23 Pentecost 06 b Proper 27

A little girl became restless as the preacher’s sermon dragged on and on. Finally, she leaned over to her mother and whispered, “Mommy, if we give him money now, will he let us go?”

The Scriptures seem to indicate that people never got tired of listening to Jesus. In fact, the common folk of his day heard Jesus gladly. Perhaps they knew instinctively that he was one of them. Jesus was turned off by people who puffed themselves up, who were impressed by their own importance, who sought to do things in a grandiose way that they might win the praise of others. He despised hypocrites, people who paraded their piety, who spoke in stained glass tones, who prayed long prayers that people might be impressed by their impassioned prose.

He much preferred people like this poor widow in our gospel lesson, who came to the treasury to give her gift to God. The rich people were making a big show of presenting their offerings. They wanted people to be aware of their charity. They used large coins so that when the pieces of money fell into the box an impressive clanging sound could be heard by all.

This poor widow, however, quietly placed in two tiny coins, the widow’s mite (as it is sometimes called), an offering with a value of about a penny.

Probably no one else in the crowd noticed her offering. Only Jesus. That’s a pretty impressive audience, however. He called together his disciples and said to them, “That widow put more money in the treasury than anybody else, because they shared out of their abundance, but she gave all she had.” Jesus was always thrilled to see authentic faith, authentic devotion, authentic love for God and one’s neighbor. Is there any question this widow loved God?

I’m reminded of a story of the young soldier who was overseas. He was writing his girlfriend. He wanted to send her a telegram because he thought that would make more of an impression. So he gave the telegraph operator a message to send. The message was this: “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

The telegraph operator said, “Son, for the same amount of money you can send one more word.”

So he amended his message and it read like this: “I love you. I love you. I love you. Cordially, John.”

Many of us profess our love for God, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” but when push comes to shove our devotion is more like “cordially” than it is love.

This widow put her money where her heart was. She gave all she had. And Jesus praised her.

I want us to look very carefully at the actions of this widow this morning. I believe some other things might have been signified here – some elements that went to make up her devotion to God and to win for her Jesus’ praise.

I want to suggest, first of all, that her act of devotion was an indication that she had forgiven God. Yes, you heard me right. She was a widow. She had lost her husband. Some of you here have experienced that event and you are wise enough to know not only of the hurt and loneliness but of the temptation to bitterness and anger.

The idea of forgiving God comes from an old story about a Jewish family that lost some of its members in the Holocaust under Hitler. Yet they continued to visit the synagogue every Sabbath. When one of their friends asked why they were so faithful in their attendance, their response was, “We want to show God that we have forgiven Him.”

You and I don’t understand the will of God. Leslie Weatherhead, in his famous book The Will of God, talks about God’s permissive will. When tragedy comes, though, the most natural response of our hearts is, “If God could have stopped this, why didn’t He?”

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, in her work on death and dying, says that there are five steps grieving persons need to go through: denial, bargaining, anger, depression and acceptance.

Many people become bogged down in one of these stages of grief and never really come out on the other side. We don’t have time to deal with each of these steps this morning, but consider for a moment that third step – anger. It is not unusual for a person who has loved someone very dearly and that person has died, to be angry, first of all, at the one who has died. “How could you leave me in this situation?” It’s not unusual for that person to be angry at themselves, “Oh, if I had just done something differently maybe he would still be around.” And it’s not unusual, in that situation, to be angry with God. “Why didn’t God spare him?” Nobody wants to lose somebody they love.

There was a beautiful little story about a man who was walking down a road when he saw a young boy up in a tree straddling a limb. He noticed the boy had a leaf in his hand and some string and he was trying to tie a leaf back on a twig on the tree. He asked the young fellow what he was doing. The young boy replied that his sister was very, very ill, she was near death, and the doctor had told his family that “ere the last leaf shall fall from the tree in the front yard, she will be gone.” This little boy didn’t want her to die so he was tying the leaves back on the tree as if that could spare his sister’s life.

None of us can deal very well with the idea of losing someone we love. When that event has occurred in our lives it takes time for healing to occur.

The story is told about a king who owned a large, beautiful and pure diamond. But one day, accidentally, it sustained a large deep scratch. He called in the finest diamond cutters in his kingdom but none of them felt they could repair it. None of them really wanted to try out of fear of incurring the king’s wrath if they failed. Finally a gifted lapidary came forward and promised to make the king’s diamond even more precious. With artistry and skill he engraved a rose bud on that diamond using the scratch as the stem of the rose.

God can do that with the deep hurts in our lives. He can help us with the healing process and cause it to be a time of maturing and growth. Nevertheless, during those first hours after we’ve lost someone about whom we care very, very much there is an anger, a resentment. The first thing that this widow may have been saying as she dropped her two coins in the temple treasury is: “I’ve come to grips with my grief. I’m over my resentment. I am at peace with God.”

