How can a Christian respond faithfully in times like this?  The answer might surprise you!

Desperate Times and Desperate Measures
A Christian’s Response to Economic Uncertainty

1 Kings 17:1-16, Mark 12:41-44
(also Matthew 6:19-34)

Intro: Letting Go

I had chances growing up to see all kinds of things.  We went on vacations once a year to places as far north as DC, and as far west as the Grand Canyon.  Strangely, though, I have only vague memories of some of these places.  I remember, for instance, the powerful feeling I had standing at the edge of the South Rim, but I don’t really remember any specific vistas, nor do I remember much of the long trip out west.

Strangely enough, one clear memory I have of growing up is going to the circus.  I remember cotton candy, silly toys that cost a lot and broke before I got home.  I remember animals and clowns – I even remember where we sat one time we went.

And one of my favorite things to watch was the trapeze artists.  What amazing skill they had, to fly through the air from bar to bar, flipping and twirling and ending up in just the right place at the right time.  I wasn’t the most adventurous child, but I could sure dream.  And I often imagined myself as a trapeze artist, flying gracefully through the air to the cheers of thousands.

That dream was shattered sometime in my teenage years, when I visited a particular ropes course on a youth trip.  A popular activity during the 80’s and 90’s, ropes courses were usually located at camps or in wooded areas.  Ropes or wires were strung between trees, and strategically linked together to make obstacle courses in the sky.  You might have to “walk” a shaky rope bridge with little help, negotiate a rope ladder, or slide down a zip line.  The courses were designed to build teamwork (you often had to work together to overcome an obstacle), and to give young people an esteem boost as they overcame their fears and achieved something difficult.

I had always been pretty good with heights, so I loved ropes courses.  It became something of a competition within a group – who could go through the fastest?  I thought I was fearless, until I encountered the largest ropes course I’ve ever been on.  It had multiple levels in the trees, and took even the fastest person 20 minutes or so to finish.  It had all the classic elements put together, plus a few I’d never seen.  And in one of those new challenges I met my match.

It was something like a Tarzan swing – two ropes hanging down, and you swung from one to grasp the other in order to move to the next challenge.  I came to the obstacle with confidence, thinking I would simply swing, grab the other rope, and get myself steady as I held onto both ropes before I went on.  But there was a problem – the ropes were too far apart for me to hold them both.  In order to make it, I’d have to let go of one completely, and jump to the next – just like a trapeze artist.

I made my initial swing, and as I realized I would have to let go, I froze.  I held on tight to the rope as it swung back and forth and eventually came almost to a halt.  I just couldn’t imagine that moment in the air when there was nothing to hold onto.  Sure, I was harnessed and someone on the ground held the rope that would keep me from falling.  But then I discovered the extents of my fearlessness – I had to face the new challenge of letting go of one thing completely so that I could grasp the other.

We’re going to talk about “desperate times and desperate measures” this morning, and I was facing that in a very real way!

Tough Choices

Today’s stories are about two widows who had to make similar choices.  They could choose either to hold onto their material things, or to trust in God… but they couldn’t do both.

1 Kings 17:1-16 (NET Bible)

(1) Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As certainly as the LORD God of Israel lives (whom I serve), there will be no dew or rain in the years ahead unless I give the command.”

(2)  The LORD told him:  (3)  “Leave here and travel eastward. Hide out in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan.  (4)  Drink from the stream; I have already told the ravens to bring you food there.”

(5)  So he did as the LORD told him; he went and lived in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan.  (6)  The ravens would bring him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he would drink from the stream.

(7)  After a while, the stream dried up because there had been no rain in the land.  (8)  The LORD told him,  (9)  “Get up, go to Zarephath in Sidonian territory, and live there. I have already told a widow who lives there to provide for you.”  (10)  So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he went through the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please give me a cup of water, so I can take a drink.”  (11)  As she went to get it, he called out to her, “Please bring me a piece of bread.”

(12)  She said, “As certainly as the LORD your God lives, I have no food, except for a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. Right now I am gathering a couple of sticks for a fire. Then I’m going home to make one final meal for my son and myself. After we have eaten that, we will die of starvation.”

