The Diocese of East Tennessee
Sermons

Sermon: "The Value of Offering"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

Many hundreds of years ago, in a country far away, a poor widow lived with her son. In those days, a woman depended on her husband to provide everything for the family. And most families lived only from the husband's income. If the husband died, no income was available, and in almost all cases, there were no savings either. Therefore, a widow usually experienced desperate circumstances. If the widow also had children, the situation was even more serious. And so it was with the widow in the story from our first reading this morning.

One day, the widow was gathering sticks on the edge of town in order to make a fire for cooking. A traveler approached and asked her for a drink of water. The poor widow had very little to offer anyone, but she could provide some water. And so, she left her own duties to respond to the stranger's needs.

Then, however, he called after her with another request. He wanted some bread to go with his water. But that appeal was too much for the poor widow. Her only provisions at home amounted to a small jar of bread dough. She had nothing to spare. Indeed, as she told the stranger, the sticks she was gathering would build a fire for her family's last meal. After exhausting the bread dough at that meal, she expected that she and her son would starve to death.

But the traveler encouraged the widow to bring the bread anyway. He assured her that she would not run out of bread dough and that she and her son would not starve. Perhaps out of a sense of desperation or of resignation, the widow did as the traveler requested. She offered him food from her own meager provisions. And then she discovered that those provisions did not run out.

The traveler, of course, was Elijah the prophet. The story tells us that our offerings make a difference. No matter how little we have to give - of bread dough, of kindness, of hospitality - just that amount may be all that is needed.

Many, many years later, a teacher stood in a temple, near the place that alms and offerings were collected. Some people made a great show of placing large amounts of money in the collection box. But, a widow entered this story as well.

While this period of history was much later than the first, the circumstances of widows had not changed very much. Usually, they still were poor and desperate, as this one in the temple was also.

She placed a couple of coins in the collection box - a very small amount of money. The teacher standing there called his students around him. He told them that this small offering amounted to a greater gift than all the larger offerings which had been made.

You see, the teacher was advocating what we call "percentage giving" long, long ago. It is not the amount of the gift which matters most, he said, but rather what matters most is the percentage of resources that the giver gives away. Meager offerings from meager resources, therefore, become significant indeed. And, in the same way, fairly large offerings from wealthy resources may not be nearly as significant.

That teacher, of course, was Jesus. He concerns himself more with the giver than with the gift. And he, too, makes the point that a small gift may be the most significant one, if the giver gives with a spirit of thanksgiving and of sacrifice.

I remember a time in my own life when I felt I had little to give indeed. During this time, I taught high school English in a rural county of eastern North Carolina. Some of my students aspired to winning the national "hollerin' contest" held there, in which the loudest hog caller was declared the champion. And, these were my English students!

The people there were wonderful, for the most part. And I learned a lot myself. But I did not feel like I taught very much. I often felt out of place, and I became discouraged. It seemed to me that I had very little to offer those students, for, indeed, what I was trying to teach them seemed quite irrelevant to their lives.

Years later, I was assisting in a wedding in Greenville, South Carolina. One of the groomsmen came up and asked, "You don't remember me, do you?" Now, I don't like that question. Telling the truth seems unacceptable, but most often, you get caught if you do otherwise. And so, I asked him for some help.

He said that his name was Larry. He had been an English student of mine years before. And he proceeded to tell me the difference that my English class had made in his life … things that I had not known previously. Larry said that the year I taught him had been a tough one for him. One of his parents had died, and the other one abandoned the family. He and his sister moved in with other relatives. Then, two other members of his immediate family also died during that year.

Larry said that he had no one to talk to about his experiences. The only place he could express himself was in English class. At the encouragement of the teacher - who insisted that students try to learn to express themselves - Larry said that he had the opportunity he needed. And, he concluded, "You saved my life that year."

As you might imagine, I heard that story with tears in my eyes. I did not know many details of what was happening in Larry's life at the time. In fact, I usually had felt discouraged and inadequate in what I was trying to give those students. But somehow or other, what I did give apparently made a difference, at least to Larry.

Our Lord often was confronted by massive needs, and he seemed to have only meager resources with which to respond. One time he faced five thousand people in a remote location at mealtime. Jesus inquired about the available provisions. And his disciple Andrew told him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?"(Jn 6:9). You remember what happened. From that boy's five loaves and two fish, Jesus fed five thousand people.
God in Christ can indeed multiply the blessings received from our meager offerings. The message is the same from the experience of Elijah and the widow at the town gate, the widow making her offering in the temple, and the school story that Larry told. Our offerings may seem small indeed to us. But God can do great things with meager resources.
May we offer to God that which we have to give, so that in Christ, blessings may increase beyond our grandest hopes!

Copyright © 2000 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee