Trust & Give Out of Abundance

Sunday, November 10Proper 27, Year B, RCL, Track 2

1 Kings 17:8-16Psalm 146Hebrews 9:24-28Mark 12:38-44

Poor Widow

The river in the town where he was living dried up. Famine surrounded the country. What was he to do? Elijah prays to God and is told to go to another place, a place where famine still persists. The woman he encounters is a widow, a person of vulnerable circumstances. She was likely poor but able to get along in normal time. However, due to the drought, she believes she and her son will not make it through the night.

Elijah, a strange, approaches the city gate and yells, Woman, bring me some water. And before she could bring it to him, he yells, Bring me some food as well. This woman who believes that she and her son will succumb to starvation by mooning somehow trusts this stranger enough to make him a small loaf of bread. Through her trust and generosity, she is blessed by having a never-failing supply of grain and oil until the drought ends.

This story reminds me of a more contemporary story; the story of Desert Pete.

“A traveler, lost in the desert, stumbles upon an old shack. Inside, he finds a water pump with a small jug of water and a note. The note explains that the pump needs to be primed with the water in the jug for it to work. The note, signed by Desert Pete, instructs the traveler to pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it. If he does this, the pump will provide all the water he needs. The traveler faces a dilemma: do I drink the water for immediate relief, or do I trust the note and see if this old pump will work? Our lost traveler decides to take the risk, pours the water into the pump, and starts pumping. At first, nothing happens, but he keeps going, and soon, water gushes out. He drinks his fill, refills the jug, and leaves it for the next person."

Life requires a certain amount of trust. The woman in our first story didn’t have to trust the stranger, but she does. Likewise, the man at the water pump doesn’t have to trust the note, but he does. We don’t have to trust our neighbors, but we do. Generally speaking, we know we are safe to walk around town. We are safe to drive our cars knowing that most people follow the same rules.

As children, we learn to trust that our parents will give us food, not a snake or scorpion. This type of trust is important to our daily life but more importantly, God asks us to trust him. We are asked to trust those whispers that tell us right from wrong. Trust the stories about his son Jesus, that have been handed to us generation after generation. God asks us to trust that through the mutual love we have with Christ, we will be offered a gift; the gift is life. This life does not come through grain and oil, but through Christ’s sacrifice to remove our sin. He may not be a hot loaf of bread in our hand but he is the bread of heaven that will sustain us through the ages.

This idea of trust comes to us in today’s gospel account. Jesus distinguishes some scribes as being more interested in their appearance than in following God. They dress in fancy clothes; they take the best seats in the synagogues and banquets. Their wealth comes on the backs of the vulnerable people in society. He even says that their long prayers are for appearance so they can hear themselves speak and others will see how important they are. Their position is not about their vocation, their calling by God, or the good they can do for others. They use their position to enhance their power and sense of identity.

Jesus gives us another example. In this story, there are two types of people, those who contribute out of their abundance and those who contribute out of their poverty. We’ve likely known both kinds of people. Those who contribute out of their poverty are usually embarrassed to show what they are contributing; for they wish they could do more. They often give, trusting that when they are in need someone will give back to them. Once in a great while during evening prayer, one of our guests will offer me a dollar or some change. The first time this happened, I tried to refuse, but they were insistent, and I seemed to have hurt their feelings. So I took the money and I continue to receive the occasional offering which I place in the Alms Basins for Sunday morning. Like the widow offering her two pennies, if we look at this in proportion to giving of their income, or collective wealth, this change would be a huge percentage of their wealth.

Those who give out of abundance are also generous. We can find institutions like churches, universities, or hospitals that have plaques or wings of buildings or even whole buildings named after a benefactor. I occasionally wonder if the name was part of the contract as in “I’ll give you this money, but the building must be named after me.” Or does it come from the other way around, “Thank you for your generosity, we would like to name the building after you?”

For some who give out of abundance, they are simply skimming off the top. They may give $40,000, a very generous gift. Yet this generosity does not interfere with their travel plans, their gifts or contributions to others. It definitely doesn’t impact their stability, whether they can make their car or house payments. For some gifts of this magnitude may have no impact on their lives whatsoever. For others who give out of abundance, their giving may have more impact, it may change the amount of disposable income we have that year, and need to adjust their budget accordingly. In either case, no one is jeopardizing their lifestyle.

Let me be clear, I would never ask anyone to jeopardize their financial security. Yet I believe there are some of us who could give a little bit more without changing our lives in a significant way. To be a member of the episcopal church, like most mainline denominations, we do not mandate tithing, meaning a 10% giving of your income. On a side note, Islamic centers consider a tithe to be 2.5% of your gross assets, including business assets, minus your primary residence and clothing. Though the 10% tithe is biblical, and most mainline denominations would say is what we should be striving toward this level of giving, we know this is a difficult number to attain. By the way, the average Episcopalian gives about 2.5% of their disposable income.

I believe the better to approach for giving comes from the idea of abundance. Each of us knows that God has been generous. From creation, the earth and sky, the animals, to our vocations and the income we receive. God’s abundance is for our benefit, and it extends to our families and friends and all those we love. Yet as a church, we not only recognize God’s abundance, but we depend on the abundance that God has given us. It is through the abundance that God has given you that we rely on our sustenance. I need you to truly reflect on the abundance in your life so that you can share God’s abundance with this parish. Together we are like our forebearers who came together to build and maintain this building. We, like the early Christian Church, are a place for worship, celebration, and shelter from the world beyond our walls. Through our presence, we bring the community into a closer relationship with God and our neighbors.