(13)  Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you planned. But first make a small cake for me and bring it to me; then make something for yourself and your son.  (14)  For this is what the LORD God of Israel says, ‘The jar of flour will not be empty and the jug of oil will not run out until the day the LORD makes it rain on the surface of the ground.’ ”

(15)  She went and did as Elijah told her; there was always enough food for Elijah and for her and her family.  (16)  The jar of flour was never empty and the jug of oil never ran out, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah.

Mark 12:41-44 (NET Bible)

Then he sat down opposite the offering box, and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts.  (42)  And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, worth less than a penny.  (43)  He called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others.  (44)  For they all gave out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.”

You and I face hard times.  The economy is in awful shape, and getting worse every day it seems.  Gas prices are going up and down like a roller coaster.  The financial future is uncertain, for our world, our nation, and our own families.

But we don’t face anything like these two women did.  They both lived in hard times – even desperate times.  What would you do in their places?  What kinds of desperate measures might we take?

The widow in Zarephath faced hard times along with everyone else in the land: in the ancient world, a drought could be a devastating thing, and they had no resources to get water from hundreds of miles away.  Crops and livestock died, leaving few resources for food – especially for widows, who had no husband to take care of their material needs.  You’re down to your last little bit of stuff to make bread, and all you can imagine is that this will be your last meal before you starve.

So what do you do, when a man comes to you and asks for food?  Do you grasp tightly, and say, “Sorry, this is my last meal and I’m going to make the most of it”?  Is that the kind of desperate measure that’s called for?

The other widow that Jesus observed faced her own personal crisis.  Who knows what desperate circumstances had taken her down to her last two pennies?  Perhaps her husband and her sons had all died, and she had scrimped and saved until a few meager pennies were all that was left of the small family fortune.

So what do you do when the time comes to give your offering?  “Sorry, God, but you can see how tough times are right now.  I’ll give you something later when I’m able.”  After all, she would wait in the long line of people putting money in the temple offering box, and many of the wealthier ones would stand and make a show out of putting their large piles of money in.  Everyone could hear as the coins left a waterfall of “clinks” as they fell in the box.  How embarrassing might it be to come behind someone like that, and to hear the measly sound of your two coins: “clink… clink.”

We can learn a lot from these widows who faced similar times as we do.  They both had choices to make – desperate times mean desperate measures.  But when we think of desperate measures, we probably don’t think of the response that these two women made!   And their desperate measures said a lot about the God they worshiped and trusted.

Changing the Rules

Have you ever played games with a preschooler?  I’m finding more chances to do that lately, as Abigail is getting into games these days.  She’s got a few card games, computer games, and even board games like Candy Land and Hi-ho-Cheerio.  And I’ve noticed, as most of you, that preschoolers don’t always have the respect for rules that most of us adults do.  The point of a game is to win, after all.  So if the rules get in the way of that, then let’s just do something about it!  And as a daddy, I just laugh and go along with it – squelching that part of me that screams, “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game!”

We laugh when children do it.  But I think that you and I change the rules of faith sometimes when it comes to money and material things, as well.

We usually tend to hold on more tightly to God in times of trouble – when we’re sick, for example, or when someone we love is sick or in danger.  We reach out in faith because we realize we don’t have any control over our situation.  That’s normal.  As the old saying goes, “there are no atheists in foxholes.”

But for some reason, things are often reversed when it comes to money and material things.  We may hold on tightly to God in times when our well-being is threatened.  But we are a people of the material – and when our material goods are threatened, we tend to hold on tightly to the things we have.

“I’ll just wait on the tithe this month,” we say, “Let’s just see how things look at the end of the month.”

Or, “I know those folks need help, but I just don’t know if the money will be there.”

And it’s not just about the money or lack thereof – it’s the uncertainty.  We don’t like the unknown, the uncertain.  We like to know what’s ahead, to be sure our retirement funds and checking accounts will always have a nice pad.  If that certainty is not there, it will affect the way we choose to use that money – including the ways we use our resources to help others

Like the trapeze artist, we’re getting ready to swing out in mid-air.  On one side is our material things, and on the other is the God we claim faith in – the God who has told us to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth.  We can’t hold onto both at the same time.   As Jesus said in our earlier passage, “you can’t serve both God and money.”

