Evangelism | Discipleship | Servanthood | Diversity
Finding Christ at the Offering Box Sermon
Finding Christ in All the Wrong Places:
At the Offering Box
Mark 12:38-13:2
Oct. 25, 2009
Rev. Dr. Keith M. Curran
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
1885 Bridge Road Suffolk, VA 23433
www.standrewpres.net
How many of you will admit to the guilty pleasure of being a people watcher? People watching is a national pastime in the airport or at the mall. I’ve even heard that city engineers design the location of park benches so that they provide the best vantage point for people watching. Can you believe that? I remember one time when I was at a conference in NYC and I took the elevator up to the 48th floor of the hotel. Windows lined the end of the hallway and for the longest time, I sat on the ledge and just watched all the people at street level. They were just far enough away that I couldn’t make out details but could see everything that was going on. It was fascinating and quite mesmerizing. It was like I was looking at a live version of Sym City. I imagined what they were doing and where they were going and all sorts of little scenarios of the anonymous stories that were going on down below. My bird’s eye view gave me the feeling like I was the narrator of a novel. Have you ever just ‘people watched’? Maybe you’ve done it even here at church? I think that’s why the back seats fill up first, so you can people watch. Down deep, we back row Presbyterians are people watchers.
One day, Jesus was doing some people watching. Sitting on a stone ledge across from the offering boxes in the Court of the Women, the enclosed area just outside of the huge altar complex of the Jerusalem Temple. Why Jesus was doing this, just sitting there watching people, is unknown to scholars, but the setting of the story seems to be historically accurate. According to the Jewish Tradition, (the Mishnah), 13 trumpet shaped offering boxes lined one wall of the Court of the Women, each one an opportunity for worshipers as they walked past, to show charity to the poor. The great ironically in the story is that the main character, who drops 2 coins in the collection box, is the poorest of the poor. She should have been a recipient of the charity rather than the one dropping in two coins.
The main character is a widow walking into the Temple to worship and she shakes out of her canvas bag two Leptons, the smallest and least valuable coins of that day, and drops them in the collection box for the poor. It’s all the money she has and she gives it away. Now at this point in the story, Jesus turns to Judas, the treasurer of the disciples, and asks for 5 shekels (about a week’s wage) and walks over to the older woman, hugs her and blesses her faith with kind words, and gives her the handful of shekels and she smiles a semi-toothless grin and walks away praising God. Right? Wrong!
In the story Jesus just watches the scene unfold from a distance and the widow walks on and disappears into the crowd, purse empty but feeling like she’s helped someone worse off than herself. What’s the Christ doing just sitting there, watching this poor woman walk away, purse empty and poorer than how she arrived? People watching seems like the wrong place for the Messiah to be. What’s going on here? What’s the text attempting to teach us?
Is Jesus saying that you should give away every cent you have to the church? Empty out your wallet for the poor? Clean out your checkbook or sell off your stocks and give it all away? Or his he saying that the poor should have no money; the poor can go hungry? If you have only enough for lunch, go without? It seems like a strange lesson from the Christ who was reported to be full of compassion, loved to eat a hearty meal and drink wine with others, and who said to a rich businessman one time, sell all you have and give it away to the poor, like that widow we just saw walking away empty handed, empty stomach. What’s Jesus doing here?
Some scholars point out that this is the last regular story in Mark’s Gospel before we get into the Passion narrative. So it makes a great transition point. Like the widow visiting Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover ceremonies and gives everything she’s got in the collection box and come the close of Passover, Jesus is going to give everything he’s got; on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The widow’s story is a foreshadowing of the Passion story. This is ‘good stuff’ when we read the story at this level. They story becomes a good theological tool to ready us for Good Friday and may answer the lingering question as to why the Christ just watched the woman walk away poorer than when she arrived. As a rhetorical comparison, this story is more about the meaning than the details.
At another level, Jesus is contrasting the reckless abandon of the widow’s generosity with the calculated charity of the church officials who donated only what they wouldn’t miss from their pockets at the end of the day. Spare change vs. nothing left to spare! If we take the story at face value, we can get decent lesson about godly charity. One person put it this way, “If charity doesn’t hurt to give, then it’s not enough.” We’re only giving away what we can spare. This is a good lesson for Stewardship time of year. As your pastor, I’m hoping that our members will prayerfully consider your response to this week’s 2010 challenge you’ll receive in the mail. I hope you’ll choose to make it challenging and a spiritual stretch like Jesus says in this compare and contrast story and not just what you can spare or just what’s left over. Give off the top, the first check you write each month as a way to honor God with your choices and charity. Give out of you abundance rather than from what’s left over or what you can spare.
There is another way of looking at this story and it’s a great lesson for the church. We have to turn back the pages of the Bible to Genesis 22 and the story of Abraham on the day he walked up a hillside with his son Isaac. It happened to be the same hillside that Jesus walked up that morning 1800 years later, and the same steep path the widow would walk down that afternoon. You see, tradition has it that Abraham was on his way up Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22:2). Isaac was carrying a bundle of wood for a sacrifice that his father told him they needed to make once they reached the outcrop of rock at the peak of the hill. “But where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” 12-year-old Isaac asked. “God will provide,” is all that Abraham was able to say.
