The Widow's Might

Mark 12:41-44

New Living Translation (NLT)

The Widow’s Offering

Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

What does this story have to say about self-esteem?

a. God's opinion of who we are and what we do is the one that counts.

b. God doesn't judge our worth by assets, abilities or appearances.

c. Anyone can make an important contribution to God's kingdom.

d. God is aware of what we do for him, no matter how insignificant it seems to others or ourselves.

(Serendipity Bible 10th anniversary edition, page 1418).

When when will we ever cease being more impressed by power than by spirit? That is the key question. The story of the widow's offering buttresses – indeed redeems – the self-esteem of people with power deficits. It is shown that such deficits are irrelevant in the eyes of God - anyone can make an important contribution to God's kingdom. And this is true and operative no matter what others think or indeed even what we think.

The irony that lies at the core of belief is that the last shall be first, and the first last. This is true in the world of meaning—a world that has more final importance and sway in human affairs than all the mere accoutrements of power. For meaning has to do with perception and perception with great facility undercuts power symbols – for symbols gain their strength from meaning but meaning is finally ruled by spirit—The Kingdom of God.

That is, we can have our coffers overflowing with highrolling symbols – but their value can be undercut instantly by perceptual shifts. That was the grave danger that Jesus presented. The great light of spirit and meaning that shone upon the world devalued in place the currencies of the power structure—and the diminishing of property values is the ultimate sin of the righteous. The power structure in disgust murmurs “there goes the neighborhood!” But they are powerless to doing anything effective about it.

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Ingrained Hypocrisy

How do you avoid hypocrisy in your life? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, pp 1404-5).

At the outset to avoid an insufferable degree of hypocrisy, I must immediately revise the above question to: How do you seek to minimize hypocrisy in your life? Of course the question that confronts me is the basic problem of eliminating from consideration those areas of restraint due to common courtesy. Though I am most assured my ass stinks most of the time, I do not feel constrained to constantly introduce this up as a subject for consideration—this is neither a prepossessing visual nor odoriferous bouquet that I need verbally elicit within the neurological senses of my associates—mainly based on the Golden Rule. It is an invasion of privacy—not of mine, but theirs.

But this gracious loophole in truth-telling brings with it many problems. If we are willing to cover up truth in one area, where exactly does the rectitude of such a practice become instead abject hypocrisy? There is no end to the rationalizations that I can produce on the instant in the name of not offending others. This can open a veritable floodgate of outright prevarication, phoniness, and hypocrisy aimed not at saving others from hurt, but myself. To put it another way, I always seem to have the sniffles so it is a continual area of anxiety to determine if I have a mild allergy or a serious cold—if I am being merely polite or grossly dishonest.

Let me give an example of this twilight zone. Frequently timing matters. Say, I want to take the afternoon off from work—it is uppermost in my mind to ask my boss to get off. But I cloak my desire first thing in the morning when I see my boss is preoccupied in some important matter. “Now is not the time to broach the question,” I tell myself. I will pretend that I intend to work all day and will pop the question of getting off at a more opportune moment. Thus, I become a designing hypocrite while cloaking it all in a reliable rationale of timing.

Hypocrisy and manipulation are frequent companions. And the devil allows me ample rope to hang myself for certainly I am just being considerate of my boss, not Iago-like manipulating him. An inordinate drive of self-righteousness is aided and abetted by thoroughgoing self-interest. Only God's grace can redeem me from heaping upon myself self-congratulatory kudos for my skills in being wisely politic and remarkably judicious in human affairs when in fact I'm just being a self-serving hypocrite.

 
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Power vs Spirit

One of the last discernments granted to a believer is that of power vs spirit. Power is much preferred by the world. Not atypically, those granted promotions in organizations display a passion for power over spirit. This is contrary to the teachings of Christ. For a brief test of how this might relate to you, ask yourself how you would react if in your new car you were sideswiped by an elderly driver and your side-panel significantly damaged. This situation (the other person is at fault) immediately bestows on you a power which you can choose to emphasize over spirit. In this situation would you emerge from you vehicle fuming mad—vindictively so—ready to levy the last ounce of blame on the other driver? Or would you emphasize spirit—one of tolerance, forgiveness, and love? Most people in authority “worth their salt” would immediately emerge from their damaged vehicle laying down the law and propounding their own rights. People of spirit would emerge with compassion, forgiveness, and empathy. Organizations will not flourish at their max until spirit is more pervasive in the structures of power.

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Accountability Means Answerable

My blog yesterday expressed concern over the fact that suppliers of alcohol like suppliers of handguns deeply wish to remain unaccountable (unanswerable) for the havoc caused by their products. Hypocritically they strive to sell us on the idea that their products and our freedoms are inseparable. It is with galling precision that they market their goods with dewy images far removed from, and the precise opposite of, their products true effects. The precision of these obverse messages incessantly overflowing with big lies reveals well their deepest fears—that one day they will awake to find glimmering abroad a new perception of their products—one based on reality rather than fantasy—one that will send them free-falling over a perceptual cliff. Their acceptance all hangs on a thread, and they damn-well know it.

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American Values – Super Bowl XLVIII

Quoted from Fact Sheets- Alcohol Use and Health - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm)

There are approximately 88,000 deaths attributable to excessive alcohol use each year in the United States. This makes excessive alcohol use the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for the nation..... In 2006, there were more than 1.2 million emergency room visits and 2.7 million physician office visits due to excessive drinking. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 were estimated at $223.5 billion.

The Standard Measure of Alcohol

In the United States, a standard drink is any drink that contains 0.6 ounces (14.0 grams or 1.2 tablespoons) of pure alcohol. Generally, this amount of pure alcohol is found in

12-ounces of regular beer or wine cooler.

