“A Widow’s Mite/Might”

Mark 12:38-44

We continue in a small series on the understanding of STEWARDSHIP. Today’s third sermon in this series on stewardship comes to us in the form of a poor widow, who gave an offering at the temple treasury. What exactly is stewardship? A good definition for us is as follows: “The careful and responsible management of something entrusted to someone’s care.”  We use the God given gifts of our time, our talent, and our treasure to serve God through the ministry of this church, as well as through other means in our local and global community.

So Jesus begins this section of teaching by pointing to a poor example of stewardship- a temple scribe. What did scribes do in first century Israel? They were competent in Mosaic law. They copied legal contracts for government officials and for citizens. They were also credited with developing the Biblical wisdom sayings in much of the book of Proverbs, along with King Solomon. Scribes wore the tefillin upon their heads, which held four sacred scriptures meant to guide the scribes as the practiced their craft. But some(not all) of the scribes had forgotten that everything they had and were came from God. They perhaps had stopped reading the passages in their tefillin boxes. Some of the scribes enjoyed their status, wearing long flowing robes, who due to their learned background were of high standing in Jewish society, and who got the best seats at temple and at social gatherings. Their prayers were for show, and they stole property from widow’s homes as they interpreted legal contracts. They were full of ostentation-pretentious display, showiness. Jesus proclaimed upon his return, “They will receive the greater condemnation.” (12:40) Jesus attacks their egotism and greed masked in the colorful robes and temple practices.

Jesus then contrasts this poor example of stewardship with a perfect one. FIX TR First, a number of people came into Herod’s temple to pay their offerings and to support God’s work at the temple. What did the temple look like during Jesus’ time?  The inner area of the Temple contained three courts. The easternmost court was the Court of the Women, and it contained the Temple treasury where people donated their money. Three gates led into this court, one on the north, one on the south, and a third on the east. This third gate on the east side is almost certainly the "Beautiful Gate" that is mentioned in Acts 3. A fourth gate, which was much larger and ornate led from the Court of the Women west into the Court of Israel, for men only (women could proceed no further), which was elevated 15 steps higher than the Court of Women.

It does not appear that there was a separate building called the temple treasury. The name was given to the thirteen brazen chests, called "trumpets," from the form of the opening into which the offerings of the temple worshippers were put. These stood in the outer court of the women. Nine chests were for the appointed money-tribute and for the sacrifice-tribute, i.e., money-gifts instead of the sacrifices; four chests for freewill-offerings for widows, and for temple supplies-wood, incense, temple decoration, and burnt-offerings.

You could say this form of financial support was quite similar to our annual line-item budget!  Jesus notes that in addition to the everyday offering bringer, many wealthy people were placing large sums of money into some of the chests.  The wealthy, who were placing large sums into the temple treasury were guided by the law of the tithe (10%) and a long tradition of how to figure it.  There was no paper money to speak of in those days, so no doubt when a wealthy person gave an offering to the temple, it made quite a bit of noise as the coins clinked their way down the trumpet shaped tubes and into the chests.

Then Jesus points out a poor widow, who puts her very small offering into the temple depository. I doubt there was much clinking to be heard for two small coins. Widows were not required to give to the temple. Yet she did. Perhaps she gave to support other widows who were in similar situations. She knew the sting of poverty and did what she could do help.

Whenever I have read this story, I have imagined the widow in question to be an older woman. But perhaps we can imagine the widow as a young mother with mouths to feed. This widow deposited two small coins, known as mites.

The word “mite” is a contraction of “minute”, from the Latin “minutum”, the translation of the Greek word lepton, the very smallest bronze of copper coin ( Luke 12:59 ; 21:2 ). Two mites made one quadrans, i.e., the fourth part of a Roman, which was in value nearly a halfpenny. This was a very small amount of money given to the temple treasury. Despite that fact, Jesus sees her act and says,  “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” Why would Jesus say this? Consider her status was quite uncertain, because her husband, the major source of protection and identity, was dead. Widows at that time were considered subjects of special moral concern because of their defenseless legal as well as financial position. And according to Jesus, some scribes had taken advantage of their plight and seized their homes, leaving widows and their children homeless.

