{"id":156,"date":"2014-03-08T12:09:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T12:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=156"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:46:26","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:46:26","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-4\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on'”<\/em> (Mark 12:41-43)<\/p>\n

This is one of the most well known and beloved stories about giving in the Bible. With typical grace and a shocking twist Jesus shakes the logic of the routine worshiper of His day.\u00a0 In fact, because we are so familiar with it that we face the danger of not allowing it to seep in and accomplish all that it is meant to do in our hearts.\u00a0 We walk away with the point…”when giving, it’s not about the amount”.\u00a0 But, what is it about?\u00a0 I believe that there is a principle of sacrifice here that could do us well to meditate on in this lenten season.<\/p>\n

It is not just about how much she gave.\u00a0 In other places Jesus challenges His followers to give more and blesses those who give more.\u00a0 It is not about “how” she gave.\u00a0 We are not told that she came dancing down the aisle to put in her coins.\u00a0 For all we know, it may have been through tears.\u00a0 It is also about where the gift came from.\u00a0 For the widow, these coins were more than a gift…they were a sacrifice.<\/p>\n

The rich gave from their wealth<\/em> but she gave from her poverty<\/em>.\u00a0 This is when this parable goes from familiar to uncomfortable.\u00a0 We are a rich people that can afford to give quite generously and that is not bad.\u00a0 When we have more than we need or when there is a little extra in the till we give.\u00a0 This would be giving out of our wealth.\u00a0 Let me point out that Jesus doesn’t condemn this generosity.\u00a0 He merely points out that this widow’s gift is worth more because it was a sacrifice.<\/p>\n

What defines something as a sacrifice?\u00a0 In meditating on the sacrifice of Jesus we think of words like difficult, painful, selfless, heart wrenching and grief.\u00a0 We tend to remove the pain and “inconvenience” out of giving (sacrifice) in order to make it a little easier to do.\u00a0 The difference between a “sacrifice” and a “gift” is that one is given out of wealth and one is given out of poverty.\u00a0 Today, as you meditate on the sacrifice that Jesus made for you, think also about your calling and what you have “sacrificed” for Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-an-inconvenient-faith-2014-lenten-blog","category-all_posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}