Pentecost XXII, Proper 27, Year B

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

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In the next few weeks, we'll all be asked to make a pledge to the parish. I want us to think about that this morning. I start with a moment of high school English. In Moby Dick, Captain Ahab is all will; all of his thoughts, all of his energies are directed to conquer and to control nature. Ahab wants to impose his will on the world. "Talk to me not of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me." ⁽¹⁾ The real Ahab, the King of Israel almost 3000 years ago, was a less compelling creature, but just as wicked. His cruelty and calculations seem to come from weakness as much as from malice. And he certainly did not try to conquer and control his queen, Jezebel. Indeed, it seems as if Jezebel was far more forceful. Ahab was more prone to hedging his bets than going for broke.

Jezebel, the daughter of a neighboring king, the King of Sidon, married Ahab and brought the worship of Baal to their marriage, and to Israel. Baal was a pagan fertility god. Ahab did not stop worshiping Yahweh entirely, but the path of least resistance certainly was to make Baal a large part of his spiritual life. Ahab built altars to Baal, and so idol worship became a common feature of Israel. The idea was to appease Baal, and thereby to control nature, meaning having abundant crops.

Today's lesson from the Old Testament tells us about God's response to Ahab's infidelity. He sends his prophet Elijah to Sidon, the home of Jezebel, to take on Baal. God attacks Baal, the fertility god, by causing a drought. The famine forces people to question the power of Baal, who is unable to produce rain or make the crops grow. As always in a famine, the suffering would have been particularly acute among the poorest in society. So God chooses to demonstrate his power through a widow. In the Old Testament, God frequently shows his compassion through widows and orphans and foreigners, those who were the most powerless in ancient Israel and often the most abused, even though the law and the prophets frequently pleaded for their care and well-being.

Now remember that Elijah had a somewhat wild and frightening appearance - living alone in the desert, eating locusts, wearing ratty pelts. When the widow saw Elijah at the gate of her town, Zarephath, she would not have welcomed his diversion as she tried desperately to care for herself and her son. She had next to nothing, just a little meal and oil, the last of her food. She expected that soon she and her son would starve to death, and here was a strange man asking for some of her precious food. But Elijah promises her, in effect: "If you make some bread for me, I promise you that God will provide for you through the rest of this drought. You care for me, and God will care for you."

Few of us would have bought that one. But the widow did. In making a meal for Elijah, she shows us her faith and her generosity. She has almost nothing, and yet she's willing to give it away. We know of no reason she has to believe Elijah. Indeed, appearances suggest that he's crazy, but she still sacrifices for him. Her reward is that "the jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail." She and her son survive the famine. Their survival represents the victory of God over Baal. Generosity conquers self-seeking, and generosity is rewarded. Food, fertility, life comes from God, not from Baal. God's provision for the faithful widow shows that he is the one true God.

The story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath is not only about God's victory over our idols, but also about generosity. My dictionary explains that the word 'generosity' comes from the Latin word that means 'noble.' Originally, 'generous' meant of noble birth, and characteristic of the highborn, the gallant, the courageous. Now days, of course, generous and generosity mostly refer to liberality in giving. The dictionary editors have a sense of humor as evident in their selection of quotes to illustrate proper use of the word. The dictionary has a quote from Henry Kissinger, of all people, Secretary Realpolitik. Kissinger wrote: "He urged us to make concessions because great powers could afford a generous attitude." Of course, the greatest generosity is when we can't afford it, when it's not practical and self-interested. The widow of Zarephath could not afford to be generous, but she was. That's the greatest generosity, not giving of abundance, not giving because we can afford it, but giving sacrificially, taking a risk. The widow of Zarephath was generous when her generosity made no sense by worldly standards.

The same is true of the widow in today's gospel. Jesus said, "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." Americans are the wealthiest people in human history. In our world, 80 percent of people live in substandard housing; 70 percent are unable to read; 50 percent are malnourished; less than eight percent have money in a bank; and about one percent has a college education or owns a computer. The selflessness of the widow is miles away from where we are. Money twists us up.

