Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
This morning, I want to root into what calls us into our vocation as a Christian community, blessed by our opportunities to give our ministries as gifts to the world.
I’ve been inspired to think about this by the two main characters in our scripture readings and their actions of generosity. These widowed women are both nameless, and on the face of it, their giving is paltry - but their giving is infused with enormous purpose through the presence of the living God.
But, it’s not the women’s character I’m interested in. By character I mean the description of what motivates the person deep down. In this instance, the women must have an inherent motivation, rooted in their character, to give of their paltry possessions. But, that’s as far as I’m going to explore “character” – I might encourage you to head to Google later today alongside your open Bibles on your kitchen tables and explore the depth of character that you can see in these biblical women!
I’m also not really interested this morning in the action of gift giving. We have lots of cultural values placed on the act of giving generously. Who can do it and how much is good enough depending on how much you have. But, again, that’s as far as I’m going to explore gift giving – head to Google, there’s really interesting work done on the idea of gift giving especially as it pertains to God’s pure gift of grace. But, I’m not going any further.
Because what I’m interested in today are the gifts themselves.[1]
The meal, or flour, the oil and water.
And the two copper coins.
They’re kind of boring, right? They’re normal things! Both of these sets of items would be terribly disappointing to receive as gifts on their own in a Christmas stocking on Christmas morning!
Yet, I see God as being so deeply embedded into these gifts. God’s presence, purpose, promise and faithfulness is written all over these gifts given by the widows.
And I’m interested in these gifts because I think they can become metaphors for us as a community at St. Matthew – metaphors for our congregation’s ministries which are also deeply embedded with God’s presence, purpose, promise and faithfulness.
Let’s start with the widow we meet in 1 Kings.
The bread meal (or flour), oil and water that she gives were extraordinarily precious commodities at the time this Sidonian widow gave of what she had to the Israelite prophet Elijah. There had been a drought for an unspecified amount of time throughout the region where Israel, Samaria and Sidon are located – these nations are present day Israel, Jordan and Syria. We know the drought has gotten really bad because in the verses that follow this part of the Sidonian widow’s story, we learn that Elijah is staying in her upper room, which gives us a clue that this widow was once wealthy enough such that she lives in a two-story home. And this is the woman who now only has enough flour, oil and water to make one final meal for her son and herself.
And Elijah, an Israelite, not even a Sidonian by nationality, pops onto the scene while she’s scrounging around for sticks to build a fire to make her final supper; and he asks her for some food. She looks at this foreigner and tries to kindly explain to him that she has only enough for herself and her son. Elijah’s response, in the midst of a drought that has turned this wealthy family destitute, is “Don’t worry! Just give me your food, because my God will do the rest!”[2]
And to the amazement of us readers, she believes his words. She gives of what she has to Elijah, this foreigner who pops into her life. And God does do the rest! The flour, oil and water do not run out while the drought persists.
The gifts she gave were imbued with God’s covenantal promise of care and abundance in her act of giving. The gifts took care of her family and of Elijah throughout the drought. The simple, everyday, boring flour, oil and water became Holy Gifts completely surrounded with God’s presence.
Now, onto the widow who gives her two coins to the treasury of the Temple in Jerusalem. She is participating in an economic model of making alms to the temple treasury this was something that was required by the Temple authorities.[3] This widow had money, but it was just two copper coins, just worth a penny.
Using a little “biblical imagination,” I can picture this widow, perhaps elderly, slightly bent, wearing old clothes, clutching all that she has – her two coins – shuffling to the Temple to give them away. I can imagine the prayers she might have whispered over her two coins. The hopes she had in giving her coins to the place where the Divine is believed to be truly present. I can imagine the ways she imbued those coins with her faith in a God who is near, who has promised to be in relationship with the people, who is an abundant God who is a provider. Again, the gifts she gives are wrapped up into God’s promises of care and abundance as they are given away in faithfulness.
The gifts are not so boring anymore! God’s presence, promise and faithfulness are written all over these “paltry” gifts given by the widows.
Changing our frame to a focus on what’s going on with the gifts themselves, has opened us up to see how God is active, faithfully present and really at work with the gifts.
So, now we can see how God is active, faithfully present and really at work with OUR gifts.
Our ministries here at St. Matthew are our copper coins that we have the opportunity to give in great faithfulness - knowing they are wrapped up with God’s presence, purpose and promise.
Because we have these stories this morning that remind us that when our gifts, our ministries, are done in great faithfulness to God they carry God’s covenantal purpose into the world. A purpose that is wrapped up in Jesus’s reminder that our calling as faith-filled people is to love God above all else, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Our ministries when they are faithfully gifted to the community that surrounds us become a reflection of God’s purpose of grace-filled love, abundant provision and service to the neighbor in our world. A world that desperately needs reminding that this is God’s purpose, especially after this bitter political season we’ve come through, that we are called to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
That is our call as Christians. And our ministries – our copper coins that we offer to the community around us - are deeply embedded into God’s promise of being lovingly and faithfully present with us as we live out God’s call to us to become a reflection of God’s love to everyone else.
Our ministries here are doing that in a world that might not always reflect God’s love for all. Our ministries here are our gifts that we are privileged to give as the widows gave in our stories this morning. For like the widow’s flour, oil and water, our ministries are Holy Offerings to a world that cries out for them, our ministries reflect God’s image and they are filled with God’s promise of care, faithfulness and love.
This morning we’ve deepened our roots into our vocational call as a Christian community and I give thanks to God for the ways we can give our ministries to our surrounding community as our two copper coins.
Amen.
[1] Inspired by Emilie Townes in her writing “Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word, 25th Sunday After Pentecost, Year B.
[2] Rev. Dr. Matt Skinner said something similar in the Sermon Brainwave podcast published weekly by Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN.
[3] Rev. Dr. Matt Skinner gave this background on the economic model the widow was participating in during the Sermon Brainwave podcast published weekly by Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN.
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