The Gospel lesson that we just heard about the woman who put two copper coins in the offering in the temple is a very familiar story. It’s a story many of us learned in Church School. Many people know it by the title, “the widow’s mite” (mite meaning a tiny little bit). It’s a nice story for little children who are learning about mite boxes and putting coins in offering plates. And I’m aware that when the story gets told about Jesus commending the woman for giving everything she had, especially during pledge stewardship season, many of us adults kind of seize up inside. You know – we kind of brace ourselves for what’s coming next.

But you can relax (a little) because I’m keenly aware of Jesus’ stern warning at the beginning of this Gospel reading to religious leaders “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 places of worship 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.”

There’s scholarly debate about whether Jesus really approved of the generosity he outlined in verse 44. It’s not certain whether the widow is “a model of generosity to be admired, or [Jesus is] simply pointing out what a victim of religiosity run amok she is." (1) This story appears in the context of a larger passage about Jesus’ teaching against excessive piety – so clergy should beware when we take this particular story out of context and use it to promote sacrificial giving at stewardship time. It’s very possible that Jesus is making an observation about the impoverished widow who has been pressed by the religious leaders to donate what she needed to live on and he’s not praising her as much as he is condemning them. All that said, fool that I am, I’m going to press on a bit (or a mite) about sacrificial giving and you can take everything I say with a big fat grain of salt since I’m the one wearing the long robe!

The thing I want to say to you is that you already do, from time to time, whole-heartedly give everything you’ve got. And not only do you do it, you survive and even thrive! There are times when you give everything you have in terms of effort and energy – when you try as hard as you can; when you work as hard as you can. Of course there are times when your ability to exert effort or your capacity to work is very strong. Yes, but what about times when you hardly have any energy left? Times when you are nearly out of steam? Times when you are close to exhausted? It might feel like what you have left to offer in terms of effort is very small – a very little bit – and it’s a huge stretch and still you offer it on behalf of others. I know that you do it. I’ve seen you do it as individuals and I know you’ve done it as a parish.

You also whole-heartedly give everything you have, every now and then, and you survive and even thrive, when it comes to time. Of course there are occasions when you have plenty of time for what is needed, and giving some of that time, even a lot of that time, is really no big deal, because you have it to give. And there are times when you don’t have much time at all, when there’s really no slack in your schedule, and the time you are able to give looks puny in comparison to what others are giving – and, as small as it is, it’s more than you can afford and still you offer it. You offer everything you have on behalf of others. I know that you do it.

And you whole-heartedly give everything you have, every now and then, and you survive and even thrive, when it comes to money. Of course there are times when you have plenty of money for what is needed, and giving some of your money, is easy. And there are times when you don’t have much money at all, and what you have to offer is a very little bit – and it’s really more than you can afford and still you offer it on behalf of others. I know that you do it.

I was wondering the other day about what compels us to make those kinds of offerings on behalf of others, when all we have is a very little bit. What moves us to give all we’ve got for someone else? For a community? I’ll tell you, I do not think it’s duty or guilt. I think it’s love. Love is what persuades people to make sacrifices for others. I imagine love being behind the widow’s gift in our Gospel story. And then I thought about what 1st John says about God. “Those who live in love, live in God because God is love.” “God is Love.” And I often wonder, what if whenever we saw the word God, in our praying or singing or reading, we said the word Love instead?” It’s a little like the Jewish custom of saying substitute words whenever the Holy Name of God appears in writing. (2)

What if we talked about listening deeply to Love and Loving Love with our whole heart and our whole mind, and loving our neighbors as ourselves? What if we talked about believing in Love? (We’d have less to argue about wouldn’t we?) Can we believe in the almighty and immortal power of Love? Can we assert that Love is creative, redemptive and inspirational? Can we affirm that Love is liberating, saving, sustaining and comforting? What if we talked about offering to Love a sacrifice of thanksgiving? What if we understood more deeply that the Holy Name is both an eternal entity and an eternal action into which we are called, invited to tap; into which we are beckoned, encouraged to participate more and more fully.

My experience is that Love actually grows when we trust in Love. Love grows whenever we give everything we’ve got to give on behalf of others. And when we make those offerings that seem small in comparison to others, but they are all we have, the offerings are large in Love’s eyes; and the offerings become the hands and feet, the arms and legs of almighty Love in the world. Biblical Love is so much about action and not so much about feeling. Loving, or as one of my seminary professors would have said, “godding” is an incomplete, ongoing action.

It is into our way of Loving (or Godding) -- that incomplete, ongoing action that we will welcome two people in baptism this morning. David Cutler Mitchell and his infant daughter, Ella Kate Mitchell are promising to join a peculiarly Christian spiritual journey today not just with their immediate family, but with this great gathering of people who, in turn, will promise to do whatever it takes support them on their way. What an extraordinary and extravagant promises will be made this morning!

You know, in the early church, household members were usually baptized together into the wider Christian community. It’s a little more rare in our culture. We are so honored that you’ve chosen to celebrate your baptism here, David, where you and Emily were married, and that you and Emily are choosing to have Ella baptized. Here are three things that I want to urge you to do as a consequence of your baptisms, David and Ella (you’re going to have to explain these three things to Ella when she’s a little older!): first, understand Love as another name for God. Second, practice loving as much more of an action than a feeling. And finally, give it everything you’ve got for Love, whether you’ve got a lot or only a little bit. And all we who witness the vows taken by David and on behalf of Ella, who will be invited to renew our own vows, let’s support them by showing them how it’s done.