Scripture: Mark 12:41-44
A 5kg bag of rice a month? Plus a few cans of various canned food. That does not sound like much. But to the family receiving it, it was a lot when the children could only have a meal a day, sometimes once in 2 days. Hard to imagine? Not unusual even in the Klang Valley. The DUMC Food Bank routinely gives such aid to poor families, both within the church and outside. Such aid is made possible by people giving that others might receive.
In Mark 12:41-44, Jesus was watching people put their offerings into the temple treasury. He observed this little old lad, a widow put in “two very small copper coins”. He told his disciples that what this poor widow had put in (“worth only a fraction of a penny”) was more than large amounts that the rich people had contributed. Which of the two offerings do you think pleased God more: the poor widow’s two copper coins or the rich people’s sacks of money? Why do you think so?
How are we to give? Most Christians are aware that the Old Testament law required a tithe (a tenth, 10%) from Israel. (Actually, the Old Testament law required more than that – closer to 23%! ) Today, many Christians use a tenth as a benchmark, a general guideline for giving. But it is good to keep in mind that God really owns everything you have.
Giving a tenth – a tithe – of what you have is a good place to start. It should not be thought of as a rule, but as a guide. God honors sacrificial giving – meeting the needs of others by giving up something you want or even need – as in the case of the poor widow.
“She, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on” (Mark 12:44)
Giving is a part of God’s work of transformation in our lives. As we give to the needs of others out of gratitude to God, we are weaned from a sinful, godless self-absorption to a much healthier God-centredness. Giving is an important spiritual discipline to be cultivated.
“Stewardship is God’s way of raising people, not man’s way of raising money” (Wilmer & Smith, God and your stuff, 2002)
Would you give your money to someone who needed it? Can you think of a way you can give sacrificially?
Family Activity: Start a family Food Bank piggy-bank and encourage the children to put some of their monies in it each week. Parents, don’t forget to put in some yourselves! And once a month or quarter or when it’s full, take the children and the piggy-bank to the Food Bank and let the children give the money away.