Heads Up

Mark 13:1-8
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let me begin by just saying thank you.  Thank you for letting me be gone last week.  I know that you are contractually obligated to allow me to take a certain number of Sundays off for continuing education, but this one was special.  I’ll talk a bit more about it later, but first: thank you.  

I’ve already thanked Cathy for stepping in to proclaim God’s word.  I hear good things—I always do, Cathy is my go-to person when I need to be gone on a Sunday; I do try to line up thoughtful and insightful preachers when I’m away.  

I don’t really know what she talked about; I told her that I was in a series on stewardship and we picked the text together, but she didn’t really tell me what she intended to say about it.  I understand she led you in a little a Capella singing.  Don’t get used to that.  Every pastor has their own unique skillset; that is not mine.  But anyway, I don’t really know what the point of her message was.  What I do know is: the point of this one is probably more important.  To be clear, not everything I have to say is more important than what Cathy has to say; it’s just that what Jesus has to say to us today, when it comes to our stewardship, is maybe the most important thing we need to hear.  Because today Jesus shows us where our giving goes.  Today Jesus reminds us to keep our focus on where our giving goes, because all our giving—whether it’s time or talent, or treasure—goes to the Kingdom of God.  But more than that, today Jesus shows us these things because we are really easily distracted.  

Our Scripture lesson today picks up exactly where it left off last week.  Like I said, I don’t exactly know where Cathy went with the text, but I know the story: while teaching in the Temple, Jesus and the disciples are hanging out in front of where the offering was collected.  They watched as rich people pulled up with wheelbarrows full of cash and then a poor widow clinked in a couple of coins that added up to a penny.  At this sight, Jesus points out that, to God, what the widow put in was worth more than the rest.  I’m starting to wish I was here last week because I would love to hear what Cathy did with that.  What a strange notion, right?  The thing about money is, it has value given to it.  For example, you may like the feel and weight of a quarter more than you do a paper dollar; but the dollar is still worth four times more than a quarter.  

Had I preached that sermon, the point I would come to is not so much about worth as it is about perspective.  Sure, her coins are always going to add up to a penny, but from God’s perspective they vastly more valuable because God cares about the reasons we give.  What Jesus was challenging his disciples to do was what he always challenges his followers to do: to look at things from God’s point of view; he challenges us, again and again, to see our world from the lens of the Kingdom of God.  And then today we hear a story that shows us that we will probably never stop learning this lesson.  

They end their time in the Temple, go outside, and they are immediately blind to God’s perspective.  An unnamed disciple looks around at the architecture of the Temple and says, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  He may as well have said, “Ooh, shiny!”  I can’t say I blame whichever disciple that was: I’m sure it was an impressive sight; especially considering it was probably one of the country-bumpkin Galileans who said it.  But the fact is, this is just the kind of thing they were just talking about inside.  Yes, it is an impressive sight.  Yes, a lot of time, and talent, and money went into this imposing structure.  But what do you think God thinks about all this?  Do you think God is impressed by it?  Do you think God says, “Wow, I wish I’d have thought to make this when I was putting together the entire universe”?  Or maybe God values so-called smaller gifts more.  Maybe those same gifts, used to build shelters for the destitute, would be more impressive to God.  Maybe some of the money used for this grand structure, from God’s perspective, might go farther to help out a widow who only had a penny go give.  

We are so easily distracted away from the perspective of God, aren’t we?  Jesus teaches us not to look at the value of a gift but to the reasons for the giving; then we walk outside and say, “Look how valuable this place must be.”  Maybe the most surprising thing in all of the Gospels is that Jesus never once says, “What were we just talking about?”  Don’t get me wrong, keeping our eyes on the Kingdom is no easy task.  We are easily led astray.  Politicians, celebrities, and preachers proclaim—in one way or another—“I am he!” and we follow right along.  We hear about wars and even rumors of wars and next thing you know, we’re stockpiling canned goods and bottled water.  Somehow we forget our Savior’s words: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes; there will be famines.  This is just the beginning.”  

I have to admit that Jesus gets a little scary in this part of the Gospel.  All of this End Times talk is hard for us to hear, but I don’t think Jesus is trying to scare us.  I think he’s just trying to refocus us.  More than End Times talk, this is big picture talk; Jesus is reminding us that there is a plan in all this that is that is bigger than all of those scary things.  

Here’s a fun-fact: what we read today is the start of the longest speech Jesus that gives in the entire Gospel of Mark.  This apocalyptic talk to his disciples is the most he has to say at one time in the entire book.  But I want you to hear how it ends: Jesus says, “And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”  The point of this comparatively epic End Times speech is simply to remind his followers to stay focused on what’s important.  

Many of you have asked how things went last week.  I was even asked a couple of times, “Did you have fun?”  “Fun” is not the word for it.  “Psycho-spiritual boot camp” is more like it.  It was challenging in a good way, it was transformational in even better ways, but it was not fun.  

I guess Cathy kind of explained a bit about the conference last week, but here’s my take on it: it was a conference for Presbyterian pastors to develop what they call a “rule of life.”  This means that after some difficult exploration of our individual values and gifts, we looked at our lives through life-lenses like vocation, physical health, finances, and emotional health.  I’ll talk more next week about how my personal rule of life impacts us as a church, but for this week, there is a simple truth I drew from the experience.  I never really thought much about many of the things I did in life.  Rather than living my life under a rule of life, I’ve often been ruled by life.  I’ve been as tossed around, worried, and distracted as anyone else most of the time.  The foundational truth I learned last week is that I can do better.  I can live a life of purpose more intentionally than I have been.  

God’s word to us today reminds us the same: we can do better; we are made and called to do better; the world around us needs us to do better.  Here together we are meant to lift our eyes above the struggles and distractions of this world, and not be brought down by them.  Here we are meant to lift one another’s gaze back to the Kingdom that has no end; we lift one another that we might lift the world’s gaze, one neighbor at a time.  

The stewardship lesson for us this morning is simply this: remember what we’re giving to; remember what we are living our lives for.  Today we remember, that as we give of our time and our talents and our money, we are building the Kingdom of God.  As we build this Eternal Kingdom in the world around us, let us not be distracted by it; but let us seek to see this world and our place in it from God’s perspective.  And let us encourage one another, in all things, to keep focused on the Kingdom we are building together.