A sermon preached by The Reverend Canon Dr. David Anderson at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Oakville, on the Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost. (Gospel Reading appointed for the previous Sunday: Mark 12.38-44)
I speak to you in the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Gospel Reading we have just heard was the appointed reading for last Sunday. If it sounds oddly familiar, that’s why; you heard it last Sunday if you were here. It’s not a mistake. Since last Sunday’s sermon for Remembrance Day did not deal with this passage, I thought I was safe to borrow it for today. This is the time of year when the rector is called upon to talk about everyone’s favourite topic: money.
Well, ‘money’ is only part of it. This morning, among other things I want to talk about stewardship, which is part of our Christian discipleship. Stewardship is about how we use all the resources God has given us—our money, our time, our skills and gifts—in our participation in what God is up to in the world. Often, our stewardship conversations centre around our giving to our local church, and yes, November is the time of year when St. Jude’s is asking its parishioners to consider their financial pledge for the coming year.
In the coming week, St. Jude’s Stewardship Committee will be rolling out our Annual Pledge Campaign. Now, I will admit that calling it a ‘Pledge Campaign’ makes it sound like it is just an ask for your money. We are all accustomed to being asked for money, and in many cases I suspect that we are less than thrilled about it—whether it is the panhandler on the street, or the cashier at the grocery store asking us to round up for whatever charity the management has selected, or whether it is the slick mailer from the charity we once supported—we are always being asked for charity.
While a parish ‘pledge campaign’ may sound like more of the same, it is completely different for at least two reasons. First, stewardship is not primarily about charity, it is about our Christian discipleship. Every Sunday, when we gather to share in the Eucharist, we come to give our thanks to God. Our response to God’s great love is the offering of our whole selves back to God. In the Prayer after Communion from the Book of Common Prayer, we pray, “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee” (BCP 85).
The second reason that we are talking about stewardship as more than charity is that our Christian discipleship has us grafted into a community of faith—St. Jude’s. Our giving to St. Jude’s is not charity as much as it is our participation in our faith family. When we ask for your financial support, it is not about supporting what someone else is doing, this is our work. This is what we do together. It is what it means to be part of this community of faith.
Today’s Gospel Reading is not about a pledge campaign, but it is about Christian discipleship.
Since this passage comes up in November, when many local churches are talking about stewardship (just the normal pattern in church-land), many sermons are preached on this passage highlighting the example of the sacrificial and wholehearted gift of the widow. At the end of our passage we read,
“A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then [Jesus] called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on’” (vv. 42-44).
Sermons on this passage often take the view that the widow is a model disciple, whereas the scribes, described at the beginning of our passage (vv. 38-40), represent the opposite. These sermons argue that the widow is doing what Jesus has taught about discipleship and what Jesus told the rich man to do, telling him to give all that he had (10:21). It is also often noted that she is offering her whole life (12:44) to God, thereby keeping what Jesus regards as the greatest commandment, loving God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. This interpretation, of course, seems compelling.
But, you may be surprised to hear me say that in my view, the sacrifice of the widow is not the best example of discipleship or stewardship. Good stewardship does not demand that we give ‘out of our poverty’ everything we have to live on.” Good stewardship invites us to give out of our abundance.
As readers of this passage in Mark, we are invited to ask a question about the widow. Her perhaps too-generous gift is meant to touch our hearts and capture our attention. Yes, we should be amazed at her generosity and faith. But the point of this story can only really be explored if we ask the question why was this widow so poor? Why is it that her gift, totalling one penny, was all she had? What is happening that puts this widowed woman in such a position of poverty.
Can we imagine Jesus urging the destitute to give whatever little things they have to God? Have we seen any Old Testament passage that demands everything from the needy? I believe that the popular interpretation of the widow is based on a grave misunderstanding of Jesus’ teaching on discipleship.
The Jesus we know, as revealed to us in the Gospels, does not ask the destitute to squeeze themselves to the last drop to serve God. Rather, Jesus comforts and blesses them. He condemns the rich and the powerful who exploit the poor. I don’t believe that today’s Gospel Reading teaches us anything different.
