Scripture: Mark 12:38-44; Ruth 1:12-18; Luke 16:19-31; Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25; Hebrews 11:1; Matthew 6:3 Series: After Pentecost
Preaching on the widow’s mite (Mark 12) alongside Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi (Ruth 1), Pruitt contrasts two economies. Using marginal utility and his buffet habits as a foil, he argues that heavenly abundance is not measured by worldly surplus value or material impact: the widow’s two coins make no budgetary difference, yet Jesus exalts her because she gives out of faith, believing more in God than in herself. Tracing the Greek oikonomia through Paul, the shrewd manager, and Lazarus and the rich man, he warns that wealth can blind us to our neighbor and to God. Ruth, like the widow, gives up everything in faith; Orpah and the rich man do not. The call is to live by faith, receive forgiveness in Christ, and give and serve out of that grace rather than out of surplus.
Illustrations: buffet-marginal-utility, pascals-wager-hedging
November 10
Ruth 1:12-18
Mark 12:38-44
Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. - Ruth 1:12-18
As he taught, he 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.” He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” - Mark 12:38-44
I have enjoyed buffets since I was a child. We used to go to the Golden Corral in College Station as a kid. I always tried to eat as much as I could, even when I didn’t pay. I saw it as a challenge. We have other buffet options in Austin. There’s a Middle Eastern buffet by the church, Dimassi’s, that we love as a family. I love Middle Eastern food. I love this hummus and falafel and especially Dolmas, or stuffed grape leaves. I learned to make Dolmas because it’s hard for me to eat enough dolma and they can be expensive to purchase outside of a buffet situation. Five of them might cost five dollars. I don’t want to eat five. More like five plates, but this gets back to the issue of the buffet.
Whenever I go to a buffet, I always try to make sure I get my money’s worth. I want to eat more food than the cost of the buffet so that I am a net negative on the establishment. I have nothing against restaurant owners, it is only this small way to arbitrage surplus value, in economic language. When we are a family, I make the kids go back for one extra plate because we are at a buffet. We gotta make it worth coming here because we could’ve gone somewhere else and just ordered a meal or cooked it ourselves.
There’s this concept in economics called marginal utility, which means “in economics, the additional satisfaction or benefit (utility) that a consumer derives from buying an additional unit of a commodity or service.”1
The marginal utility of an item changes depending on a number of factors, but most specifically it changes based on how much of an item you have consumed.
Food is a great example of this. The first bite of pizza has a different marginal utility than the tenth. The first dessert tastes different than the third. Or for me, the first dolma has a different marginal utility than the 30th. Once we start getting to the 31st or the 32nd dolma of our buffet experience, now we’re veering down into negative marginal utility, which means that it’s worse for me to eat another one. It is harming me to eat another one. I really should stop at 33 but then there’s just one more I gotta try.
When you get to that level of consumption, sticking to food or buffets, and you are completely full, so full that can’t physically open your mouth for another bite, is that abundance?
In the gospel of Mark Jesus uses the language of abundance in an economic way.
The rich person gives out of abundance, gives out of excess, gives out of what is left over. The poor widow gives out of her needs. Surely, the rich person giving out of abundance is going to cover a lot more bills the temple has. It’s gonna cover a lot more of the workers. Its going to help pay for materials for repairs. That is not what Jesus lifts up. Instead, he lifts up the widow.
The material difference between her gift and someone who gives nothing at all is very small. It would look identical at just the level of the world and the material operation of the temple They aren’t going to be able to do any extra things because of the two cents she gave. They couldn’t buy a new knife or repair a leak or cover meals for staff.
If they were doing a budget reconciliation with modern accounting standards, not practiced in 30 AD, but still, if they were doing a budget reconciliation and the difference between the budget versus the actual was two pennies, nobody would’ve sweated it or questioned anyone. They would have zeroed it out. It is fine. It won’t make a difference.
These words of Jesus offer a different view of money and abundance and giving. It seems like it’d be a lot easier for churches to run if there were a Bible verse where Jesus says explicitly that you should give 15%. Let’s be optimistic: 15% of all the money you get before taxes or else you’re going to hell. Right? I mean, I think there’s some preachers who say that, but if Jesus had just said that explicitly, church stewardship drives might be a little easier.
But then again, Jesus wouldn’t ever say something like that because the kingdom of heaven functions a different economy than the kingdom of the world. The economy of the kingdom of heaven doesn’t make it any easier to run a church in this kingdom of the world because Jesus offers a different vision of the world. Jesus inaugurates a different vision where giving is not just about a budget, but is a spiritual practice.
The poor widow was practicing her faith. She believes more in God than she believes in herself. She doesn’t have the answer directly in front of her. She’s practicing what it says in Hebrews 11: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen. She is believing in something unseen by giving something that’s seen away. She is not thinking about the marginal utility for the Temple. She is not trying to make a difference or practice efficiency. She is not really letting her left hand know what her right hand is doing, as Jesus says in the sermon on the Mount.
In this, she is practice heavenly abundance. The economy of the kingdom of heaven is different.
The word economy comes from the Greek oikonomia, which literally means law of the home. Oikos means home and nomos, law.
Paul uses the word a few times, none of them having to do with money. In Ephesians 3:2, Paul talks about “the oikonomia of God’s grace which was given to me for you.”
In a similar fashion in Colossians 1:25, Paul writes Of this church I was made a minister according to the oikonomia from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.”
Luke uses it in a different way in Chapter 16 with the parable of the shrewd manager. And it is, assuredly, one of the more confusing parables
Manager is the common translation of oikonome. The manager is praised as shrewd because he is dishonest with wealth, and the Jesus says that you can’t serve God and money.
But the end of Luke 16 offers us a little clarity with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
““There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”” Luke 16:19-31 NRSV
The two economies have different views of abundance and different measures of growth. In Mark, Jesus is kind of coy about it, but the heart of the matter is still the same. If you think the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of all Creation, views abundance in the same way the world does, you will be sorely mistaken.
Heavenly abundance is not based on marginal utility or surplus value added. It is not even based on what you give to the church or non-profits. It isn’t based on what you leave to your family.
Heavenly abundance begins with believing more in God than in ourselves. It is believing more what God has done in Jesus Christ, than what I have done with my career.
The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is not about money but how money can blind us to our neighbor. Money can keep us from love. Money can keep us from hearing God. This can happen to individuals. It can happen to churches.
It can happen even when we give. The human heart has an amazing capacity to turn good things bad.
The rich man in the parable was blind to heavenly abundance. The rich man in Mark 12 who gives out of his earthly abundance is blind to heavenly abundance. He is diversifying his investments. Or in the language of Pascal’s wager, he is hedging his bets. He is betting on God’s existence, but he is also betting on God not existing by keeping his principle secure.
The poor widow bets everything on God. She gives her principle to God. It is not about making a difference to the temple, but making a difference to her heart. She gives everything because her heart is filled with the abundance of God, no matter the money she has.
Ruth is an example of heavenly abundance. She gives up everything to stay with Naomi out of faith.
Getting back to Mark 12, the rich people are not saved by their gift nor the poor widow by hers. Jesus isn’t pointing out good works but faith. The widow gave out of faith. The rich man did not.
Ruth left out of faith. Orpah did not.
Wherever you are in life and in this world, live by faith. God has come in Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. Believe in that forgiveness. Receive it. Live into it. Serve because of it. Give because of it. Share good news because of it. Be encouraged because of it. You don’t need anything to give. You have everything you need to share and love. God has already empowered you.
Go forth and do likewise. In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.