Then when the altar was ready and anxiety was highest, who would have imagined that the Pre-existent Christ would show up as the tangible expression of the Lord to assure Abraham that ‘God would indeed provide’. It was a theophany. We’re talking about the 2nd Person of the Trinity, the Expressive Being of the Trinity who breaks into human history in time and space to speak God’s Word. The Lord saw the reckless abandon of Abraham’s faith, willing to give it all away, and provided a lamb for the sacrifice. On that day Abraham named that hilltop, Jehovah Jireh, meaning the Lord Provides.
As Jesus sat on a stone ledge people watching, it’s likely he realized he was on the very same hilltop, sitting only yards away from where Abraham built his altar. In a week’s time, he would be the Lamb of God that the Lord graciously provided to take away the sin of the world.
In right front of him an older woman was acting out one of the greatest ancient stories of the Hebrews; here was a person of faith like Father Abraham, willing to give it all away, coming to the Mountain of God in reckless abandon, knowing at the core of her being that her God is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. And she gave it all away.
It’s likely that after worshiping God, she went back to her son’s home, chopped wood for the stove, swept the stone floor, changed the diaper of the youngest grandchild, helped her daughter-in-law serve and finally sat down with the family for supper. In Jewish culture a widow was cared for by one of the sons or daughters, living with them and helping raise the family. Maybe she wove pot-holders or molded clay dolls and sold them in the marketplace; her small way of contributing to the family income. And occasionally she managed to tuck away a few coins and routinely emptied her purse in the golden trumpet offering box because she knew there were many who were worse off then herself. It was her way of honoring God, the God who blessed her with everything she needed: a family, a home, a reason to live, and a quiet life in her old age. She really had everything she needed.
I don’t know what’s going on in your life right now. Maybe something’s troubling you in your spiritual life, or a work situation, or marriage, or with the kids, or health-wise, or with your finances or your love life. Some here today may be anxious, wondering how things are going to work out or if they’ll work out at all. Maybe life’s been good to you, or maybe just so-so lately.
All I know is that when you give yourself to God, give God all your worries, your anxieties and fears, empty out your purse of all the accumulated prayers and concerns and hopes and dreams, and bring them to the throne of grace, that somehow, Jehovah Jireh, the God Who Provides, will. God will provide!
Like the widow who emptied her canvas purse in front of the Christ and found she had all she needed, the same promises are just as real for you and me. And that’s good news, the great news of the gospel. Our God is Jehovah Jireh: the God who Provides
At the Offering Box
Mark 12:38-13:2
Oct. 25, 2009
Rev. Dr. Keith M. Curran
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church
1885 Bridge Road Suffolk, VA 23433
www.standrewpres.net
How many of you will admit to the guilty pleasure of being a people watcher? People watching is a national pastime in the airport or at the mall. I’ve even heard that city engineers design the location of park benches so that they provide the best vantage point for people watching. Can you believe that? I remember one time when I was at a conference in NYC and I took the elevator up to the 48th floor of the hotel. Windows lined the end of the hallway and for the longest time, I sat on the ledge and just watched all the people at street level. They were just far enough away that I couldn’t make out details but could see everything that was going on. It was fascinating and quite mesmerizing. It was like I was looking at a live version of Sym City. I imagined what they were doing and where they were going and all sorts of little scenarios of the anonymous stories that were going on down below. My bird’s eye view gave me the feeling like I was the narrator of a novel. Have you ever just ‘people watched’? Maybe you’ve done it even here at church? I think that’s why the back seats fill up first, so you can people watch. Down deep, we back row Presbyterians are people watchers.
One day, Jesus was doing some people watching. Sitting on a stone ledge across from the offering boxes in the Court of the Women, the enclosed area just outside of the huge altar complex of the Jerusalem Temple. Why Jesus was doing this, just sitting there watching people, is unknown to scholars, but the setting of the story seems to be historically accurate. According to the Jewish Tradition, (the Mishnah), 13 trumpet shaped offering boxes lined one wall of the Court of the Women, each one an opportunity for worshipers as they walked past, to show charity to the poor. The great ironically in the story is that the main character, who drops 2 coins in the collection box, is the poorest of the poor. She should have been a recipient of the charity rather than the one dropping in two coins.
The main character is a widow walking into the Temple to worship and she shakes out of her canvas bag two Leptons, the smallest and least valuable coins of that day, and drops them in the collection box for the poor. It’s all the money she has and she gives it away. Now at this point in the story, Jesus turns to Judas, the treasurer of the disciples, and asks for 5 shekels (about a week’s wage) and walks over to the older woman, hugs her and blesses her faith with kind words, and gives her the handful of shekels and she smiles a semi-toothless grin and walks away praising God. Right? Wrong!
In the story Jesus just watches the scene unfold from a distance and the widow walks on and disappears into the crowd, purse empty but feeling like she’s helped someone worse off than herself. What’s the Christ doing just sitting there, watching this poor woman walk away, purse empty and poorer than how she arrived? People watching seems like the wrong place for the Messiah to be. What’s going on here? What’s the text attempting to teach us?