Her offering of 2 coins is greater than those who were putting in large sums of money to the treasury, because she gave all she had, her whole living. Jesus lifts her example up as a perfect example of stewardship. To give all she possessed is to consign herself to potential disaster; Yet she gives freely for God’s glory and out of faith. She casts aside all conventional human security. Her faith is in God alone, and not in wealth or status.

Here Jesus contrasts any form of faith in wealth, ostentatious, hypocritical religion with this example of faith and stewardship. That is really our first focus for this morning.

Construction began in 2004. Work stalled in 2009 with 60% completed as Siegel's company encountered financial difficulties. The house was subsequently listed for sale at $65 million.^[4] With Westgate Resorts' improved finances as of 2013, Siegel came to own the property outright and construction resumed,^[5] with completion initially scheduled for 2016.^[6][7] In September 2022, the house was hit by Hurricane Ian, which Jackie Siegel said caused over $10 million of damage, including flooding, caved in ceilings, and roof damage.^[8] As of July 2024 the house remains uncompleted.^[9] Expected to appraise at over $100 million, the project was estimated in 2011 to be the fourth most expensive house in the United States

Our world is so full of ostentation these days-pretentious display, showiness. So many people think they can become great in the world by the accumulation of money and goods, like those scribes who had lost their way back in Jesus’ day. My favorite example of modern-day ostentatious wealth on display? David and Jackie Siegel's attempt to build the biggest home in America, based on the palace of Versailles. David Siegel is the world’s largest property owner of time shares. At some point, he decided, along with his wife to build this huge mansion in Orlando, Florida. If it ever gets completed, it will have 10 kitchens, 23 bathrooms, a sushi bar, an indoor roller skating rink, a 20 car garage with space for limos, a grand ballroom, a two lane bowling alley, a fitness center with spa, two tennis courts, and a full sized baseball diamond. This palace will be 90,000 square feet of excess, which David Siegel is struggling to complete to this day.

At one point, due to the stock market crash of 2008, the whole mansion was in foreclosure. But now, that Siegel’s business is strong again, they hope to complete the mansion sometime this year. Jackie’s hope is that they can make it even bigger than 90,000 square feet when it is completed. This couple has wrongly assumed that their mass of wealth belongs to them, and that God had nothing to do with it, nor has no claim upon it. I am reminded of Jesus’ parable about the rich man who built larger barns and grain silos so that he could store all of his excess grain and goods. “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.” (Luke 12:20-21)

In contrast to scribes who have lost their way and ridiculously wealthy Americans building the largest home in the country, our example for today is the poor widow. The woman’s action is worthy of praise, because out of her poverty and without reservation she gave her whole bank account to God’s glory. Her gift also is a foreshadowing of the gift Jesus is about to make in Mark’s gospel: his very life. As it says in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “though he was rich, yet for our sake became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich.”

A second consideration for us this morning has to do with the widow. On this Reformation Sunday, when we celebrate the reforming of the church through the Protestant reformation, we can consider another reforming. Perhaps the widow also gave in part because she knew what living life in poverty was like. Perhaps, in her ultimate and full trust in God, these two mites were given to help reimagine the world, to change the systems of the day? Clearly, the temple system of support for widows wasn’t working well, since the passage tells us their properties were being stolen from under them during legal proceedings.

Rev. Mieke Vandersall writes, “ How can we reimagine systems of charity that inevitably fail to honor and uplift, that fail to provide true transformation and liberation? How can we reimagine how we earn and how we distribute resources as faith communities? How can we collectively come closer to Jesus and model as faith communities a new economy, while being connected to the economy we are living in? How can our giving and our receiving be reimagined?”

Can we reimagine a world which runs using a just economy? Where practices of predatory lending, student debt, medical debt and wage inequality are changed?

Can we imagine an economy where those who lack shelter are given the basic right to housing?

Can we reimagine our neighborhoods to see others as created by and a reflection of God?

Can we reimagine  and reform our relationship with money, so that it is used to repair and restore, rather than be used for ostentation, accumulation and power over others?

Thanks be to God for the example of the poor widow, who trusted God in faith, and who loved God with both of her mites and all of her might, who may have hoped for a world reimagined through the power of God’s love, where everyone has enough. May she be for us an example of how to give of our time, talent and treasure for God’s glory. Alleluia. Amen.