“Are We Condemning Ourselves”

Mark 12:38-44

Greed, like covetousness, is idolatry: a no-no for ancient Israel, a no-no for the modern church. Hear what Frederick Buechner has to say about idolatry: “Israel did not want to be a holy nation. Israel wanted to be a nation like the other nations, a nation like Egypt, a nation like Syria. She wanted clout. She wanted security. She wanted a place in the sun. It was her own way she wanted, not God’s way; and when the prophets got after her over it, she got rid of the prophets, and when God’s demands seemed too exorbitant, God’s promises too remote, she took up with all the other gods who still get our money and our votes and our [9-5] energies, because they are gods who could care less whether we are holy or not, and promise absolutely everything we really want and absolutely nothing we really need.”

I rediscovered a very simple prayer last week: “May I be satisfied with enough.” Being satisfied with enough is a practice we can bring to every facet of our lives. A related thought comes out of Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the third Beatitude: “You’re blest when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no less.” This is akin to the 10th Commandment: “You shall not covet…” When we covet that which belongs to someone else we are telling God that what he’s given us and made of us is not good enough.

One of the ways we can be faithful to these two pieces of Scripture is to start each day with that humble prayer: “May I be satisfied with enough.” Said prayer is a good antidote for the deadly sin of greed. Satisfaction with enough helps us be content with who we are and what we have. Such contentment protects us against the temptation toward idolatry.

In today’s text Jesus rips into the Jewish scribes for, among other things, greedy covetousness that manifests itself in the lack of love for their neighbor. They are pretentious, self-centered, self-serving hypocrites who are never satisfied with enough. They hunger for attention, honors, and recognition. Their piety is a sham. It’s not about God or God’s law. It’s about them.

They’re not satisfied with enough money or property. They feather their nests by using loopholes in the Pharisaic code to cheat people, including the most vulnerable people of their time: widows.

Jesus wasn’t the first prophet to denounce such behavior. Said Isaiah: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Rescue the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow. Such behavior was demanded within the terms of Israel’s covenant with God.

Rescue the oppressed; don’t manipulate the legal system in ways that enable you to worsen their oppression. Defend the orphan; don’t bribe judges and witnesses to make unjust rulings and give false testimony so that you can cheat children out of their inheritance. Plead for the widow; don’t swindle or cheat the most vulnerable members of society. Lift the oppressed up out of their oppression. Make sure that orphans do not have to live on the streets. Insure that widows are protected. Treat them like Boaz treated Naomi and Ruth.

The Israelites did not heed God’s Word as it was delivered to them by the prophets. So God allowed them to suffer the consequences of their behavior. Such consequences were not pleasant. Read II Kings and II Chronicles.

And pay attention to what Jesus said about those scribes: “They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greatest condemnation.” Short-term these guys were hot stuff. Honor, respect, and adulation were theirs. Wealth and status defined their lives. They had it made in the shade: in the short-term. But in the long-term – as in eternity – as Eugene Peterson paraphrases the words of Jesus, “… they’ll pay for it in the end.”

Shortly after Jesus spoke those words the scene shifted. He and the disciples were watching folks make their offerings to the temple treasury. Some people dropped in significant sums. Then along came this poor widow, quite possibly a victim of one of those ethically challenged scribes. She was down to her last two cents. That was it, all she had to live on. She desperately needed it for herself.

Jesus noticed this, and then commented on it. Staying with Peterson’s paraphrase, Jesus said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford – she gave her all.”

The scribes probably gave large offerings, and made sure that everybody saw them do it. Odds are they had very carefully figured out exactly what a tithe of their income was and gave exactly that much. So what? Giving away 10% of a whole lot still left them with 90% of a whole lot. That widow gave her total net worth, leaving her with nothing. She trusted God to provide. And if God’s people were being faithful to God’s law she would have been taken care of. God had made provision for folks like her in his law.

Early on here I shared with you this definition of love: “If I can help you I will. If I can hurt you I won’t.” Let’s concentrate on the second part of that definition. The scribes displayed a lack of such love by cheating those who were most vulnerable. They could hurt such people, and they did. What they did was technically legal within the letter of the law. Was it ethical? No. Was it defensible within the context of what God required of them? No. Was it a sin? Absolutely.

If I can help you I will. If I can hurt you I won’t. There is a correlation between such behavior and the prayer I shared at the beginning of the service. If I am satisfied with enough I’m more apt to share what I have with those in need. If I am satisfied with enough I am less apt to be tempted to take advantage of others, even if it’s perfectly legal and socially acceptable to do so. If I am satisfied with enough I’m less apt to crave adulation or a higher rung on the cultural ladder. If I’m satisfied with enough I am more apt to follow that poor widow’s example by giving sacrificially.

Wrote Johnnie C. Godwin: “On spiritual scales, the greatest gift is that which costs the giver the most.” If I have $100,000 and give away 10% of it, I still have $90,000. My check might look like a lot as it lies in the offering plate. But in terms of my total resources, it will barely move those spiritual scales upon which true generosity is measured. Financial stewardship is less about how much we give and more about how much we had left. On the above mentioned spiritual scales the widow’s mite will always outweigh the rich scribe’s big check.

Wrote William Barclay about verses 38-40 of today’s text: “… [these words are] a warning to all who are in the church for what they can get out of it, and not for what they can put into it.” If we do what we do for and give what we give to the church in order to feel better about ourselves, impress our friends and neighbors, and be named pillars of the church, we’re acting like modern day versions of those scribes Jesus condemned. It’s not about us. It’s about God and God’s work.

More from William Barclay: “It may well be a sign of the decadence of the Church and the failure of Christianity that gifts have to be coaxed out of Church people…” There is no stewardship campaign at Grace this year: no minutes for mission, no letters asking you to give, no pledge cards to fill out. You know the needs of this church. You’re aware of the needs of a hurting world. Each of you knows your own net worth. I refuse to coax you to give.

You know how much your enough is. You know that greed and covetousness are forms of idolatry, the worship of those false gods that promise everything and deliver nothing. You know that you are to love the Lord your God with the very best of who you are and what you have – and your neighbor as yourself. You know that whatever you’ve attained or accumulated in life is an unearned and undeserved gift from God. You might not like admitting it, but none of it is yours to do with as you please – not one thin dime, nada, zilch.

None of us stands accused of the greedy, self-righteous hypocrisy of those long-ago scribes. But each of us has a little bit of that scribe in us, and must be careful not to let it take over our lives in such a way that we end up condemning ourselves. None of us is being asked to give our total net worth to the church. Each of us is being asked to give God some of our prime time and energy and to try praying and then living these words: “May I be satisfied with enough.” Amen.