We cannot ignore the verses that precede the description of the unnamed woman’s gift. Jesus says,
“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (vv. 38-40)
The graphic language condemning the scribes recalls Ezekiel 34:2-3 which says this: “Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat; you clothe yourselves with the wool.” The point is that if the leaders had kept the Law and feared God—who is portrayed as the ultimate defender of widows in many passages of the Old Testament—the widow in our passage would have not have come to the abject poverty she is found in. The widow’s extreme poverty is the evidence that the leaders—and the community—have failed her. In Ezekiel, God’s quarrel with the leaders is that they have literally and figuratively been feeding themselves with all the best, while the people went hungry. Jesus gives the same criticism against the scribes of his day who he says, “devour widow’s houses” (v. 40a).
When Jesus sits down near the treasury of the Temple, he observes that many people of means gave out of their abundance. “Many rich people put in large sums” (v. 41b). Jesus offers no critique of these givers, only of those who have oppressed the poor. The implication is that we should each of us be giving out of our abundance. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul commends giving out of abundance where he writes,
I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have too much,
and the one who had little did not have too little.’ (2 Corinthians 8:13-15)
Amid all of this, we also should not forget what Jesus had already said about money, just one chapter earlier, when he was asked the question about paying taxes. “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17). Jesus is always teaching us the things of the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel is reminding us that where we put our money will show our allegiance. Whether we are talking about the troubles of poverty, or what we do out of our abundance, Jesus is certainly consistent in calling upon us to rethink our economic responsibilities and to think beyond ourselves.
If anyone is interested in my advice, I would not counsel anyone to give all that they have to live on. That is just not a good example of stewardship. But if the widow is not the best example of what we should give to the church, she is a great example of Christian discipleship. Jesus once said, “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for their friends” (John 15:13). That is, of course, exactly what Jesus did for us. He gave everything. He gave it all. Not just what he had to live on, but his very life. And so, here’s the thing we can take away from the way that the widow points us to Christian discipleship: taking up our cross to follow Jesus will cost us something. Jesus calls us to the way of self-sacrifice. Following in the way of Christ’s love and generosity should cost us more than what we might offer for a tip in a good restaurant.
So, we have some things to think about as St. Jude’s enters its Pledge Campaign. You will see that we are doing some different things with our campaign this year. First, you will see that we are launching this campaign online at the beginning. Parishioners will receive an e-mail pointing them to a page on our website with several resources for your consideration as you prayerfully consider your participation in St. Jude’s ministry and mission in 2025. First there is a letter from me that speaks to what we are doing, the resources we are providing, and celebrating the good work that we do together.
Second, you will find what we are calling a ‘Proportional Giving Worksheet.’ This is a resource that you can use in the privacy of your own home to consider your present level of support for St. Jude’s work and what God might be calling you to do in 2025.
Third, you will see an outline—a celebration of sorts—of our ministries under the headings of Worship and Music, Caring for our Neighbours, Faith Formation, and Pastoral Care and Community Life. It takes approximately $2,500 each and every day of the year for St. Jude’s to do all that it does. The overview of what that money is able to do, is laid out for us in that section of the webpage. Finally, you will find a secure online pledge form for your use to complete your pledge.
We are taking this new online approach this year because it is good stewardship of St. Jude’s resources. We can save a great deal on printing and mailing costs. Of course, we are happy to provide print resources for all that will need them. We will have those available for pick up here in the church in due course.
Let me also say on this third Sunday in November that St. Jude’s has a need as we draw close to the end of this year. We continue to need your generous support to avoid an operating deficit at the end of 2024. We will be saying more about that over the next few Sundays.
Please remember that all of this is not about charity in the sense that we normally think of charity. This is about our shared ministry. It is about who we are and what God calls us to do together. It takes us all working together to make this faith family work. It is all our work together. It is about our abundance and the needs of others. It is about following Jesus in the way of sacrificial love. It is about what God is doing in our world to bring about the Kingdom of his Son.
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