It’s easy to trust God and to give and help freely when things are good.  But what about in the difficult times?  Times like this are the true test of our faith – a chance to see just how much we really trust God to take care of us.

Desperate Times

When we think of the phrase “desperate times call for desperate measures,” we might turn our eyes to the current financial crisis.  Times are tough – it’s time to get desperate and start looking out for Number One.  The budget’s getting tight?  Let’s cut back our benevolences and tithe.  We can always boost them again later when things are good.

Even if we don’t consciously think this, it’s something we’re tempted to think.  We don’t want to let go of that rope, because secretly we trust God with a lot of things – but not our money.

But the two widows in today’s passages teach us a powerful lesson.  Desperate times DO call for desperate measures.  But not in the way we think of it.  Desperate times mean we should be even MORE desperate to give and to help.  In desperate times, we shouldn’t give LESS, we should give MORE.

This is a hard concept for us to face, but in light of these two stories we’ve heard, and in light of Jesus’ words from the passage we read earlier, I don’t think we have any other choice but to see it this way.

This truth is practical, both materially and spiritually:

First, on the material plane.  We might want to dump ourselves in the category with the widows in our stories, in really “desperate times” financially.  But I don’t think any of us in this room can do that.  Let’s face it – probably all of us in this room are on the upper scale of things in this area.  We might not be close to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett in our income, but if we put things on a local scale, most of us in this room would probably be in the top 10-15% of income in our county and in Southside.

And if things are bad for us, how bad are they for those who are in REALLY desperate times?  When you have to face the choice between buying gas to get to work and buying food for your family?  Most of us don’t have to make that choice yet.

And even if we do have to make those choices, we’re never exempted from giving.  God never says, “Only give your tithe when you can afford to.”  He doesn’t say, “Only help others when you’re comfortable doing it.”  He simply tells us to give, and to help.

In times like this, it makes practical sense for us as the people of God to give MORE, not LESS.

And spiritually, it’s practical as well.  It helps us keep the rules consistent – we’re not switching rules mid-game.  We’re declaring that we have as much faith in God with our material things as we do with the rest of our lives.  And when we do that, we step to a whole new level of faith and our walk with God.

And just like Jesus said, we aren’t going to go hungry.  God will provide for us – more that we might imagine, in fact.  Tanya and I have found in our giving lives that God blesses us more the more we give.  There’s no formula to work out exactly how, and God’s not bound to it like a law – though he has promised that it’s more blessed to give than to receive.  And I think that all of you could provide examples as well.

Making it Work

So how do we work this out?  It’s not going to be the same for each of us.  All of us are in different places, financially and spiritually.  So each of us will have to think of what it means for us.

And to do that, we have to remember it’s not only a matter of material things – it’s a spiritual statement.  What do you and I need to do to fully let go of one rope and grasp on to the other?  We don’t have to give away every penny we have… we just have to be willing to if God asks.

In this way, there is a response for ALL OF US to make – every single one of us.

Our response might be financial and material.  Maybe we need to give more – and if we’re at all tempted to give less in these uncertain times, it’s a sign that we need to give MORE.  We’re in desperate times, so we need to take desperate measures.

I’m not asking you all to give more to the church – though if you want to, that’s fine with me!  But we do need to give even more in these uncertain times to people who can make things happen.  Pick up more food at the store for the food pantry, pick up things for Madeline’s House.

And if we’re already giving a lot, maybe we need to think of other ways to take desperate measures.  Maybe now would be a good time for you to volunteer at the shelter or the food pantry.  Maybe it’s time to check in on your neighbors – no matter what their color or what language they speak – and see if there’s anything you can do for them.

If there’s any time when we can make a radical statement about the God we believe in, it’s NOW.  Let’s be willing to let go of our things, and hold tightly instead to the God who has saved us, the God who has always provided for our needs, the who will bring us home to an unimaginable treasure someday.

These are desperate times.  Let’s take desperate measures, and show the world just how big our God really is.

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