Lessons from People Watching

From time to time I get kidnapped and drugged off to the mall by friends or family to go shopping. I don’t mind it when this happens, but I don’t always enjoy it either. Most often I have nothing on my shopping list to buy at the mall, or let alone the money to spend. So while my friends and family shop, I find a place to sit down and people watch.
As I read and studied today’s scripture from Mark’s Gospel I imagined Jesus sitting down at the busy Temple in Jerusalem people watching and teaching Kingdom Living lessons about what he saw to those around him. Through my various people watching endeavors I have discovered a few rules that help make the experience fruitful. A real estate agent will tell you that the three most important rules to their trade are: “Location, Location, Location.” The same is true in the art of people watching.
You need a good location to do people watching. I think Jesus knew this rule as well. I have discovered that food court at the mall is a great place to people watch. Jesus chose the Temple in Jerusalem as a great place Temple to people watch.
In Mark’s gospel we meet Jesus at the Temple. Mark says he is sitting near or across from the treasury. Jesus was probably sitting at the Beautiful Gate. The Beautiful Gate was along the main corridor of the vast Temple complex in Jerusalem. Everyone who was going to the Temple for Worship passed through this gate. In the larger context of Mark’s gospel, today’s event took place during the Passover celebrations, so there were thousands of people passing through Beautiful Gate.
The people who designed King Herod’s Temple knew all the people would pass by this gate, so they placed the Temple Treasury next to it. In my study of the Temple Treasury I came across some interesting information. Some of the ancient historians and Biblical archeologists state that the Temple Treasury had thirteen brass horns placed along its outer wall. I don’t mean to be irreverent but imagine if you will a toll booth combined with a slot machine.
As the Temple worshipers were going to or leaving from worship they would pass by these thirteen brass horns. The worshipers would toss in their Temple offerings into one of the brass horns. As their donations were tossed into the treasury, these brass horns would clink and clank like a slot machine paying out a jackpot at a Las Vegas Casino. Or perhaps a more pleasant thought, it might have sounded a lot like the noisy offering our children collect once a month. None the less, this is the scene where our story occurs.
In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the busy Temple and among the clink and clank of people giving their offerings to the Temple Treasury, Jesus sees and hears the sound of the wealthy and he sees and hears the generosity of this poor widow. It is amazing what you will see if you only take the time to people watch.
From Jesus’ people watching experience at the Temple Jesus teaches us a lesson, or perhaps it’s the other way around. Maybe, just maybe Jesus it taught a lesson about generosity from a Widow’s tiny offering.
As I have mentioned earlier, today is stewardship Sunday. Last year we had a much bigger lead up to today, but this year I decided to go about it a little differently. Money and stewardship are touchy topics in the church. Money is often a topic preachers are fearful talking about. It is an issue that many in the pulpit and many in the pew would rather ignore. But much like sin, another topic that many Methodist preachers would rather ignore, money is an issue ever present in our lives. We carry money in our pockets. We use it in our trading and buying. In times of recession it is on our minds. In times of scarcity its lack is often impressed upon our hearts.
But when it comes down to it, stewardship is not about money. Stewardship is about trust and treasure. Stewardship calls us to look at our lives and see what we trust and what we treasure. Stewardship calls us to answer the question, “Will we give some of our treasure, so we can trust God a bit more?”
Martin Luther, one of the founders of the Protestant Reformation, offered up this observation about the change that takes place in one’s heart as they grow in faith. Luther said, “People go through three conversions in the Christian faith: their head, their heart, and finally their pocketbook.” Stewardship is a matter of faith. When we practice stewardship and priority giving, we are say to God and to ourselves, “God I’m trusting you to provide what I need in life.”
Practicing stewardship challenges our faith. In the wilderness of the desert the Israelites had their faith challenged with a test of stewardship. Many of us might remember the story of God providing manna, or bread from heaven, for the Israelites while they wandered in the wilderness of the desert without any food. God promised the Israelites that he would provide “their daily bread.” We still pray and trust God to do the same, do we not? “Give us this day our daily bread.”
But some of the Israelites chose to doubt instead of deciding to trust. They tried to store up earthly treasure. They tried to store up today’s manna for tomorrow. I believe their hearts were moved by doubt, because God just might not provide manna for tomorrow. These Israelites thought they were wise, but what they found was that their treasure had spoiled in the night.
Stewardship is a matter of trust and that is the lesson the widow teaches us. The rich gave out of their abundance. She gave out of her lack. The rich had enough to spare. The widow had nothing. Her generosity was a bit reckless. I believe this widow embraced the kind of reckless abandon one of my famous secular theologians, Bob Dylan, sings about in his song Like a Rolling Stone. “When you ain’t got nothing, you’ve got nothing to loose.”
