The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman homily from November 10, 2024

 

All In, All the Time

10 November 2024

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph, LA

Year B, Pentecost XXV

1 Kings 17:8-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

 

One of the courses I taught to communication majors at ULM was a course called “Electronic Media Design.” We began the semester by talking about the principles of design.

The principles of design include such things as “balance” and “unity.” By and large, the students grasped these concepts pretty quickly. They had seen illustrations of “blind justice” holding her balance scale, and so they had a mental image for that concept. Here in Louisiana, they might even have seen cotton being weighed on a cotton scale, and so they understand that two objects of very different size can, in fact, “balance” because of their different densities.

In a similar vein, students have long been taught that when they write a story or an essay, it must have a unifying theme. And so they already had a sense of what unity looks like and how it functions in design.

Another of the principles of design is “proportion,” and for some reason, students had a hard time wrapping their minds around the concept of proportion. We’d be looking at examples, say of full-page ads from popular magazines, and they’d be chattering away explaining how balance and unity work in the ad, and I’d say, “So.., what about proportion?” And they fell silent.

I wonder what it is about proportion that made it so difficult for them. I wonder what it is about contemporary culture, or today’s political climate, that made students so unprepared to grasp proportion.

And maybe us, too. So many things seem so out of proportion today. Indeed, I wonder if my students had ever heard the story of the widow’s mite, or if we today have heard and understood. It is a lesson about proportion.

Jesus often taught with parables—little stories he made up to illustrate a point. But it is especially interesting and powerful that the story of the widow’s mite is not a parable. Instead, Jesus’ lesson about proportion is based on direct observation of human behavior. And, as usual, his take on that behavior turns our human expectations upside down.

He has been teaching in the Temple, the kind of sermon we all like to hear, a sermon aimed at deflating the egos of the high and mighty. “Beware of the bigwigs,” Jesus says. “Don’t be impressed by expensive clothes and badges of honor. Too often these have been gained at the expense of people who are poor or disadvantaged in some way.”

Then Jesus sits down in view of the treasury to watch the faithful drop in their tithes and pledges and offerings. Many do, among them rich folks who put in large sums.

Then along comes the widow with her two copper coins. Widows stand in for the poorest of the poor throughout the Bible, for in Jesus’ day, only males owned property and thus the loss of a husband’s support guaranteed poverty to the women left behind.

The widow of Jesus’ lesson has little, but she gives what she has to the Temple. And Jesus uses her to teach his disciples about proportion.

“Look,” he says, “she has given little in absolute quantity, but the small amount she gave is a very high percentage of what she has. The others have given a greater absolute amount than she, but a much smaller percentage of what they have. Therefore SHE… has actually given more… than they.”

Proportion: The relationship among parts within a whole. Perhaps it is our devotion to numbers—quantities and amounts—the bigger and more the better—that makes proportion a challenging lesson.

We hear that Bill Gates of Microsoft fame and wealth, or a famous football player or pop star who makes millions give a million to a worthy cause.., and we’re amazed. It is so-o-o much greater than any amount we will ever be able to give.

We cannot comprehend that the $500 the teacher gives to his or her church, or the $50 the custodian gives, or even the $5 the waitress gives… might actually be more than the million the wealthy philanthropist gives.

We can’t comprehend it because we live in a world in which bigger is better and more is.., well, MORE. And the more the better!

But Jesus tells us that the absolute amount given is not what matters. What matters is proportion—the relationship of the part to the whole, of the gift to the total resources of the giver.

In other words, sometimes more is, in fact, less.

The widow’s mite reminds us that the absolute amount we give or pay matters less than the proportion of what we have that we give or pay. Proportion is why Jesus tells us over and over again that those who have much are expected to give more.

But however important proportion is, this story offers us something more. It is revealing that Jesus goes straight from teaching about self-importance and showy piety to his lesson about proportion.

It is often the case that the more we have, the less satisfied we are and the greater our desire for yet more. We hoard and strive, and become obsessed with quantity and size. Most damaging of all, we come to measure our worthiness and that of others by the bottom line.

Even our charity becomes tainted with our prideful performance of piety. Please do not misunderstand; charity is a necessary thing. But I fear that the devotion of our society to charity as the preferred solution to systemic and structural inequities that ensure a widening gap between the richest and the poorest, is more about comforting and salving the conscience of the already comfortable than it is about helping the afflicted.

Charity is rarely enough to change lives, which is why I think our bicycle project through the Shepherd Center is so important. The gift of transportation might actually change a life—make it possible for someone to have a better job, be more reliable, take greater pride—and some of the stories I’ve heard about recipients imply that.

But, finally, I want to go one step further with this story. It’s not just about money and it’s not just making sure you give a healthy proportion. It’s about going all in for Jesus! Now that’s a bit jingo sounding: All in for Jesus! Not my usual style but I kinda like the ring of it!

The widow shows total commitment; she’s all in for God. Jesus asks the same of us. We might give a certain percentage of our income to the church, but that is not all God asks of us. God asks for our time, our talent and our treasure.

And even more so our love. The command that we love God and our neighbor as ourselves does not come with a caveat—like 10% of the time, or just when we’re in church, or only when our neighbors look like us or worship like us and believe the same things. When it comes to sharing the love of God by loving others, God asks for a 100% commitment.

The widow was all in for God. God wants us, all in, all the time.

 

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN.