The Widow's Mite

I know, the story of the widow who gives more than all the rest in giving her two cents is not really a story you hear on the second Sunday of Easter, but here's why this story is on my mind today.

I generally write one check a month for my "tithe" to my church. I put that in quotes because I don't want to imply that I actually manage 10%. But I do manage regular giving, most of the time. I aim for the first Sunday of the month, but many months (like this one), I don't quite manage to remember until a week or two later. Ah well....

So today, I had my envelope ready to go. At the offertory, I handed it to my brother with two thoughts in mind. The first was simple logistics: he was closer to the end of the pew; it just seemed easier. But, secondly, it did cross my mind that it might help him feel like he was giving something. A perhaps overstatedly evil, but not unfair, way to put it: I thought I'd give him the illusion of making a real contribution by letting him hand mine in.

He took the envelope from me but he also dug into his own pocket and pulled out a quarter. I actually almost stopped him. I mean, that quarter means a lot more to him on his fixed income (with his nicotine addiction!) than it does to the parish. I almost told him to keep it.

I'm really glad I didn't. He gave far more than I did, and who am I to stop that? I often find myself wondering what sort of calculus God will use to judge Paul. (Okay, really, it is more primary for me to wonder what battles I should fight with Paul, what to hold him accountable to and what to let go, and only by extension wonder the divine calculus of such things.) But, suddenly it seems clear that the story of the widow's mite must loom large here.

I don't just mean that in terms of financial donations. The widow did not have much, yet she gave all she had. When I pause and think about the way Paul's illness deforms and distorts his own intellectual gifts, even his personality, let alone his finances, I think that surely he is giving all he has. And surely God, who knows Paul and his illness in their fullness, sees his challenges and what he gives in their fullness. And like the widow, may Paul be judged not on how much he puts in the collection basket, but on how he manages to give "all his living" (to twist one translation of the widow's story). For surely Paul gives "all his living" just getting through the day.

And still, somehow, a quarter for the church.