A few years ago a young girl taught me a lesson in generosity much like the lesson the widow taught Jesus at the Temple. I went to visit this family one day. Her father showed me their food pantry and refrigerator. Both were bare. There was nothing in their home to feed them. My heart broke.
I told the family that I would help them. I went to Christ Chapel and some other places to get this family food for their pantry. They were so happy when I brought a car load of food to fill their refrigerator and pantry with food for them to eat.
It just so happened that our church was having a canned food drive to help Christ Chapel feed the hungry of our area. Christ Chapel was in need of food. Their shelves needed to be replenished. One day, much to my amazement, this young girl brought in a box full of food from their panty to feed the hungry.
I was bewildered. The young girl had no food the day before. Today she was giving food away. I asked why she brought this food. She told me she wanted to give some of her food so other people wouldn’t go hungry.
Some biblical scholars think Jesus might have been bewildered or even upset by the widow’s generosity. Widows were not expected to give to the Temple Treasury. Widows were vulnerable. There was no Medicare, no pension, and no social security to help widows. Like a Tennessee Williams’ character widows also “Depended on the kindness of strangers.” The Temple was charged with the duty to take care of widows.
The offering that the widow was throwing her two copper coins into was probably the widows’ fund. She gave all she had to help widows like her. It is also possible that Widow was giving her two copper coins to priests’ fund. This fund went to support the fancy lifestyle of many of the priests at the Temple.
Before this lesson in people watching the Widow, Jesus saw another lesson in people watching the scribes. Jesus must have saw them roaming around the Temple and he had surely had many a confrontation with the scribes, priests, and other religious leaders of the Temple. Jesus shared this lesson to those around him:
“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." Mark 12:38-40
Giving and supporting the local church is important, but as a pastor I believe the church needs to consider what they want the people in the pew to support. Do we want people to give in order to support a lifestyle of comfort and fame, so the pastor and the church can be a status symbol in the community? Do we want people to support a budget just so we can boast about how much money we give?
I believe the church should ask its congregation to support Kingdom work. A church budget should be a Kingdom document. Budgets, be it for a household or for a company, reveal what is important.
Sometimes people call me up on the phone and want me to give donations to this charity or some cause. Do you all ever get phone calls like that? Don’t you just love them? I seldom give or respond to phone calls like that because I like to know where my money will go before I give it. Many times when I ask how my donation would be spent the person on the phone gives such vague answers. At about that point in the conversation I end the phone call. Many times after I have gotten off the phone I will look up the charity on the computer. Most of the time, I discover that the charity gives very little to the people they claim to help.
Your support of this church helps us do Kingdom work. What we give helps us live in our mission. That mission is “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” And if you ever want to know what your giving supports I will be glad to give you an answer.
So let’s go back to the generous Widow. What do we learn from her? I believe she is teaching us many lessons. Our giving should be an act of sacrifice. In the Economy of God’s Kingdom different rules reign. The amount of the gifts given never matters as much the cost to the giver. God does not look at the size of our giving but at the sacrifice of our gift.
As a pastor I don’t care how much you give. I care how much you sacrifice. My prayer is for all of us to offer our lives as living sacrifices. I want you to offer your life and your gifts as a sacrifice to God. That type of living would radically transform and change your life, your family, this church, this community, and the world.
When we pass our offering plates down the pews on Sunday mornings, I don’t think God’s eyes are focused on the offering we place in the plate. I think God is looking somewhere more important. I think God is not looking at our gifts but at the heart that is giving the gift. In our hearts God sees our intentions. That is what Jesus saw when he looked at the heart of the generous widow. He saw her intention.
Some of the early founders of the Christian Church saw the Widow’s intention as well and deemed it important enough to write about for the church of the future. I would like to share this thought from Chrysostom, one of the greatest preachers of the early Christian church. Chrysostom wrote this down long ago and it should speak to us today:
“When the widow put into the collection box only two small coins, the master did not give her a recompense worth only two coins. Why was that? Because he paid no attention to the amount of the money. What he did heed was the wealth of her soul. If you calculate by the value of her money, her poverty is great. If you bring her intention into the light, you will see that her store of generosity defies description.” On the Incomprehensible Nature of God.
The little girl who gave food from her meager pantry taught me a lesson about generosity. In the midst of her hunger, she gave because she didn’t want other kids to go hungry. I think the widow at the Temple Treasury gave because she didn’t want widows like her to go hungry. She wanted to meet a need. If Jesus took the time to people watch you, what lesson would your stewardship and generosity teach him?