Today
we hear stories of generosity. We are challenged by examples of people offering
themselves far more completely than we are often able to ourselves. What should
we do with these examples? Can we give everything? Can we pick up everything
and move to a new land?
Consider
the story of Ruth. We have only heard the end of the story this morning. Naomi
has two sons who each marry a woman from the country of Moab. So they all go to
live there. The two sons die before they have any children, so heartbroken,
Naomi decides to return to her people in Israel and hopes to be taken in by
relatives. She tells her two daughters-in-law to go and find new husbands. Ruth
stays loyal to Naomi and will not leave her. She says those familiar words that
are often read at wedding ceremonies, “Wherever you go I will go, your people
will be my people and your God will be my God.” (We all know that mothers-in-law
and daughters-in-law don’t usually get along this well!)
Ruth
cares for her mother-in-law and Naomi helps her to marry Boaz. The story ends
with Ruth giving birth to Obed, who is the grandfather of David. Ruth is
remembered for being extraordinarily faithful. Why would she leave her people?
Why would she work so hard in poverty among strange people in a strange land?
She did everything because she loved Naomi.
Our
motivation should begin with love. Instead, we often are often motivated by fear
and worry. Jesus is preaching against false religion that controls people
instead of empowering people. The religious authorities had all sorts of rules
and regulations. They would run the estates of widows and take a healthy share
of the wealth. They made sure that they looked good to everyone, requiring
strict adherence while living quite comfortably themselves. So Jesus sits down
and watches the spectacle of people parading into the temple and putting their
money into the treasury. The rich come with lavish gifts and great fanfare.
It’s quite a show. But Jesus only makes note when a widow puts in a couple
pennies. He praises her because she has given everything, while the rich only
gave whatever they wouldn’t miss.
What
do we make of this? Is Jesus praising a poor woman for starving herself? Is
Jesus rejecting the rich? I think we have to listen to what Jesus is saying
instead of what we want to hear. Jesus isn’t preaching a stewardship sermon and
trying to get all the stubborn disciples to increase their pledge. Jesus is
talking about true worship, true devotion to God. The religious authorities had
all the answers, but they had lost the spirit of what they were living.
We
are quite capable of turning this teaching on its head. Jesus commends the widow
for giving everything. Do we then insist that everyone hands over everything
they can – even the truly poor – in order to show proper devotion? I think that
Jesus was seeing the devotion of the crowd expressed in what they gave from
what they had. The large gifts from the rich were really quite poor. To
paraphrase the beatitudes, the praise they received from others was all the
reward they would ever get. The smallest gift from the most insignificant
person was really quite lavish. This is what Jesus wants us to learn.
It’s
not just about tithes and percentages. I could give you standards and
principles, but in the end what we give to God comes from our hearts. For some
of us, a gift of thousands of dollars is no sacrifice and requires no act of
faith. For others, a few dollars is huge sum and a large part of what little
they can control. I live by the discipline of the tithe because it gives me joy
and it helps me be free. Each of us here has to open ourselves to what God is
calling us to do. We have to follow the desire that God has placed in us. How
has God challenged us to offer ourselves?
Think
about it. We make all sorts of sacrifices for the people we love. When I was a
child, my parents used to give us some money so we could go out and buy Christmas
presents for each other. I would buy my dad aftershave or something. It was a
completely different experience once I was earning my own money. The small
present I gave was really from me and it cost me something. But we don’t mind
buying presents for people we love. We want the Christmas tree to be surrounded
by piles of presents. We make other sacrifices as well. We take on another job
to pay the bills. We take out another mortgage to finance our children’s
education. We stay up all night in the emergency room when someone is sick.
When someone calls we say we’ll be right over.
None
of you need me to preach a sermon or give you a lecture to do any of these
things. You want to do them. You need to do them. It’s time we stopped talking
about money as if it were a dirty thing about which we must be ashamed. Our
money is part of what we have. It’s part of who we are in the world. We should
use it to do God’s will. How we use our gifts is how we show our love. And how
we love is how we truly worship.
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