Mark 12:38-44
38 As he was teaching, he said, “ Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They want to be greeted with honor in the markets. 39 They long for places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. 40 They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly. ”
41 Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. 42 One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny.i43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “ I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. 44 All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on. ”
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
LORD , my rock and my redeemer.
We’re at church. This is the place where, week after week, you have somebody asking you for money. We take up regular offerings every week, most of which, admittedly, support my salary. Awkward to stand in front of y’all making that request. Six out of fifty-two weeks every year, we take up special offerings for something with the global United Methodist Church. We take up special offerings immediately after major disasters. We could probably fill up every other Sunday with special offerings for Wesley Foundations and camps and ministries with minorities and food banks and thrift stores and South Sudan and whatever else comes up that needs the support of local churches.
At the same time, we don’t talk about the way we are called to invest responsibly here, locally, in our own households.
In fact, you know what? We don’t talk about personal responsibility much at all. And I suppose that’s my fault.
I talk about our calling. I talk about what it means to follow. You know, discipleship and stuff.
But I’m not sure I often go in the direction of defining worthwhile investments.
Folks generally know better than to have these arguments around me, but once upon a time in Cullowhee, North Carolina, Karoline got involved in a conversation about giving in the church. Another student who attended the Wesley Foundation with us was arguing that wealthy people who made comparatively enormous investments were giving sacrificially. For example, if Jay Leno chose do make a $100,000 donation to a local non-profit, approximately what it might cost him to purchase and repair one of his fleet of luxury or one-off cars, that would be a sacrificial gift comparable to what we call the widow’s mite.
That infuriated Karoline, because the math simply doesn’t work. And in no way, shape, or form is it appropriate to talk about the sacrifice of a luxury as if it’s the same as the sacrifice of a meal.
If you have more, more is expected of you. It’s really that simple.
But we are a society that has embraced and uplifted greed to the point that accumulating wealth is considered the highest of all attainments.
All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, giving is a thing that our family struggles with. And it’s not just because we have diapers and constantly changing wardrobes to deal with investing in. We are also dealing with serious debt, the largest part of which is in student loans. We have more academic debt than all our other debt combined.
So when Bishop Swanson asked me, on the stage at Annual Conference, with all the other ordinands a year and a half ago, if I was in debt so as to embarrass myself, I had a serious problem answering.
Was a Master of Divinity at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta a debt I collected that is embarrassing? Was it a worthwhile investment?
I believe in education. I believe in the power of wisdom and knowledge. I believe it is a gift God gives us.
But the amount I am paying for that education is embarrassing enough that I haven’t announced to you this morning what the actual number is.
What is a worthwhile investment?
Is it land? That’s something our founding fathers valued enough to protect it as a fundamental human right. Ownership of property, which is absolutely not a biblical value. The Bible teaches us that we don’t own anything. We take care of certain things. We invest them in worthwhile ways.
What is a worthwhile investment?
Stocks? Sports? Entertainment? Books? Technology?
Our reading from Ruth and from the Psalms this morning point to children as a worthwhile investment.
Well, they are an investment. That’s for sure. And they are worthwhile, without a doubt. Our lives are richer by far because of Noah and Sarah and Rebekah. Everything means more. Everything is redefined by the gift of children.
But in no way is the way that God gives more clear than in our children, who are ours for only a fleeting time before they are their own people, making their own decisions and mistakes and investments.
But the situation of Ruth and Naomi is not the same as ours today. Naomi is without any hope of dignity or even sustenance without a male heir. The book of Ruth, really, is her story far more than it is Ruth’s. It is the story of how she secures her own future through Ruth, directing her toward Boaz in rather graphic detail that I will not unpack for you this morning by pointing out the meaning of the euphemism, “uncover his feet.” You can do that yourself.
We are people who are far more propertied and comfortable than they. Our children do not secure our future in the same way that Ruth’s son did.
Nor are our children “like arrows in the hand of a warrior” in the way that the Psalmist speaks today. We don’t collect them to be used as weapons or as bargaining tools. They are not property. They are people.
When Karoline and I invest in our children, we are investing in the future of our community, the future of our world. We are developing disciples for the inbreaking of Christ’s Kingdom. We are readying them to make their own choices and invest in what they value. Sure, we hope they believe in what we believe in, but we can’t ultimately define that for them.
So if we invest wisely, in the future of our communities and in the Kingdom, then our children are a wise and worthwhile investment.
And maybe that’s where the rubber meets the road. We shouldn’t be asking what organizations have the right name, what kinds of groups or things we should be investing in. We should be asking if what we are investing in will help break God’s Kingdom into this reality, whether how we are investing will actually help that happen.
When I invest my finances into something, am I ensuring that my finances will promote something God wants, or am I just pouring money into a pit to be eaten by monsters of greed and corruption?
A few years ago, a friend had an opportunity to lead his ministry in participating in the shoebox ministry. You know, Samaritan’s Purse/Operation Christmas Child thing. He had the presence of mind to make a phone call to their office and ask exactly where the donation was used that is included in every single gift box.
They refused to answer his question.
I have a hard time investing in a ministry like that.
When I invest my finances in something, I want to make sure they are being used for ministry.
When I invest my time in something, I want to make sure my time is cared for and that it makes a difference. When I covenanted that I wasn’t in debt so as to embarrass myself, I also covenanted not to spend my time frivolously. Sometimes I’m good at that, and sometimes I’m not. But I’m making a point of improving.
When I invest my energy into something, I want to make sure that my energy is being used to do good, not to do harm, and to help people realize how close God is to them.
I am striving to make all my investments worthwhile. And there are loads of ways to do that. There are as many ways to do that as there are gifts that God is giving me.
If a poor widow can bless God by giving the very thing she needed to live on, then shouldn’t I, whom God has so richly blessed, give everything I have to bring God’s Kingdom today?
Forget the tithe. The tithe is a cheap excuse. Here, let me write a check and feel like I’ve done my part for the church.
God doesn’t want your tithe. God wants your life.
Is your life a worthwhile investment?
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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