Two Pennies for God’s Temple

OT Lesson: 2 Kings 4:8-17 (CEB)

One day Elisha went to Shunem. A rich woman lived there. She urged him to eat something, so whenever he passed by, he would stop in to eat some food. She said to her husband, “Look, I know that he is a holy man of God and he passes by regularly. Let’s make a small room on the roof. We’ll set up a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him there. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”

So one day Elisha came there, headed to the room on the roof, and lay down. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite woman.” Gehazi called her, and she stood before him. Elisha then said to Gehazi, “Say to her, ‘Look, you’ve gone to all this trouble for us. What can I do for you? Is there anything I can say on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’”

She said, “I’m content to live at home with my own people.” Elisha asked, “So what can be done for her?” Gehazi said, “Well, she doesn’t have a son, and her husband is old.” Elisha said, “Call her.” So Gehazi called her, and she stood at the door. Elisha said, “About this time next year, you will be holding a son in your arms.” But she said, “No, man of God, sir; don’t lie to your servant.”

But the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at about the same time the next year. This was what Elisha had promised her.

NT Lesson: Mark 12:41-44 (NRSV)

He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. The weather is like a see-saw game these days, up and down everyday. Coming week, one day is going to be like 63 and the next 27. In Chicago, people used to say ‘if you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.’ I guess we are getting there in Lebanon. I assume that you all came hungry for the second Sunday of the month communal lunch. I will try not to keep you from lunch. So let’s move on. Today is the second sermon in the series, and I will talk about the offerings and generosities for the church. You already got the idea from the two Scriptures. In fact, these two Scriptures are preached quite often at many churches, emphasising the importance of giving to church. So here we go.

Shunemite Woman

In the OT lesson, we see a woman in a small town of Shunem. There was a rich woman and she treated prophet Elisha very well, feeding him at every chance, and later made him a room on the roof. In Korea, there are many roof-top rooms and mostly poor people rent it and live there. The roof-top room is unbearably hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter, and that is why it is cheap to rent. 

But it is not so in the Middle East. The roof-top room is one of the best place in a house, because it is the coolest place with better ventilation and breeze. In the Judges 3, Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord, and God made Moabites conquer and oppress Israel. When they repented, God sent a Judge, whose name is Ehud, and killed the Moabite king. Judges 3:20 says, “Ehud came to the king, while he was sitting alone in his cool roof-chamber.”1 So the king has his office on the ground floor, doing all kinds of official state business, but the roof-chamber is the private resting place because it is nice and cool. While I was taking the Arabic language course at Bethlehem University for a month, I did the home-stay at a Palestinian family. And most of the town people had set up a shade on the root and were relaxing there because that is the coolest and nicest place in a house. So this rich woman gave the prophet the very best. A prophet can be interpreted as a pastor, but in this context, because Elisha was functioning like a one-man church, so we may simply say that a church lady gave to the church the very best among all what she had.

Not all the time, but as usual, there was a reward. This unnamed rich woman did not have a son. It is unclear if she had daughters or not. In that patriarchal society, there was not really a difference between no son and no child. There is a fun fact that I learned while travelling in Jordan, Egypt, Palestine and other Islamic and Arabic countries. Let’s say there is a guy named Omar. When his wife gets pregnant, the couple name the baby with a boy’s name, for example Hassan. Even though the father’s name is Omar, everybody now calls him Abu-Hassan for the rest of his life, meaning Hassan’s father. Then, what if the baby is a girl? It doesn’t matter. The daughter gets a girl’s name, not Hassan, but the father is still Abu-Hassan. Their next baby can be a boy to be named Hassan. Well, what if they have five girls in the end and no son at all in their entire life? Then there is no son named Hassan but still the father is Abu-Hassan for the rest of his life. I heard it from many people, but not only from those people on the streets but also from an Arabic language teacher in the Bethlehem University where I took the Arabic language course. So it must be true.

Anyway, through the blessing of the prophet, the old couple finally got a son. So this is the brief summary of today’s OT lesson: Bring the best to church, then God will bless you. There is a little more to the story of this Shunemite woman. Later her son suddenly died with great headache. But God raised the dead boy back to life again through prophet Elisha.

Offering Boxes

Let’s go to today’s NT lesson. Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury, watching people putting money to the treasury. The treasury was a court that was located to the east of the temple, just below the Nicanor gate. This court is in other words called the Court of the Women. The Jerusalem temple had many separated areas. Some areas can only be accessible by the grown Jewish men. Some other areas can only be accessible by the Levis, others only by the priests. Of course the Holy of Holies only by the High Priest just once a year. But this Court of the Women, anyone can come in. So this is kind of nice way of saying, ‘You cannot come in and worship God together with us, but we love to have your money.’ The other side of the Court of the Women is called not the Court of Men, but the Court of Israelites, where women were not allowed to enter. So Jewish women were not even regarded as Israelites. 

Anyway, in that court, there were thirteen trumpet-shaped boxes to put money in. The first box is this year’s temple tax. The second box is last year’s temple tax if you missed it. The temple tax applies to men, and this widow has nothing to do with it. The third and the fourth boxes are for the purification offering after giving birth, one was for the rich women, the other middle class and below. So you can tell who is rich and who is not just by watching which line they are on. The fifth box is for the temple’s lumber in case of repair. The sixth is for the incense. The seventh is for the gold plates and tools in the temple. The eighth box is for the sin offering for guys. The ninth is for the guilt offering for guys. The temple issued the receipts or the giving statements for these nine boxes, while they did not issue the receipts for the rest of the four boxes. And the widow had nothing to do with these nine boxes. The tenth box is for the turtle dove free offering. The eleventh is for the Nazarite vows. The twelfth is for the thank offering for the healing of the leprosy. The last box is marked as ETC. The widow has nothing to do with the leprosy or Nazarite vows, and her offering money was too small even for a turtle dove offering. So she must have been at the last ETC box.

