Now, my plan today is to preach on the story of widow giving her money to the treasury, but before I do that I want to ask that you not get ahead of me and assume what I am going to say.

I never get nervous when this Gospel reading comes up, because I’m not afraid of the subject, but I do worry if the forest will be missed because of the trees you might think you’re going to see.

I’m aware that two years ago, Iowa senator Charles Grassley started a senate investigation into the top 6 televangelists looking for financial misconduct that conflicts with Federal Income Tax Exemptions. Every one of the six televangelists are big names: Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Paula White, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and Joyce Meyer.

Because they are big names and you see them when you flip through the channels and notice they have private jets and never wear the same outfit twice, I understand a general level of mistrust – especially because every time they are on television they are asking for money. (For the record, I drive a Chrysler with broken air conditioning and I wear the same outfit everyday!)

I am also very much aware that my salary comes from the stewardship of the parish. I very much understand that it could be viewed by those of us who are naturally cynical to suspect that I have a vested interest in stewardship. And I do, but that is not what drives this sermon or any other sermon that I will preach.

We can’t accuse Jesus of seeking money. He didn’t have a private jet nor did he wear expensive clothes. Jesus didn’t even have a house. He was an itinerant preacher moving from place to place. When he sent his disciples out he told them to take the bare minimums with them. Even when he died, Jesus was buried in someone else’s tomb. It wasn’t even his.

But out of 40 parables that Jesus told in trying to share the fullness of God’s love, 17 of them, or 43% deal with or mention money. Jesus talked more about money than sin or prayer. Why? If he didn’t need it, and if he didn’t have a congregation with a staff and building and programs to fund, why spend so much time talking about money?

Because the was true then as it is now – our fear of losing material things is a drive that is so primal that it is hard to overcome. There’s a story in Matthew’s gospel of a man coming to Jesus and asking him what good thing he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him, you know the commandments, and he named some. “I’ve kept these, I’ve done them” the man said. “What do I still lack?”

Go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then come follow me.
The man walked away defeated, because he had a lot of stuff.
Jesus wasn’t asking the man to give him the money. Jesus wasn’t looking out for himself. He was looking out for the man and his spiritual well-being.

And that is the thing that we talk about but we don’t talk about. When we talk about stewardship and budgets and funding ministry, what we are really doing is missing the main point. Absolutely stewardship funds our staff to be ministers and to provide safe places for our members and non-members to grow in faith – from the cradle to the grave. Yes stewardship keeps our buildings in order and buys wafers for communion and all of that.

But the most important thing is the soul. The most important thing is giving us a template, a solution to free ourselves from the bondage of things.
Stewardship gives us the path to enable us to give our entire being to God.

One day Jesus and his disciples were in the Temple court. Jesus was preaching. And they sat down opposite the treasury.
“Look at these people,” he said. “See those scribes in their long, expensive robes walking around like their heart doesn’t beat without a prayer of thanksgiving to God? They don’t get it. Now watch ‘em. That’s a lot of money they are waving around and putting in the box. I’m sure the Temple can add a staff member with that donation or start a new ministry. And I’m sure that’s what those scribes are telling people, too.

But look. Look at her. You can barely see her because she’s just about swallowed up by the waving of the arms of the scribes, but watch her. Look. See what she did. Two coins. One penny. Didn’t even make a sound when it went in the box. But you know what – she is the biggest giver to the Temple.”

The scribes didn’t feel what they put in. Their stewardship was like putting change in a parking meter. It didn’t impact their life. But that woman, the widow, who had no husband to support her, put in everything she had.

That could have bought her dinner. She could have saved it for a rainy day. She could have worked toward repairing. She could have patched her sandals. Instead she felt her faith. She could feel her trust.

I can’t help but think that is a big part of the answer to question so many of us ask – where is God? Why can’t I feel God? Why can’t I feel his presence? Maybe the question we should ask is, “Are we allowing God to get close enough to us to touch us?”

I don’t care what anyone says, faith is tangible. It’s not something up there and out there. Faith is something we can rub up against. When faith starts to impact my schedule, I can feel it. When faith starts to impact the people I am around, I can feel it. When faith starts to impact my primal desire to horde, I can feel it.

The call to stewardship is nothing more than a call to trust God. It’s hard for God to carry us when we won’t even let God pick us up.

My prayer is never for increased pledges or higher giving to the church. Because frankly I don’t care. My concern which is rooted in Christ’s concern – is faith.

If we have faith. If we trust. If we allow God to close enough to us that we can feel him, then everything else will take care of itself. If we have faith, if we trust, stewardship will be as natural as exhaling.

If we breathe in faith – we will exhale abundance.

Amen.