Ship Building

Mark 12:38-44

A Staircase, for many, is an impassabile barrier.
How many of these barriers do we have in our
chruch?

Are we looking for attention, or are we drawing attention to Jesus?

Based on this text, this could easily be a message about money and tithing and stewardship.   Those are all good things to talk about in church.  Yes the widow offered to what she had to live on, while the rich folk put in a little of the extra they had.  They were offering out of their abundance while she abandoned any sense of sense of attachment to material things and honored God by offering what she had.  This is a powerful lesson on trusting God. But this incident that is recorded in Holy Scriptures also reveals a lesson about intention and attention.

We are made to give attention to God and we are made to need God’s attention.  However we are also given the ability to reject God and to isolate ourselves.  The greatest commandment is to Love God with everything that you are.  I would say that means paying attention to God.  The second is to love your neighbors as yourself.  If we love our neighbors the way we should, then not one of us will go without the love and attention we need.  We, as a community of God’s people are the body of Christ on earth.  The Love and nurture we show is God’s love for those who need it. 

But the fact of the matter is that some…many fall through the cracks.  There are many who do not have the love and attention they need.  So they seek it out in different ways. 

I remember once when I was a boy.  I was probably nine or ten years old. I was riding my bicycle and I got into some loose sand at the turn of our driveway.  I crashed pretty hard and skinned my arm and had gravel everywhere.  I didn’t get up.  There wasn’t anything broken.  I wasn’t hurt so badly that I couldn’t get up but I wanted someone to notice that I had fallen.  I was looking for a little attention.  I lay there in the driveway in the Hot July sun for a few minutes before I realized that no one was coming and even if they had the pain had mostly gone and I wouldn’t really have much to complain about, so I got up and when about my business.

We all get attention for various things.  The difficult part is when we get used to it and then lose it.  Perhaps we can’t do the things we used to do.  Perhaps we don’t feel as useful as we once were.  Perhaps our gestures of generosity go unnoticed by those who benefit from them. 

The widow who put her two coins in the box at the temple didn’t expect to be noticed that day.  No one notices her.  Every one notices the teachers of the law with their long robes and such.  Everyone pays attention to the big donors because their contributions can do so much.  The widow with her two coins came, made her offering, and went, nearly unnoticed.  But God noticed.  Jesus drew his disciples’ attention to her actions.  He set her up as the example.   She has God’s attention and the attention of Christian disciples for two millennia as we read her story in scripture.  With that said it is likely that, in life, she never knew that anyone saw what she did.  We don’t know what happened to her after this.  We don’t know how she got her next meal.  We don’t know how much longer she lived.  But one thing we do know: She honored God and God noticed.  God was paying attention.   

God is paying attention and God can see our intention.  This event is presented in scripture along with Jesus warning to his disciples, “Watch out for the experts in the law. They like walking around in long robes and elaborate greetings in the market places and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at feasts:  Those who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”  It seems that the intention of the experts in the law is to get attention from people, and Jesus says they will receive greater condemnation.  The widow’s intention was to Honor God and she is honored for it. 

In a few weeks we will see some plans for a proposed renovation of the church building.  A few of us have seen the early version of it and it looks wonderful.  It will make the whole building easier to use for those with trouble getting around.  The whole building will be accessible by wheel chair if follow through with it.  If we do go forward with it no one will pat us on the back and say good job; no one will give us a medals or awards; it will be inconvenient and expensive.  But then we aren’t looking for attention are we! Our intention is to fulfill the mission of making disciple of all nations, teaching them all that we have been taught.  Our intention is to Love God with everything that we have and everything that we are.  Our intention is to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

If we go ahead with this project, in a couple of years when a visitor comes to St. Paul UMC they may not know or even notice that this church had done a renovation but they will notice that they feel welcomed and loved as they are able to participate fully in the vital ministries of this church because there will be no barriers; there will be no part of the building that they cannot get to because stairs go in their way.  We want noting to stand in the way of God’s love for people.  If we can make this building easier for people to be in then we ought to do it.  If we can remove physical barriers then we can build a larger and stronger community of believers to love and care for each other in Jesus name, bearing each other’s burdens.

So how is it with you today?  Do you know that God loves you and sees the good you have done?  God knows the obstacles you face and the ones you have already overcome.  God knows what wonderful things are in store for you and God asks us only to have faith. 

On Kinney Down

This week Savannah was away to a leadership camp.  For a 13-year-old she seems to be gone a lot.  She left on Wednesday and will get home this afternoon.  I miss her.  I knew I would miss her before she left.  I hear of parents with teen aged children complaining about how difficult they are to raise, and, granted they do present very different challenges from previous years, but I think they are great.  I fear that when the day comes that they leave for college I will be a mess.  I am addicted to my kids. I can’t help it.  I got a little taste of this when I officiated my sister Abby’s wedding this fall.  When she came down the aisle I was overcome with emotion.  Now, mind you, I don’t cry; I don’t get emotional and I certainly don’t get “overwhelmed” but it was Abby, my baby sister; my little princess.  I held back. I soldiered on.  We got through.  I don’t think I’ll be as successful when it’s my daughters turn.

Alex had his first quiz bowl this week.  He loves it! he said, "I have found my people."  It was an awesome nerd fest, and I mean that with the greatest amount of love, coming from a self-avowed, practicing nerd.  Alex made the same observation and I said in response, “Yes, but these are the people who will be ruling the world in a couple of decades.”