O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the meditations of our hearts. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
At first reading, today's gospel passage from Mark seems to have a lot to do with money.
Given that the widow puts in money, Jesus is sitting watching people put their offerings into the money box, and then Jesus talks about money, this is obvious.
There are some good messages about money here. It is good to give. Jesus doesn't condemn the rich who give lots. And his comments and approval are given toward the poor widow who gave what she had.
Giving money is good. And if we take what Jesus says about the widow seriously, giving till it hurts is good - in fact giving till its has gone way past hurting may even be better.
However, there's more to today's Gospel than just money and giving. You see, I believe that for us to give something, and let's stick to money here, is not hard.
Any of us can throw a few coins into a UNICEF box, a couple of hundred dollars for Po Leung Kuk, or a few dollars on the offering plate as it goes around each week, and not suffer too badly for it.
A few dollars here or a few dollars there. Ten or twenty dollars another place. In the bigger picture, it doesn't matter. It's not going to kill us. It may mean one less coffee at break time, or one less dim sum lunch at our favourite restaurant or even one less supper at our favourite steak house, seafood restaurant or Japanese restaurant - but not much more. We can each give.
In fact, I believe that we all like to give. That we are good at it.
If someone in the community came forward with a problem; financial or otherwise; we would respond. Chores would be done for them. Donations of goods, clothes, food, shelter, would be found.
We are reasonably good givers. In fact most of us are very good givers.
We know that God wants us to give and love and help where we can.
We know that Jesus calls us to look after our church and the people around us. We know that there are always people who are worse off than we are. We know all that. And that places us firmly into the story we read today from Mark.
If Jesus was sitting down there watching as we put our envelopes or our cash onto the offering plate he would see a lot of giving. And I don't believe that he would get up and storm out in a huff because we weren't givers. However, the question must be asked, would we be credited in the same class as that widow? Would we be worthy of special notice? As an example of real sacrificial giving?
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be put in that class.
Even though I give a fixed percentage of my next income, when I ask myself the question, "Do I give out of my surplus?" the answer is pretty well, "Yes." When I look at the "stuff" I own, and the stuff I keep thinking I need to buy yet, I have to say, "Yes, I do tend to give from my surplus."
Yet in today's Gospel story, as in today's old testament reading, we are faced with this widow who gave everything she had.
Widows were right down at the bottom of the social order in Jesus' time. They had no male to defend them, or work to support them. They were like unclaimed baggage.
People weren't sure how they fit in, or what to do with them, but they were sure that widows were not theirs to take care of. So widows and poverty went pretty well hand in hand. Especially in the rural areas. To expect a widow to have money to give away, was totally unrealistic. It is no surprise that this particular widow only gave two small copper coins. Yet, those two coins were noteworthy to Jesus.
Imagine if you will, that the next time this offering plate comes around, you would place on it say $50,000. Or maybe you're feeling really extravagant, so you put $100,000 on instead.
Where would the money come from?
What would you not have once the money was gone?
How would you feed the family this week, this month?
Would you lose your house or your car?
OK maybe that example is pushing it a bit, but what I'm talking about here isn't just generosity. It isn't just giving, or tithing, or donating. It's not even about money. What I'm talking about here is faith.
The faith to really risk - to really sacrifice - to really give all that one has to God. To really give all that one has for what is right and good and true in the trust that God somehow, someway, will use that sacrifice and honour it.
Honour it not for the sake of me - the giver, rather honour it for the sake of the work of God in this world. Honour it for the sake of the Kingdom, for the sake of others in need, for the sake of the peace that God promises to the world.
Today, as I speak - I look out upon a number of you who are (or were) involved in Scouting, a number of you who are Beavers, or Cubs, or Scouts, and who believe in the principles outlined by Lord and Lady Baden Powell 100 some years ago.
Aside from the hardness of the pews you look pretty comfortable, and you live pretty comfortably, even as you give your time and effort and your money in the cause of Scouting.
Some years ago - in Goma - near the border of Rwanda - three Scouts who were working in Katale Refugee Camp, were injured and put in hospital after bandits attacked the camp.
At first it was thought 30 Scouts had been killed while working there. Thankfully it was not that bad.
