“What Happens Next?” (Mark 12:38-44)

Intro:  Our New Testament reading is from Mark.  As he often does, Mark puts two stories back-to-back in order to emphasize a point.  Jesus is in the temple with the disciples and they aren’t at worship, they are instead watching people.  Jesus says look at those leaders who like good seats and long prayers, don’t do what they do.  Then says take notice of this elderly woman, watch what she does.  Let us listen for God’s word as it comes through Mark’s words.  ///

I’d like to do something a little different this morning.  Our text is a conversation between Jesus and the disciples about giving to church and I’d like to start out by inviting you to have a conversation with the person next to you (or a few people near you) and consider in what ways this woman can be seen as foolish and in what ways this woman can be seen as faithful as she puts her last two coins in the offering box. This will only be a few minutes, so please don’t exchange recipes or have the conversations you can have over tea, please do try to name ways that she can be seen as foolish and how she can be seen as faithful.   Take a few minutes to do that.  (Discussion time)

In what ways Foolish / in what ways Faithful?  Does anyone have any observations they would want to share?  —-

I imagine you came up with many more good thoughts on each side of this question.  On one hand we can ask “how could this poor woman give everything away?”  What was she thinking?   And perhaps we might ask, if you’re going to give it all away “why would she give it all to church?”  Did she really think that God needed her two small coins?   Did she think that somehow her gift would actually matter in the big scheme?  We don’t know what she was thinking, we are left to guess and wonder at her motivation. 

But she is motivated, she acts and Jesus calls our attention to her and her gift. He says hers is the greatest gift.  There is something about her actions that Jesus notices and lifts her up as an image of faithfulness.  For two thousand years her “two cents worth” has been talked about.  And remember that of all the things that Jesus taught about, money was second only to “the Kingdom of God”.  Jesus often spoke about money. 

The powerful image of the widow coming forward to offer her only two coins has been often misused for many years in efforts to increase giving to the church.  Here is the ideal giver, it’s been said, or preached.  If this woman could dig so deep and sacrifice so much, as Jesus notes, why can’t the rest of us?  She gave everything she had and so should we.  Some like to note that she was a percentage giver – “100%” of what she had.  Let’s all do the same.  There are some churches badger people into giving by saying “God is watching what you put in the plate so make it splashy”  In Kenya, at one service I attended there was a special offering taken where each person came forward to make their offering and not only was the giver identified, but the amount of the gift was as well.  Mr. Kariuki gives 300 Shillings.  Everyone clapped for each  gift, but I don’t think it would catch on here.

The story of the widow’s mite has also been used by some as an example of bad stewardship and a reason to not give to the church.  Some people take delight in pointing out what a corrupt institution this must have been that would take the last coins from the poorest of the poor.  What kind of religious community would encourage that?  What kind of church would accept this gift?  Some say she must have been tricked or guilted out of all of her money and that is not right.  She wasn’t.  So I’m not going to say that this morning either. 

What I do want to is try to picture this story as vividly as possible.  Jesus did sit and watch as people came to offer their gifts.  He and the disciples are just sitting with their backs to the wall in the rear of the temple.  People would come and go and leave gifts in one of the 13 boxes in the back.  As always Jesus takes the opportunity to make a profound teaching from everyday events.  He notes that some people give from their abundance and his words are a challenge to consider how much one had truly sacrificed to give as they did.  But then he focuses on an elderly woman, a widow.  She quietly drops two coins in the box as she leaves.  He calls her action to the attention of the disciples.  Look, she what she has done.  Hers is the greatest gift for she has given out of her poverty.  She is a devoted woman who was not afraid to give all she has to God.  She has given her whole life because of her faith. 

I heard a story in Africa about a time when the offering plate went around a man took the plate and gently set it on the ground, and then he stood in it to show the depth of his conviction and his desire to give it all to God.  I don’t know how the ushers picked up the plate without hurting their backs.  That image of standing in the offering plate in one that stuck with me.  The woman in our story was doing something like that and I would like to focus on the woman this morning. 

