This past week we had an incident in
our home that to some may be considered devastating and for one of us it was. I
told you in a sermon a few weeks ago that my wife has certain areas of
expertise in our marriage; specifically, that she was the keeper of the
calendar for the family (in addition to her church calendar, all appointments,
and meetings); and I was…key word…was the technology person in the house. Ever
since she got her new phone which is the same phone (Android) operating system
that she had before, our calendars would not sync. We used to be able to look
at our phones and see each other’s calendar and life was good.
This past week, I decided to take a
look at why it was not working. I went into my phone and I would look at things
and then go to her phone and look at the same things. I got to this one step of
deleting what is called cache memory. I deleted it on my phone first and
nothing happened, so I did the same with hers. Then I got to this one other
part of memory. I got a warning on her phone and mine, so I decided I would try
it on my phone. Deleted the memory and my calendar was still there with all the
stuff still on it…sounds okay right? Do you know what is coming next…That’s
right! I deleted it on her phone and her entire calendar disappeared! Every
appointment was gone! Gone! Usually it saves it all to our Google account
calendar, but her phone didn’t. Everything was gone! Needless to say things
were a little tense around the Litton household for a few days trying to figure
out how to get all this back…if we could get any of it back.
I believe that this story in our
lives relates directly to our Gospel reading this morning. In particular, this
story of the widow in the temple. Jesus is watching people put money in the
Temple treasury. It was a part of what they did and who they were. He watched
as rich people put their money into the treasury and everything was going along
smoothly; until he saw this “poor widow.” When she comes up, Jesus takes
notice! So much so, that he calls the disciples to come over because there is a
lesson here, there is something to teach them something. Jesus sees it as more
than a teaching moment. To Jesus it is an incredible witness to something much
bigger.
To get to that something bigger, we
have to look back at the beginning of this Gospel reading. Jesus tells the
disciples to “beware of scribes in Long robes…” and to be honest this passage
can make some of us who wear white robes in worship a little nervous. These
scribes and people who wore the robes were in a position of authority. They
were born into their positions as priests and scribes. As we talked in our
bible study this past week, these were not people called to their vocation,
they were born into it. They obeyed set the rules and dictated who was in and
who was out. There was an expectation that they were given high places of
honor. It opened up the door to some abuses by the very people born into those
positions. It opened the door to some being treated less like valued human
beings and God's children.
With all that in the background,
here is this woman coming up to the treasury to put in these two coins! It
might sound like we would want to prevent her from doing that, doesn’t it. We
know the back story on these priests and scribes and we might want to tell her
to keep it because she will need it more than the temple. We might think we are
being compassionate to her to say, “Stop! They are just going to waste it!” We
might even want to think that she is not smart for putting these coins in!
After all, it is her life savings! It is all she has! After she does this,
there is no more! “All she had to live on,” Jesus says. If we believe that is
exactly what we would say to her and try to prevent her from giving, then we
are missing the bigger picture as well.
The bigger picture is not that she
gave two coins into the treasury. The bigger picture is that she gave her
entire life, not to the treasury, but to God. She was a faithful woman who,
regardless of her wealth or poverty, gave her entire life over to God! Those
two coins were only the symbol of who she was. She had more than two coins to
give in her worship of God. She was more than money. She was a living,
breathing child of God. She was a person who had a heart, who had blessings,
who made mistakes, who had some down times as well as good and she gave it all
over to God.
This bigger picture is realizing
what exactly it was that she put into that treasury. It was her body and soul,
it was her heart…her life, death, and everything in between depended and rested
on God because it was given to God. It did not matter what some in the temple
would do with what she put in because that wasn’t the point. The point was that
her entire life was given over to God and relied upon God’s promises to her.
She would now have to rely on God for everything.
I don’t know about you but it sounds
like she has put herself in a pretty vulnerable position! It is a pretty
vulnerable position when you have to rely on others for everything. My wife
felt extremely vulnerable when all those calendar dates disappeared! It is a
helpless feeling to have that important aspect of your life…those things that
you are so responsible for and feel that responsibility suddenly gone is not a
good feeling. I don’t know if you have ever experienced vulnerability, but it
can affect your trust in others, decision making processes can be called into
question, and can cause us to do things we normally would not do.
While a calendar does not compare to
one’s entire life, it is an example of the vulnerability that we may have
experienced in our lives. In contrast, imagine doing that with your entire
life. Imagine taking everything you are…I am not even talking about money…just
who you are; every breath you breathe, every word you say, food you eat,
decisions you make…all of who you are and say “I am giving all this over to
you, God. It yours and I will do with it what you ask. I rely on you to guide
me in everything I do.”
That is not an easy thing to do.
There are parts of our lives that we want to control. We want to have control
over some aspects of our lives. Sure there are some easy things we can give
over to God. But it is not easy to give everything over to God. It is not easy
because it means that we have to give up control. It means we allow ourselves
to be vulnerable to what God wants us to do and to spend time with God, getting
to know ourselves (warts and all) to acknowledge our gifts and acknowledge
where we fall short. It means allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to call
ourselves sinners AND knowing that God’s Son, Jesus died for our sin. It means
allowing ourselves to acknowledge that amid Christ’s death on the cross is the
promise of God’s forgiveness and that we are to live out that forgiveness with
one another.
This “poor woman” shows us how
blessed we really are. Despite her poverty, she teaches us all the promises of
God that God works through all of us to teach us of the love of God, the
uneasiness of vulnerability, the power of forgiveness, and God’s promise of
eternal life through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. AMEN!
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