Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

With the lesson we have heard today, it is a good guess that the subject is stewardship.

Yes, I know that we had our Consecration Sunday more than a month ago, but what we need to hear today is something that cannot be paid off with an entire stack of commitment cards, as necessary as they are.

We need to think carefully about what lies  behind all of this commitment and giving, namely, our attitudes.

and then behind even our attitudes to what actions of Our Lord Jesus Christ make it possible for us to do and to give.

What Jesus commends about that unnamed woman in the Temple is not just the gift of the 2 cents, it is the attitude of the woman in utter dependence on God,

and in thanksgiving for all of his gifts, including the tiny handful of things entrusted to her care.

It is the attitude of thankfulness which catches Jesus' attention  and her trust which brings Christ to speak.

What is the source and origin of her thanks?

Why does it come to dominate her life?

Most of the time we would try to answer those questions with some reference to what sort of a person she was;

that she was somehow especially worthy of Christ's attention, or by being especially good, so that Jesus would notice.

We'd like to say that something she did earned her points with God.

Not so!  The story has nothing whatever to say about her worthiness.

In fact, there was lots about her to disdain:

            --she is a woman in a time when women are little trusted.

            --she is unaccompanied, which makes her a target.

            --she is a widow, which makes her personal and legal situation very difficult.

Her efforts have not brought her personal or financial success!

The only thing to commend her to Jesus is her trust in God, and that too, we know, is a gift from God.

Trust, exercised in thanksgiving;

            that is what she is doing that day in the Temple, and Jesus commends it.

And in commending it, he is also not commending  those who put in large sums without thankfulness, and without trust in God.

A congregation's treasurer and Council are always concerned about the practicalities of running the organization,

but Jesus is even more concerned about the more important thing – what is is that is going on in the hearts and minds and lives of those who give the gifts.

--Are the 2 copper coins given with thanksgiving?

--Are the bags of gold given with reluctance, or out of duty only, or how one can show-off in public?

The Finance Committee is always tempted to say “We don't care, we just want the money in order to pay the bills.”

But Jesus is more concerned about the giver's heart.

As is so often the case in these stories from the Gospels, we don't know what happened next.

The evangelists have taken the story just so far, and then we are to live out the next part of the tale.

Another example of this is the familiar story of the Prodigal Son.

The story ends before we can find out if the older son, the one who stayed home, finally realized how prodigal he was, how distant he was from his father even though he was living right there at home this whole time.

Will the older son finally accept the invitation to enter the party?

Did he finally receive the father's love?

Did he get in and give himself to the party, finally hearing the father's invitation to him with joy?

Similarly, today's story of the woman in the Temple ends before we hear if those in charge of receiving the offering were moved to thanksgiving to God and to love and care for their neighbor, including the unnamed woman.

The passage ends; what was the response of the Temple authorities?

Did they take the money and run?

Did they catch her spirit of thanksgiving and also learn to live thankfully?

The Bible doesn't tell us, and we infer that the Temple authorities  did not understand what Jesus was describing, and took no notice of the poor woman and her gift.

It was, after all, only 2 small copper coins.

The Bible does not tell us, but rather challenges us to answer the question in our day and its circumstances.

I'm thinking of Bette McCrandall who visited us 2 months ago before her return to Liberia.

Any who meet her can sense her drive and determination, her commitment to the Lord Jesus in the face of great obstacles.

And now we are in the role of the Temple authorities.

What will we do?

Will we simply take her offering of herself through many years of service,

or will we love and care for her, financially and prayer-fully?

I asked Bette when she was here if there was some tool that she would appreciate in her work which we could provide for her.

She said yes and so we were able to make arrangements for 26 sets of the large laminated teaching charts for the Divine Drama Bible study to be shipped from Minnesota here and added to the container being sent to Liberia two weeks ago.

She will be able to equip 26 persons with a tremendous visual aid to be evangelists in that land where the church is growing rapidly.

And all of us can be involved with financial gifts large or small toward her support.

All of us can name her regularly in our prayers and encourage others to do so.

Bette's attitude of trust and thankfulness can rub off onto us, and that would be a good thing, indeed.

I came across the experience of another congregation this week. 

They had been working on the problem of hunger in their town and regularly used the custom of bringing their gifts for this purpose to the large receiving basket at the front of the  church, as we sometimes do also.

They got tired, and the offerings were declining.

Then one Sunday a poorly-dressed woman joined in the procession to the altar, and everyone was wondering what was going on.

Would she take something out of the basket rather than putting something into it?

When she reached the front, she went to the rail and slowly knelt in prayer and then painfully got up and returned to her seat.

She gave everything she had, in thankfulness and trust .

I wonder how it was received by that congregation?

I wonder if their sense of thanksgiving to God was renewed by her example?

I wonder if their love and care of neighbor expanded to include that woman?

What kind of people are we, anyway?

Homo sapiens is what the scientists have somewhat egotistically named us as a species.

Homo sapiens, which means “wise man”.

On the basis of what we are discerning today, what we are to be is

Homo eucharisticus =“thanks-giving man”

May that attitude permeate every fiber of our being,

so that your mind and heart and body and wallet all agree this day and always.

Homo eucharisticus,  “thanksgiving man”;

           yes, may that be us, now and always.

Amen.

St. Mark's Lutheran Church

142 Market Street

Williamsport, Pennsylvania

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