Several years ago, I was walking to dinner not far from here, and a beggar saw me and ran across the street with his cup out. He quickly accosted me asking for money. I was annoyed and asked, "Why don't you give me some money?" This may have surprised him a bit, but he did not miss a beat. He reached into his cup, pulled out the bills, gave them to me, turned and started back across the street. He didn't look back. It didn't strike me as a gimmick. Now I was stunned and embarrassed and ashamed as well as a bit amused and admiring. I followed him into the middle of the street and forced the money back into his hand along with something from my wallet. I was probably trying to buy back some dignity.

Let me stress that there are many, many exceptions, notable exceptions, but speaking in generalities, it does seem that wealth is often a barrier to generosity. Once we've got a bank account, why give it away when we can store it up? Speaking in generalities, the more we have, the less we like to give it. Mississippi and Alabama are always ranked among the poorest states in the country, and a lot of us sneer at them and deride them, but their people give a far larger percentage of their income to charitable causes than most of the rest of the country. The only states in the nation that tithe to charitable causes, that is where the average amount given to charity is ten percent or above, are Utah and Wyoming. ⁽²⁾ Next time we scorn or think ill of the Mormons, we ought to recognize that they take their faith seriously, far more seriously than most. Among the stingiest states are the wealthiest: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey. Another of the stingiest states is the most depraved state: Nevada. ⁽³⁾ Residents in the stingy states give, on average, less than six percent of their earnings to charities. Americans making more than $70,000 on average gave away only 3.3 percent of their earnings to charities; those making between $50,000 and $70,000 gave 5.6 percent; and those making $30,000 to $50,000 gave 8.9 percent. Wealth tends to make us more tightfisted. It seems to make generosity less affordable. That is because we are so susceptible to allowing wealth to become our idol. We are like Ahab, hedging our bets. The more wealth we have, the more we place our trust in it and not God, the harder it is to be generous.

I don't know who in our parish pledges, and I don't know how much individual people pledge, but I know that there is some real generosity and sacrifice here. I know that there are many here who have overcome obstacles to generosity. People have grown in generosity. Every year I have been here people have given more. It's encouraging. While money is not a huge problem here, we are tight. We wouldn't be tight, however, if every one of us tithed. Our ministry would be stronger. Our faith would be stronger. Our gratitude would be deeper. Our joy would be fuller. While we are relatively generous, most of us have to continue to work toward a tithe. If we give less than a tithe, then we have no grounds for complacency. If we want a healthy spiritual life, if we want joy, we have to give and grow in giving.

There's another quality which should characterize our giving that we see in today's gospel. Jesus is speaking in the Temple, and he has condemned the scribes, who were generally considered the most pious people in Israel. The scribes had literally given up everything to serve God, to teach the faith, to worship God, to study scripture. But Jesus condemned them for their pride, for having an inflated view of themselves, for enjoying worldly prestige. But even worse, he charged them with using their position for self-gain and for oppressing the needy: "They devour widows' houses." It's reverse Robin Hood. Instead of truly serving God, they are wolves feeding on his flock.

In the Temple there were three courts: one for gentiles, another for Jewish women, and another for Jewish men. In today's gospel, Jesus may have been sitting in the men's court looking at what was happening in the women's court. Each court had thirteen money boxes, treasuries. These treasuries were shaped like a trumpet, and people would drop their offerings into the trumpet. The metal coin would clang as people dropped them into the trumpet. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "When you give alms, sound no trumpet before you." In other words, Jesus is telling us: "Don't draw attention to your giving, and your reward will be a grateful heart." All things come from God. We ought to be humble in giving back to him a small portion of what he has given us. For most of us are giving out of abundance, and growing in giving expresses our gratitude for the blessing of abundance. Together we've been growing in giving, and I'm grateful that we will continue.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

1. Herman Melville, Moby Dick, (1851), ch. 36.

2. 'The Rich Are Different,' The Atlantic Monthly, October 2003, p. 48. Source of all the data for this paragraph.

3. Perhaps a cheap shot, but Nevada's economy is based upon taking advantage of human weaknesses. Its economy exploits people more subtly than obvious brutalization.