Read: Luke 20 & 21 Tool Time: Gifts
Our gifts are tools we can use in building the Kingdom of God. Gifting can offer the oomph needed to move forward in grace. Gifting can give us a safe place to stand and see the future. Your gifts can mean a meal for the hungry or a bed for the homeless. It is true that by offering gifts we become the gift. Even stranger is that the one most blest by our giving is ourselves. Giving changes and cleans our hearts. Nothing else has the same capacity for transformation of the soul like giving. My experience is that givers never complain, and complainers never give. The selfish person says, “I do not need to give. They have enough, I need more for myself.”
We are confronted with the widow who gives all she has to live on as a gift in the temple. She is following the wealthy who have made quite a show of their giving, making sure the coins clink and clang for all to hear their respect for the ways of God. Jesus simply turns to the disciples and offers the obvious. The woman has given more than her wealthy neighbors. Be careful with the working in this passage. She did not give everything she had, but rather, all she had to live on. There is a difference. She was willing to put her trust in God for her daily needs. Would I be so bold, so willing? It seems Jesus is offering the idea that giving is about the need of the giver to trust God and give, not the needs of the temple to receive. If the church had all the money it needed to meet the budget, would you still give? Would you sacrificially give like the widow?
Giving acts like a level. Giving puts us on a good and level place in the kingdom of God. We can fight uphill our whole lives, wondering why God has not seen fit to give us an easier path. When all we really need is to learn to give and the then path levels out. The path never really changes, however our perception of the path changes and that makes all the difference.
Worship This Week
Scripture: Luke 20:45 – 21:19
Sermon Title: “On the Level”
Next Week: Tool Time: Service
