by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
Luke 12: 38-44
“I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. v44For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had—she gave all she had to live on.” Mark 43-44
The verses above are lifted from our gospel lesson this week. This is Jesus’ final week, he has been teaching in the temple complex all day, answering questions and accusations with the sharpest counsel, and telling parables and warnings against the hypocritical religious people of the day. And it seems that at least somewhat that Jesus has ceased teaching, and taken a seat to rest, where He can see the offering buckets. They were all labeled with signs for specific kinds of offerings, and most were attended by a servant of the temple who would inspect and announce gifts as they came into the treasury. A poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny or in our peso conversion today that is approximately 53 centavos if the conversion is 53 pesos for a dollar.
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There is a story of an ambitious young man who told his pastor he’d promised God a tithe of his income. They prayed for God to bless his career. At that time he was making P10,000.00 per month and tithing P1,000.00. In a few years his income increased and he was tithing P2,500.00 per month. He called on the pastor to see if he could be released from his tithing promise, it was too costly now. The pastor replied, “I don’t see how you can be released from your promise, but we can ask God to reduce your income to P10,000.00, then you’d have no problem tithing P1,000.00 per month.
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In the story of the two copper coins it teaches us that God measures giving not only by the amount but by the love, devotion and sacrifice represented in the gift. In our story Jesus gives us a lesson on how God evaluates giving. First, a person’s gift is determined not only by the amount he or she gives but by the amount of sacrifice involved in the giving. The rich at times give only out of their wealth – it involves no sacrifice. The gift of the widow cost her everything. She gave as much as she possibly could. Secondly, this principle can be applied to all our service to Jesus. He judges our work and ministry not by its size or influence or success, but by the amount of sincere dedication, sacrifice, faith and love involved.
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Common to any church congregations is the giving of alms, pledges, or tithes and donations to the church as expressions of thanksgiving and support to God’s work. But some congregations and individuals treat these beyond their original intentions. To some individual alms giving or donations to the church are seen as status symbol. Some church members would make a lot of noise if their donations to the church are not acknowledged publicly. Some church congregations would hold on to the church finances which came from these sources and other fund generation activities as if they own these corporately. While we are called to be good stewards of these resources we should not forget the intentions why they are in our keeping. These are for God’s work to be used in the optimum with love and devotion disbursed in the same spirit not overruled by corporate or individuals’ selfish frugality. This spirit can be the governing attitude if our giving is motivated by love, devotion and sacrifice as represented by the widow’s giving all that she has not expecting a return but in sincere gratitude to the giver.
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“I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. v44For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had—she gave all she had to live on.” (v.44) Value is reckoned by cost to the giver. This amazing statement gives us insight into the main point of the story: the value in God’s estimation of the widow’s offering is greater than others who put in large gifts. This widow offered the smallest amount of coin in circulation at that time. And it is not just about proportion instead of quantity. God figures the bottom line on an offering base on what the giver sacrificed to give it.
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Human evaluations of giving may be flawed immensely. We tend to put great stock in those in our churches who are big givers. I would be lying if I told you that I don’t ever think about it that way. But we must adjust our own thinking and remember that God counts by what it costs the giver. Do we give stuff that doesn’t cost us? This should make us evaluate our lifestyles instead of just our tithe or church offering. Let this also fix in your mind that human evaluations of giving may be flawed immensely. We tend to put great stock in those in our churches who are big givers. And I would be lying if I told you that I don’t ever think about it that way. But we must adjust our own thinking and remember that God counts by what it costs the giver. Do we give stuff that doesn’t cost us? Think of the priceless gift offered to mankind in Calvary. If this doesn’t prick our conscience in giving and spirituality, then I don’t know what it can. I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.
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This is all really about discipleship. If you go back about two weeks to the lessons that Jesus has been teaching, from marriage and divorce to Bartimaeus leaving all and following Jesus, from the straight faced walk up to Jerusalem to his lesson of the fig tree, from rich young ruler to the religious leaders questions about taxes, resurrections, and the heart of religion, Jesus has been teaching the disciples about being a disciple. He has been raising the bar and raising it some more. Faithfulness in giving has nothing to do with how much we give; it has everything to do with how much we keep. Garibaldi had an incredibly committed volunteer army. He would appeal for recruits in these terms: “I offer you neither pay nor quarters nor provisions; I offer you hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!” Jesus invites us to discipleship. But He lets us know up front that it is a commitment that will cost you something. It’s not going to be easy. To paraphrase Garibaldi, “Let him who loves the Lord with his heart and not with his lips only, be Jesus’ disciples!”
“All that is in heaven and earth is yours, and of your own do we give you.”
-The Book of Common Prayer**
