Last week, Kim Hogan spoke of the importance of mission work, especially through mission trips with the youth. She shared how giving her time alongside young people to make a difference in others’ lives has become a profound expression of her faith. For her, mission work has been a treasured opportunity to serve, bringing hope and love to those in need.

Each of these stories reflects a heart for stewardship—a commitment to offer what we treasure to support God’s work here and beyond our church walls. As we consider our own offerings today, these examples invite us to think deeply about what we treasure and how we might share it with others.

Old Story of a Child and Offering Plate

Reflecting on their stories, this week brought to my mind an older story about a child, a young boy, who was invited to his local Church through a community evangelism campaign. The boy came on his own, having never been in a Church before. He heard the gospel message and believed it and wanted to show his newfound dedication to Christ in some way. He wasn’t familiar with the customs of the Church, so he didn’t know how to sign up to be on one of the committees or how to volunteer for one of the mission projects. He also wasn’t from a family of any kind of financial means. He himself had no money with him, not even a coin in his pocket. He was considering this last fact as the collection plates were being passed around. He saw people putting in checks and bills and he started to wonder what he could put in, that would really express all that he wanted to give for Christ.

The story goes that when the plates were brought up to the front for the prayer of dedication, the boy ran up, took one of the plates, put it down on the floor and proceeded to put both feet in and stand in the middle of the plate in front of the minister and the whole Church.  He explained that he had no money to offer, but wanted to give everything he had, which was all of himself, for Jesus.

Whether or not that story is completely true (and it certainly could be) – it gives us a clear and powerful image of offering all that we have and are, what we treasure, in order to live a life fully devoted to  Christ and sharing Christ’s love with the world.

Scripture story – practical meaning of the Widow’s Offering

In today’s scripture, we see another example of treasured giving in the story of a widow who makes a profound offering. Now, she doesn’t put her whole body into the collection box, like the little boy in the story, but she might as well have because she does give all that she has which is part and parcel of all that she is.

The scripture says that she was a widow – that tells us a great deal about her circumstances. A widow at that time in that society was automatically poor because she would have no means to support herself. She would be completely dependent upon the charity of relatives or even strangers. A widow could easily be homeless and would have less earning potential than an average servant. She was a person other people had to care for if they felt moved to do so. She was not a person who had any means of helping others and she was certainly not considered to be a great or important contributor to society or the Church.

Standing in stark contrast to this poor widow are the rich religious authority figures that are seen as very important contributors to the church and society. They are standing in the temple giving great sums to the treasury in obvious ways so that how much they give is known to everyone, their importance to God’s Church evident to all. All, that is, except God who sees that while they may be giving out of an abundance of wealth they are conversely giving from an impoverished spirit. God’s interpretation of these events comes to us through Jesus’ teaching.

Jesus and his disciples have already witnessed the impressive show of giving by the Church leaders, but Jesus does not point them out as an example for his followers. Instead, he brings their attention to the widow saying that she has “put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. ⁴⁴For 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.”

The literal translation from the original Greek of the last part of that sentence “all she had to live on” is “all the living of her.”  Since she was described as a poor widow, it is assumed that those 2 mites, which were 1/5 of a penny each, was all the money she had. A widow would not have had any savings or other assets, and she would not have had the promise of any additional income. Everything she had to live on, her entire livelihood, is what she gave to the offering.  This truly was all the “living of her” given with apparent freedom and lack of concern for her own benefit.

Giving out of our spiritual abundance

This teaching of this story is more than a comparison of sums or even a comparison of percentages of income between the scribes and the poor widow. This is a greater lesson of what it means to give your entire life, who you are, including all that you have and treasure, to follow God. For this woman, expressing her complete love and devotion to God in that moment meant giving her last cent to the Church treasury. For the little boy, it meant literally putting himself in the offering plate.  Jesus wants his followers to ask themselves the same question – what would it mean for you to give all of yourself to follow God, to put in “all the living of you”?

It is no coincidence that this story of the widow’s offering is Jesus’ last public teaching in the gospel of Mark. All the passages that follow involve Jesus’ predictions of his death to his disciples and the events surrounding his crucifixion and resurrection. That means this teaching concerning the widow is of paramount importance to understanding what Jesus has come to show us about our life with God.

The scripture says that the widow gave out of her poverty. In the material sense this is true, but in the spiritual sense she actually gave out of her abundance – an abundance of life and freedom given to her through the love of God; an abundance that helped her to see who she was and what she had to offer with God’s eyes and to offer all of herself not out of obligation or fear, but because of pure love.

Jesus will soon make this point with his own life by entrusting all of himself, all the living of him to the events that unfold. He will do this not as one who has been impoverished by his circumstances, but as one who lives in the abundance of God’s love and grace and is therefore able to give his whole self in order to follow God.

I remember a teaching from a Presbytery Executive in Indiana, many years ago, who challenged us to do everything out of what he called a “theology of abundance.” He said that when we consider all that Christ not only gave for us, but continues to give to us, then we will see ourselves not as people impoverished by circumstance, but as believers who are rich in grace, with more to share with the world than we could ever imagine. He explained that when we, as individuals and as a congregation, begin to practice our faith with a theology of abundance, then we, like the widow, are moved to a lifestyle of giving that flows from the rich abundance of love and life that we have in Christ.

Living a Life that Reflects what we Treasure.

As we reflect on the widow’s example, along with the heartfelt stories shared by members of our church, we see that loving and following God is something that not only changes your life but involves your whole life for the rest of your life. It is not something to do in our spare time, but is in and of itself a whole new way of living. The questions we ask ourselves change from “what will I give?” to “what do I treasure most?” From “what do I have to offer?” to “how can I live so that my life reflects that treasure?”

Today, we are invited to bring not only our financial gifts for the coming year, but our whole selves – our time and talents, our hopes, and dreams for what our church can become. May your offering reflect the abundance of love, hope, and faith that God has poured into your life. And may it be a reminder that our true treasure lies in living fully for God, just as Christ lived fully for us.

In the name of our Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.