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SAINT ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Open our hearts, oh God, so the glory of your risen son will penetrate all that we are and all that we will become. Amen. Today’s sermon is in three parts: One is about Jesus chastising the scribes, the second is about the woman who gave all she had to the treasury, and the third part is about Veteran’s Day. National Geographic did a story years ago about elephants in captivity and elephants in the wild. And they studied an elephant in the Phoenix Zoo by the name of Ruby. Ruby loved to paint. And any time her keeper would say, “Ruby, would you like to paint?” her eyes would glisten and she’d flap her ears, and they would give her paint. And even though elephants are supposed to be color-blind, if a red truck was parked nearby, she would pick up the brush and dab it in the red paint. Or someone walked by with orange or green, she would pick that color. And she was an Asian elephant, and it was said that there were two African elephants next to her, in another cage, and they became jealous and started picking up sticks and making drawings on the wall. The second part of the story is about Asian elephants in India. There are over 20,000 elephants in India, about 35% of the world’s population of Asian elephants. About 2,000 are in captivity. The Indians have a great love and a great reverence for elephants. They call it ahisma. And even one of their deities is a miniature elephant that gets around by riding on the back of a mouse. Now in Western culture, we have this concept that elephants are terrified of mice. And in India, the elephants in captivity were observed setting aside small amounts of grain for the mice that cohabitated in their cages. In our gospel today, Jesus is particularly pointed in criticizing the scribes. He talks about them with their long, flowing robes. Any reference to this is not a reference to Episcopal priests; it’s just a coincidence. He talked about their long, flowing robes that drug on the ground. And to show their level of importance, they had large tassels; the larger the tassels, the more the importance. They were also supposed to work. But because they were considered Rabbi—The Great One—they thought that they were above that. And instead, managed to prey on widows and poor people, people most often who could not afford to give them food, but did because the rabbis told them there was nothing greater they could do than to take care of them. This talks about them seeking places of prominence in the front of the synagogue. And they sat on a bench in the front of the synagogue, not so they could see the people as I see you, but so they could be seen. At a banquet, they always wanted to be invited first because the first was to sit on the right hand of the host, and the second invited was on the left, and so forth. Again, a way of seeking prominence. They loved to be met in the town square at the marketplace, and for people to greet them and praise them. And Jesus spoke out against this prominence, saying, “It is a gift to be able to serve, to be able to give up your self and not to seek prominence.” He also said, “You shouldn’t seek deference.” And there’s a story of a monk who was selected to be at the abbot of a monastery. And when he arrived, he did not announce who he was; he just went in. And the other monks put him in the kitchen, washing dishes and cleaning up. Menial tasks. And he did that until the bishop arrived; and to the astonishment of the other monks, announced that he was the new abbot. The second part of this story is about the treasury, where Jesus with his disciples observed those giving to the temple. And in the temple at the gate of women, there were 14 collection boxes called trumpets, because they were shaped like trumpets. And they were for a variety of causes. It could be corn for food, oil for light, wine for sacraments, or it could be for the daily expenses of the temple. And many gave. And some gave from great abundance. But Jesus used this example as an opportunity to say, “The woman who gave two copper coins was the greatest giver of all, because she didn’t give from abundance; she gave all she had.” And I find it interesting that the New Testament, the gospels, and Jesus use the example of giving as the one who gave the least, but gave all that she had. Giving should be a sacrifice; it shouldn’t be just from abundance. Giving should be a risk. In this case, I think about the woman who had two copper coins worth less than a penny. She could have kept one, just to be safe. But even though she gave everything she had, she took the risk. I found this quote from Paul Tournier, in his book The Meaning of Gifts. “There comes a day when man understands that always of grace, that the whole world is a gift of God—a completely generous gift, since no one forced Him to do it. We see each flower, each drop of water, each minute of our life, as a gift of God. He gives them to all—both those who know Him and those who are ignorant of Him. But beyond that, though His gifts are completely disinterested, He is far from disinterested, those who are their recipients. He loves us, each one in particular, personally. He gives with joy and rejoices in the occasions of our joy.” Yesterday, as I was finishing this sermon, I do what I always do: multitask three or four things at a time. And I looked at my e-mail. And Ed Jacklitch had sent me a video clip—two minutes—called A Pittance in Time. And I looked at this video, and it was asking us to take two minutes to remember our veterans. Particularly poignant for me, because in addition to being Veterans Day, it’s my father’s birthday. My father and mother were divorced when I was one. He later remarried; my mother remarried when I was 3. I didn’t really get to know him until later in life, when we were separated by 3,000 miles. But each time I returned to my hometown, I went to visit him. His second marriage failed. And so he was alone. He died alone, broke, an alcoholic. But he never shared his feelings except shortly before he died, he told me about his service in the Navy, being wounded, his Purple Heart. And he said, “You know? The only thing I ever did in life that was important was to serve my country.” That stuck with me, and I decided to change the ending of my sermon. The thing that we have to do is to give and to serve.
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