It’s All a Matter of Choice
Preacher: Marcia C. Wilkinson

November 12, 2006

Mark 12:38-44

You’ve heard the infamous name of John Wilkes Booth who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.  But do you know the story of his eldest brother Edwin, a well known actor?  While he was waiting at a Jersey train station he saw someone slip and fall off the platform.  Edwin quickly grabbed the man’s collar and pulled him to safety.  He took the risk to rescue him from serious injury or death.  Who was that man he saved?  It was Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert, a soldier serving in the Civil War.  How ironic that the man who saved Lincoln’s son had a brother who would soon take the president’s life.  Two siblings from one family; one chose to save a life, one chose to take life away.

The Lord gives all of us the opportunity to choose life by receiving his love, his truth, and following him.  Or, we can choose to follow something or someone else, and find there disillusionment, and a certain darkness and death.  “The choice we make determines our eternal destination; one leads to everlasting life; the other condemnation” (Sper). 

Today’s gospel points to making that choice-  between life that responds to the love of God or life that leads us through certain daily routines but never gets to the deeper significance of communion with God.   The prophet Elijah challenged the Israelites as he said to them:  “How much longer will you try to have things both ways?  If the Lord is God, worship him!  But if Baal is God, worship him” (1Kings 18: 21)!  We cannot worship both.  Therefore we cannot lead double lives in the sight of the Lord.  We must make a choice. You and I know that as Americans our freedom to choose is highly revered.  And, we value our right to choose and our individuality more than the right to answer to what God might be asking for us.

Mark’s gospel lesson is a good example of making decisions.  Anyone who went to Sunday school as a child heard the story of the widow’s mite.  We have praised her devotion and generous spirit a zillion times, and the strength of her testimony is the ping of guilt I feel every time I hear it.  Can I possibly measure up to her faith?

This humble woman was unaware that anyone was paying attention to her dropping the coins into the treasury.  However, Jesus was observing those who passed by the offering box.  What he taught the disciples then and teaches us today is: choosing the Lord can be risky, and the cost can be great, yet such a choice brings God’s powerful reassurance that he sees and knows and honors the heart turned toward him.  In her simple act the widow demonstrated that being with the Lord demands the surrender of the self in complete trust.  The giving of money without connecting oneself to living under God’s loving care- is of limited value in God’s sight.

This text is used as that perfect piece for stewardship sermons because the bottom line always seems to be what is the amount we are we willing to give back to the Lord?  How do we respond to the awesome love and gifts of life he graciously gives day by day?  How do we check our priorities and make our choices and decisions?  While the bottom line might be the amount of money we deposit in the plate each week, Jesus had much more in mind.    Stewardship is a way of life that comes out of conviction and commitment.

We might convince ourselves about adequately living lives in Christ, but we cannot pretend with God.

So Jesus used this illustration with the Scribes who are respected for their learned leadership- teachers, known for their understanding of God’s law and executing them religiously- and- the unnamed elderly widow woman, who is known only for her poverty and what she does not have.  As with all of Jesus’ stories there is irony.  The scribes are proud to be scribes with all the privileges afforded them in respect, yet, as Jews they do not honor widows. Instead they were able to use their knowledge of the law to their own advantage to exploit others, and according to Jesus  “to devour widow’s houses:” All of this dishonesty while making pretenses for observing the law fully.  Jesus saw in them the evidence of a faulty religious system and knew he would soon bring an end to such a system by tearing down man’s temple and replacing it with his Body, the Church.

In the meantime, the woman exemplified Jesus’ way of living.  She must have struggled to exist but nevertheless took her few copper coins, and puts them into the treasury of the synagogue.  She doesn’t question whether her pittance will be well used by the likes of the scribes, or how it will be used.  She gives because she trusts the Lord, and because she desires to give even if it means everything she has.

Jesus was quick to recognize this sacrificial giving, as compared to those who gave out of abundance with no thoughts of lacking anything.  He knew he would soon give everything of himself for the likes of the scribes, and the generous woman.   Only his would be the perfect sacrifice, once and for all.  Jesus would choose to lay down his life for the whole of creation.

Our gospel is about choice, and why we make the decisions we do.  The question for us to consider:  Are we people who profess faith, and live with the benefits of being Christian and being called children of God, while holding on to what is ours, to pick and choose what we offer back to the Lord?  Or, are we so trusting of God’s care for us and our communion together that we will dare to take the risk and give wholeheartedly of ourselves to  him?   

The widow’s gift would never make news today in the annals of church giving.  Yet, it has gone down in faith history as memorable because it was authentic.  Jesus saw it as the real thing that confirmed the integrity of the woman’s conviction.  She was faithful and showed her devotion to the Lord by giving back everything.  Why did Jesus use such a woman to define what he desires?

Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians pinpoints the reason.  “God chose those who by human standards are fools to shame the wise; he chose those who by human standards are weak to shame the strong, those who by human standards are common and contemptible- indeed those who count for nothing- to reduce to nothing all those who do not count for something, so that no human being might feel boastful before God.”

What does the Lord require of me?  What does he see when he looks into my heart?  What does it mean to be committed like this widow woman?   If you feel the same ping of guilt that I feel, I believe the Lord is nudging us to stop and ask him what he desires from you and me.  To pray is to listen to God and he will speak to our hearts.  And, then, by the power of the Holy Spirit we will be given the faith we need to trust, to take the risk, and to joyfully give of ourselves.

Whether with baby half steps, or big steps, I invite you this morning- no I challenge you as the Body of Christ- to go out on a limb with the Lord.  The poor widow did, and God saw and cared for, and loved her.  She didn’t know what Jesus said about her but she received a place in his eternal kingdom. 

Amen.