In Response to God's Call

Sincere Offerings

The gospel lesson for today is one of those passages that has a way of making people uncomfortable. Not all scripture passages in the Bible are easy to listen to. Perhaps that is one of the things that makes the Bible as powerful as it is. For if the whole Bible was really easy to listen to and to accept without our having to deal with some jabs at the conscience, now and then, it probably would have very little to say to us.

The gospel lesson for today starts off with a jab, at least for me. The setting of the lesson has Jesus teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, where the most religious people of the day spent much of their time. And in the context of our scripture lesson Jesus has been talking with several scribes. Now, you have to understand that the scribes were considered to be religious experts. When it came to knowing the Law of Moses and the rulings of the Talmud and the sayings of the Prophets, these men were the best. And you can imagine that these scribes, these legal experts working in the Temple were about as close to what our own justices of the Supreme Court would be. And there Jesus was, teaching and even debating with these experts in the Temple in Jerusalem.

And in our scripture for today Jesus says, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and like to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widow's houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They," Jesus said, "will receive the greater condemnation."

Now, you can imagine how the scribes must have liked hearing these words of Jesus. We who wear long robes need to take heed to what Jesus said about people who wear such things. I mean, I've had to struggle with this scripture passage. After all, any clergy person working in the house of the Lord, scholars of scripture, sitting in the highest seats in the house (except for the choir and those sitting up in the balcony), attending all sorts of banquets, and wearing robes, should pause occasionally to think for a while on what Jesus was talking about, here. We who pray long prayers need to do an "attitude check" on a regular basis in order to determine our motivation. Do we do these things for the sake of appearance? Are we looking for recognition? Or is there another reason? Hopefully, it is in all humility that we wear these robes, not to be thought of as great saints in the community, but as a means of serving the community. Hopefully, we pastors don't pray the long prayers in order to look and sound really important and "holier than thou", but, rather, to help the community come close to God.

As the bulletin says and as the newsletter has announced, this is "All Saints' Sunday." On this particular Sunday we remember those Christians dear to us who have died. It is interesting as we mention this to consider what it means to be a saint. For a long time I thought that a saint was someone who was a disciple of Jesus, or some Christian in history who had performed miracles, or some famous person who had died a martyr's death. And many of us probably share this same idea that this is what a saint is. When we think of saints, we think of St. Christopher, or St. Luke, or St. Paul, or St. Nicholas. But hardly any one of us would call ourself a saint, yet the scriptures themselves insist that anyone who is in Christ is a saint.

The word "saint" comes from an old English word that literally meant "holy". And the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, alike, call "holy" anyone who are among the holy nation of Israel or who has inherited such a distinction by being buried and raised in Christ through baptism. The apostle Paul, for instance, in the beginning of his letter to the Philippians addresses his remarks to "all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi." In fact, over and over again the writers of the New Testament referred to believers in Jesus Christ as "saints." Those who are in Christ are made holy because Christ is holy. And those who are holy are saints. Therefore, we who have been baptized, those of us who are Christians, are saints.

So, as you sit there in those pews, this morning, looking at each other, remember that you are looking at saints. Each of you who are in Christ Jesus are especially precious and holy and sacred to God. Imagine how our life here together would be affected in new and powerful ways if we always treated each other as though we were precious and holy and sacred to God! Imagine how different family life, or our job, or our community life might be if we were only able to remember that God considers us to be precious and holy and sacred.

Looking back at our gospel lesson for today, as Jesus criticized the scribes for their prideful haughtiness he knew that sin and the solution to sin, our faith in Jesus Christ, make us pretty equal in the eyes of God. When we are in Christ there is unity. When we are in Christ there is love. When we are in Christ there is, as Paul said no distinction between us: "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. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise."

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus noticed how people put their money into the treasury of the Temple. It says, "Many rich people put in large sums." But, then Jesus watched and was really impressed with a poor widow came into the Temple and put in two small copper coins, or everything she had. And Jesus called his disciples to him and told them that the widow had given more than all of the others put together. He said, "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."

Again, this is not an easy scripture. Certainly, if someone came into our church and gave all of their money to the church so that they didn't have any left over to buy groceries for their kids, we would all be pretty concerned. We would consider that to be a pretty radical thing to do. But Jesus had a point to make. He wanted to make it pretty clear that giving for the sake of the kingdom of God should be a priority in our life and that it should be more than a giving from what's left over after the taxes are paid, and the groceries are bought, and the mortgage payment is sent to the bank, and the clothes are purchased, and the videos are rented, and all the other stuff we like gets bought. Most of us who are in debt (and that is most of us) are in debt not because of our over-generosity to the kingdom of God, but because of all of the other things we have purchased over the years. And we need to ask the question, "Is our giving to the work of God's kingdom something that comes out of what's left over, or out of the first fruits of our labor?" I think most of us know what God wants.

There is a story that comes out of England. Several hundred years ago, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell the government ran out of silver with which to make cons. To find a solution to this problem, Cromwell sent his men everywhere to see if they could find more silver. After searching high and low they returned back to Cromwell to report that the only silver they could find was in the statues of the saints which were on display in various cathedrals in the land. Seeing the solution to the problem, Cromwell said, "Good! We will melt down the saints and put them into circulation!"

Certainly the greatest of all the saints are those who have been in circulation in our lives, not sitting on pedestals in a cathedral, somewhere. The real saints are the real persons who out of commitment to God and love for Christ have given everything they have for the work of the Lord, who have consistently prioritized their time, their treasure, and their talent in a way so as to glorify God.

We celebrate those saints today, and pray that we may be inspired by them as we carry on their work in Jesus name.

Let us pray:

O God, we thank you for calling us all to be holy to you. Inspire us to greater service and love as we work as fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.