Living Generously 1

The Widow’s Offering
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In our first week, consider one of the most famous giving passages in scripture, the widow’s mite found in Mark 12:38-13:2. This short story has stood as the standard lesson on proportional giving. The central figure of this story is a widow who chooses to present an offering that goes beyond generosity. This offering was all that the widow had to live on and represented literally the giving of her life. Jesus contrasts her gift with that of those giving out of their abundance. We are left to determine what lesson is to be garnered here.
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Our task in this first sermon is to wrestle with the text leading into this story and immediately follow it to determine if we may have misunderstood the point Jesus was making. Could the widow’s gift be proof of Jesus’ rebuke lodged at the scribes just a few verses prior? Was this sacrificial gift offered as a result of scribes who made a practice of devouring resources while losing sight of their responsibility to care for those like the widow? We will unpack, working through the text, to see what lessons can help shape our hearts as we strive to live generously.