Whatever may yet come from this past week’s non-election, no one can ever again legitimately claim that their one vote doesn’t count.  If only a few hundred people, out of the 100 million who voted last Tuesday, had stayed home the course of American history would have been altered.  Mathematically, one vote over against millions may not measure up to much.  But, when millions of times over, one person measures the value of their vote more in terms of their privilege and responsibility to cast it than in terms of its singular ability to influence the political process, something very significant happens.

Much like what happened when this poor widow woman cast her one penny into the temple treasury.  Mathematically, it didn’t measure up to much.  But, it measured just enough to get Jesus’ attention and to find a place in the gospel record.  Do you think she gave her paltry sum because she honestly believed it would make a difference?  After all, there were more impressive people giving much more impressive amounts.  What was it about her or her gift that got Jesus’ attention?  She was just “a poor widow” and it was just “a penny.” 

Maybe it was the fact that she was a widow and poor, not to mention the fact that she was a woman.  In Jesus’ day, other than being a leper, it would have been difficult to be lower on the ladder of social prominence than to be poor, a woman and a widow.  In Jesus’ day, a woman was little more than her husband’s property.  Her social worth and net worth were directly related to him.  Women were not educated and were not given any skills.  There was no such thing as Social Security.  When a woman’s husband died, she became, for all practical purposes, about as close to a non-person as you could get and still be alive.  In many cases, widows were driven into prostitution not because they were more immoral than the married men who bought their services but because they simply had no other means of making a living. 

Maybe that is one reason Jesus always seemed to have a special place in his heart for prostitutes and an eye for widows who were, perhaps, on the way to becoming prostitutes.  Jesus always seemed to have an eye for the people on the bottom rung of the social ladder. 

In a recent episode of 60 Minutes the reporter interviewed the CEO of General Electric, one of the most powerful and wealthy business conglomerates in the world.  It turns out that he is thought of as something like the guru’s guru in the business world because of his incredible success at building the GE empire.  If you had bought $10,000 worth of GE stock when he first became CEO in 1981, that stock would now be worth some $800,000.  Naturally, he gets everyone’s attention even to the point of being interviewed by 60 Minutes in a favorable way.  When asked the secrets of his company’s success, he reported that every one of the thousands of people who work for him gets graded.  And, routinely, the company gets rid of the bottom ten percent.  His philosophy is that no company that wants to get ahead can afford to carry the bottom ten percent.  In his company, if you rate in the bottom ten percent, you’re out. 

Anyone who has ever run a business can appreciate the need to do what it takes to insure its success.  But, anyone who has ever thoughtfully read the New Testament has also noticed that Jesus was particularly interested in the bottom ten percent that everyone else would just as soon dump.  He was always paying attention to them.  He also paid attention to how those who were in the top ten percent treated those in the bottom ten percent. 

That’s why, just prior to taking note of this widow giving her penny, he pulled his disciples aside and said, “‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!  They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.  They will receive the greater condemnation.’” 

You see, these scribes were some of the elite, the top ten percent in the religious and social culture of first century Israel.  They were the power brokers.  They profited, to some extent, from what got put into the temple treasury.  They also knew how to leverage a little into a lot.  Women who lost their husbands also routinely lost their homes in part because those with the power and resources, like the scribes, worked the system to their advantage.  At a minimum they did nothing to protect the powerless.  In Jesus’ words, they would “‘devour widows’ houses.’”  To them, I’m sure, it wasn’t personal; it was just business.  Just another way of working the bottom ten percent in order to improve their bottom line.  To Jesus, whose bottom line was people, it was very personal and very immoral for anyone to use their power to manipulate those who had none.  And, the Jesus who always had an eye for what happened to the bottom ten percent also had an eye for the top ten percent and how they treated those on the bottom.  So, he said, “‘they will receive the greater condemnation.’” 

In some ways, not much has changed.  People on top still take advantage of those on the bottom.  Recently, at a convenience store in our neighborhood,  I noticed a little Hispanic boy, about five or six, playing with a toy while his father was paying out.  That’s why they put toys on that level, isn’t it?  So children will play with them and softhearted parents will buy them even at their over-inflated prices. From the look of things, the father was a day laborer.  From the sound of things, he couldn’t even speak English.  And, it did interest me that this was up during the middle of the day and these little boys weren’t in school.And, I might not have noticed any of this except that the white clerk behind the counter saw the child playing with the toys and scolded him.  “Put that down before you break it!” she said in a condescending tone of voice.  What troubled me was that my sons have gone in and out of that same store for years and played with the toys on the rack.  But, not once had any white clerk ever scolded my white children about playing with the toys.  Not much has changed since Jesus’ day in the way people use their power.