There’s a second thing that widow may have been saying as she dropped in those two coins. It was this, I TRUST GOD! You see there was no Social Security, no pension, no monthly checks she would be receiving now that her husband was gone. Widows were quite vulnerable in those days. Unless her husband was a wealthy man or unless she had children to support her or perhaps other family members that would take her in, she was at the mercy of society. Jesus indicated her poverty, when he said that those two coins were all she had. If indeed, she did give all she had, she must have done it trusting that God would provide her with her daily bread. That’s a tremendous amount of trust.

Some of you may have read a book a long time ago written by George S. Clason, called The Richest Man in Babylon. The most important teaching in Clason’s book is that the person wanting to be rich should give away ten percent of everything he earns. Why? According to Clason there are some deep subconscious, psychological principles.

The first is that you should put back what you take out. The second is that the act of giving ten-percent creates value for yourself and others. But the third reason is most important to me. When we give ten percent it says to the world and to our subconscious mind that there is more than enough, that we expect God to keep providing what we need.

This poor widow had never read The Richest Man in Babylon, but she must have trusted that there was more than enough in the Heavenly Father’s storehouse and that He would provide. That kind of trust, that kind of confidence, that kind of hope is pleasing to God.

Reuel Howe tells about growing up with his parents in the country. When he was 15 years-old, the house caught on fire. They escaped with only the clothes on their backs. There were no close neighbors to help so he and his father walked to a distant village to get supplies. AS they returned they saw something that stayed with Reuel Howe all those years after. Beside the charred remains of what had been their house, his mother laid out lunch on a log. She had placed a tin can filled with wildflowers on the log. It was a symbol of hope in the midst of tragedy.

This is the Christian faith, isn’t t? She didn’t try to cover up the disaster with flowers, but in the midst of that gloomy scene she had placed a symbol of hope.

These two coins that the widow placed in the temple treasury were her wildflowers. This was her symbol, her way of saying I know God will provide.

This widow had forgiven God and she trusted God. Would that we could but trust as much as she. Here’s the final thing her offering said that day. She believed in the work of God. The work of the temple was important to her and she wanted to support it. Doubtless, it was with pleasure that she dropped in her coins for she knew she was part of something bigger than herself.

One of the many criticisms aimed at the TV evangelists is that they take money from widows and people in desperate situations. In some cases the criticism is valid. That was certainly the case for my wife’s grandmother who was, we believe, manipulated by Jim and Tammy Bakker, to give. They were taking advantage of her vulnerability. It is interesting, however, that we don’t criticize the tobacco industry for taking advantage of the last few pennies of a desperate person, or the alcohol industry. There are some who say, “Oh, I understand. Let them have their tobacco or alcohol. It gives them pleasure in their situation. Their lives are bleak. These vices give them something to look forward to.”

While I’m not convinced that there is too much of a difference between these two industries and the Televangelist industry, I recognize that the persons of limited means, who support TV evangelists, receive a reward too. They feel that they are part of something important – something far bigger than they are. There is a certain dignity about being able to give to something you believe in. It says that we are not simply takers but we are givers.

There was a reason that widow spent her few coins on the work of God rather than on herself. Perhaps she had discovered a valuable secret.

A certain woman lost her husband and she was having difficulty moving through the stages of grief. For weeks, she went each day to the cemetery to put flowers on his grave. She simply could not let go. No matter what she did it seemed that her grief would not dissipate. In her despair, she went to her doctor for a check-up. When she told him about taking the flowers each day to the cemetery, her doctor made a gentle suggestion.

He said, “Instead of taking flowers to the cemetery, let me suggest you take them to the hospital. I have two patients who are alone. They have no family in this city and they would really enjoy receiving some fresh flowers. Why not take those fresh flowers, for one day, to the hospital rather than to the cemetery? Ask them about their progress and give them some encouragement. See if there is anything you can do for them.” The lady took the doctor’s suggestion. She took the flowers to the hospital rather than to the cemetery. Soon she was able to begin to work through her grief.

Those coins, dropped in the temple treasury that day, may have been an important part of this widow’s recovery from her grief experience. No wonder Jesus was pleased to see her make her offering. No wonder He praised her to his disciples. She had begun to win the victory over her grief. She trusted God for her daily bread, and she was involved in the ongoing work of the kingdom. She sounds like a lady who had discovered some of the greatest secrets of successful living.

In a few weeks we will be having our fall Stewardship emphasis. As you prepare to make your commitment to support something bigger than you are, let go of your resentment. Trust God. Be a part of the ongoing work of the kingdom.