St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
November 10, 2024/Year B
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44
When I was a child, I was formed in the practice of stewardship, but I was never really educated about it. I grew up in the Episcopal Church, and we don’t talk about why we do things; we just grow up watching what our families do and do likewise. What I knew of stewardship then was modeled by my grandparents, but especially by my single mother who always re-arranged her tight budget as necessary to make her committed pledge. She spent just as much time re-arranging her schedule to serve our Episcopal church home through her many leadership and ministry commitments. Mom’s priorities were her family, her job and church. The order of the priorities changed, but the priorities did not.
Once a year the church made a big deal about stewardship. Mite boxes were placed all around the church so that spare change could be collected, and mom would take three home for us to fill them.
I saw mom put her pledge envelopes into the offering plate every Sunday. While I might have been only about six back then, I was also expected to put something into the plate—usually a quarter—as was the habit which formed my discipline.
One time, mom saw me struggling to give up my one quarter. She whispered to me, “If you put that quarter in, God will double it for you.” I thought to myself, “Twenty-five cents into 50 cents? I’ll be rich!” In a child’s mind, I was expecting that return on my investment to come back to me literally as 50 cents. When my quarter didn’t double, mom explained to me that it’s not that simple. God chooses how he will bless me and when he will bless me, and it doesn’t always come back in the form of money. In the meantime, I was expected to contribute something, even extra birthday money, into the offering plate. As a teenager I was learning the value of a dollar with a regular paycheck, and wasn’t too excited about giving those dollars to the church. Excited or not, I had already been formed in the habit and discipline of giving to the church, and as I matured, my quarters matured into dollars and checks.
Mom was a great example of living the layers of stewardship. I can assume a lot of things about what motivated my mom to give to the church from her lean budget and of her limited time, but that was between her and God.
In the 12th chapter of Mark’s gospel today, Jesus had just finished teaching the crowds, and sat down opposite the temple treasury, where people were making their offerings. As he sat, Jesus and he engaged in a bit of people watching where he saw many rich people putting in large sums. In the midst of the ordinary happenings, someone extraordinary entered the scene, and caught Jesus’ attention. There she was the poor widow—an insignificant nobody, according to Jewish society’s standards at the time. She had no husband. She had no voice.
Invisible to those around her, this poor widow had come to the temple to make her offering. Jesus’ eyes followed the woman as she moved closer to the receptacle to drop in her two small copper coins, the equivalent of a penny to us. Imagine the shame the woman must have felt knowing that her two copper coins would only be a whisper, as they dropped into the collection, compared to the shouts of the large sums deposited by the rich.
While she was invisible to those around her, the widow was visible to Jesus. Jesus knew that the widow, out of her poverty, gave all she had to live on. The phrase, “All she had to live on,” literally translates to “her whole life.” Jesus’ statement informs us that Jesus cared more about the person who brought the offering of her whole life to the receptacle more than what she put into the receptacle. Jesus knew that the widow’s self-offering was an offering that reflected her commitment to loving God with of all her heart, all of her soul, all of her mind and all of her strength. In this act of showing up to the receptacle, the widow embodied the first and greatest commandment.
Though we are drawn into the narrative with a focus on the widow’s two coins, this isn’t a story about money. In this gospel passage the widow is held up, for us, as an example of self-offering of praise and thanksgiving to God. This is a story about an invisible woman’s relationship with the invisible God, reflected in this temporal world through her offering, and all of it was witnessed by God himself in the person of Jesus. We do not know what motivated the impoverished widow to give all she had to live on—that was between her and God.
As an adult, I believe that stewardship, at its core, is about going deeper into relationship with God and going deeper into the well of one’s humanity as modeled by Jesus Christ.
If you want to know what it means to be a good steward of the Church and of God’s people, the Baptismal Covenant is the blueprint (BCP, pp. 304-305).
• Will you persevere in resisting evil, in the world and within your own heart, repent and return to the Lord?
• Will you proclaim by word and deed the good news of God’s promised Son’s work on the cross to save the souls of all?
• Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
• Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?
Friends, as disciples of Christ, unless we are individually, and collectively, motivated by the ultimate stewardship of taking care of all that God has entrusted to us, including, and especially, the well-being of our fellow human beings; and until we are committed to being the architects who envision the hope of God’s kingdom, and committed to being the construction workers who actively build-up God’s kingdom, rooted in the example of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and guided by the blueprint of our Baptismal Covenant, the Church, and her people, will show up in the world reflecting the earthly empires.
What we believe in motivates the way we set our priorities, how we invest our money and our time, and it forms us as faithful stewards of God’s kingdom here on Earth. When we are clear that we are motivated by love, and are committed to walk in love, the way that Christ loves us, then, and only then, will the Church reflect the kingdom of God. We are not there yet.
As you ponder your stewardship of this church, St. Paul’s, beyond today and throughout this coming year, enter into some holy conversations with God. How is God calling you to give your whole life in service to building up God’s kingdom?
Like the widow, your stewardship journey is about your relationship with God, reflected in this world, through your visible offerings of yourself and resources—and all of it is witnessed by God himself.
No one truly knows what motivates you to be a part of this faith community, to follow Jesus and to give of your whole self to build up this body of Christ in Wesley Chapel—that, my sisters and brothers, is between you and God. Amen.
