Good Morning Friends,
Not all widows are poor and not all widows are generous, but whether wealthy or not they can help us to learn the nature of impressing God. The harsh reality is that our buying and giving habits can often perpetuate systems that marginalize the poor and contradict good stewardship. Integrating our life with the faith we profess is the insight and action we need. Here we must mature in the faith, understanding that we must give generously. Parting with money can be a very troubling experience for those addicted to it. But in the end, you cannot take it with you, and neither can I. Getting joy out of making money and even saving it is more readily processed. However, giving money away, though initially counterintuitive, can be very pleasurable too. So, Do You Know What Joyous Giving Is All About?
Scripture: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:1-8 (NRSV)
As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’ He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’
Mark 12:38-44 (NRSV
For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9 (NRSV)
Message: Today’s widows may indeed be very wealthy, but widows during the time of Christ were not highly regarded. They did not inherit wealth or typically make it independently. Today’s scripture reaches beyond these changes in society to teach us the power of being totally dependent upon God. It challenges us to go out and risk it all. Friends, I am surrounded with people society calls rich (retired executives of corporations) and poor (unemployed victims of economic downturns and natural disasters, those effected by the Pandemic, and especially immigrant farm workers and children.) Sometimes they help each other and amazing things happen. Jesus shows up and we learn firsthand about the rich being poor and the poor being rich. Christ’s transformative presence in culture knows something about influence and power that we typically miss. In today’s scripture we are told a story about how those with nothing to lose are prepared to take risks that the wealth encumbered are not. We are given a story to instruct us in the emotions of giving and living. Friends, because Jesus did not hold anything back but put his entire life onto the cross to pay for sins, we have the opportunity to experience the Kingdom of God. Friends, God wants all our life not just part of it. God wants us to experience all of life. Today’s scripture is about the grace of giving extravagantly to the point of joy, giving in the reality that so doing will bring you to the point of being totally dependent on God. In the scripture story we see a woman loving the Lord God with all her passion and prayer and intelligence and energy… the story of the widow’s mite. Here we see a woman loving others as if she were loving herself. It is a story about measuring giving not by the size of the gift, but how much we have left after the gift is given. We stand at the border of the kingdom realizing that we too must put God first before we can come into an intimacy with Him. We cannot serve two masters. Here we see that the greatest barrier to the door of the kingdom of God is greed.
And So, we are to develop the habit of giving to live a generous life. We need to give to the point of joy, give to the point we are dependent on God. Give as a real-life commitment of our love of God and our love of our neighbors. Here giving is a gift and a blessing. It is a two-way street where we share in our plenty and receive in our poverty. It is humbling for we all are spiritually broke…no worse, spiritual debtors who can only be reconciled through the debt Jesus paid. His payment leaves us free to learn, and free to share, free to love, and free to see that we have been forgiven so that we in turn can open our hearts to the gift of giving. Giving shows our trust of the Lord, it shows our recognition that He owns it all. Giving is an investment with guaranteed returns that also provides for those who would otherwise go without. Giving makes God happy and provokes a thankful heart in us. Giving puts us in the good company of those who have submitted with obedience to God to carry on the work of the Spirit around the world. We are to find the extravagant power… the joyous power of being all in as a commitment to being part of a community of love. That is what joyous giving is all about.
Pray that we be good stewards of the resources we have been provided. Pray that we give because we find great joy in being obedient to God’s call on our lives. Pray we have a lifestyle that puts it all in. Pray we be prepared to give it all up for the sake of God. Pray we are never lukewarm for God. Pray we embrace economic faithfulness in the grace of giving. Pray our open-handedness with money turns into a bountiful blessing for both the giver and receiver. Pray we realize that when we give it is given back to us eventually. Pray we realize that God is not interested in our money but is interested in what it can do in terms of the health of our hearts and heads when released from being only potential energy. Pray we are obedient in love and discover the joy of life abundant now even more so than in the sweet by and by. Pray this joy of giving overflows from us like a gut-wrenching laugh that brings tears to our eyes. Pray our giving prompts the release of not only physical, but also spiritual antibodies, which strengthens our not only our individual immune system but also our communal ones. Pray we understand the power of joyous giving.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 