Century Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)

1301 Tamarack Road, Owensboro, KY 42301, (270) 684-0286, Pastor:  Rev. Jim Westmoreland

With God On The Side
Mark 12:38-44
by Jim Westmoreland

A businessman who needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal went to the temple to pray for the money. By chance he sat next to a man who was praying for $100 to pay an urgent debt.

The businessman took out his wallet and pressed $100 into the other man's hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and left the temple. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed: "And Lord, now that I have your undivided attention . . ."⁽¹⁾

Is this story about money, or is it about attitude?

Jesus had just finished warning the people about the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, be greeted with respect out in public, be given honors and deference at church and have the best seats in the synagogue and at banquets.

Then, Jesus sits down opposite the treasury to watch people giving their money. He sat and watched. He sat and watched! Didn't he know any etiquette? You're not supposed to do that! We don't watch what people put in the offering plate. If we write a check, we fold it toward the inside and put it in the plate, or we fill out an envelope and put it in it and put the envelope face down in the plate. We don't want to make a show of what we give, and we don't want others to know exactly what we put in that envelope.

At the temple where Jesus sat watching and listening, there were no envelopes, checks and no paper money to discreetly slip in the plate. There were brass horns in which to drop and/or toss your money. I always envisioned them like three or four brass, tuba-like horns. Since their was no paper money, it was coins that people dropped in the horns. The valuable coins were gold pieces of different sizes. The widows mite was small and light and not gold. It sounded light and thin like a paper clip compared to the larger gold pieces of the wealthy as they hit and rang the bell mouth of the collection horn.

And Jesus sat there and watched and listened as person after person walked up and made their offering. I wonder how they felt with Jesus watching like that. Some obviously didn't mind. They were proud of the amount they put in. Most were glad that Jesus hadn't seen their W-2's as they made their offerings. And there were some who appeared to give an offering, but the collection priests always found pebbles dropped in among the coins.

And Jesus sat there and watched and listened. So many people walked by. So many styles of dropping the money into the Treasury. So many contrasts. And Jesus watched. Mark tells us that many rich people put in large sums. I wonder what that looked like and sounded like. Did they drop in really big coins or a lot of smaller coins that sounded their way down the bell opening into the treasury box below?

And then there came a poor widow, self-conscious, disadvantaged and powerless in her culture, vulnerable and almost invisible in the legal, religious, political and social eyes of her society. And Jesus sat there and watched her as she dropped two small coins worth a penny, but they were all she had.

Is this story about money, or is it about attitude? Is it only about money, or is it about giving our lives, our time and our talents completely and passionately to God?

Sometimes, when I go into a restaurant and order a salad and decide which dressing I want with my salad, I will ask to have the dressing on the side. I want to decide how much I want to use. I want to control that decision, not the person in the kitchen. I have noticed that some people prefer foods not to touch when they eat their meal, and they will order their green beans or their creamed corn on the side so that they don't mix or touch in the plate.

Jesus said they gave out of their abundance. It looks like I'm going to have plenty, here is some for God. I don't want God to really be touching and controlling my life, I want God on the side.

The wealthy gave out of their abundance, out of surplus, but the widow gave out of her poverty. Now, the peasants in Jesus day didn't get paid once a month, every two weeks or even weekly, they were paid each day. And they spent everything they made just to get by for that day! Giving what she had was not emptying her bank account. She didn't have one. She emptied her little money pouch that had what she had received that day. For her God was not the side dish, He was the main dish! She gave out of faith! She gave out of a passionate love and trust in God!

A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairman of his parish. The man, the manager of the local grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: that no report would be due for a year, and that no one would ask any questions during the year.

At the end of the year he made his report. With the church's money he had paid off the church debt of $200,000. He had paid for redecorating the church. He had sent money to missions, and he had $5,000 in the bank. Needless to say, everyone wanted to know how.

The man quietly explained, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent of the proceeds and gave it to the church. I took it off of the top and, you never missed it."⁽²⁾

Jesus just sat there that day, across from the treasury, and watched and listened. What is the difference between keeping control, keeping the compartments of our lives separate, between keeping God on the side and trusting Jesus for what we need?

A beggar in India sat by the road every day. He heard the maharaja was coming the next day with his royal retinue. The beggar decided to arrive early. He did. He sat by the road and soon heard the music and acclamation as the royal retinue approached. The beggar edged further out onto the road.

Soon an official at the head of the arriving retinue approached. The beggar held up his empty sack. The official said "Wait" and went back to the enclosure in which the maharajah sat. Soon he returned. "His highness asks that you give him a gift of what you have." The beggar was stunned. Slowly he pawed through his meager supply of corn and handed over five pieces.

The official thanked him and returned to the royal one with the corn. He then returned, took the beggar's small pouch of corn, and put his hand in it. "His royal highness returns your gift."

That night, after the whole affair, the beggar went home, angry, to his poor space beneath a bridge. He muttered curses about the maharajah. He took his small sack of corn out and began to prepare his meager supper. But wait! He noticed a glint in the corn. He pawed through the corn and drew out ... a nugget of gold. Pawing more frantically now, he drew out another nugget of gold ... then another, and another till he had five nuggets of gold. He pawed frantically, looking for more, but no .. Only five pieces of gold. Then the beggar slapped is forehead. "He gave me one piece of gold for each piece of corn I gave him. Only five. What a fool I am. I would be a rich man if I had given him all I had."⁽³⁾

In his book, The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis depicts his devil, Screwtape, as advising his "apprentice devil" that moderation is one of the keys to avoiding the Christian faith:  "Talk to him about 'moderation in all things.' If you can get him to the point of thinking that 'religion is all very well up to a point,' you can feel happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all and more amusing."

It was quite an afternoon as Jesus sat there watching. So many people. So many expressions. There was gratitude and warmth, detachment and duty, sacrifice and devotion, and pretense and pride. There was too much moderation, too much keeping God on the side.

Will Willimon tells of a woman who grew up in an atheistic home. She had no church background at all. She lived most of her life quite happily with no Jesus, no Christian faith.

Then, at age forty-one, in her words, she found Jesus. She began attending church every time the doors opened. But she did not limit her piety to the church. She began a ministry among the poorest of the city's poor. She began inviting homeless families into her home. Her life was consumed with thoughts of how she might show her love for Jesus.

Willimon writes, "To us, it seemed a bit, well, extravagant. She seemed to some, out of control. Perhaps she had come under the control of another who had released in her energy, vitality, and passion beyond the bounds of our measured faith. She reminds us of another, extravagant, passionate woman long ago. Jesus tends to do that to some people.⁽⁴⁾ They would never think of trying to live their lives with God on the side! They are passionate, committed and transformed by a growing faith. Has he ever had that effect on you?" Amen.

Century Christian Church, October 22, 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
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