A Penny for Your Thoughts
Dale Lindsay Morgan
Pasadena Presbyterian Church
November 8, 2009
The scripture reading for this morning is from the gospel of Mark, chapter 12, verses 38 through 44. Listen for the Word of God.
As Jesus taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at the 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.”
As is the case with so many stories from the gospels, and particularly from the Gospel of Mark, it’s helpful to know the context of the scripture – what has happened before the story we’re reading and what will immediately follow it – for Mark has selected these stories and arranged them in a particular way to tell the reader something important about Jesus’ life and teachings, not only for information but mostly for inspiration, that the reader might become a follower of Christ.
So let’s look at the story. Where is Jesus? (He’s in the temple.) Where is the temple? (It’s in Jerusalem). In Mark’s gospel Jesus’ ministry takes place in Galilee; he only goes to Jerusalem once, so what is the occasion? (It is Passover.) How does Jesus enter Jerusalem? (He rides a donkey). When does the church celebrate Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem? (On Palm Sunday.) What event does the church celebrate during the week after Palm Sunday? (It celebrates Maundy Thursday, when Jesus has a last supper with his disciples, is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemene, and faces trial before authorities who will condemn him to be crucified at noon the following day.)
We are reading Mark’s story in our season of autumn, between Hallowe’en and Thanksgiving – seasons of feasting on candy corn and turkey, seasons of harvest and joy – so it may be difficult to shift gears and think of the darkest hours of recorded time, the hours after Palm Sunday, the hours before the death of Jesus Christ.
But remembering those hours is the only way this story will make sense, the only way it will inspire us to “follow.”
Jesus has already visited the temple once – the day before this story when he drove out the moneychangers, shouting, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers (or thieves).” At this, Mark writes, the crowd was spellbound, but the chief priests and scribes began looking for a way to kill him.
Today, Jesus sees the rich and the poor put money in the temple treasury, and soon, as Jesus and his followers leave the temple, the disciples will comment on its beauty, saying “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” But Jesus will reply, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another; all will be torn down.”
The temple, the sacred place long considered to be the house of the LORD, a holy place, has become corrupted by unholy leadership. According to Mark the scribes who stand before the people in the temple also want people to bow before them as they walk through the streets. They demand the best seats in the synagogue and a place at the head table at parties. These scribes are known to pray strictly for show and even to wear their liturgical vestments in the marketplace so everyone will know that they are important men of the cloth.
You know that your pastor Mark and I don’t wear our preaching robes out in the street. For people who only see us on Sunday mornings, that can come as a surprise – as it was to a man who saw me one weekday in the produce section of Von’s and loudly exclaimed, “Oh, Dale; it’s you. I didn’t recognize you with your clothes on!”
The scribes’ liturgical attire evidently was quite elaborate. They didn’t wear simple stoles as we do but wore prayer shawls with long fringes – again, a sign that they were men of prayer. Yet here Jesus condemns them as men who “devour widow’s houses,” men who eat up the resources of the poor.
In the temple, according to archaeologists and scholars, there were probably treasure chests where the people’s offerings could go – only they weren’t shaped like the pirate’s treasure chests you might be imagining. They were more like the ram’s horns called shofars which the Hebrews used as trumpets. Placed so that the widest part of the trumpet was at the top and the narrowest part was at the bottom, money could be liberally dropped through the top and, after it safely landed at the bottom, no sneaky hand could reach in to steal it out. Apparently as the money was offered, the one giving it would announce the amount to a priest who was standing there; that’s probably how Jesus knew that the rich had made abundant offering while the woman had given but two coins, worth a penny, which Jesus says was all she had.
There was a story in rabbinic literature at the time of a priest who scorned a woman’s offering of a handful of flour; overnight he received in a vision a rebuke: “Despise her not; it is as though she offered her life.” Jesus says of the widow, too, “she…has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
At this point Mark, who is writing for Roman readers, has to explain that the two small copper coins of Palestine (coins so small that the early English translation called them “mites”) are worth a penny in Roman currency, the smallest coin of the realm.
