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This Week's Sermon THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY after PENTECOST 08 November 2009 "False Piety and True Piety" Mark 12:38-44 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Last Sunday in his sermon Vicar Dock made a rather profound statement. I don't know if he knows how profound it was, but it was. He said: "Love always desires to give, and that is what God does when He calls you a saint." It is that first part that connects with our Holy Gospel today, "Love always desires to give."

Our Gospel reading presents a contrast between the scribes and an unnamed widow. In much the same way that the Pharisee and the tax collector are presented, one receives condemnation while the other receives commendation. Jesus warned the crowd about the scribes while commending this nameless widow to his disciples. Here, then, is a picture of "False Piety and True Piety."

You are familiar with the terms scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. They were the leaders of the Jewish people. The scribes were experts in the law, scholars versed in the law, scribes. They are usually mentioned together with the high priests and the elders. They made up the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews.¹ Today we'd call them VIPs.

Jesus warned the people about them when we said, "Beware." It is similar to his warning about the Pharisees a bit earlier,

"Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." (Mark 8:15, ESV)

Jesus warned them that they should not practice the kind of piety that their leaders did. We know from the Gospels that the scribes used to wear very long, flowing robes which swept the ground. One could never hurry wearing something like that, so it symbolized a very leisurely life. Of course, this led to deference on the part of the common people. The scribes like to be called by their honorary titles, especially "rabbi," which means, "my teacher, my lord, my master." While many addressed Jesus this way, even his disciples, Jesus never used the title of himself. Rather, Jesus called himself "Son of man" most often. He called himself servant of all [Matthew 20.28]. The scribes also liked the best seats in the synagogues and the most honored seats at the feasts. In other words, they always wanted to be considered better than others, more worthy of honor than others.

But all of this was a show of false piety. It was a sham. They were phonies, hypocrites. Beneath that pious exterior which they advertized to everybody, there was something dark, cruel, and sinful. Jesus says that they "devour widow's houses." These experts in the law of the Jews were so clever that they used the law to enhance their own wealth at the expense of widows, whose only wealth might be the house in which they lived. They were schemers, cheats, swindlers, and they were well-known as being skillful in getting widows to convey their property to them. Even the secular historian Josephus wrote about it. They were the Bernie Madoffs of their day. They robbed the poor and kept it for themselves.

Jesus also accuses them of offering long prayers "for a pretense." By offering these long prayers, they hoped people would consider them pious, and no doubt, many people did. Someone said that these prayers were not offered to God because they were offered to men. Nobody could fail to see and hear how "pious" they were, but that was a false piety because their hearts were not right with God. They had no love for God. God was an afterthought for them.

Such false piety betrays a heart that is set upon itself. Everything the scribes did was for their own benefit. They were self-centered, even narcissistic, that is, having an unhealthy love for themselves. Yet, everything they did was done in a religious context, that is, within the piety of the Law of God. In Matthew's Gospel Jesus accuses these leaders:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Matthew 23:27-28, ESV)

Contrast the second part of our reading, the widow and her offering. Jesus and his disciples were sitting opposite the treasury of the temple, at the place where people put in their contributions for the daily sacrifices. In the Court of the Women there were thirteen collection boxes called "The Trumpets" because they were shaped like trumpets. These contributions bought the grain or wine for the daily sacrifices. Many people put in large sums, Mark tells us. It could be seen.

But then came a poor widow. Contrast this widow's appearance and demeanor to that of the scribes. Silently, almost invisibly, this widow comes to the collection box and puts in two small copper coins, the smallest coins in circulation. Most English translations value them as two to a penny. Each was 1/128th of a denarius, which was a day's pay. Its value was somewhere between a penny and a mill. Whatever the value was, it was absolutely the smallest.

Jesus' contrasts her offering with that of the more affluent people who put in large sums. He says:

"Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." (Mark 12:43-44, ESV)

The readings today present to us two widows. Both have similar circumstances, living hand to mouth, as we say. No reserve, like many today riding out the recession. Both give up everything for God, first with Elijah, then the widow in the Holy Gospel who gives up her last two coins because she loved God. Both trust God completely, exhibiting an uncommon faith. Both are pious well beyond the scribes or wealthier people.

