Sermon for November 12, 2006

MY TWO CENTS WORTH

By

Jerry Herships, Licensed Local Student Pastor

Scripture:  Mark 12:38-44

³⁸ As he taught, he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, ³⁹ and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! ⁴⁰ They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."

⁴¹ He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. ⁴³ Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. ⁴⁴ For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

I believe one of the ways to best win over a large group of people is to talk to them about money. Specifically, theirs. People love that! Especially from the pulpit. Regardless of the church, you will hear people say “boy I wish the preacher would ask for more money.”  It’s one of those things people just never get enough of.

Some of you might be thinking, “We just talked about money the whole month of October. What gives?” Allow me to explain. Many new preachers are encouraged to preach from what is called the lectionary. It gives us a few passages each week from which we can choose what to preach on. It runs in a three year cycle. That way, in theory, after three years you have preached on all the parts of the Bible. On today’s date, it got down to between this passage in Mark or Revelation. It was between the end of the world as we know it… and money. Now depending how much debt you have the former might not sound so bad. The end of the world was too much pressure for me so I picked this passage.  

Now, to the untrained eye, it could easily be deduced that the point of this passage is for us to give LESS. After all, that is the person that Jesus is praising in the passage. The woman who gave only two cents. Apparently, the temple was not one of those five or ten-dollar house of worship!

While many people would be just fine with that being the take away, I think there was a different point that Jesus was trying to make. It is a point that needed to be taught in Jesus’ day and it is certainly poignant today.  

This is a passage that is easy to nod our collective heads at. We can easily see the piety and pretentiousness of the scribes in the scripture. I just finished a class called “Teaching the Bible”. One of the concepts we discussed was that often in Bible study instructors will ask people in the class where they see themselves in the Bible... it is almost always as one of the good guys! I have never been in a class or even heard of a class where someone says, “I really fancy myself as a roman centurion in this story” or “ I have always thought I conduct myself in much the same way as Pilate.” It is like when we played super heroes as kids. Everyone wanted to be Superman. No one wanted to be Lex Luthor.

In many ways in this story, we want to in vision ourselves as the poor widow. Ironically, no one wants to be the wealthy ones who demand respect in the community. If ever there were an example of God’s world being 180 degrees away from our world this would be it. In ANY context other than the Bible, it is a no brainer which character to pick. We all want respect. We all want to be admired. We all want the admiration or others. I believe that is normal. What we have to watch for is when it turns to what C.S. Lewis called, “the greatest sin”. Anyone want to take a stab at what the greatest sin is? Pride. In his book, Mere Christianity, Lewis devotes an entire chapter on it. He says, “The truth is we don’t want to be good-looking, rich, and successful. We just want to be more good-looking, more rich, and more successful than THAT person.” I am ashamed to admit I have spent the better portion of my life being exactly that guy. I am also not above the fact that I still become that guy more often than I care to admit.

This was what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in fancy suits, uh, sorry, fancy robes, and to be greeted with respect in the gathering space, uh I mean market place.” I might not have been Lex Luthor when I was a kid, but I have been a scribe more times than I can count.

So, just to be clear I want to point out that Jesus is not saying give two cents. You might think that is a given, but it is my job to plug up the loopholes in interpretation. What is being discussed here really has very little to do with money. Money is just a handy way to discuss it. Always has been, and it probably always will be. I believe there are many layers to every passage of the Bible. For me that is what keeps it fresh and when it isn’t fresh to me, I know it is because I am not trying to see a passage through new eyes. The “eyes” that I saw it through this time came up with two points I want to focus on today: Faith and sacrifice.

Sacrifice seems pretty apropos considering today we are honoring veterans. Now I am not going to get into a debate on war. I know our opinions in this room probably span the entire spectrum of views. Which by the way is one for the strengths of being a United Methodist. You can disagree on things and STILL agree on your commitment to Jesus Christ and to God. I’ve heard it said we don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand. I like that. Not every house of God can make that claim. What I do think we can agree on is that everyone sees the strength of character that it takes to put something above yourself and your own interests. We live in a selfish world. Anytime we can see someone living in a non-selfish way it is to be valued. Whether that be to your kids, to your husband, your wife, your partner, your country, or your God. Especially to your God. This is what I believe Jesus was telling the disciples to notice. Not the dollar amount. The amount is spelled out; it was two coins worth a penny. It was clear in the scripture that Jesus was not concerned with equal giving. Only equal sacrifice.

