Text: Mark 12:38-44(Mk12-3809) 11/8/09
An elderly women fainted during the sermon, and hit her head on the end of the pew. As they were getting ready to wheel her out to the ambulance she regained consciousness, she motioned her daughter over, this could be her mother’s final words, with a faint voice she whispered, “My offering is in my purse.”
Today is commitment Sunday for our Stewardship campaign, we have been using the theme: “Blessed by God to be a Blessing.” You are not being wheeled out to an ambulance, but you need to know that “Your Offering Is In Your Blessings.” Fred is sitting here thinking, “How much of my money does the church need? Times are tight, so can I really spare anymore?” Next to him sits Dorothy, “God has blessed me in so many ways. How do I feel God is calling me to respond to those blessings?” Your offering is in your Blessing. The basis for how you respond this morning is God’s incredible, mind-boggling generosity, your blessings. That’s your basis for everything.
We see in our story that the Scribes are blessed. Jesus warns, to be aware of them. They were good people, professionals, respected interpreters of the law. Problem was they were mainly concerned about themselves: How do I look in my robes? Do people recognize me when I am at the store? Do I get a good place to sit at church or in the banquet hall? They took advantage of the weak, like the widows, probably foreclosed on anything they might have had. They did not care who they stepped on or devoured, they should be caring for, instead of taking from. They were doing all the things that Jesus had been teaching against. Early one morning this week on the radio I heard this quote, so I may just have the main jest, George Washington said, “we are deceiving ourselves if we think our blessings are produced by our superior wisdom.” God has blessed you, you have not blessed yourself, and it is out of God’s blessings, that your offering comes.
If I understood there we 13 kind of like trumpets that people would put their offering in, it was all coins, so you can imagine how noisy that could be, and Jesus sits down to watch. The offerings of the rich made a lot of noise and naturally everyone would notice, and then a widow came, hers was quiet, two small copper coins, a measly two cents. “This poor widow gave more than all the others put together. The others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford, she gave her all.” The others still went home rich, she kept nothing back.
The widow is blessed and that is where her offering came from, from her blessings. I watched dad after my mother died, it is tough being a widow or widower. And the fact that she was a female made it even tougher. She was dependent upon family and if she had no family she was really in trouble. There were no jobs, no Social security system, no welfare; they were literally in danger of starving to death. I would hope that giving to the church never becomes a financial hardship on anyone, and I’ve never known that to happen. She is giving to the church that should be helping her, but we’ve already heard about how the scribes operate. But I guess when you look at it Christ gave his life to a corrupt or sinful group of people. She withheld nothing from God and neither did he.
Why in her right mind would she do that? Maybe she believed that in spite of everything that happened to her,
she was still blessed and everything she had belonged to God.
To borrow a poker term, she was all in. How much have we invested? Are we all in? God is not asking us to give 100%, but God is saying that your offering is in your blessings. She gave in faith and so should we and then we are not dependent on ourselves but God’s grace. The good news is that no matter who we are or what our life situation, we have been blessed so that from that blessing we can make an offering back to God, which we do in worship. When we give what is left over, we give what we don’t want. It’s like we give God what we would give to Good Will.
That’s why one of our stewardship principles should be first fruits giving, the offering from our blessings should be the first check written, you will not run out. It’s not like the person who found a turkey in their freezer, 23 years old, so they called the company, “Will it be alright? “Yes, but the quality of the meat might not be the best.” “That’s what I thought; I’ll just give it to the church.” We also talk about growth giving, that why we gave you the chart on the back of your letter, and your estimate of giving from last year, so that you can figure out where you were at and grow from there, if that’s possible. Another principle is that we own nothing. Everything belongs to God, so all that we have are blessings, and it is from these blessings that our offering comes.
This allows us to participate in the heart of God’s mission, that mission that we have within these walls, outside in the community and beyond that(Hold up magazine): over 200 new congregations, 240 missionaries, 8 seminaries, 28 colleges and universities, 187 campus ministries, 147 outdoor ministries, partnerships with other Lutherans around the world.
Your offerings, your blessings used in service to others, what a joy that brings. Recently our Bishop wrote about how his mother taught him to write thank you’s within two weeks of a gift. Is this widow challenging you to say “Thank you” every day of our lives and with an offering each week from your blessings.
If you know about horses you may have heard of a “ground hitch.” Instead of tying the horse’s reins to a fence or post, you drop them to the ground. A well trained horse will stay put. God drops our reins to the ground and says, “I would like you to be wise stewards of my blessings to you.” But God leaves it up to you to decide what you really do. The widow gave what she could.
“Your offering is in your blessings.” Amen
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