So, maybe that is what it was about this widow that got Jesus’ attention.  Maybe it was her courage.  Think of what it took for this woman to give anything!  To stand in line with the wealthiest of the community and, for everyone to see, give only a penny’s worth in comparison to the “large sums” the “rich people put in.”  It would have much easier for this woman to just stay home, or, perhaps, homeless.  To conclude that her one penny couldn’t have had much influence on the ultimate outcome of the work of the temple and just not bother to go at all?

Think of the sacrifice.  The “‘rich people,’” Jesus said, “‘contributed out of their abundance.’”  These people had long ago stopped worrying about paying the rent.  They had enough income, in some cases from buying and selling “‘widow’s houses,’” to have plenty of discretionary income.  Enough to not only meet their need for financial security but also to insure their social prominence so that they were always certain to get “‘the best seats . . . and places of honor.’”  Yet, here this woman was, Jesus said, giving “‘out of her poverty . . . everything she had, all she had to live on.’”

Think of the humility and simple trust.  “‘All she had to live on’” she gave to the place where she believed the work of God was being done.  Even though some of those who profited from her gift had likely already bought her home out from under her at a cutthroat price that almost certainly left her homeless, she apparently still believed that, in that temple, there was something good and godly.  Apparently, she didn’t have to know that every dime she gave to what she believed was the work of God would be used in the most holy way as much as she needed to know that she gave it. 

And, it was surely upon all of that that Jesus pronounced his blessing.  “‘She has put in more,’” he said.  Which tells us something about how God measures the value and the size of our gifts to his work even today.  Not in terms of its size compared to the sum total of everyone else’s gift but only in terms of what it represents in terms of courage, humility and simple trust.  Mercy!  When you think of giving in those terms, it makes all of our discussions about tithing seem rather infantile, wouldn’t you agree?  So, let me state it plainly.  Jesus never once commanded that we tithe in order to be Christian.  Tithing is not a New Testament principle of giving as much as giving that represents courage, humility and simple trust.  For some that’s a penny.  For others, well, you do the math.  How much would you have to give to get to courage, humility and simple trust?

But, when you measure your gift, remember this widow.  If you think about it, this woman who gave, as Jesus said, “‘everything she had, all she had to live on,’” had obviously stopped worrying about tithing long ago and had discovered a deeper and more significant way of measuring than anyone who measures their gift in percentages of ten.  And, maybe this story is in the Bible to remind us that, with God, the real test of our character is not so much what we do with the first ten percent, the tithe, as it is what we do with the last ten percent.  Maybe the real test of character is how we behave in relationship to God when there’s nothing left.  Which is not something many of us have to worry about today.  But, then again, there’s always tomorrow.

In my doctoral work, I wrote a paper entitled “Equipping Young Adults to Develop Self-Esteem In Their Pre-School Aged Children.”  I wrote about self-esteem on that level, in part, because I had preschoolers at home and, in part, because I was still searching for it myself.  That was eleven years ago.  Back then, I believed that the key to a child’s self-esteem had primarily to do with getting a parent’s blessing.  And, I still believe that is one of the most essential keys to raising children with a healthy sense of self.  But, if given the chance, I’d rewrite the paper.  I’ve since concluded that one of the most significant things a parent can do to help their children experience a sense of self-worth is to get them engaged in activities that get their attention off of themselves.  There is something about self-worth that eludes us when we are seeking it for its own sake but that seems to find us when we are busy on the way to serving others. 

With what little time I have left to be a parent, I think I’m going to steer my sons in the direction of acts of courage, humility and self-sacrificial trust in God.  I don’t want them to measure their gift to this world or the work of God in it in ways that defines its value in comparison to anyone else’s gift or even the sum total of all other gifts.  I want them to learn to measure their gift in terms of their responsibility and privilege.  More than I want them to be tithers, I want them to be givers.  And, when they measure their gift, I want them to know the widow’s story.  And, the fact that, with God, the bottom line is not the size of your gift, but the courage, humility and self-sacrificial trust it represents. 

When I went for my annual physical a couple of weeks ago I learned that I had shrunk a quarter of an inch in height.  I made the nurse re-measure.  It came out the same.  She said that we tend to get shorter as we get older.  I was not at all comforted to know that what is happening to my body is just part of thenatural process.  And, I just couldn’t help but wonder, when I read about the widow, about that part of me that God measures.  That part where courage, humility and self-sacrificial trust lives.  I couldn’t help but wonder if what is happening there is naturally shrinking or supernaturally growing.  Then, when I read about the widow, I realized that God leaves some of that up to me.  How he measures me has a lot to do with what happens when I measure out my gift to him.  When I read about the widow, I realized that God isn’t measuring the money as much as he’s measuring me.