Two Pennies

Mark 12:38-44

 “Two Pennies”

08 November 2015 St. Andrew’s Chapel Singapore

Once upon a time a sheet of copper was cut at the mint and out came two brand new pennies. These pennies were excited to be a part of the vibrant economy. Just think of all the things they will witness as they are transported to the bank and then find a new home with someone who will put them to good use.

Maybe they will be used to buy something extremely important. Perhaps they will buy a new house, or maybe pay for someone’s education. Or they could be given to some young girl who was beaming with pride at finally washing the dishes like mom and dad kept asking. Then she would take the two pennies, along with whatever other coins she had earned, and with the largest grin she could muster, because she was now a grown up, she put all of that change on the counter to buy her first scoop of ice cream all by herself.

But over time, the pennies become faded and worn out. Inflation happens as it so often does, so the pennies aren’t worth what they were the day they were produced at the mint. In fact, right now pennies actually cost more to make than they are worth. Because of this, people didn’t know what to do with these pennies, so they just began to sit in jars or dishes at someone’s house where at best they would get deposited with hundreds or thousands of their friends after sitting for a few years. Or maybe they would find their way to a military family and the bowls they lived in would get packed up every few years where the movers would probably lose them or pack them with some strange items.

At worst, these pennies would get thrown to the ground because they had just become some annoyance to whomever had the unfortunate luck to buy something that cost something ninety nine. They began to feel that they had lost all meaning, that they weren’t making a contribution, they weren’t bringing people joy and helping people purchase things. People didn’t want them, didn’t need them.

Then one day they found their way into the hands of a nice elderly lady who didn’t really have much. Maybe she found them sitting on the sidewalk, in desperation took them from the leave a penny jar, was given them on the sly from someone who didn’t want to embarrass this gentle soul in her poverty, or maybe she got them from her local church as part of their charity program.

Much to the surprise of these two coins, when they were slipped into her pockets they were all alone. When she emptied her pockets at the end of the day, they were all alone. The pennies realized that they were everything this lady had. Once again, they mattered. They could buy her food, help her live.

For this woman, these pennies were an abundance. She had probably been financially ripped off, as trusting elders can be duped. Just look at who the Nigerian scams and some mortgage companies target for bad loans. After living with little for a while, these two pennies seem like a gift from heaven, an unexpected bounty in a world of little.

Now, what would we do if we won the lottery? Where is the first place we would go? Zillow to look for a new house? The car dealer to get a shiny new car? To the bank to deposit the money so it can be invested in the stock market to make more? Set up the kids for college? Whatever we would do, I am fairly certain it would be something to either save the windfall or spend it on something we need. Our actions would come from our cultural conditioning that there is never enough money to go around so if we have it we should either keep it or spend it. And this lady’s culture is no different than ours in that regard.

But, she does something unexpected as tends to happen with our grandparents who always seem to buck convention and do something to make us take notice. This lady goes and heads to the temple to give out of her abundance to God. Well Jesus knows she’s on her way so he decides to sit across from the treasury and watch the show.

A huge crowd was there to give to the temple so there was the buzz of humanity gathered in a small area. People are talking, kids are probably running around playing, yelling, having a great time. Many people were gathered around the treasury to see who all was giving to the temple, and how much because there needed to be some gossip about who made how much and who were the biggest donors. Some of these people were making a show out of their generous donations, playing to the crowd so everyone knew they were there.

The disciples are getting fidgety and wondering why Jesus is people watching and still hanging around the temple he just overturned the tables in. Because of the attention Jesus has attracted from those in power, they just want to get out of dodge and not get arrested. They’re starting to realize this may not end well. So they aren’t really paying attention to what is going on.

All of a sudden Jesus says, “look over there do you see that?” They follow his gaze and his finger and at first wonder if he is excited about the people he just derided for giving money. But the momentary break in the commotion and a quiet moment catches their eyes. “See that, see that widow? She has given so much more than everyone else today combined. That’s what I want from you. I want all you have.”

Jesus wants all of us. He wants us to live as if he is all we need. Does this necessarily mean that we have to give all of our worldly possessions? Not exactly. But it does mean that we should live as if Christ is all we need. It means that we should live a life from a place of abundance not of scarcity. We should live such that we know there will always be enough to go around, not live such that we need to hoard to get ours before anyone else. That’s tough because our culture, our society tells us differently.

Now as a military chapel, we are in a unique position to practice this first as a community so we can take that lesson back to our lives and the world. Typically, when you give to a church there is a budget that it is trying to meet covering everything from buying paper to salaries and mission work. This is achieved through generous giving from the congregation. Here we don’t have to raise money for keeping the AC on or paying my salary, or to keep Sam providing his amazing piano talent every week.

With this freedom, comes a requirement that every 6 months in January and July we spend down what we collect in our offering to a certain amount. This is an amazingly missional requirement from the Navy. As a congregation we are forced to live abundantly in our support of missions. We aren’t allowed to hoard finances. We have to spend this money to further Christ here in Sembawang as well as around the world.

So how do we support the community and the world? Well, your money is constantly feeding the families who attend AWANA as we have instituted a meal at the end of the classes each week, which I think has been highly successful and the right answer. This money also goes towards our community meals with the Catholics allowing us to build a stronger chapel community. Some also goes towards the youth group each week to buy their food. A youth group that Catholics as well as a number of students without a church home attend. We are reaching the local community in big ways here.

These sound like big expenses and they are. However, because of your generous giving, we have an abundance right now that we need to decide where to give. We will spend down the account in January, but let us start to think where we want to give that money now. Let me know what ideas you have for the January disbursement right now or you can email me. We’ll put together a list of all the possibilities and take a vote in January (probably on the 10^th) so that we, as a community, decide where we use our abundance to impact the world.

By keeping this process of our giving to the world open and transparent you will see how we are trying to be like the widow and giving all of what we have as a church in the service of Christ. From there my prayer and hope is that we will all look at our own lives and when we come into unexpected abundance through either our time, talents, or treasure we look for ways to give that abundance back to whence it came. For this building, this money, won’t last. Remember that the very next chapter of Mark has Jesus predicting the destruction of the temple.

We are called to be a people, a church that gives everything to Christ. Even. To. Our. Death. There is a faith group that describes this in a beautiful way, “The Church is called to undertake [its] mission even at the risk of losing its life, trusting in God alone as the author and giver of life, sharing the gospel, and doing those deeds in the world that point beyond themselves to the new reality in Christ.”

Let us strive to live a life of abundance like this widow where the size and amount of our abundance don’t matter. What matters is that we recognize we are called to live an abundant life where we undertake our mission in the world even at the risk of our lives individually and collectively as the Body of Christ.