Giving

Mark 12:38-44

She gave all her life to God. The commentator states that the Greek is very clear here. All her life. In one act she is remembered by the church, she has been preached about in many sermons throughout the ages as the shining example of what it means to give money to the church. Give your whole life though?

We expect this phrase from people who come to us and ask "are you saved?"  What does it mean to give our whole life to God? This is really the act Jesus is noting. What stands between her and death by giving all her money? Who is going to care for her, make sure the rent is paid, food shop for her? Yet she gives more than her money into the pot, she gives her whole life. 

When you think about giving your whole life to God, how do you feel? Do you think it is something only the religious can do? Do you think it's a step too hard to take. It demands faith, trust, love, maybe even some of our core values of community, love, open-mindedness and service? Can we go off the edge of that cliff and even imagine giving our whole lives to God?

There are a couple of things which have made me think about this lately. One is South Sudan, the belief in God through war, through death means giving your very life. It also means, as friends of those we have met, we can only lift up or hands in prayer. We are so used to doing things and all we can do is pray. Prayer is a powerful surrender of our want to do, to fix, to make right. We have to surrender, give it all to God. All our life of doing, and all the lives of our friends in trying to live. It is such a tender fragile thing. 

Giving all our life to God. This is the real question, in Mark, Jesus is constantly contending with the Pharisees and Scribed. This is the response, can you give all your life to God? It's not just a Sunday thing. It's an all our lives everyday thing. We struggle with it if we do take it on, it's not perfect, it sometimes means we have to surrender our own ideas and thoughts. Can we do it? Can we truly give our life to God?