The question I have, that is not answered in out text is what was the woman thinking and feeling as she did this?  One of the most engaging things to do when reading scripture to make the stories come to life in your head, and fill in the parts that are not told.  As this woman brings her gift, what was it like for her?  I don’t think she was pressured to make the gift.  But one wonders is this something that she had done many times before?  Was she accustomed to emptying her pockets as she left the temple, knowing that God would provide for her in the coming week?  If so her act might be one of joyful confidence, she may have dropped her coins in saying, “here you go God.  Thanks for everything, see you next week!”  She knew what would come next.  She may have found a way of living that God got everything but just the basics of what it took to live on.  The thought that she was used to putting everything in was a new idea to me. 

I had always had a picture of a very old woman, walking with a shuffling step.  In my mind, even though she had been through some hard times, her heart was filled with a sense of loving gratitude toward God.  Her gift of two small copper coins was a sacrificial gift of a truly grateful heart.  She had not done this before.  She was responding to a need to give from within her and this day it was to give it all away.  She was going to be OK; she would make this gift and then see what comes.  But she didn’t know what would come next, really.  That’s how I had often pictured it. 

From this moment on my life is in your hands” When you ride across the heavens in all your glory.  I will be like a cocklebur sticking in your saddle blanket! 

Giving is an act of faith.  We don’t know what motivates another to give.  We may not ever know what is clearly going on within ourselves as we live out our faith and make our commitments to God.  Some may know the joy of God filling us up faster than we can give ourselves away.  Some may feel like sacrificial giving is too much of a sacrifice. 

But we know that no matter what we bring before God, in loving transformation God uses whatever is brought, for good.  If we put our whole selves in the plate, or even just a little bit, God will bless and use whatever is there.  Amen.

“What Do You Want Me to Do for You?”  (Mark 10:46-52)

Intro:  Today we read the last of Jesus’ miracles in Mark’s gospel.  It is the healing of a blind man who shows a bold faith that is rightly placed.  Jesus and the disciples are heading for Jerusalem, they are in Jericho as they encounter the blind Bartimaeus.  // 

Many years ago, when I was in my first year high school (about 14 years old) I had one of my first “big adventure when I took an AMTRAK train out to the New York City all by myself to visit a friend who had moved there.  My welcome to the big apple started when I innocently asked a local for directions.  I had come into Grand Central station and was headed for Penn station to catch a subway train.  So I asked somebody, “which way?”  I was too young and trusting to be suspicious of this guy when he said “I can tell you where to go” and he pointed me in exactly the wrong direction. 

When I finally got on the subway, I remember what my friend had said about riding the trains, “Dan if you want to fit in, don’t look at anybody, and pretend like you know exactly what you are doing, walk with attitude.”  Things started out OK, I got on the right car, had my face fixed with that certain “don’t mess with me” look, and I sat down.  A few minutes into the ride that all went out the window as I got startled when someone came and shoved a pencil in my hand with a note saying “I cannot speak, selling these pencils is the only way I can make a living, God bless you”.  And he stood there, waiting for me to make up my mind.  I gave it back and shook my head, not wanting this exchange to go on any longer than it had to, he moved on to someone else and then was gone.   

As I left the train, I hoped I wouldn’t bump into him again.  I didn’t want to be asked once more, or shamed by guilt into buying something, or reminded of his difficult situation. There was a mixture of reactions within me, part feeling sorry that anyone comes to such a difficult place, and a more powerful feeling of self-protection and wanting to beware of scams.  I didn’t want to take much time or do much work to figure out what his situation was, to know if his need was genuine, so I chose to send him on and I carried on.  It’s an attitude that isn’t easy to outgrow.  Many of us feel this way, even if we don’t like to admit it.  We have become adept at waving away panhandlers, avoiding eye contact with beggars, stepping around the homeless.  We become numb to the hardships we see on the evening news every day.  (I know each day driving in to work that most likely I’ll have an offer to clean my windscreen on the corner of Buckley and Linwood.   

The story of Bartimaeus is played out a million times a day.  The crowd marches by and does not see the suffering man beside the road.  One wonders who is truly sightless in the story – blind Bartimaeus or the unseeing crowds who passed him by without a second glance.  Even when he cries out for help, the crowds try to hush his disturbing voice.  It seems ironic that claim that their eyes are so firmly fixed on the Saviour, that they entirely overlook the man in need of help. 