The story, then, isn’t only to lift up the woman’s sacrifice, but to point out that she is supporting an institution that cares more for her money than it does for her – an institution that, in “devouring widow’s houses,” has had a hand in creating her poverty. That institution, Jesus says as he departs, is doomed. The temple will topple. Not one stone will be left upon another. And, in fact, that’s exactly what happened as Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD.
So it’s OK that this story comes to us after our official Stewardship Sunday and not before because it’s not about giving money to the church! It’s about the institution’s disregard for the poor –- although this story has been used in stewardship campaigns since the day the church began.
Gary W. Charles, former pastor of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria, VA, wrote a book about sermons preached from Mark where he commented: “The story from Mark’s Gospel is commonly known as ‘The Widow’s Mite.’ Most often, though, the real name of the story is ‘The Preacher’s Ploy.’ Violins play softly in the background as the preacher paints a scene that competes with the best weekday soap opera. The music grows to a swell as the wealthy in the congregation come forward and write a large check, and hits a crescendo as a poor widow drops in the meager remains of her husband’s trust fund. The preacher then swoops down for the kill, saying ‘Yes, the wealthy give a lot, but they also have a lot left over. The widow gives it all.’ A pregnant pause is followed by the violins again that sound a long plaintive chord as the preacher pleads, ‘Dare you give anything less?’” “Poor Mark must cringe,” Charles says, “when we reduce this story to a religious twist of the arm to get a higher pledge or guarantee more cash for the collection... We must pay attention to the whole story.”[1]
Mark doesn’t tell us how much Jesus put into the temple treasure chest. He doesn’t have to. Remember where the story appears. Soon the reader will understand. The faithful widow put in all that she had to live on. But Jesus will give his life. The temple will fall; Christ will be raised; the day will come when the priesthood will include all who believe, and the poor will sit beside the rich, the widow and the scribe, the disciple and the teacher, as all people become one people in the house of God.
Did you hear the story about the man who went into the house of God one day to pray?
He said, “God?”
And God replied, “Yes?”
The man said, “Can I ask a question?”
“Go right ahead,” God said.
“God, what is a million years to you?”
God said, “A million years to me is only a second.”
“Hmmmm,” the man wondered. Then he asked, “God, what is a million dollars to you?”
God said, “A million dollars is to me as a penny.”
So the man said, “God, can I have a penny?”
“Sure,” said God, “Just a second.”
We’re going to take a few seconds now to pass out some pennies. This is what many people have always wanted to do, take a little something OUT of the offering plate. So please take out a penny and pass the plate along. We’re going to look at these pennies together to consider what Mark’s story might continue to mean to each of us today.
PASSING OF THE PLATES WITH PENNIES; ORGAN PLAYS SOFTLY
“Be Thou My Vision”
These pennies were issued over a variety of years, but I polished them as best I could to make them look new, for I’d like us to come up with a new idea or two. Pennies aren’t very important anymore. When I was growing up we’d stick pennies in our loafers for decoration and if we saw one in the street we’d pick it up “for good luck.” I see very few people stooping down to pick up pennies anymore. In this economy it will take more than a single penny to bring us good luck. I think, though, that as the story of the widow’s penny was a lesson for the people of the ancient temple, so too this penny can provide a lesson for the people of today’s church. In fact, I have found three things we can learn from this penny. Later you may be able to tell me more.
We start with the image that immediately catches our attention – the face of Abraham Lincoln, “honest Abe.” The Jews would allow no images on their coins, but the Romans did. Remember how Jesus was asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, the emperor, (that event is right before today’s story, too) and Jesus looks at a coin asking, “Whose head is this?” The people say, “The emperor’s” and Jesus replies, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.” This little penny is currency of our realm and Abraham Lincoln’s picture is right there. Yet even so, our penny proclaims, “In God we trust.”
The psalms are filled with exclamations of trust in God, including one that says, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.” Money is important, the psalmist says, but more important is trust in God.
