Giving Out of Our Poverty, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, for Mountain View United, Aurora, CO

Giving Out of Our Poverty
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 11/11/2012
Based on Ruth 3:1-5; 4: 13-17 and Mark 12:38-44
 This morning’s two scripture readings contain two differing stories of the same theme.  In the book of Ruth, we see life through the eyes of two widows, in the Gospel of Mark, we again read about the actions of a widow.  In both stories the overall theme is the importance of acceptability of one’s gift.  All three widows would be classified as financially destitute.  Yet we see through the commitment of Ruth to her mother-in-law Naomi, a child was produced, which was referred to as “a restorer of life.”  In Marks story, Jesus speaks about the giving of “all she had” of a widow.
 Through the story of Ruth, we learn how the commitment between two women did not just secure their personal futures, but that the child born to Ruth and Boaz was destined to be the grandfather of Israel’s greatest king, King David.  This is no ordinary story, for this story was challenging a lot of tradition that contained bigotry and social ostracizing. Ruth was not just a woman from another country, but a Moabites, the lowest of races by Hebrew standards.   It is through the story of this despised alien that God chooses to start the family line in which Jesus the Christ comes from.
 As we read this story, it becomes most apparent that we do not always understand the contributions to the world that any one person will be making.  One of the best arguments in avoiding war, is in the destruction of people who if not killed, will benefit humanity, if not directly, possibly through their descendants, as was the case with Ruth, for she became the Great Grandmother of King David. 
 This story also challenges us as we struggle with the migration of peoples from one country to another.  Ruth was willing to take a chance and give all that she had, to stay at Naomi’s side.  It was Ruth who went out into the fields by day to work and bring home food.  It was Ruth who ended up marrying Boaz, thus providing for the security of Naomi and the ability to regain their family properties which had been lost at the beginning of the story.  It was Ruth who was able to produce an heir, thus giving new life back into a family line that had died with the death of Naomi’s two son’s.  This not only brought back to Naomi, social standing and financial security but a new purpose in her life, the caring of her grandson Obed.  The question then arises for us in this country by denying or persecuting immigrants, who wish to come to live in our country or have entered without proper documentation, “what blessings, what benefits are we not accepting when they are denied status?”   I wonder how much poorer our faith family would be if we didn’t have non-U.S. American born members in our community?
 What about the story of the widow in Marks Gospel, what can we glean from her giving her two copper coins?  As we are finishing up what has turned into a six week series on “stewardship”, if I were a good Baptist preacher I could construe this story to mean that you need to give more sacrificially, just like this widow that Jesus speaks of.  Yet that isn’t really what this story is speaking about, although much of the time it has been abused in that direction.
 As Wayne Laws and I were discussing this text at the Sacred Grounds study this past Tuesday evening, I was wondering how this example of the poor widow can actually speak to us in a society that is truly obscenely affluent.  The last line of this story reads, “They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”   For me the question is, “How do we give out of our poverty?”  Most of us do not go to bed hungry.  Most of us have a house with a bed in which to sleep each night, sheltered from the elements.   Most of us have jobs, in which we achieve our goals and dreams through.  We do not live in a country where we are told how to think, although there is plenty of subliminal messaging being feed to us as to what we should and should not value.  So out of all this plenty, can we actually give out of our poverty?  Do most of us really understand poverty?
 As Wayne and I were discussing this, my memories kicked into when I was a child.  Much of my childhood was by governmental standards lived at or below poverty level.  I remember one particular winter where the only meat that we had on the table was that which dad was able to hunt in the fields.  (To this day the only way I can appreciate rabbit is to watch them eating my grass in the yard.)
 There was one particularly Christmas time, I recall where we were so poor that there was to be no Christmas presents.  It had been carefully explained to me and my sister and brother that financially, there just wasn’t going to be any presents.  They also made it very clear that Santa would not be forgetting us, but mom and dad wouldn’t be able to buy us any gifts.  This also meant that the usual moneys that we would receive to purchase presents for everyone in our family had also dried up.
 A few days before Christmas, as we three children looked at a Christmas tree which had no presents underneath its branches, made a decision not to be defeated by the lack of money.  After all, who says that you need money in order to give presents!  After a very long and thoughtful discussion between us three, we concluded that we could hunt around the house and find things that already existed in which we could wrap up, some in actual Christmas paper, other presents in news paper or grocery sacks.  It took only one afternoon of imaginative thinking to fill that empty space under the tree.  When mom and dad got home from work, they were much surprised at all the presents that magically appeared under a once lonely tree.
 On the morning of Christmas, we found that Santa had indeed not forgotten us.  There were a few extra gifts under the tree which contained new clothes that our mother had made, sewing late into the night after spent a full day at her job.  Today can’t recall what Santa had brought that year or the gifts that mom had worked so hard on.  What I can remember are all the things that my sister, brother, and I had given to each other.  Gifts such as: whiskey bottles filled with colored water, old hats found deep within mom’s closet, cooking tinsels, odd bowls, and bath soaps from the hall closet.  One gift in particular was a box of rocks that my brother had given my sisters.  This particular gift became the annual gift given between my sister and brother, with the one receiving the box of rock the previous year, giving it to the giver.  This became the most cherished gift of all, to the point that a few Christmases ago, when I was able to join my sister for Christmas and my brother was not, I purchased some polished rocks and a vase, and gave them to my sister in my brother’s name.
 What that Christmas showed us as a family, was that Christmas wasn’t about the ability to buy gifts for those we loved, but that it was in the act of “giving” in itself.  That year, the giving of those rocks and whiskey bottoms really was giving out of our poverty.  They were worth very little by the worlds standards, but they were the most precious gifts that we both gave and received by our standards. 
 It shaped the value for us three, that giving of ourselves is the most precious gift.  It is in the effort of sticking together, working through tough times, and most importantly to “just be together”, for me and my sister and brother, this is what brings the most priceless gift one can give, and it came out of our giving out of our poverty.
Today, many families spend outrageous amounts of money on presents that are quickly forgotten.  Many children once they open their presents, spend the rest of the day, isolated from their families, focused on what they received.  I wonder if we have lost our ability to come and celebrate the gift of each other, because of our giving out of our abundance.  It’s like the song of the little drummer boy, in his question, “what can I bring to the baby Jesus?”  For him a poor drummer boy, it was the talent that he possessed, that of drumming a tune. 
 As we prepare to bringing our pledge cards this coming Sunday, I would ask you to think about the question, “Do I give out of my abundance, which has the danger of un-engagement, or do I give out of my poverty, which has the potential of making me more engaged within this faith community?”  Amen