Mark 12:38-44
The Widow's Mite. We all want to skip to how giving the widow is. How she gives everything she has. This then ignores what has come before though. We have to read this story in light of Jesus' commentary on the Scribes and how they like to show off, how they like to be self important.
The whole last part of what we have been going through in discipleship has led us here. The rich man who can't give away his self-importance in order to follow Jesus. The disciples who don't quite get that a Messiah has to give away his whole life, not become some political mover and shaker who casts out Rome for the Hebrew people. The fact we have to become as dependent as a child in order to understand the kingdom of God.
Jesus has been prepping us for this and today is no different. This is the whole of discipleship, the good news is we aren't as important as we think we are. Don't we all want to be noticed? Say the best speeches, the best prayers, get the places of honor because we deserve it. And then this widow walks in, unobserved by everybody but Jesus, who then tells all what she has done. Given her all, silently, between her and God.
It isn't about the best. Sure I'd like to preach the best sermons, have thousands read my blog, but that's not why I should do any of these things. We all should be doing things because we realize fully what we do is in honor of the divine. The divine is a holy thing and it makes us humble, honored, and we surrender it because it wasn't ours in the first place.
The clothes we wear, the job we do, the prayers we say, the list goes on and on. My voice is a gift from God, my life is a gift from God, my very being is a gift from God and we should all return to God's what is God's.
Last night we went to the All District Choir Concert in Cape Girardeau, and it was beautiful. The voices were together, they blended well. See no one person stuck out. This is the point of the choir. You blend your voices one with another so no one can say "I heard your voice". If that happens it ruins the concert. The best music is made because everyone contributes their voice and surrenders to direction from the conductor. They are quiet when it calls to be soft, they break off at the same time, they come in at the same time. They work together because the best choirs know how to do this.
It's the same with discipleship. We aren't supposed to be chasing after recognition. We aren't supposed to be the best. We have surrendered our life to the supreme director of life. God says we blend with one another. We take care of one another. Ruth gives us a great example of this. It crosses the boundaries of culture and displays God's steadfast love called hesed in Hebrew.
Ruth surrenders her life to care for Naomi, even though Naomi will have no more sons Ruth can marry. Even though Ruth's traditions, religion, maybe even politic is different than Naomi's. She moves to Naomi's land, Naomi's people, and Naomi's God. She meets Boaz and surrenders again to Naomi's instruction to lie with him and he takes her as his own wife. Surrendering himself to this women who has been married before, is not a virgin, is a different race than him. It is a story of love because love blends us.
It is a story of the widow too. She blended in and wouldn't have even been noticed. This was Jesus point she did her giving out of her love for God. Not for any accolade, or to be written down in history, but because she knew blending with everyone else was for the community of God.
Can you blend? Can you surrender to the One who gave us all? Can you see how it creates community, the community God wants us to become, blend. Be disciples and don't be the best one, the one with all the honors, be the one you can't find. Amen.
The Widow's Mite. We all want to skip to how giving the widow is. How she gives everything she has. This then ignores what has come before though. We have to read this story in light of Jesus' commentary on the Scribes and how they like to show off, how they like to be self important.
The whole last part of what we have been going through in discipleship has led us here. The rich man who can't give away his self-importance in order to follow Jesus. The disciples who don't quite get that a Messiah has to give away his whole life, not become some political mover and shaker who casts out Rome for the Hebrew people. The fact we have to become as dependent as a child in order to understand the kingdom of God.
Jesus has been prepping us for this and today is no different. This is the whole of discipleship, the good news is we aren't as important as we think we are. Don't we all want to be noticed? Say the best speeches, the best prayers, get the places of honor because we deserve it. And then this widow walks in, unobserved by everybody but Jesus, who then tells all what she has done. Given her all, silently, between her and God.
It isn't about the best. Sure I'd like to preach the best sermons, have thousands read my blog, but that's not why I should do any of these things. We all should be doing things because we realize fully what we do is in honor of the divine. The divine is a holy thing and it makes us humble, honored, and we surrender it because it wasn't ours in the first place.
The clothes we wear, the job we do, the prayers we say, the list goes on and on. My voice is a gift from God, my life is a gift from God, my very being is a gift from God and we should all return to God's what is God's.
Last night we went to the All District Choir Concert in Cape Girardeau, and it was beautiful. The voices were together, they blended well. See no one person stuck out. This is the point of the choir. You blend your voices one with another so no one can say "I heard your voice". If that happens it ruins the concert. The best music is made because everyone contributes their voice and surrenders to direction from the conductor. They are quiet when it calls to be soft, they break off at the same time, they come in at the same time. They work together because the best choirs know how to do this.
It's the same with discipleship. We aren't supposed to be chasing after recognition. We aren't supposed to be the best. We have surrendered our life to the supreme director of life. God says we blend with one another. We take care of one another. Ruth gives us a great example of this. It crosses the boundaries of culture and displays God's steadfast love called hesed in Hebrew.
Ruth surrenders her life to care for Naomi, even though Naomi will have no more sons Ruth can marry. Even though Ruth's traditions, religion, maybe even politic is different than Naomi's. She moves to Naomi's land, Naomi's people, and Naomi's God. She meets Boaz and surrenders again to Naomi's instruction to lie with him and he takes her as his own wife. Surrendering himself to this women who has been married before, is not a virgin, is a different race than him. It is a story of love because love blends us.
It is a story of the widow too. She blended in and wouldn't have even been noticed. This was Jesus point she did her giving out of her love for God. Not for any accolade, or to be written down in history, but because she knew blending with everyone else was for the community of God.
Can you blend? Can you surrender to the One who gave us all? Can you see how it creates community, the community God wants us to become, blend. Be disciples and don't be the best one, the one with all the honors, be the one you can't find. Amen.
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