Generosity is Contagious

 Luke 20:45-47; 21:1-4

January 14, 2024

Stewardship

Widow's Mite
Kathleen Peterson

 

When you think of money, what is your initial feeling?

My guess is it’s not completely positive.

Lots of us have negative thoughts of money,

It’s a cause of stress for a lot of people,

and we think of greed, corruption, the root of all evil.

Maybe you think I’m going to ask you for some right now.

 

If you are like me, or most people, you have a

complicated relationship with money.

It’s a joy, and a pain. It’s a source of pride, comfort, and anxiety.

Habits and feelings about money are

hidden deep within the recesses of our brain

some where we aren’t even consciously aware of them.

Money is the cause of many family arguments

and many divorces. 

It’s a motivator for crime, violence, and murder,

It causes wars, devastation and  famines.

It can at once be freeing and constraining,

 

There is not one life in here that is not in some way,

determined or influenced by money.

Money controls where we live, what we eat,

where we go, how much power we have or don’t have.

Money is a huge determinate in our lives,

in the lives of others, and in the world.

 

And yet many people of faith feel like God doesn’t

have anything to say about money.

Like it’s outside of God’s concern.

 

I’ve told you this tidbit, but it’s so good I have to tell you again.

Mark Allen Powell, professor at Trinity Seminary 

who wrote a book about stewardship tells the story about baptism in the first century.

New converts were devoting themselves to Christianity

and getting baptized.

  

But when they were baptizing in Gaul

the men who were soldiers

would go into the water to be baptized and hold their

dominant hand up outside the water because

that was the hand that would hold their sword

when they went into battle.

 

They wanted to reserve that piece of their lives

and not have it influenced by Christ’s teachings,

so they could go on and continue to do what they were doing.

 

Dr. Powell says that this is how many people feel about money.

He said we want to hold our wallets outside of the waters of baptism

so we can do whatever we want with it and not worry about God.

Never mind that money is mentioned over 800 times in the bible,

lots of us feel like money, and our struggles with money are unholy,

are somehow outside of God’s realm.

 

But obviously they are not.

The reading that we’re using for the next four weeks is just one example.

Jesus and his disciples are in the temple.

Jesus is teaching them, but everyone can hear.

He’s verbally sparring with the chief priests, scribes, and elders,

basically all the church leaders around him.

And he’s using the people around him as examples.

And he points out three things:

 

One the corruption of the church leaders

and how they take money from the poor.

Jesus calls it devouring widow’s houses.

Obviously, a dishonest use of money.

 

Second there’s the people who are visibly well off

and are putting lots of money into the offering box.

They got a lot of attention and recognition,

but their giving had little effect on their wallets and on their hearts.

 

And then there is the widow who comes to the temple.

to the temple and this woman only puts two small coins in

like two pennies, almost nothing into the offering.

 

But Jesus says, in his estimation, she was the most generous

even though her gift was the smallest.

 

Now I don’t know that Jesus was advocating

for giving your last dollar away to someone else.

I don’t think that this is about what percentage

of our gifts should go to the religious institution of your choice -

Which is what most sermons about this story end up being about.

 

What Jesus was lifting up, was the generosity of this woman’s heart.

She was living generously. She felt this gift when she gave it.

It meant everything.

 

The scribes took from others.

The rich people gave and it possibly didn’t even challenge them at all.

But when this woman gave, it was all she had. She felt it.

 

Maybe because she gave that day,

she may not have eaten,

she might have gone without heat or water.

Maybe it was ridiculous of her to give it away,

Maybe Jesus was lamenting the fact

that the church didn’t take care of her like it should.

 

Those things all might be true, but her gift was the

most generous and valuable in God’s kingdom.

Because it was the hardest to let go of,

it took all of her heart to do it, and the woman still did it.

Normally, no one would notice a gift that small,

But Jesus made sure that her gift didn’t go unnoticed.

 

And the gifts that we give, that are a struggle for us to give

are the most generous.

Something that is hard for us to give up.

whether it’s  time, efforts, compliment, thanks,

patience, empathy, concern, forgiveness, time, assistance, or money.

Whatever is hardest for you to part with, that is generosity.

That is giving with your heart. And generosity is contagious.

 

There was another woman here today.

A few years ago in January, it was bitterly cold in Chicago,

like it is this week, and while everyone was huddled in their homes

keeping warm, this Chicago woman had heard about

a homeless group of tent dwellers were pushed from their

tents when a propane tank exploded and they had no were to go.

The shelters were filled to capacity.

She was feeling terrible for them and wondering

what they were going to do with the cold and the shelters filled

 and didn’t get any kind of answer.

So she impulsively, without too much thought,

put 20 hotel rooms onto her credit card for them.

Then, she was trying to figure out how to get all 

these people into those rooms. So she then asked people to help drive these people to the hotel.

Eventually people started to offer their help too and eventually they

got 100 rooms and rides for all these people.

 

Was it well thought out plan? No.

Was this woman independently wealthy? Not at all.

At first she said she didn’t really know how she was going to pay for it.

We all lament that people live in tents and there are people who are cold.

But so few of us do anything about it even though we do have the power to.

But this woman’s heart was filled with generosity.

And her generosity inspired other people’s generosity.

 

Generosity and sharing are contagious.

It spreads, once one person does it than other people do it too.

It becomes a culture.  But the opposite is true too.

 

Remember at the beginning of the pandemic when the word

got out that toilet paper was scarce and we all started

going to stores at 6:30 in the morning and buying in bulk?

And we got it and said we were going to share with everyone else,

but then we ended up keeping all the toilet paper for ourselves,

because, what if we run out of toilet paper?

 

Generosity is contagious, and fear and hoarding are also contagious.

There is no problem with us having or money,

or security, or the comfort and security

and power that comes along with that.

The problem comes when we hoard it.

When we refuse to share. Then everyone else doesn’t share.

Then it becomes a problem.

And also when we have the power that money brings,

and we don’t demand that corporations,

and governments and institutions share too.

That’s when it becomes a problem.

 

As people of Christ, we’re called to be the first to share

even when it’s scary, and we don’t know how the story will end.

 

We have to make choices every day about

how we take and spend what we have.

 

To be honest, I don’t think anyone in here is

devouring widow’s houses, and I also don’t think anyone

here is giving their last penny to support a ministry.

 

Most of us live in this gray area between those two poles.

But the good news is that we’re not alone there.

God is with us in that gray area.

God is with us in our decisions, in our work, and even in our money.

 

Jesus sees us across the temple making those tough decisions.

Jesus knows the injustice that many of us face.

Jesus knows the questions we deal with, the inner struggles.

Jesus knows how we worry about our past and our future.

God sees the gifts we give, no matter how small.

Even if it’s just two small mites.

 

But this isn’t about giving to a church.

This is not about calculating a percentage of your income.

This is not about pledge cards and budgets.

It’s about discipleship. It’s about following Jesus.

It’s about the mission of the church as a whole,

and about each one of us individually.

Because God doesn’t just want our money.

God wants our hearts.