Distinctly Christian Giving

I met a woman earlier this week that really got under my skin, and I couldn’t get her off my mind!

Of course the woman I am talking about is not from SOTH, but rather the woman of this gospel for this morning.  This woman disturbs me, unnerves me, and even aggravates me.

 Jesus had just arrived in Jerusalem that last horrendous week that we know as Holy Week. The first thing he did was make a bee-line for the temple and he began to teach. Jesus had just finished a rather scathing indictment of the showy, but empty faith of the Pharisees, and weary from the discourse, he sat down and watched the procession of people stream by depositing their offerings into the temple receptacles.   Jesus observes the rich deposit their large sums. Then, almost unnoticed, a poor widow woman makes her offering of a few pennies, loose change, and Jesus is swept away with awe and amazement!

 Jesus' response to this woman is troublesome and disturbing, especially in a world that measures value by size; a super-sized world of BIGGIE everything; the more the merrier; the bigger the better; biggest is best!

At the health club where I used to work out in Aurora there was a rusty balance scale that sat in the corner passively intimidating the people that passed by. One day I stepped on that scale and then, within an hour I stepped on another scale at my doctor's office.  I was five pounds lighter on the doctor’s scale.  I asked the nurse "Is this thing calibrated correctly!" She assured me it was! With her confirmation, I chose to believe the doctor's scale as revealing the real truth, and the health club’s scale needing to be re-calibrated!

The value system of BIGGIE EVERYTHING that calibrates our 21^st century scales discounts the gift of the poor widow and finds her gift virtually meaningless. Using our BIGGIE scales we look only at the amount she gave.

But what happens if we re-calibrate our scales? What happens if we use a radically different set of standards not based on monetary values and BIGGIE calibrations? What if we begin to look at this woman using Jesus' re-calibrated scale, a scale that did not weigh so much the size of the gift, but the attitude of the heart that gave it?

 We say in a biggie calibrated world loose change doesn't cut it!  Loose change is irrelevant in the face of the BIGGIE problems that the world faces, and the BIGGIE answers they require.   

 Then this woman comes along and deposits her loose change, and Jesus goes nuts!  He holds up this woman as a model for me to emulate, not the rich who preceded her in the giving procession.

But what am I to emulate?  Jesus’ said, "For all of them contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty.”  With those few words Jesus turns everything I endear inside out and up-side down.  He blows away all of my excuses and rationalizations. 

Jesus makes a distinction in terms of giving; saying the amount of the gift is secondary to the attitude with which the gift is given. 

 I would dare to say that most of our gifts are made out of the attitude of abundance.  Most often we give with the attitude, "I'll give what I can afford.  I'll give, but not in a way that requires a sacrifice."  I believe this is what Jesus means by "giving out of abundance."  Whether it's is $1 or millions, if I give what I can afford it is giving out of abundance. 

 Please understand I am not demeaning that kind of giving.  That kind of giving helps untold worthwhile causes in this needy world.  The point is it is not distinctly Christian giving!  You heard me right!  This is not the kind of giving that Jesus lauds in this story this morning.  That is precisely what is so disturbing about this woman and this story.

  It goes without saying that the large gifts of the rich that Jesus witnessed being deposited most certainly empowered the ministry of the temple.  Jesus didn't tell the chief priest to give it back!   But even so, it was after his intense observation of all who streamed by that that Jesus lauds the poor widow and her few coins as the greatest gift of all. That’s disturbing!  Why? 

I want Jesus to focus upon the sum total amount of the gift with the bigger being the better.  If he does, then I am basically off the hook for I don't have that much.  My "loose change" is pretty insignificant compared to the Warren Buffets and Bill Gates of the world.  They can give more sum total than I could ever give in a thousand lifetimes, so mine doesn’t matter.

Or, if the sum total is what ultimately matters then, to a certain extent, I can play the game of comparing my giving to the people around me and measure my giving that way.  I can rate myself, and I can make myself feel pretty good.  All I have to do is find someone who gives less than me, and I can feel pretty good.

 But that is not what came down.  It was the poor widow Jesus praised.  This is what disturbs me.  Jesus looks past the sum total, and looks directly into the heart of the giver – directly into my heart.  This is what is so unsettling and unnerving.

 There are two kinds of giving in this world, both of which are good, but only one of them is distinctly Christian.  In the finally analysis perhaps that is what really aggravates me about this whole story.  There are two kinds of giving:  giving out of abundance and giving out of poverty.  Giving out of poverty is distinctly Christian giving.   It is giving what you cannot afford to give; giving in a way that causes you to sacrifice.  You and I may not like or want to hear that, but that's what this story boils down to.  When was the last time you sat down and had a family conversation where you explored what you might cut out of your life-style so that you could give more?

 Play what if" with me for a moment.   What if Jesus, after he arrived in Jerusalem that last fatal week of his earthly life, would have said, when things began to get difficult, "OK, that's enough I've made my point," and then would have simply slipped quietly out of town?   No cross!  No sacrifice.  No suffering.  No divine forgiveness we could trust!  No atonement for your sins and mine.  No resurrection that leads to transformed life.  No authentic power over death that conquers despair and gives birth to hope.

 What if Jesus would have stopped short of accomplishing the demands of unconditional love? 

 What if?  For starters it would mean that giving out of abundance is the divine way to give, so it would be the acceptable way for the disciple of Jesus to give.  But that's not how it is! That's not what happened!

In my mind the word "Christian" is synonymous with the word "giver."  It can't be any other way, not if you name Jesus as your Lord.  “Non-giving Christian” is an oxymoron.

Disciples of Jesus, we are called to be givers. We have so much to give!  We have time, we have talent, we have treasure, we have knowledge, we have wisdom; we have possessions, we have skills, we have spiritual gifts, we have homes, we have vehicles, we have resources, we have much.  Are you a Christian?  Are you a disciple of Jesus?  Are you a distinctly Christian giver, giving out of poverty? Do your gifts reflect your gratitude for what God has given you in Jesus Christ?

Distinctly Christian giving is rooted in the cross.  Distinctly Christian giving mirrors back to God and reflects to the world what God has given me and done for me on the cross of Jesus Christ!  The question that each Christian is called to wrestle with and answer is, "Does my giving reflect the incredible, lavish, outrageous, undeserved, sacrificial, costly love with which God loves through the cross of Jesus Christ?  Do I give in the distinctly Christian way out of my poverty - or do I give as the world gives, out of my abundance?"

I met a woman this week that really got under my skin.  The question is, “Will I allow her to get into my heart?”