Jesus didn’t overlook Bartimaeus.  Jesus never lost the ability to see people in need, whether hungry, or sick, or downtrodden.  He was never too busy to stop for someone who was hurting.  To be sure we cannot heal every hurt.  But we can learn to see those who are in need, maybe get past the awkwardness of asking “Is something wrong?  Can I help?”  Every healing Jesus performed begins with the miracle of seeing someone in need.  Seeing alone will not always help, there can surely be no help without recognizing it. 

Mark includes an interesting detail in his narrative.  He tells us that Bartimaeus came to Jesus after throwing off his cloak.  Some commentators believe that the blind wore a particular kind of garment in those days, a hooded cloak that was designed to hide the upper part of the face. The blank stare of blind eyes was unsettling to many people.  By wearing a cloak that covered their eyes, the blind could move through the crowds without making others uncomfortable. 

 We can perhaps wonder if the world has not changed much.  We are still uncomfortable with the pain and disability of others.   I remember being surprised when a patient once told me that her crutches and leg braces gave her super power.  She said she has the gift of invisibility.  Everyday, she is able to move through crowds and no one acknowledges her presence or looks her in the eye. 

Bartimaeus apparently senses that Jesus is a man he can approach with uncovered eyes, unhidden pain, undisguised need.  He throws off the cloak of politeness and comes barefaced to Jesus.  And Jesus meets Bartimaeus as a fully human being, face to face, eye to eye.  In that meeting Bartimaeus is truly seen, and this is the beginning of his healing.

Bartimaeus is a timeless example of faith.  He calls out to God with his need.  Just the act of crying out is an act of faith, he believes something will happen, that God can do something.  It is faith when we express our deepest needs, giving voice to what is on our hearts.  Sometimes we don’t know what we need, sometimes we don’t ask for what we need.  Too often we hold things in, refusing to let pain show.  But we should not, we should speak up, even cry out just as the blind man did while others were telling him to keep quiet.  The disciples did not think that Jesus should be bothered with his problems.

That is another dimension of his faith, he persists, even while others would try to keep him silent.  Jesus responds to his persistence with the question others have heard “What would you have me do for you?” The most important phrase in this wonderful story comes from Jesus. He asks the beggar a crucial question which makes the healing possible – “What is it that you want me to do for you? How does your life need to be new and different in order for you to be whole and strong and free? What needs to change in your life in order for you to be fully alive??

And he is ready with an answer.  He does not wish for riches, or to be made young, or to be a king.  He asks for his sight back.  I want to see again.  And Jesus says yes.  He says his faith has opened his eyes.  The man can see, and now he chooses to follow Jesus.  What a great example of faith, to call out, to trust, to answer, to receive, and then to follow.      

Change – personal change, relational change, cultural change – change is at the very heart of individual and societal healing. And it takes great courage to participate in our own healing and wholeness – to participate in our own changing – to name what it is we need and want. Yes, in this story, Jesus could have offered comfortable charity. But he chose to offer uncomfortable change. And the new sight the beggar receives catapults him into a new kind of discipleship, a new kind of wholeness, a new kind of responsibility that demands transformation – transformation in him, and then through him, a transformation of the world. As one essayist has suggested, we are not human beings. We are human “becomings.”

With his actions Jesus was showing his earliest followers about changes needed.  This blind man’s faith has something to show them.   If they could open their eyes, they could become a group of disciples reaching out to the needy and welcoming all.  Jesus came to show there is room not only for the hale and hearty, but also for the blind and lame, the prisoners and even the ragged men with pencils and begging cups.  The way of Christ is wide enough for all, even for those who must be carried along.

This full experience of grace can only be a reality if we learn to see as Jesus saw.  If we open our eyes and our arms, there’s no reason for anyone to be left sitting by the side of the road while grace passes by.   As we draw closer to God, may we be willing to let go of our expectations of how God ought to be, and be willing to cry out with our most desperate needs.  For it is in the place of greatest poverty and need that Christ can enter into our lives.  May we follow where our loving God will lead.  Amen.