“Offerings”
8
November 2015
Proper
27B
Homily
preached at Trinity Episcopal Church
Ashland,
Oregon
8:00
a.m. Said Mass; 10:00 a.m. Sung Children's Mass
The Old Testament and Gospel readings
today both have stories of women who give their all: the widow of Zarephath who
feeds the prophet Elijah, and the widow in the Temple who gives her last remaining
coins. The first tells of God’s love and
care for those who sacrifice for the good: the jar of oil and the bowl of meal
do not run out. The second is a blast by Jesus against the rich and powerful in
religion who “devour the houses of widows” and place heavy burdens on those
least able to pay. Though “the widow’s
mite” has been used as a positive example over the centuries, there is nothing
in the story to suggest any promise of support or aid to the poor widow, no
hint of praise.
What do these two stories have in
common with the New Testament reading?
The passage from Hebrews talks about how Jesus Christ as a metaphorical
high priest is better than any other real or historical one, and his
sacrificial offering the real thing, where all others are but shadows and types
pointing to it.
So the lectionary’s theme for today is
offering, sacrifice, giving.
Sacrifice or offering was at the heart
of the religious faith practiced in Israel’s Temple. The basic idea of an offering is expressed in
the word terumah: a lifting up, or a gift given with a heave
It served several uses in the
Temple: making up for past misbehavior,
cleansing or purgation of ritual contamination or impurity, reconciliation, expression
of gratitude and thanks. It sought to
repair and strengthen our relationship to God in a wide range of concerns,
through that most simple of human acts, sharing food. Some offerings were sacrifices with blood
where the animal was burned and the tasty bits shared by the ministers. Some were offerings of incense. Some were of grain and oil. The sharing was with the deity or with the
deity’s ministers.
There are prophetic voices against
sacrifice: it is just too easy to
confuse the act of offering as some kind of cheap bribery of the almighty. It is too easy to mistakenly conceive of God
as an unforgiving alien being who demands blood and death to be placated. So the prophets say, in different places: “If I were hungry, do you think I would ask
you? All the flocks of the fields are
mine. Do you think I drink the blood of
goats or cattle?” “I demand obedience,
not sacrifice.” “The sacrifice I demand
is a humble heart and a contrite spirit, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.”
Jesus criticizes the Temple ritual and
its rulers. The system is too
corrupt. It is a means by which the rich
can devour the houses of the poor. That’s
why he suggests that most of what one seeks to do through Temple offerings and
sacrifice can be done through following him.
The key here is this: offering and sacrifice are still ways through
which we become closer to God, even though we may not kill animals to do so. Offering
is all about giving, the act of giving itself.
It’s not really about motivations or hoped for outcomes: it doesn’t matter if you give with a
hope-against-hope idea that God will care for you. It doesn’t matter if you are being exploited
by manipulative religious men in long robes seated in the best pews. What matters is the giving, the letting
go.
I think the basic idea of offering or
sacrifice is best summed up in American Sign Language’s sign for
“sacrifice:” taking both hands as if
they hold something, then turning them both up, open wide, as if to say “I let
go of this. It’s all yours.” The essence of offering is letting go of
control, and giving up something of yourself with no expectations.
That’s why the author of Hebrews can
say Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice, even though Jesus was never a member
of the priestly family that did the rituals in the Temple and though human
sacrifice was forbidden. Hebrews is using a metaphor: what Jesus did for us in dying is to give
himself for us. He reconciles us to God,
drives away our sins, and makes us whole.
By giving himself. By
offering.
We often say that the Holy Eucharist is
a “sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.”
In it, we offer bread and wine, product of the created world and of
human hands, as tokens of what Jesus accomplished. In the assembly of the faithful and the very
act of offering, of sharing, it becomes a communion, or sharing, with God in
which God shares with us. That is why we
remember Jesus’ words at the last supper, “this is my body, this is my
blood.” The bread and wine become for us
spiritual food and drink. And though
Jesus died for us only once, as said in today’s lesson from Hebrews, the bread
and wine, thus offered, thus sacrificed, are our communion, or sharing.
Offering, giving, sharing—all these are
ways we build closeness with one another.
It is how we build closeness to God: not because God needs to be bribed
or placated, but because we need to put our things in second place after our
love. It is all about hospitality and
generosity, about sharing and welcoming.
It is a basic spiritual rule and guideline. It is one of the ways we follow Jesus and
serve as his body in the world.
In the name of Christ,
Amen.
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