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SERMONS

The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
November 9, 2003

I have a friend who, several years ago, won a wonderful prize. She won a week in Paris. When I asked her about it after her return, she said it was truly extraordinary. She was flown over first class. She stayed in a beautiful suite in an elegant hotel. She traveled everywhere by limousine. She ate in the best restaurants. She never had to wait in line. There was always someone to do for her whatever she might wish. Wonderful.

Coming home for her, however, was awful. Her apartment was still her apartment. There was no one to clean it. There was no one to cook for her. She even had to go to the grocery store herself and stand in line. Over her first few days back at home she became more and more resentful.

But she was mature enough and self-aware enough to realize pretty quickly what was going on. She realized that in that short trip she had come to expect to be treated well. She had come to see herself as somehow better than other people; as somehow deserving of special treatment. She had forgotten that her fabulous week in Paris had been a gift, unearned and undeserved. In forgetting that, her appreciation of the week had turned to resentment when the week ended.

This is such a dangerous trap. It is so easy to come to expect to be looked up to, to require preferential treatment, to feel that we are somehow better than-more deserving than-others. It is so easy; and so deadly.

Today's gospel finds Jesus preaching in the Temple. "Beware of the scribes," he says, "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 banquets."

He watches the rich come in with their offerings to the Temple-large, heavy bags which the carefully hand over to the treasurers. And he points out a widow, a woman probably not even noticed by his audience. She slips in and hands over her meager offering-two small copper coins.

"Truly," he says, "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."

We are impressed when a Ted Turner or a Bill Gates donates one billion dollars to a worthy cause. And certainly a billion dollars can provide the resources to do a lot of good. In fact, if any of you here today wishes to contribute a million or even as little as a hundred thousand dollars to our building program, I can assure you that your wardens, vestry, and clergy will be extremely grateful. But neither Mr. Turner nor Mr. Gates will be in any way inconvenienced by the loss of that money. Neither will miss the money that they have given.

We fool ourselves when we think we can impress God with the money we give. We fool ourselves when we think we can make God love us more by being more generous or more pious or more active in the church. We fool ourselves when we think that anything we do makes us more deserving of God's favor. We fool ourselves and we endanger ourselves.

We fool ourselves because God already knows us better than we know ourselves. God loves us more than we can begin to imagine. God showers us constantly with favor and gifts beyond measure.

We endanger ourselves because, in the very attempt to curry God's favor and to prove ourselves somehow more deserving than others around us, we cut ourselves off from God and from our neighbors.

All is gift. When we forget that we become bogged down in bookkeeping. We spend our time and energy ensuring that we get what we deserve and that no one else gets more than we do.

All is gift. When we remember that we can enjoy what has been given to us and, at the right time, pass it on graciously, with no need to be noticed or appreciated or admired.

All is gift. Remembering makes the difference.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Proper 27B
Mark 12:38-44