But the story is instructive for us as on Remembrance Day.
From the start of the dramatic events in Rwanda, the Scout Associations of Burundi, Zaire, Rwanda, and Tanzania mobilized their forces to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees that fled the massacres being carried out there.
The first action undertaken by the Scouts in the camps was to carry out a census of displaced persons. This enormous task, carried out with very few means and with no official recognition, enabled many families to find relatives, even though they were sometimes in camps more than one hundred kilometres apart.
Then hundreds of Scout volunteers collected and buried the bodies of the victims of starvation, exhaustion, and cholera. In twelve days, in appalling conditions, conditions that resemble the worst scenes from Hiroshima after the Atom Bomb was dropped, the Scouts collected and disposed of twenty-six thousand, six hundred and thirty-four bodies.
This in addition to caring for orphaned children, distributing food to as many needy persons as they could, and attempting, with other volunteers, to dig sanitation ditches and provide clean water to the thousands of people moving into the region each day.
How do we give in comparison to this? How much do we sacrifice for the work of bringing health and hope to the world? What kind of faith do we have?
We read in the Old Testament this morning about another widow, a widow like the one Jesus saw put her two small coins in the temple treasury.
Like the widow in the temple, the widow of Zarephath gave everything she had for God's work, she gave her son's, and her own, last meal to a foreigner, to the prophet Elijah - whose God she did not even worship.
She gave everything. As the Scouts working in Zaire and Rwanda were giving everything, as the veterans of both world wars as well as the United Nations and NATO's current peace keepers gave and are giving everything, because it was the right thing to do, the loving thing to do.
Think of it for a minute: Neither of the two widows in today's scripture readings knew for sure what the outcome of their giving would be for themselves - they did not know if they would live or die because of it. In fact the widow of Zarephath expected to die - one meal earlier than she had planned.
The same can likely be said about the widow Jesus saw in the temple making her free-will offering to God. Her two small copper coins were all that she had.
As for the Scouts in Zaire and Rwanda - well they expected to eat, but they also expected, as do all the volunteers working in places like Rwanda, and all the soldiers peace-keeping in foreign countries, and all those who served in Holland and France during the last war, to be beaten, attacked, shot at, and endure hardships beyond our wildest nightmares - and all for the sake of others - all for the sake of freedom - all for the sake of dignity - all for the sake of their love for their fellow human beings.
What is our faith like?
We'd like to imagine we are the widow giving all we have, even our whole living remembering God to the final hours of our lives.
But are we like her?
As scouts are we like those who are giving of themselves in Rwanda and Zaire? As citizens are we like those who have served our country and other nations for the sake of freedom? As people of faith - do we care so much for those around us - that we actually give up our comfort? Not to mention our pride, our ability to be hurt by the thoughtless words of others, and our desire to be recognized and approved by those around us?
Brothers and sisters, we're often uncertain of our calling, what it means. We don't know if or how our experiences can be put to use in "The Church". We don't know if we are really able to serve God. We often feel inadequate when we look at ourselves in comparison to others, especially if those others are characters from the bible...
Aside from our ready cash, and our desire to care for others, many of us come with nothing evident to offer.
We bring fear, vulnerability, ignorance, neediness, confusion, embarrassment, loneliness, and a profound lack of time and energy.
We bring our poverty. And that is OK!
In times when we feel this way. In times when we don't know what to do, or we know what to do, but feel that there is no way we can do it, remember, remember and trust in God by offering what you have:
Remember the Scouts who, at the risk of their very lives, do a good turn each day in places like Rwanda, and recall that you have neighbours who need comfort and support, that there desperate needs to be fulfilled in our own backyard, needs which your real sacrifice of money and of time, and of love can go along way to meeting.
Remember those who served in the last war to win our freedom and those who still serve, and become involved it the fate our country by doing such simple things as voting and helping others to obtain justice from their village councils, District Councils and Legislative Councillors by making phone calls and writing letters.
Remember the widow of Zarephath who gave her last meal and the widow who gave her last coins, and trust - as did they - and as did Jesus - when he gave us life for us on the cross. AMEN.
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