Everyone enjoys being recognized for the good they have accomplished even if they do the “No really, you don’t have to” thing. They enjoy being thanked and acknowledged for what they’ve done, maybe not publically but people want to know they have made a difference in their world. The scripture that dearest to the heart of many is the picture of Jesus welcoming us into heaven saying, “well done my good and faithful servant.”
But the same doesn’t always hold true for money, at least for a lot of us we aren’t comfortable when we are recognized publically for our giving.
Apparently there are some things that shouldn’t be talked about in public, sex, your giving and being a habs fan.
When we did the capital campaign in 2004 to raise the initial funding for our building there were three of us who made our commitments publically. It was part of the plan for the pastor and the campaign directors, who were Don and Heather Grant, to publically make their commitments as part of the leadership process and it was open to others on the leadership team if they desired to, and one other person chose to. We had people leave the church over that very issue or at least that was the excuse they gave.
What was it the man said, excuses are like noses everybody has one and they all smell. And so we were told that by publically stating what we intended to give we were putting people on a guilt trip. Guess we should have talked about sex.
Or maybe we aren’t comfortable with seeing other people being recognized for their giving. We like to keep it a secret. As a matter of fact people have a scripture that the trot out whenever the issue comes up, words of Jesus from the sermon on the mount, you are probably familiar with them Matthew 6:3-4 But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
Of course that criticism was levelled at people who wanted others to see how much they gave, right? All you have to do is go back one verse and you read Matthew 6:2 When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.
If the truth be known too many people use that scripture for the opposite reason, they don’t want people to know how little they give. But if we look into the gospels we see a couple of examples where Jesus very publically commended people for their giving, what they gave and how they gave it. And in doing so condemned others for their lack of giving or at least the attitude with which0 they gave.
The first example we have is a very familiar story found in the gospel of Mark. Jesus had been teaching in the temple and we are told that he moves over close to the offering box, which by the way is located on the back table by the sound booth if anyone is wondering, and we are told that he watched what people were giving. That’s kind of rude, at least many people today would think that it was. Just imagine if I stationed myself back by the offering box and checked your envelopes as you put them in.
Wouldn’t have to say anything I’m sure that my expressions would speak volumes. The bible tells us in Mark 12:41 Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. In the King James and New King James versions it reads a little differently. Mark 12:41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Did you notice that the difference there? It said that he saw how they were giving. It wasn’t just a matter of the “what” it was a matter of the “how”. He moved it from a decision of the head to a decision of the heart. And if we continue the story Mark 12:42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.
You may remember from Sunday school or church as a child that she put in two mites, or maybe you have even heard the phrase “a Widow’s Mite”. A friend of mine in Truro told me one time as a child he couldn’t understand why the widow put two “Mice” in the offering box, or how she got them through the slot.
But it wasn’t mice it was mite, which is from an old English word for a small Flemish coin, but Old English wasn’t spoken 2000 years ago in Galilee and the woman didn’t put a Flemish Coin in the offering box. Instead it was a Greek coin called a lepton. Found this out from a website Forum Ancient Coins I learned this: The lepton is the very smallest denomination and is probably the true "widow’s mite." In fact, the lepton is probably the lowest denomination coin ever struck by any nation in all of history!
As a matter of fact the word Lepton literally means a thin one.
So realistically here is Jesus watching what people are dropping in the offering box and how they are doing it. Rich people are putting in lots of money, the bible actually says “large amounts” and along comes this widow lady and drops in her two cents. Now to be fair it doesn’t say how much the rich folks were putting in, it just comments on the quantity not the value of their gift. Have you ever heard the expression “A Kansas city bank roll”? It is a term for a roll of money consisting of a roll of one dollar bills wrapped in either a fifty or a hundred dollar bill, to give the impression that they person had a pile of money.
There have been some commentators who have suggested that the rich folks weren’t necessarily putting in huge amounts of money, just large amounts of money. That is they may have been throwing in a handful of leptons, just sounded like a lot when they landed.
That was free, but from a worldly perspective you would think the ones who should be recognized are those who put in much but instead Jesus points to the woman and says Mark 12:43-44 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”
You get that he commended the widow and condemned the rich people.
Another story. Jesus has been invited to have dinner with one of the religious leaders, a man by the name of Simon. In the social climate of the day it was probably a big deal for this young Galilean preacher to be invited into the home of a Pharisee. And as they are sitting down to eat the well planned evening takes an unexpected turn. The scriptures tell us this Luke 7:37-38 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
So there you are at the Bishop’s house just getting ready for the meal and in prances a floozy in a vinyl mini skirt, fish net stockings and stiletto heels. Well she probably wasn’t dressed that way but she might as well have been because her hair was down and that sent the same message. We think of the Hijab as kind of a Muslim thing, but Jewish women were covering their hair 2000 years before the Koran was written and Christian women for 600 years before Mohammed began to preach.
