Our Mite

​The election is now behind us. Some of us regret the outcome, and others of us celebrate it. But whatever we think about the outcome of the election, all Americans now share the challenge of coming together as a single, indivisible nation. All of us share the challenge of promoting liberty and justice for all.
 
Given our current divisions, that is a daunting challenge.
 
As Christians, our challenge is more daunting still. In the words of our former Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, we are called, in the name of Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit, to change the world from the nightmare it is for so many into the dream that God has for it.
 
We are a long way from God’s dream.
 
None of that is new, of course.
 
I recently finished a book called Faith Communities and the Fight for Racial Justice, which surveyed the last fifty years of Church work on racial issues. The author’s sobering conclusion is that the Church’s contribution to whatever progress has happened has been small. As one who is committed to racial justice, healing, and reconciliation, that is a disappointing conclusion.
 
The same is true in other areas of our work. The Church as a whole, including us here at Saint David’s, works very hard to help people suffering from poverty. We contribute money, and goods, and volunteer hours in an effort to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and provide shelter to the unhoused, just as Jesus tells us to do. We are doing good and important work.
 
And, thankfully, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty around the world has gone down considerably over the course of my lifetime. But I am not sure how much credit the Church deserves for the relative decline in global poverty, even as we continue to help many poor people.
 
Evangelism is at the heart of our mission. Jesus commissions us to go out into the world to make disciples of all nations. Thankfully, in many parts of the world, Christianity is growing and thriving. But all around us, here in western Massachusetts, Church attendance is declining.
 
Unfortunately, I could go on. But I’ll just give one more example. During the campaign season this year, every preacher I know preached, in one way or another, on our baptismal commitment to respect the dignity of every human being, including the dignity of people with whom we disagree politically. Just last Sunday, Christians heard Jesus teach that the greatest commandment of all is to love God and neighbor. And yet the tone of our political discourse has often been disgraceful.
 
That is the daunting and sometimes discouraging reality I brought to our Gospel reading this week: a keen sense of the limits in what I, what we, can accomplish, and an equally keen sense of just how much needs to be done.
 
And, as usual, Jesus helps.
 
As our reading begins, Jesus has been teaching in the Temple, where he encountered literally murderous opposition. After being repeatedly attacked, Jesus goes on the offensive in the first part of our reading this morning.
 
Then Jesus and the disciples take a break. They sit down for a little people-watching. As we just heard, they saw rich people ostentatiously dropping large sums into the Temple’s collection plate. And then a poor widow throws in her two small copper coins worth a penny. That’s the widow’s mite.
 
As you may know, the Temple building was enormous, and its staff of priests and other workers was huge. Just thinking about the cost of keeping it all going makes me shudder. Temple officials needed every donation they could get from every rich person willing to give.
 
From a financial perspective, the widow has essentially nothing to offer. She couldn’t contribute meaningfully to the financial upkeep of the Temple.
 
But the widow contributed what she could. And, this is the good news in our passage, it was enough to please Christ.
 
Jesus does not judge the widow on the size of her donation. Jesus doesn’t judge her on the impact she has, or on her ability to change the world. By those measures, the widow isn’t worth much. Jesus judges the widow’s heart. And Jesus praises the widow for doing what she could with a generous spirit.
 
I think again about our mission. I think about all our efforts to do justice, and to help the needy, and to spread the good news, and to love each other, and to encourage other people to do the same. I think about the limitations in what we have accomplished and what we are likely to accomplish. Realistically, the best we can offer is our mite, and it may not seem to do much to meet the needs of the world around us.
 
The good news of our Gospel reading is that, despite appearances, our mite is enough.
 
We may or may not change the world. But always we are called to do what we can, in Christ’s name, with a generous spirit. After that, we leave the rest to God.
 
I think of two quotes from famous saints on this point. The first is from Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa said, “I do not pray for success. I pray for faithfulness.” Faced with the overwhelming poverty around her, Mother Teresa understood the message of the widow’s mite. Mother Teresa did what she could, as faithfully as she was able, and she left the rest to God.
 
Mother Teresa’s prayer is our prayer, too: that we are faithful in using the gifts God has given us as God calls us to do, without regard to the cost, and leaving the results in God’s hands.
 
The second quotation comes from our very own patron saint. Saint David’s deathbed advice to his monks, his final word, was: “Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do.”
 
David is telling us to offer our mite, with joy and faithfulness, trusting that it is enough, trusting that God will use our mite as God sees fit.
 
Finally, a story from Christian history about another saint, one you probably have not heard of, but who has become one of my favorites in the last few years.
 
Saint Anskar was a 9th-century monk called to serve as a missionary in Scandinavia. For decades Anskar dedicated his life to sharing the gospel in Denmark and Sweden, with virtually no success. When Anskar died, there were just two churches on the border of Denmark, and one priest in all of Sweden. That’s not much to show for decades of hard and dangerous work.
 
All Anskar could do was offer his mite to the people of Scandinavia, and his mite had about as much impact as the widow’s mite in our story. But Anskar was faithful. Anskar did the little things.
 
And three generations after his death, the seeds that Anskar planted began to bear rich fruit. Today Scandinavians consider Anskar their apostle.
 
I worry about our world. I worry about our future. The challenges that we face are great, and our resources for meeting those challenges seem small. But like the widow in our reading, like the saints Teresa and David and Anskar, we live as faithfully as we can, offering our mites, and trusting that God will bring out of them what God wills, in God’s time. In the meantime, we can take comfort in the fact that in Jesus’ eyes, our mite, faithfully offered, is enough.
 
May God help us to offer our mites faithfully. In Christ’s name. Amen.