Sunday November 10th. Pentecost 25

My dear brothers and sisters,

Today's Gospel in a wealthy community is always a challenge. Jesus commends the widow who gives all that she has into the temple treasury, a kind of generosity towards God that seems to many of us excessive.. However, although the modern church may not expect us to hand over all our wealth there is still a great sense within the Christian teaching that what we have should be entirely offered to God.. Like the rich young man who goes away sorrowing because he has so much and finds it a challenge to sell it and give the money to the poor, we too are challenged as to how we give who and what we are and what we possess in the service of God.

Indeed it is very hard for us, for we think that we need so much to be able to live. Unlike our forebears,  all of us believe that we should have our own houses and cars and indeed all sorts of things. Indeed,  it is true that we live in the world where to not have these things would make life very difficult.  Yet, it seems that the further we enter into a world of possessions the more likely we are to turn away from God, from His service and from the kind of generosity to which we are called. In a world of fear, in a world where protecting oneself involves our income and wealth, it is hard to hear Jesus' teaching , that the widow by giving all that she has is to be commended.

I think that each of us should take seriously Jesus' words, not that all of us are called to give up everything and follow him poor into the world, but that each of us is challenged to think of how we use what we have in the service of God and others.  This of course means that we are to take seriously the words of scripture and that our practice of faith cannot just be about the comfort it brings us but about the generosity of heart that cares for others.

 With love and blessings, Father Clive.