the max. The basins people put money in were shaped like trumpets and made of metal. When coins were deposited they made a noise as they struck the metal sides. The larger the coin, or the more coins dropped in the basin, the louder the noise. The widow could have refrained from putting her coins in out of sheer embarrassment. Everyone would know how little she put in.

Another scenario is that she could have rationalized that her small amount would make no difference, since everyone else was giving so much, and just not put anything in the basin, -- or she could have said to herself, "There are plenty of people around here that have so much more than I've got and are much more able to help, so there is no sense in my giving since I need it so badly myself." However, she did none of those things. She knew that there was someone who was in need of her coins, regardless of the other money being put in the collection.
Sacrificial giving is a giving of ourselves. It is a giving that empties us. It creates in us an emptiness before God. When we are empty, there is a capacity to be filled; a capacity to receive and witness the true joy of the Grace of God and the love of Christ.

I'd like to close with a short poem entitled, Others.

There is a destiny that makes us brothers
None goes his way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.

Amen