Sermon Briefs: Mark 12:38-44

The story of the widow's mite is the all time great story of Christian giving observes Barbara Brown Taylor in her sermon, The One To Watch.¹ It is the story of a poor woman who gave everything she had to the church. What the rich young ruler could not do, she did without even being asked. One of life's minor characters, one of the invisible people who come and go without anyone noticing them, she was probably unaware that anyone took notice of her.

The temple scene that Mark describes for us includes characters who are highly visible: rich people and scribes. They are the ones that stand out—people who know that other people are watching them and who seem used to it, even pleased, when heads turn and talk stops for a moment as they make their entrances. They have shape; they have flair. They are the ones whom the no-ones both envy and admire—the rich because they have money, and the scribes because they have status. As Brown puts it, they were clearly the ones to watch.

Yet, Jesus was not watching them that day in the temple. He was not paying attention to what was happening on center stage at all because he was far more interested in what was going on in the wings, and in one woman in particular. She had not caught anyone else's attention but Jesus took notice of her. She was someone without stature, position or money—someone people rarely take notice of. She was invisible to everyone, that is, everyone except Jesus.

Jesus saw her walk to the temple treasury to give up her two coins. But there was more. There was something about her quite manner that spoke volumes—something that suggested that it was the end for her. When she surrendered her two coins and turned to go, Jesus knew she had nothing left. Her sacrifice was complete, so complete that he called his disciples over to witness it. "Truly I tell you," he said to them, "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 she had, all she had to live on."

Brown says that is why we know about her today, that nameless woman—because she gave all the little she had, holding nothing back, which made her last penny a fortune in God's eyes. If you think tithing is heroic, proclaims Brown, try following her act. She was a percentage giver, all right—one hundred percent. And this is why Jesus noticed her—she reminded him of someone. It was the end for her; it was the end for him, too. She gave her living to a corrupt church; he was about to give his life for a corrupt world. She withheld nothing from God; neither did he. It took one to know one. When Jesus looked at her it was like looking in a mirror at a reflection so clear that he called his disciples over to see. "Look," he said to those who meant to follow him. "That is what I have been talking about. Look at her."

Jesus could not have picked a less likely role model for his disciples. If he had taken a Polaroid snapshot of the temple that day and handed it to the disciples with one question written underneath—"Where is Christ in this picture?"—they would never have guessed the answer. There were major characters in that room, after all—doctors of the law and patrons of the arts, rich people and smart people, people with names and faces—any one of them a better bet than the thin woman, a minor character if there ever was one. "She's the one," Jesus tells them when their time is up. "The one without a penny to her name, she's the one to watch."

Living To Give—Giving To Live² is a sermon by Larry Paul Jones on this text that brilliantly weaves the ancient story with modern experience. Beginning with the text, Jones invites a fresh hearing of a story that has become worn by familiarity. This is done by the addition of detail that creates color and texture: "Across town, in a dimly lit, immaculately swept hovel, all thoughts and energies were directed toward the next day. The widow meticulously cleaned her threadbare shawl, pensively wondered whether she would have the stamina to make her way through the crowd of worshipers, and checked for the hundredth time the faded cloth in which she had tied her temple offering." As Jones retells the story we are invited into the widow's thoughts where we are delighted to discover one who lives to give her offering to God. Though she had lost everything the world would count of value, she wanted to tell God, "I'm thankful I still have you."

Moving from storytelling to "meddling," Jones turns towards his congregation and asks, "About what did we think last night? Surely none of us were vain or shallow enough to sit up wondering how others would respond to our apparel, appearance, or participation in worship. But as we went about our Saturday routine, did we give any thought at all to worship? If we did, what were those thoughts? Did we look forward to offering praises to God, or did we hope to hear a stirring anthem? Did we take time to notice whether anyone we know could use an invitation or a ride to church, or did we hope the service would end early enough not to interfere with our plans? Did we give any thought to our regular offering or to special needs that might have arisen in the congregation, the community, or the denomination, or did we write the check without pausing, simply out of habit? As we worship today, will Jesus notice what we have to offer? Will he be able to say of us, `They live to give'?"

Doug Hood

NOTES

1. Barbara Brown Taylor, "The One To Watch," The Preaching Life (Cambridge & Boston: Cowley Publications, 1993). 2. Larry Paul Jones, "Living To Give—Giving To Live," Joyful Giving: Sermons on Stewardship, ed. Dan Moseley (St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press, 1997).