Not sure what is exactly meant by immoral woman, some versions simply say she was a sinner, but she had probably either been accused of adultery or was a prostitute. Which understand, not trying to justify anyone’s actions but if she was a woman who had been widowed and had no family or her husband had left her and she had no one to care for her there would have been very few options open to her as far as occupations went 2000 years ago.
Regardless, she falls in front of Jesus and pours the perfume she had brought on his feet and starts wiping them clean with her loose hair. Well their host is a little put out, at her for crashing his party and at Jesus for not stopping her or condemning her. Continuing on in the story we read Luke 7:39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”
Makes perfect sense but after Jesus tells a story, he was pretty good at that, he makes this statement. Luke 7:44-47 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”
So he commended the woman and in so doing condemned Simon.
What do we learn from these two very different stories?
True Giving is Sacrificial
What Jesus was teaching us here is it’s not what we give but what we keep that matters. When we did our capital campaign back in 04 our tag line was “Not equal giving but equal sacrifice.” We challenged the people who made up the church to give sacrificially in order to see this building become a reality.
And what was a sacrifice to me may not have been a sacrifice to someone else and vice versa. That’s what Jesus was looking for; the amount of the gift doesn’t matter nearly as much as it’s cost to the giver. Both the widow and the woman with the perfume gave sacrificially. They didn’t give from what they had they gave from what they didn’t have.
And God is still watching what we give and what we keep. There are people in this congregation who do both. Some give out of their means and some give out of their meanness. You know what I mean, when it comes to giving some people stop at nothing.
And our giving to God should cost us something. If you don’t miss it, then it probably isn’t a sacrificial gift. God isn’t looking for a tip, what you put in the offering box isn’t the admittance charge to the service. It is your sacrificial gift to God. William Barclay said “It may well be a sign of the decadence of the church and the failure of our Christianity that gifts have to be coaxed out of church people, and that often they will not give at all unless they get something back in the way of entertainment or of goods.” And that’s not a sacrifice.
Which brings us to the next point.
True Giving Has A Certain Recklessness In It. In both of these cases there didn’t appear to be a great deal of wisdom in the gifts that were made. Jesus said the widow gave all she had and if we read the story of the woman who washed Christ feet the perfume is referred to as both expensive and rare. This wasn’t dollar store stuff.
To some people the amount of money that others give to the church seems reckless, “How can you justify giving that much? What about retirement or the kid’s college funds.” Questions that could have been asked to both of these woman.
For most of us we could figure out something to do with the money we give to the church, we could invest it or we could spend it we could save it. There would be all kinds of options and none would seem as reckless as giving it to God. But let’s look at a different story in the bible: in Luke 12 Jesus tells the story of a rich farmer whose did incredibly well, and so he did the wise thing, he reinvested what he made in order to make more. He was wise, at least in most people’s minds he would have been wise, let’s pick up and let Jesus tell the story, Luke 12:16-21 Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’ “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
It would appear that he made the right investments. He may have invested for this life but he certainly hadn’t invested wiseley in the next life. And maybe that was the reckless investment.
Sometimes that means that it doesn’t work out right on paper.
Another story, Jesus has another one of his discussions with the religious leaders of the day and they never end well. Luke 11:42 “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. True Giving is an Act of Obedience This is kind of cool, Jesus never said anything nice about these guys, in various places in the bible he calls them hypocrites, fools, snakes and corpses. And yet here he is saying “Way to go with the tithe guys.” He condemns them for ignoring justice and the love of God but he goes on to say “You should tithe, yes.”
Now I understand that these guys weren’t necessarily tithing because they loved God, or with pure motives. But they had taken to heart the commandments found throughout the Old Testament to return one tenth of what God had given them back to God. They were even tithing their herbs which they weren’t required to do, that would be like tithing your birthday gifts or the coupons you use at the grocery store.
They tithed because the believed it was the right thing to do and for all the things that Jesus condemned these men for he didn’t criticize them for their giving.
It is fitting that where God is honoured by our worship that he also be honoured with our giving. And if you are singing about how much you love God but that isn’t demonstrated in tangible ways he must be shaking his head in confusion.
Two thoughts and a video to close, Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3:9 Honour the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Are you doing that? We mentioned before that compared to most of the world we are stinking rich, obscenely wealthy, so how do we honour God with that wealth?
And Martin Luther wrote these words 500 years ago, “People go through 3 conversions: their head, their heart and their pocketbook. Unfortunately, not all at the same time.” Where are you on that faith journey.
Video from Worship house media Called God pie.
In two weeks we are going to be asking you to re-evaluate how you are going to divide the pie that you have been given by God.
PowerPoint may be available for this message contact me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
