A Guest Sermon by Rev. Dr.
Renée Sue House, for Consecration Sunday at Old First
Risky Living—Loose Giving
I Kings 12:8-16; Ps. 146;
Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38 -44
A devastating hurricane. A tense presidential election. A discombobulating nor’easter. And in the
wake of all this, Consecration Sunday. If nothing else, we come to this day
newly mindful of the contingency, the fragility, the riskiness of being human. Here
today. Gone tomorrow. Boats splintered
on driveways. Houses lost to fire and
water. Subways and hospitals submerged. Hearts
shattered by death. Physically, emotionally,
psychologically, spiritually, it is risky business to be flesh and blood. Risky to be, risky to have, to hold, to love,
to give, to lose.
It seems always to
happen. In the face of other’s losses,
we recognize sharply how blessed we are, how rich in things, and people, and
love, and spirit. Crises can create an open-heartedness
and open-handedness in us. In days like
these we don’t have time to count the cost and calculate the risk.
On Thursday night I was here
with some of you and could see you responding to the losses of your neighbors
with heart, mind, and strength. Offering
your prayers, your church building, your time, energy, money--offering
yourselves to make sure that people living in shelters have food to eat,
clothes to wear, and hope for tomorrow.
You have responded to the risks of human living with your love. And in
this you risk something too in this less protected living. I think this puts you in a good place to
choose how you will consecrate your money to the love of God and neighbor in
the year ahead, because I think it puts
you less guardedly into the very mind and heart—into the very life of God.
Last week Rev. Meeter said it
is risky to tithe. It is risky to set
aside the first ten percent of our incomes out of love for God and neighbor. Financial planners would advise that we
invest these moneys more realistically. There
is the fiscal cliff and the threat of recession. There are children to feed and clothe, college
and pension funds to build and safeguard.
And, the reality is, it just ain’t cheap to live in Brooklyn .
Tithes and offerings rub
against the grain. It takes faith in God’s own faithfulness and generosity to
live generously. Faith in God is the way to respond to the daily risks of just being
human, and to the risks of giving
when we cannot know what tomorrow holds.
Trust in God’s provision and promises leads to risky living and loose
giving!
When we talk about giving, we
usually talk about dedicating the first ten percent, the first fruits of our
labors. But this morning, the word of God stretches us. We meet two widows who offer their very last fruits—they give away all they have
to live on.
You’ve got to wonder what God
was thinking in chosing the widow of Zarephath to be the one to feed the
prophet Elijah. She lives outside of the
people of Israel
And I wonder too, what might
Elijah be thinking when she says, “sorry guy, my cupboard is almost bare. I am going to make a small cake for my son
and I, then we will eat it and die?” God
sent him here, and now she has no food? I
know, we imagine he is a pious, perfect prophet. Always full of faith and trust in God. Never questioning. But in truth, Elijah struggles with God. He loses hope. Despairs of his life and sometimes hates his vocation.
As told, this story moves and
resolves quickly. But these two are
human beings like us. I believe there is very pregnant pause in which both
Elijah and the widow feel nothing but risk.
Nothing but fear. Their lives are
completely contingent on God. Trusting God
to keep God’s promise is the only way to find rest in the risk. So this widow
opens her hand to give. Her first act of
consecration. Her first experience of
loose giving. Her first encounter with
this God who provides, creates communities of love, and keeps faith forever!
Jesus is watching as the
people place their offerings in the temple treasury. A poor widow puts in two small copper coins,
worth a penny. She has been coming to the temple her whole life. Even after her husband died and her financial
resources dwindled, she brought her offerings--a sign of her trust in the
living God. She knows that what Jesus
has said is true. The temple scribes
play at piety, parade their pride, and devour widow’s houses. If she were more shrewd, she would protect
herself. If she were less foolish, she
would hold onto her last fruits. But a
lifetime of trust in God’s promise and provision leads her to risky living and loose
giving. God upholds the widow and the
orphan. God keeps faith forever. This widow believes that faith in God’s
faithfulness is the only risk worth taking, the only leap worth making.
If Jesus has not been
watching, we would not know this story. When
he calls the disciples over and points out what has just happened, Jesus is
restrained. These are the facts. The rich have put in large sums of
money. The widow has put in her last two
coins—all that she has to live on. Jesus
doesn’t criticize the rich folk who put in large sums of money. He doesn’t accuse them of withholding from
God. But he does do some “new” math by
calculating that she has given more than anyone else because she has literally
risked her life.
So we are left to sit with
the disciples and ponder what this might mean.
Is Jesus suggesting that every one of us ought to engage in this kind of
sacrificial, trust-full giving? Is he
changing the rules, saying indirectly, “You have heard it said that you should
give a tenth of what you have to God, but I say, give it all?” Is Jesus hoping that we with the disciples
will be disturbed that there should be in the community a woman so poor while
others enjoy great wealth? Is he
praising her faith and generosity, or criticizing the scribes and Pharisees who
exploit faithful widows rather than care for them? Jesus doesn’t tell us what to do here, just
creates a pregnant pause in the action and invites us to see, and hear, and
respond.
But there is more to see, and
hear and respond to than the widow’s offering.
As Mark’s gospel unfolds, we cannot miss the connection between the
widow who gives all that she has, and Jesus who is on his way to the cross. Jesus
knows the risks of being flesh and blood.
In birth, in life, and in death, Jesus gives up everything to flood the
world with God’s perfect love. As the
writer of Hebrews says: Jesus appeared once for all at the end of the age to
remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. Once and for all. Risky living and
loose, lavish redemptive self-giving.
And there it is. The heart of the matter. Here is it, the deep structure and source of
our own desire to give without counting the cost or calculating the risk. We live, and move, and have our being in the
living God whose love knows no ending, who keeps faith forever! Now unto him who loves us and freed us from
our sins with his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God
and Father, to him be glory and dominion, forever, and ever!
Copyright © 2012, by Renée Sue House, all rights reserved.
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