Is Jesus saying that you should give away every cent you have to the church? Empty out your wallet for the poor? Clean out your checkbook or sell off your stocks and give it all away? Or his he saying that the poor should have no money; the poor can go hungry? If you have only enough for lunch, go without? It seems like a strange lesson from the Christ who was reported to be full of compassion, loved to eat a hearty meal and drink wine with others, and who said to a rich businessman one time, sell all you have and give it away to the poor, like that widow we just saw walking away empty handed, empty stomach. What’s Jesus doing here?
Some scholars point out that this is the last regular story in Mark’s Gospel before we get into the Passion narrative. So it makes a great transition point. Like the widow visiting Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover ceremonies and gives everything she’s got in the collection box and come the close of Passover, Jesus is going to give everything he’s got; on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The widow’s story is a foreshadowing of the Passion story. This is ‘good stuff’ when we read the story at this level. They story becomes a good theological tool to ready us for Good Friday and may answer the lingering question as to why the Christ just watched the woman walk away poorer than when she arrived. As a rhetorical comparison, this story is more about the meaning than the details.
At another level, Jesus is contrasting the reckless abandon of the widow’s generosity with the calculated charity of the church officials who donated only what they wouldn’t miss from their pockets at the end of the day. Spare change vs. nothing left to spare! If we take the story at face value, we can get decent lesson about godly charity. One person put it this way, “If charity doesn’t hurt to give, then it’s not enough.” We’re only giving away what we can spare. This is a good lesson for Stewardship time of year. As your pastor, I’m hoping that our members will prayerfully consider your response to this week’s 2010 challenge you’ll receive in the mail. I hope you’ll choose to make it challenging and a spiritual stretch like Jesus says in this compare and contrast story and not just what you can spare or just what’s left over. Give off the top, the first check you write each month as a way to honor God with your choices and charity. Give out of you abundance rather than from what’s left over or what you can spare.
There is another way of looking at this story and it’s a great lesson for the church. We have to turn back the pages of the Bible to Genesis 22 and the story of Abraham on the day he walked up a hillside with his son Isaac. It happened to be the same hillside that Jesus walked up that morning 1800 years later, and the same steep path the widow would walk down that afternoon. You see, tradition has it that Abraham was on his way up Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22:2). Isaac was carrying a bundle of wood for a sacrifice that his father told him they needed to make once they reached the outcrop of rock at the peak of the hill. “But where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” 12-year-old Isaac asked. “God will provide,” is all that Abraham was able to say.
Then when the altar was ready and anxiety was highest, who would have imagined that the Pre-existent Christ would show up as the tangible expression of the Lord to assure Abraham that ‘God would indeed provide’. It was a theophany. We’re talking about the 2nd Person of the Trinity, the Expressive Being of the Trinity who breaks into human history in time and space to speak God’s Word. The Lord saw the reckless abandon of Abraham’s faith, willing to give it all away, and provided a lamb for the sacrifice. On that day Abraham named that hilltop, Jehovah Jireh, meaning the Lord Provides.
As Jesus sat on a stone ledge people watching, it’s likely he realized he was on the very same hilltop, sitting only yards away from where Abraham built his altar. In a week’s time, he would be the Lamb of God that the Lord graciously provided to take away the sin of the world.
In right front of him an older woman was acting out one of the greatest ancient stories of the Hebrews; here was a person of faith like Father Abraham, willing to give it all away, coming to the Mountain of God in reckless abandon, knowing at the core of her being that her God is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. And she gave it all away.
It’s likely that after worshiping God, she went back to her son’s home, chopped wood for the stove, swept the stone floor, changed the diaper of the youngest grandchild, helped her daughter-in-law serve and finally sat down with the family for supper. In Jewish culture a widow was cared for by one of the sons or daughters, living with them and helping raise the family. Maybe she wove pot-holders or molded clay dolls and sold them in the marketplace; her small way of contributing to the family income. And occasionally she managed to tuck away a few coins and routinely emptied her purse in the golden trumpet offering box because she knew there were many who were worse off then herself. It was her way of honoring God, the God who blessed her with everything she needed: a family, a home, a reason to live, and a quiet life in her old age. She really had everything she needed.
I don’t know what’s going on in your life right now. Maybe something’s troubling you in your spiritual life, or a work situation, or marriage, or with the kids, or health-wise, or with your finances or your love life. Some here today may be anxious, wondering how things are going to work out or if they’ll work out at all. Maybe life’s been good to you, or maybe just so-so lately.
All I know is that when you give yourself to God, give God all your worries, your anxieties and fears, empty out your purse of all the accumulated prayers and concerns and hopes and dreams, and bring them to the throne of grace, that somehow, Jehovah Jireh, the God Who Provides, will. God will provide!
Like the widow who emptied her canvas purse in front of the Christ and found she had all she needed, the same promises are just as real for you and me. And that’s good news, the great news of the gospel. Our God is Jehovah Jireh: the God who Provides
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