8-ounces of malt liquor.

5-ounces of wine.

1.5-ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits or liquor (e.g., gin, rum, vodka,

whiskey).

 

Definitions of Patterns of Drinking Alcohol

Excessive drinking includes heavy drinking, binge drinking, and any drinking by pregnant women or underage youth.

Binge drinking, the most common form of excessive alcohol consumption, is defined as consuming

• For women, 4 or more drinks during a single occasion.
• For men, 5 or more drinks during a single occasion.

Heavy drinking is defined as consuming

• For women, more than 1 drink per day on average.
• For men, more than 2 drinks per day on average.

Immediate Health Risks

Excessive alcohol use has immediate effects that increase the risk of many harmful health conditions. These immediate effects are most often the result of binge drinking and include the following—

• Unintentional injuries, including traffic injuries, falls, drownings, burns, and unintentional firearm injuries.
• Violence, including intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. About 35% of victims report that offenders are under the influence of alcohol.7 Alcohol use is also associated with 2 out of 3 incidents of intimate partner violence.7 Studies have also shown that alcohol is a leading factor in child maltreatment and neglect cases, and is the most frequent substance abused among these parents.
• Risky sexual behaviors, including unprotected sex, sex with multiple partners, and increased risk of sexual assault. These behaviors can result in unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.9,
• Miscarriage and stillbirth among pregnant women, and a combination of physical and mental birth defects among children that last throughout life.
• Alcohol poisoning, a medical emergency that results from high blood alcohol levels that suppress the central nervous system and can cause loss of consciousness, low blood pressure and body temperature, coma, respiratory depression, or death.

Long-Term Health Risks

Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases, neurological impairments and social problems. These include but are not limited to—

• Neurological problems, including dementia, stroke and neuropathy.
• Cardiovascular problems, including myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation and hypertension.
• Psychiatric problems, including depression, anxiety, and suicide.
• Social problems, including unemployment, lost productivity, and family problems.
• Cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast. In general, the risk of cancer increases with increasing amounts of alcohol.
• Liver diseases, including—
• Alcoholic hepatitis.
• Cirrhosis, which is among the 15 leading causes of all deaths in the United States.
• Among persons with Hepatitis C virus, worsening of liver function and interference with medications used to treat this condition.

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A Place for Desperation

Arsenio Terrance Brinson

  

The woman with the bleeding problem spent all her money and a great deal of effort to find a solution for her suffering. How likely are you to try every other option before you take your problem to God? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1401).

If I must die, I must die. (Esther 4:16).

Today I must speak of gun control. Saturday I attended the funeral for Arsenio Terrance Brinson. When shot on the streets of St. Petersburg January 20, 2014, he was 26 years old. I did not know him personally but am a friend of his mother, Brenda. I cannot help but think of the visuals that must be haunting Brenda at this point – those years when she carried him, when she held him as an infant and a child, when she nurtured him through elementary school, and cultivated all of her dreams for him during his high school years. And then, faced with today's unfathomable abyss, the unalterable fact of emptiness chiseled forever at the funeral with the closing of the casket.

I have seen cheerful persons cheerleading unrestricted handguns for our nation. It is my opinion that these enthusiasts for unlimited distribution of handguns have not attended a sufficient number of funerals for those they hold dear.

In my view we have come to a point of desperation—the same point as the woman with the bleeding problem who out of desperation touched Jesus for healing. It is time for caring Americans to stand up and say enough is enough with no regard whatever for personal consequences – if I must die, I must die.

 

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Spacious Seas vs Tumultuous Ones

As time goes on, have you seen improvement in the way you handle storms? What difference does your faith in Christ make? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1399).

Storms never put my behavior in the best light. I live in St. Petersburg Florida and every year we have a hurricane season. I would only be kidding myself if I pretended to think that if a storm directly hit my city, I would be tranquilly sitting in the back room studying the sermon on the Mount completely devoid of fear, anxiety, and guilt that I could have and should have done more in preparation. When my wife was deathly ill, I prayed – but without much comfort. I was on a continual emotional roller coaster from one day to the next as her prognosis fluctuated from optimistic to dire. And I can readily anticipate my state of mind if I should find myself in the dark within a remote secluded area miles from any city stranded among high weeds on the side of the road with a flat tire. No, I am definitely not the man for all seasons.

The sobering thing to consider is that I have not really changed that much in my ability to handle storms with equanimity. Rather than standing tall like John Wayne, I look like that crazy, neurotic cat whose fur is always sticking out on end in a state of berserk terror. They say desperate times make everyone religious. Not so me. For me spiritual uplift requires a degree of space. It does not come easy in times of strife and turmoil. Take any of Jesus' parables—for example the Good Samaritan. I am a good Samaritan mostly where there is a degree of—for lack of a better word—abundance. If I am in the middle of a financial crisis, that is not the best time for me to assume and address the welfare of my neighbor. Actually, in the parable, the good Samaritan seems to have a fair amount of personal resources.

Now some might counter that it's entirely possible to be generous in spirit if not in resources. I think of the story of the lad who aggravated the busy waitress with his meager resources—delaying a bit sorting though his change then ordering the cheapest thing. When the boy left, the waitress realized he bought the cheapest thing so he would have enough money left over to leave her a tip. Personally, I leave bigger tips the more affluent I feel—liberated, as it were, by an enabling credit card. It is much easier for me to add $8 to the bill as a tip rather than laying down green currency. Again, I think generally speaking a sense of affluence fosters good Samaritans whereas scarcity elicits parsimony. In this sense, rather than religion being the opiate of the masses, it is the context by which the affluent exercise generosity.

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