Two Pennies

The English Bible says that the widow put two copper coins, some other translation says two pennies. The Greek Bible says two lepta (λεπτὰ δύο). This lepton’s value is one hundredth of a drachma. So I think it is kind of OK to say a penny which is one hundredth of a dollar. This lepton is not Greek money nor Roman money. It is the money of the Jewish kingdom, the Hasmonean dynasty whose beginning is celebrated as Hanukkah. There are lots of things to talk about this money, but I will do that later time because you all must be hungry.

Many international students from Korea are very tight financially, not like the Chinese students driving Mercedes, Lamborghini, or Masearti. So most international students from Korea in America put a dollar in the offering baskets, which is great because even a dollar is not a small amount considering their financial situation. But I noticed that the Korean international students in Canada put five dollars in the offering plates. That is because a dollar in Canada is a coin, and so is two dollars. The smallest paper bill in Canada is five dollars. When the coins make sounds, they feel ashamed of themselves. So that must have be what the widow felt. You may think, ‘Well back then, all the moneys were coins. No paper bills.’ Well that is true, but the coins make drastically different sounds by the size and weight. If you drop a penny and a quarter in your piggy bank, you can clearly tell the difference just by hearing the sounds. So the widow must have been very ashamed of herself, and Jesus pointed that out by saying it out loud in the public—‘Hey everybody, that lady put two pennies in offering box.’ I believe she must have been so embarrassed.

Two Quarters and Two Pennies

But as you all know, Jesus was not making fun of her. There was a little girl named Luna who came to church with her parents and grandmother. She was five but she was smaller than her age. One year, I was greeting people in the narthex before the Christmas Eve service. Then this cute little girl Luna came and gave me two quarters. I didn’t know what to do. So I pulled my hands backwards. She said to me, “I want to give it to you because you are my friend.” Still I was confused. Then her mother whispered at my ear, ‘She wanted to give you a Christmas gift, and this is all she has from her piggy bank. Just take it for now.’ So I took two quarters from her, which I later gave it back to her mother. I also gave the girl another Christmas gift. This girl gave me some sort of insights about the widow’s offering. The widow must have wanted give at least something to God, and she gave all she had from her piggy bank—two pennies.

But here we have to read the Scripture closely. I heard from so many preachers, preaching like, ‘See that Jesus praised the poor widow giving up all her living and donating it to the temple. Likewise even if it hurts, you must give lots of money to church.’ Maybe no American preachers say like this, but I personally heard so many times from the preachers in Korea. This is my question to you: Did Jesus praise the poor widow? If you think so, read the text again. Whenever Jesus was happy with some people, He praised them by saying like ‘You have a great faith., ‘Well done,’ or ‘Your faith has saved you.’ Jesus did not say any of these to her. Jesus preached to his disciples and to other people (because it was a public place) that she donated two pennies and that is more than the rich people’s contribution. If you say to a college student “Even an elementary student can do better than this,” is it praising the elementary student or bashing the college student? Likewise it was not praising the poor widow at all. It was simply criticising the rich people. Jesus’ point was never about the amount of money. It was always about the giver’s heart. God says in Isaiah, “The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me? I have more than enough of burnt offerings. I have no pleasure in your offerings. Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me.”2

Not Money Offering but Love Offering

Back to my little girl’s gift to me—two quarters. When she offered me the money, I was not happy like, ‘Oh yeah! On my way home, I am going to buy an ice pop. Yee Haw!’ Eventually I gave the money back to her mother. But I was so glad and happy not because of the money but because of her friendship and her sincere heart for me. And I believe God is the same. If you give up all your living and bring that money to God, to church, Jesus will not praise you for doing so. He will not say to you that you have a great faith. On the other hand, even if we contribute tons of money, and yet if our heart is somewhere else, God will tell us ‘I have no pleasure in your offerings. Stop bringing meaningless offerings. I want your love, not your money.’ 

Well… this sermon is supposed to be part of the stewardship and generosity campaign. I shouldn’t preach like this. How can I fix it…? Let me put it this way. The Shunammite woman was rich. When the Bible says rich, that is not just another average rich. I mean she was RICH. So providing the prophet meals every time, building a best room and furnishing it, all those things wouldn’t hurt her financial situation. In such case, and when she offered with grateful and sincere heart, God gladly accepts the offering. But in the NT lesson, God did not accept the offerings of the rich because they lack love and sincerity. And while Jesus appreciated the sincerity and truthfulness of the widow, the offering itself may have not been accepted. Though the Gospels do not mention, there is a big possibility that Jesus sent later one of his disciples and helped the widow because Jesus has compassion for the people. My baseline is this: God does not want anyone to feel burdened, but God accepts the cheerful giving, in other words, not burdened.

Conclusion

Genesis 4 tells us that God accepted the offering from Abel but not from Cain. In today’s OT lesson, God accepted the offering from the rich woman, but God did not accept the offerings from the rich people in Isaiah 1. We need to tell the difference. When we cheerfully offer the offerings in our abundance (not burdening ourselves heavily) with our love for God with all our hearts and minds, then God will surely accept our offerings, and bless us in this life and in the life to come forever and ever. Amen.