I think this is something we can get wrapped in up here at St. Andrew. I know I have caught myself thinking it. “We don’t belong here. We are not of the same “caliber” as so many of the people in this church. Now I know, that is wrong. I know, “we are all equal in God’s eyes” But boy it’s easy to pull into the parking lot and see the Lexus’, BMW, Saabs, Audis and Volvos and think we don’t measure up…. and that is just the staff parking! (On a side note: there is a possibility that I might be looking for work immediately after today’s sermons. Call me). But see what I just did was just as bad. I made a judgment. Just because you have a lot of money doesn’t mean you aren’t giving from sacrifice. Plus you can be middle and lower income and still be holding back. See we get hung up on dollar amounts.  Our bank balance doesn’t dictate who gives the most. This is something only each and every one of us can answer for ourselves. In many ways I feel like a hypocrite. I have tithed and not tithed back and forth for about the past 22 years. I have given five dollars when I made $50 bucks a week. And I have given $200 on a day’s wages (there were days when I was ridiculously over paid). There have also been days/weeks/months when I have not given a tithe. I have not given the 10%. And for me there was only one reason and one reason only. Fear. Which brings me to the second point I think this scripture asks us to think about.

Faith is at the root, for me anyway, as to the reason for those times I have not given out of sacrifice. I knew God was there. I knew God’s grace was there and I knew God loved me. That was not the question.  I just could not for the life of me figure out how God was going to pay my cable bill. I actually believed that Comcast was bigger than God. Now barring any mergers, I don’t think that’s the case. Don’t get me wrong. Some day’s I still fall back into that old pattern of fear. My faith is a constant walk of two steps forward and one step back. I have grown to be more comfortable in that tension. I have discovered that for me, faith is like the stock market. Past performance does not guarantee further growth. I have to work at it constantly.

And truth be told, just between us friends, don’t let this get out, there have been times when I didn’t give just because there was something else I wanted! I know, you are shocked! It was not about paying the cable bill, it was about a cool pair of shoes. Or a CD. Or gift for Laura or Hudson. It was about…STUFF. The thing is, all this stuff is going to get old and I won’t want it anymore. I know that somewhere deep inside me. Now the good news is, now there is more and more research to support that feeling.

One of the hottest areas of psychology is the study of happiness. Prior to a few years ago, the study of psychology was really the study of pathology. How NOT to get sick. So we studied sick people.  Now we are starting to study what makes us happy. In a recent issue of Fast Company, economist and equity strategist James Montier talks to Wall Street types about where to put their money. What he says the most recent data regarding happiness research is that if you are going to put it anywhere, put it into memories rather than things. He says the single most important discovery in happiness research is something called hedonic adaptation. Fancy word huh? In a nutshell, after awhile, we take things for granted. No matter how much you LOVE your new car, after a year, it is just a car to you. By the way in the interest of full disclosure, the Volvo in the staff parking lot is mine… granted it is ten years old and has nearly 140K miles on it but the point is still valid. I can attest to Mr. Montiers point. When I first got that car it was a pretty big WOO HOO moment for me. Now, it is a money pit. It went from WOO HOO to BOO HOO. I put my riches in things of this world that rust will destroy. Literally, this Bible is a great book. Ya gotta read it.  Montiers point is that you can buy those things. That’s not the problem.  Just know they won’t bring you happiness in the long run. And happiness is probably why you bought them in the first place.

The very long-winded point to all this is, be gentle with yourself…  but push yourself. Don’t think of it as “The church is always asking for money.” I know it can feel like that sometimes. After all, I have set out there 500 plus times. I have been up here 5 times. And as long as you think of it as the church always asking for money you will resent it and not be cheerful giver. Did you see the quote on the cover of the bulletin? It says that God loves a cheerful giver. The original Greek word for cheerful is “hilarios”, which is translated into the English word hilarious. God wants us to be hilarious givers! We should be giddy with giving! I think I just wrote the next stewardship campaign slogan.

It is also interesting to note that in the original King James Version of the text says, “as he purposeth in his heart.” Hear any differences? Beside the NRSV having more inclusive language, it also changed the text from being a decision of the heart to a decision of the mind or head. Over the years we have stopped asking our hearts what to give and started asking our heads. Maybe it might be time to return to our hearts.

Instead, think of giving as a spiritual exercise. Do I REALLY think God will take care of all my needs? Can I literally put my money where my mouth is? Maybe needs isn’t where it is at for you. Maybe you are giving. Are you giving to sacrifice? As they say, give till it hurts... maybe just a little. Is that second, third or fourth dinner out this week still pulling you from where you want to be spiritually? Or is it Park Meadows? Or Neimans? Banana Republic? This is where those of you that know me would say, “physician heal thyself.” I’m working on it. We are a generous, giving church. Make no mistake. I am proud of how this church gives. We are also among the most privileged people in the history of the planet. Not just now. In the history of the planet. To whom much is given much is to be expected.

I have got so much work to do it isn’t even funny. I fail weekly, daily. That is the beautiful thing about God that we still can’t fathom. God’s grace. The double G. God will always be with us no matter where we are on the path.  

I have a cross engraved on my money clip that Laura gave me one year to remind me that I am just a temporary steward of what I have. What I have is really God’s. Now granted, it is a Tiffany money clip but still. As I have said I have a long way to go. I hope I can travel the road with you. Because even though I just gave you my two cents worth, I still have a long way to go to reach the widow. Amen.

  Sermon Library