In his teaching,
Jesus said,
Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes,
To be greeted obsequiously in the market squares,
To take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets.
These are the men who swallow the property of widows,
While making a show of lengthy prayers.
The more severe will be the sentence they receive.
He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury,
And many of the rich put in a great deal.
A poor widow came and put in two small coins,
The equivalent of a penny.
Then he called his disciples and said to them,
I tell you solemnly,
This poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury,
For they have all put in money they had,
They had all put in money they had over,
But she,
From the little she had,
Has put in everything she possessed,
All she had to live on.
The Gospel of the Lord.
I'm finding it hard to not see that first part of the Gospel and relate that to politics that we are seeing,
Where people shine,
And it's see what we do,
See who we are,
And honour us.
How do we not do that?
Is it up to us to judge?
Maybe,
Maybe not.
We see also where Jesus sits and looks at the treasury.
We see where the rich come and put in a lot of money.
And we can also,
From that,
Easily deduct that maybe it's wrong to be rich.
I don't see that.
In other readings,
We see Jesus telling people to give all that they have.
And maybe let's look at that.
Let's maybe look at what do I offer?
And why do I offer what I do?
Do I go out and give to the poor?
And as I reach out to give something,
I take a selfie so that I can show how beautiful I am and how generous I am and how people should appreciate what I do.
Maybe,
Maybe I take that very same selfie to get other people to share in what I am doing.
Which one is right and which one is wrong?
And is it up to us to judge?
Do you think that the person who is receiving that help judges?
Do you think that they care?
Maybe yes.
Maybe having to pose turns them into an animal in the zoo.
They're to be used and to be gawked at.
Or maybe they receive anything from anywhere with gratitude.
Is it up to us to judge then?
I don't know.
For me what is important personally is the intent with which I do things.
And the question on that is,
Do I use everything that I have for the glory of God?
Do I spend all my time glorifying God?
Because isn't that what we are here to do?
But how do I do that?
Do I buy expensive things to put in my chapel?
If I can,
Why not?
I think this comes back for me to the lesson that we are learning over and over and over again that Jesus came to teach us.
Jesus taught us love.
Love God.
And how do I love God?
Jesus says that God,
Loving God,
Is the first commandment.
And the second commandment is to love our neighbor.
And those commandments are equal.
And we've also spoken a lot about the fact that the Holy Spirit results in all of us.
So that God is present in each and every person that we meet.
So to me when I say give everything to God like the widow did,
It doesn't mean that I have to sell everything that I have and give it away,
Give it to the church.
No,
It's important to give to God's work.
Because we have to be aware of the fact that the church and ministries need to run and we need to give.
We need to help support them.
But it doesn't mean that I have to do everything to that and give all of that.
It means that whatever I do,
I need to ask myself the question,
Am I doing this out of love?
And then when I give something to the poor man,
And just before I take that selfie,
I can ask myself,
What am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
Am I doing this because I care about the person?
Am I doing this because I care about myself?
And I don't know which one is right.
I really don't.
I know which one I prefer.
But in the end,
This person gets help.
I asked God this weekend to show me pure love.
And yesterday morning I was working with somebody who needed help.
And they got the help.
They are in financial distress,
But they didn't get money.
Somebody gave them the tools for them to be able to do their job.
They bought them,
Or they gifted them,
Stock to sell.
Stock that they had on hand that they didn't need anymore.
And as I walked away from that interaction,
The message came,
That is love.
That is pure.
And it was completely not what I was expecting.
I was expecting angels coming down and filling the heart with song and joy,
And that didn't happen.
It happened on a street corner with a beggar being empowered to help themselves.
And so we see that throughout our lives it is okay to trust God,
Because that is right in the beginning what we said the message is going to be about.
But trust God to have God's will done.
I cannot pray to God and ask for a disease to be taken away.
I can do that,
And I think it is important,
But it is important,
Just as important to in that prayer of healing to say,
Let thy will be done.
Thy kingdom come.
God is infinite.
And we don't always at the moment see what God,
What the universe,
And what love has planned for us.
And sometimes we need to go through these distresses.
We know that we have to die at some stage.
So then is it in our power,
And is it up to us to then constantly when we get sick,
Pray,
Oh let me get better.
For what?
Let me get better because I still have so much to do.
What about starting to live lives where at any moment when we go,
When God calls us home that we are ready.
There's so much death happening at the moment,
And it's highlighting how we are not ready to pass away,
How we are not ready for meeting God.
And that worries me.
It worries me a lot how we are afraid of death.
Yet other than birth,
I think it's one of the most natural things ever.
And we're going off at a tangent now,
But it is important to look at the fact that we are going to die.
One day we are going to die.
So then,
Can we look when we go through troubling times,
When we go through disease,
To again check why we are praying for health?
Is it because we are scared to die?
Is it because we know that we are not living lives,
Our lives to the fullest?
And if we still have things that we really want to do to the glory of God,
Then let's do it.
If we still want to love,
Then ask God and be honest about it.
But always remember to ask,
Let thy will be done,
And to put your trust in that.
We have limited capacity to think.
We have limited capacity to understand.
I mean,
That is why time exists.
To help us cope with infinity.
So maybe this week when things come up and we are facing challenges and we are facing opportunities,
Because challenges and opportunities might just be the same thing.
Maybe this week we ask God,
Thy will be done,
And we actually mean thy will be done.
And then we go quiet and we listen.
There's that word again.
Listen for the answer.
And we'll find that.
If we listen for love,
Amen.