In my wallet, next to my credit cards, I have this card with a little drawing of Jesus on it. The card says: “If we meet and you forget me, you have lost nothing but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget him, you have lost everything.” I see it when I spend my plastic money. But every time we see our real money, we are also reminded that our trust is not in presidents – Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson…not even the one who’s too current to be on our currency, President Obama. For us the motto is: “In God we trust.”
When we turn the coin over we read that it is “one cent.” It’s not really called a penny. It’s a “cent.” It’s not worth a cent, either, you know. It’s only two and a half percent copper – the plating that covers the ninety-seven percent zinc. It’s worth about forty-four percent of a cent today.
Back in the 70’s the price of copper went up and a penny was worth more than one cent. So the government issued pennies made of aluminum. But it turns out that aluminum doesn’t show up on x-rays, and when children and dogs swallowed pennies, the pennies couldn’t be seen. So…it was back to copper as a thin coating on zinc.
On this side of the penny we can see the Lincoln Memorial and, if we look closely, we can even see the statue of Lincoln between the pillars in the center. Some of us Presbyterians may have a condition known as presbyopia, or old eyes, so we may need a magnifying glass to see the statue, but possibly we can distinguish the words above the memorial, e pluribus unum, which mean “out of many, one.” In the beginning, the motto meant that out of thirteen colonies came one nation, but now it can refer to the many people who make up the US from many nations. And that’s the second thing this penny can teach the church: from many people come one people – or as St. Paul put it, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). There is no longer scribe or widow, there is no longer clergy or laity, there is no longer rich or poor, there is no longer Anglo, Hispanic, Korean, or other national group, there is no longer able-bodied or physically-challenged, there is no longer young or old, far-sighted, short-sighted, or presbyopia’d -- there is no longer gay, lesbian, trans-gendered, bi-sexual, or straight -- but in the church, and especially here at PPC, there is one people, the people of God, the followers of Jesus Christ.
The third and final thing to note on our penny is the date of issue. That’s the date the coin was minted in Denver or San Francisco. You have a date when you were minted, too – the day of your birth. That date is past – over and done. On our bulletins this morning is another date, November 8, and about half of this day is gone. Yet future dates are still to come. And every day of every date left to us in our lives is a day when we can decide to follow Jesus… to do as the widow did and give our all…not just all we have to live on, as she did, but our life itself. Jesus gave his life and requires no less of us -- .as the gospel song says, “I believe he died for me, so I believe I’ll live for him.”
When this story is preached as a stewardship sermon, the people are asked to give money to the church sacrificially. But this story really asks how we can live our lives sacrificially, how we can dedicate each day to discipleship – to trust in God, to welcome all people, to be the church of Jesus Christ for which our Lord gave his life, to care for the poor and the widows -- not to devour their houses, but to lift them out of their poverty and to welcome them into the household of God.
Making that sort of decision for discipleship requires more of us than just flipping a coin. But I hope this coin may be a daily reminder to us. So take it home. Slip it into a loafer or put it next to the money you’ll be taking out of your wallet this week. It’s a penny for your thoughts. These are the thoughts that can change your life, and our life together, so…think big. Amen.
The Affirmation of Faith was written by Presbyterian poet, Ann Weems. She also wrote the words under the heading Preparation at the top of our Order for Worship. Ann and I are cousins (our mothers were sisters) and she is a great woman of faith. So stand as you are able as we bind our hearts with hers – and with one another – in affirming our faith:
THE AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
Some of us have mites and some of us have millions
and most of us fall somewhere in between.
We know it’s our responsibility to give from what we have been given,
and Jesus made it clear that it was not the size of the gift,
but the size of the giver’s hearts that matters.
We are not the same;
neither age nor color; nationality nor language;
social customs, economic background, tradition.
But we sit side by side in the house of the Lord and side by side we pray;
we share the same bread, we offer our gifts and listen to the same Word.
Across all boundaries we meet the same God,
and share the same hope in Jesus Christ our Lord.
From Abound in Hope, The Mission Board, Presbyterian Church (USA)
[1] Blount, Brian K. and Charles, Gary W., Preaching Mark in Two Voices (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), pp. 200-204.