Did the widow in the Holy Gospel know the story from Elijah's day? Perhaps so. Perhaps this OT account was her constant in the midst of her poverty. She knew that God had provided for the widow at Zarephath and trusted that God would do the same for her. Her piety rests in the promises of God that she would be cared for by him. She has no family to care for her and she certainly would not approach a scribe for help because he would probably swindle her out of her home.

What is the real difference here? Love. Remember Vicar's insight from last week: "Love always desires to give, and that is what God does when He calls you a saint." The scribes always took and never gave. Giving never entered their minds because their hearts were always set on getting for themselves. They had no love for God with the result that they had no love for others. It's really a summary of the two tables of the Law as Jesus explained just before our reading begins:

"And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."" (Mark 12:28-31, ESV)

Ironically, the scribe commends Jesus for giving the right answer, yet he is not pious. Jesus says that he is "not far from the kingdom of God" [12.34], but he is not yet in it.

Our widow has a certain recklessness about her giving. No money management expert would advise her to do what she does. She would need to keep this money back for herself because she has nothing else. But this woman would hear none of that. "Love always desires to give . . ." and this widow loves God in a way that the scribes and others can never comprehend nor understand. She MUST give because her heart is set on God.

It isn't the size of the gift that matters to God, but the sacrifice. Real generosity gives even if it hurts. Perhaps we should ask ourselves if our giving to God is really any sacrifice at all, in spite of the fact that we have often used the term "sacrificial giving." For most of us, the greatest sacrifice might be giving up some of our pleasures for the work of God, but it never approaches this widow's sacrifice. Some years ago William Barclay made this observation:

"It may well be a sign of the decadence of the Church and the failure of our Christianity that gifts have to be coaxed out of Church people, and that often they will not give at all unless they get something for their money in the way of entertainment or of goods. There can be few of us who can read this story without shame." [The Gospel of Mark, Daily Study Bible, p. 316]

The widow didn't give out of her abundance but out of her poverty. Can a person be manipulated into that kind of giving? God knows, there have been countless congregations that have tried during stewardship campaigns, but the answer is finally "no, they can't." Only one factor can account to the piety of this widow or the piety of the widow in our Old Testament reading, and that factor is love.

The closest we might get to this is giving to our own flesh and blood, our children or our parents, but that somehow is connected to self. Consider the giving of Christ, "that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9, ESV) God gave his only-begotten Son to the suffering and death of the cross to people who hated him. God gives the most unspeakable gift of all, his Son. The giving of that gift we'll celebrate soon at The Nativity of Our Lord. We'll sing our carols ever so sweetly and praise God's self-giving love, but will it change our hearts? Will your heart be moved to give because you love God as did this widow?

Our problem is that we always hold back. We hold back something. And we hear Jesus say:

"For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

The Church should never presume to tell you how much to give back to God. Saying that "This is a matter between God and me," might simply be saying that one feels guilty of about holding something back that could indeed be given.

True piety cannot be compelled by anything other than the love already received in Christ Jesus. For those who recognize and know this love of God in redeeming us for eternity, there is a love which impels one to act, to give to God and to the neighbor. We won't make any speeches about it, there will be no fanfare as you deposit you offerings in the plate, and most people will not even know what you give. But the same Jesus who saw the widow's pious heart also sees your heart. He knows what is in it. That is why he offered himself on the cross, to cleanse not only your heart but also your mind and your body. In Holy Baptism he has washed you clean and given you a new heart. God continues to give to you all the riches of heaven in Christ. Today is spread out for you a rich feast of the body and blood of Christ, a foretaste of heaven. As you continue to receive his mercy and forgiveness, that love flows into you, and we pray, through you to others.

True Christian piety gives to God because love compels it. It does not bother to ask how much. It only rejoices to be able to give to Christ.

May God the Holy Spirit give us such true Christian piety that we follow this widow in her love!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹William Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature : A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer's Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur, 165 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, c1979).