Ten Times Tithing

Some time back, I was asked to write the November 12 sermon for the Episcopal Churches "Sermons That Work" series which are sermons "available online in advance of use dates, published as a resource for preachers and congregations." Here is some of what I wrote for tomorrow's Gospel reading, none of which will be preached at King of Peace in the morning:

Jesus knows that these are not any two coins, but the woman’s last two coins. The text says, “All she had to live on,” but the Greek is starker still. What is really said is that she put in her “bios.” It’s the word from which we get “biology,” the study of life. For Jesus tells us that the widow put her “life” into the temple treasury that day.

This is not a sermon about tithing, for the woman did not give ten percent of her income. These were her last two coins to rub together, and rather than keep one back, she tossed both into the temple treasury’s coffers. The widow gave 100 percent of her money. The widow is down to two practically worthless little coins, and she trusts it all to God. If this were a gamble, then the widow would be laying all her money on God. But this is not a gamble, for the widow does not bet her money; she trusts her life to God.

The full text of the sermon is online here: November 12, 2006 - Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Epsicopal Church