Lack Intolerant
Mark 12:38-44
A man was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking spot. Looking up toward heaven, he said, “God, if you find me a parking spot, I will go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life…oh, and I’ll give up drinking.”
Miraculously, as he proceeds down the street a parking spot appeared right in front of his destination.
He looks heavenward again and said, “Never mind. I found one.”
Lack can make us do all sorts of crazy things, including making promises to God that we have no intention of keeping. At some point in our lives we are going to find ourselves lack intolerant.
We don’t know much about the nameless woman whom Jesus praises in our story. We know she is a widow, is poor and we know how much she gives to the temple treasury. We know that she doesn’t offer her gifts with much fanfare – the inference being that her gift was so small that it was insignificant to those receiving the offering. Yet Jesus draws a distinct contrast between this woman and the others who dropped off their offerings that day. He says that she gave out of her lack while others were giving out of their surplus. She gave everything (literally “her entire life”) in contrast to others giving out of their extra.
Being a widow, a woman and poor would have been three strikes against our heroine in most stories of the day. All three characteristics made one suspect to religious folk of her time. Those are the kinds of assumptions that continue to survive in our own day in one form or another. The widow’s presence and gift was tolerated as a liberal gesture that anyone could come to worship, even one of “those” people. That Jesus names her gift and holds it up as an example stands in stark contrast to another form of lack intolerance exhibited by those around them.
Many of us grew up hearing about the widow’s mite. The coins deposited in the temple treasury that day were probably “lepta”. These coins hold the notable distinction for being the least valuable coin ever minted in history. A “lepton” was such a meager amount that even the coin itself was practically worthless, but for this widow it represented everything she was, had and hoped for. She gave the essence of her life to the work of God, even though the temple she gave to wasn’t perfect. The temple guards were sometimes as brutal as the Roman occupiers when it came to money. The whole monetary system of purchasing sacrifice animals from temple personnel was wrought with conflicts of interest. The poor had little choice. They were told by their religion that to be acceptable to God meant they had to purchase a quality animal (sometimes at premium rates) and sacrifice that animal at the temple. This was what you had to do. So that is what she did, without complaint, without protest, without fanfare.
That’s the amazing thing about the widow’s generosity. Once you release generosity into the universe, it finds a way to seep into the crevices of stony hearts like water dissolves porous rock. The widow gave and then left it to God’s grace. She probably never knew Jesus was watching or that this humble event was being recorded in someone’s memory and would be repeated for thousands of years, yet this event became part of her life’s story.
Every month our congregation partners with another community organization through our DUO fund and we are proud of these partnerships and the ways that we as a body can support the good work being done in our community and world. It has become part of the narrative of our church – part of the story of who we are and how we talk about ourselves. It feels good to be generous with others and I’m glad it is a passion of ours.
Somewhere along the way, though, we seemed to lose another important part of our story. What does it mean to be part of this community of faith, gathered here week after week in worship and service? If you don’t read the newsletter closely or happen to serve on a ministry team, it may seem like there isn’t much happening. But that would be an error of staggering proportion. Amazing examples of grace occur in this place and because of this community on a regular basis. A couple of Sundays ago a Norwegian Lutheran pastor here in the US on sabbatical was walking down 31st St. on his way to a local Lutheran church when he spotted our rainbow flag and then read the sign outside our building. He had heard of MCC but had never attended a local MCC church. We were gathered in worship already that morning so he slipped in the back. He returned for Wednesday Spirit service and later told me how touched he was by our worship experience. He is the first out Lutheran pastor to be appointed in Norway but being with us was an amazingly liberating experience for him – to be in a place that had so many GLBTQ folks in one place.
Last week a man called the church office to say his partner of 21 years had died and he wanted the funeral to be here. They rarely attended worship since most weekends they were at the lake, but when they were in town, this was their church. Last weekend at the funeral this sanctuary was filled with strangers to all of us but they were so appreciative that All God’s Children gave them a place to grieve their loss. People walked around this sanctuary marveling that such a place like this existed.
The strategic partnerships that All God’s Children has developed with Pride Institute, People of Faith Allies, HRC, Outfront, Minnesota HIV Service Planning Council and our presence at the sex offender program in Moose Lake are all examples of grace touching our world through the energy, generosity and passion of the people of All God’s Children. Our efforts through such campaigns like “Would Jesus Discriminate?” and “Blessed and Blessing Others” have raised awareness and left a mark of grace on our world that is still causing people to ponder, to question, to change and to be open to God’s presence.
Almost every day of the week dozens of people gather in this building to find recovery from all sorts of chemicals and behaviors that have destroyed their lives. We provide safe space for that healing to happen. Every week someone walks into the church office looking for help, for answers, for assistance, for assurance that there is something more to life than what they have known or experienced – hoping beyond hope that it could be true that a relationship with God is possible for them. Rev. Robyn and I are here because you make that possible. I want you to feel just as good about all these things that this church provides as we do about our DUO offerings. Most of these things happen in those hours when most of us are not even present in this room and yet every one of you makes it all possible. This is our story. We offer it to our world. Sometimes it is valued by the powers that be like it is as worthless as the lepta of the widow. I don’t really care because they don’t get to define us or confine us by their assumptions. What I do care about is that each of us who are part of this story fully celebrates the amazing things of which we get to be part. I want you to know the joy I experience when the guys of Moose Lake tell me how grateful they are that our church cares about what is happening to them when they feel like the whole state has simply warehoused and forgotten them. I want you to hear the gratitude that is expressed to Rev. Robyn and I when we work with families in distress or partners grieving a deceased loved one or the happiness of couples who get to celebrate their love before God in church, or the families who are so thankful that we are here for their gay son or lesbian daughter. It is your story, even when you are not personally present at the moment.
On the church website there is a link where we have shared the faith stories of members of this congregation. I never cease to be amazed at the power of what has happened in so many lives in this congregation through living by faith. We are a people of amazing individual stories that together adds to our collective story.
I began this morning telling you the joke about the guy praying for a parking place. Once he received grace, he pretended that it was his own doing. None of us is here by accident. It took a lot of hard work, prayer, sweat, planning, sacrificing and years and hundreds of people before us laying the foundation, making it possible. So know you are part of the story. You and I are living and writing the next chapter so that fifty years from now when someone comes looking for hope they can still find a welcoming, loving community on the corner of Park and 31st who are ready to heal their wounds and walk with them on their journey. That’s the amazing thing about grace. God takes that gift we put in the offering plate or that time we serve on a ministry team and multiplies it over and over. Even when what we have to offer feels like lepton, let’s offer it with courage and faith and passion. Offer the best of your life and our story – our work – will remain strong.
If we don’t tell the story, it won’t get told. If we don’t live the story, it won’t happen. The good news is that when God’s hand is in it, you never know where the story might take you. But isn’t amazing to be part of the journey?
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com MiteShares, November 2009.
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