Today’s Readings: Psalm 129; Jeremiah 23:16-24; Mark 12:38-44; Romans 8:18-25; Psalm 139
Featured Reading: Mark 12:38-44
When it comes to living in spiritual community, one of my passions is for creating an environment where everyone is welcome to participate fully in the life and ministry of the church. I was somewhat naïve a few years ago when I started articulating that vision - for I immediately expected everyone would respond excitedly, jump right in, and start participating. I had forgotten to factor in an aspect of church culture that has existed for years. You see over the last several years, parish ministry has grown increasingly professionalized. This means local faith communities have gotten use to hiring professionals to lead (and sometimes do) ministry for them. When we need someone to work with the youth group – what’s our first instinct? Hire someone to lead/take over the youth group. When we need someone to develop our Christian Education/Spiritual Formation programs, what’s our first thought? Hire someone. When we need someone to develop a congregational care program, what do we do? Hire someone. Now don't get me wrong. There is a place for input from experts who have specialized training in a particular field. My only concern, however, is that that place shouldn't come at the expense of the people. For you see without realizing it, many of our faith communities have sent a message to the people that if we want to get things done, we’ll have to hire an expert do it for us. As a result, folks in our congregations have pulled back further and further as they let experts run our churches. Here’s where today’s story from the Gospel of Mark comes in for me. The second half of today’s Gospel reading tells the story of the poor widow who did an amazing thing: she gave everything she had. She did so not at the direction of experts, but out of her deep and abiding relationship with God. And how did Jesus react? Did he tell her she ought to call in professional fundraising experts to take her two cents, invest them, and turn them into a respectable amount before she put the money in the offering plate? No. He said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together” (Mark 12:43 from The Message). Perhaps there’s an area of your life where you feel called to contribute; it could be a contribution at home, at work, at church – wherever. Maybe you’ve been holding back your offering because you’ve thought that what you have to offer might not be up to other’s standards. If that’s the case, I would encourage you to break through that mindset and freely offer your gift(s) knowing that through that simply act you’ll be meeting the standards of the only One that truly matters: God. You can then rest easier knowing that you too gave your all. Til next time…
Featured Reading: Mark 12:38-44
When it comes to living in spiritual community, one of my passions is for creating an environment where everyone is welcome to participate fully in the life and ministry of the church. I was somewhat naïve a few years ago when I started articulating that vision - for I immediately expected everyone would respond excitedly, jump right in, and start participating. I had forgotten to factor in an aspect of church culture that has existed for years. You see over the last several years, parish ministry has grown increasingly professionalized. This means local faith communities have gotten use to hiring professionals to lead (and sometimes do) ministry for them. When we need someone to work with the youth group – what’s our first instinct? Hire someone to lead/take over the youth group. When we need someone to develop our Christian Education/Spiritual Formation programs, what’s our first thought? Hire someone. When we need someone to develop a congregational care program, what do we do? Hire someone. Now don't get me wrong. There is a place for input from experts who have specialized training in a particular field. My only concern, however, is that that place shouldn't come at the expense of the people. For you see without realizing it, many of our faith communities have sent a message to the people that if we want to get things done, we’ll have to hire an expert do it for us. As a result, folks in our congregations have pulled back further and further as they let experts run our churches. Here’s where today’s story from the Gospel of Mark comes in for me. The second half of today’s Gospel reading tells the story of the poor widow who did an amazing thing: she gave everything she had. She did so not at the direction of experts, but out of her deep and abiding relationship with God. And how did Jesus react? Did he tell her she ought to call in professional fundraising experts to take her two cents, invest them, and turn them into a respectable amount before she put the money in the offering plate? No. He said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together” (Mark 12:43 from The Message). Perhaps there’s an area of your life where you feel called to contribute; it could be a contribution at home, at work, at church – wherever. Maybe you’ve been holding back your offering because you’ve thought that what you have to offer might not be up to other’s standards. If that’s the case, I would encourage you to break through that mindset and freely offer your gift(s) knowing that through that simply act you’ll be meeting the standards of the only One that truly matters: God. You can then rest easier knowing that you too gave your all. Til next time…
1 comment:
If you take away Jesus's comments about the narcissistic and predatory scribes and Jesus's commentary afterward - we don't know if she gave every coin she had - I see an unselfconscious act.
"a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins. . ."
unselfconsciousness is the grace I see and pray for
Did she do it out of duty or out of love? She, perhaps, didn't even think about it.
Post a Comment