Most of us church people would have heard a sermon or two about this story. This particular text comes around once every three years in the RCL lectionary. It is the time of the year when most churches embark on their stewardship campaign. In this respect, ICB is no different. The members of our Finance Committee may want all members near and far, young and old etc., to be reminded at this time of year, that your church needs your financial support. So on this first Sunday of November, this text from Mark will be a good starter for us all to renew our pledges and financial commitment to ICB. After all, when we consider the two mites from the widow and how Jesus highlighted her giving (proportionately higher than the other people), hopefully, we may be encouraged to play our part.

While I like to go along with preachers from all over the world to kick off our stewardship campaign with this text from Mark 12:38-44, I would like to digress from the usual line of thought from most. I believe that there is more than meets the eye about this story from Mark. To go along with most without fully understanding Mark’s line of thought would be to do injustice to the text.

We have been looking at Mark’s Gospel for a good spell this year. All the stories that Mark gave build upon each other. Mark was concern that he presented a Jesus who inaugurates a new Kingdom with a whole set of different values. It can be construed that Mark was very much a revolutionary or reformist at heart. He was not content with the status quo. Much was wrong with the religion and politics of the day.

The Jesus that he had come to know in the three years of journeying with him was no “aquarium keeper” – keeping up with pretences. Religion is serious business with God. The rich and powerful will have no place in this new kingdom if they continue to flaunt their wealth and subjugate the poor.

The poor widow will be closer to the Kingdom than any other in this story. Now this is a scary thought, would you not think? Read the text again. Do you see yourself as one of the “teachers of the law in long flowing robes” or “rich people throwing in large amounts” or as “the poor widow with two mites”?

I was watching a documentary last evening on television about health insurance in the USA. It costs USD$2700 per month to get diabetic medication in the USA while the same medication goes for USD$700 across the border in Canada. The medication is from the same company. This is not a matter about the USA – it is about the world we live in. How did it get to this stage? How do “religious people” allow our institutions to subjugate the masses and divide them into the haves and have-nots?

As your minister, it is my intention that I prompt all of us to think and ponder over such issues. This is, after all, following the story-teller Mark in resounding God’s call – love mercy, deal justly and walk humbly (Micah 6:8).

I want to kick off ICB stewardship campaign not by highlighting ICB’s needs but by highlighting God’s word to all in His Kingdom. In my tenure here, this is where my heart lies – “Love your city – Bangkok”. We are a church only when we care for all around us. In times such as this, we cannot do less in loving and caring for the community.

Blessings,
Chee