Faithfulness or foolishness – this is the question asked about the widow who placed her last two coins in the temple treasury. Was she being faithful to the call to pay her support to the temple? Or was she being irresponsible by giving away all her money? So, foolish or faithful?

Let’s look at the argument a little deeper. First, the faithful argument. The woman is showing that she is so faithful to the law and dedicated to following God that she was willing to give up everything. She could look around her that day on the temple mount and see the money others were giving.

She no doubt saw that there were rich people who were depositing large bags of coins into the boxes laid out to collect money for the temple. Maybe she saw a couple of other people who even though they weren’t giving vast quantities of coins, were making a big deal out of what they were giving. But even in her poverty, even though her two little coins were the lowest valued coins in circulation, she still walked up to the trunk and deposited her coins.

The "clink, clink" they made was probably undetectable to all but the few who were standing right next to her. But Jesus heard her. He saw her, this woman who most people walked past without even giving a glance to. Jesus saw her and knew that she had given everything, all she had to live on.

Truly this was an act of faith. She was trusting God to look after her needs, even after she had given away all she had. She was shedding her dependence upon coins bearing the image of Caesar in order to trust the higher power. How much more faithful can a person get than to completely throw themselves at the mercy of God?

So, the woman is an example we should strive to follow. We should be so bold as to trust so much in God that we are willing to give up everything we have. The woman is the very model of faithfulness.

Now for the other side of the coin, as it were, - the foolishness argument. The woman who gave up her last two coins is the very example of a fool. Jesus said she gave more to the treasury than all the others who were giving their offerings that day. By saying this, Jesus was merely referring to percentages. The other people were giving only a percentage of what they had, say 10%. But the woman had so little that she gave it all. So her percentage of giving was 100%. She gave 100% of what she had in her possession.

Now surely she was a fool for doing this. The law only prescribed that people were to give a percentage of their income to the temple. Ten percent was a good rule of thumb. To give more than 10% is utter foolishness, 100% is simply irresponsible. Without those two small coins the woman would move beyond poverty to bankruptcy.

Jesus is not holding up the widow as an example of good stewardship. She is obviously an example not to be followed. If everyone were to give 100% of their income to the temple then no one would be able to take care of themselves. They would be completely dependant upon the temple to care for even their basic needs.

Why let’s look at the church in this context. If people were to follow the widow’s example in the church and give 100% of their income, they would be dependant upon the church for their basic needs. The church certainly isn’t equipped nor is it called to care for the basic needs of people. And then, inevitably, there will be those who take advantage of the system. There will be those who even though they contributed a very little to the treasury will expect that more be done to help them out.

The widow is just not intended to be someone we are to emulate. Her gift of 100%, while quaint and makes a good story, is not something Jesus calls us to do. After all, unlike his example of the child where he tells his disciples that if they hope to enter the Kingdom of God they have to become like a child. Jesus does not tell his disciples they are to follow the widow’s lead. Jesus doesn’t say, "Look at how generous she was, you should also be as generous." It’s just not there.

The woman is foolish and should not be trusted to manage her own finances. Foolishness, I tell you, not faithfulness.

So those are the two arguments: faithfulness vs. foolishness. Was the woman faithful by giving so generously or was she a fool for not keeping something for her to live on? Maybe you’ve thought a little about the foolishness argument. But I’m willing to bet you have probably heard the faithfulness argument a lot.

You’ve probably heard rip-roaring sermons elevating the widow to sainthood and asking you to give generously to the church. After all, today is understood as "stewardship Sunday" across the denomination. This is the day that you come to church and expect to be hit up to give money to the church.

I can preach that sermon. I can lay out the argument about the widow being an example to be followed. But I don’t think that’s what this passage is all about. I don’t think this passage is about the faithfulness or foolishness of the widow. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should give to the church, and give generously. This church depends upon your offerings to maintain its facilities, pay the staff, and participate in mission locally, nationally, and internationally. Don’t leave here saying that the pastor preached about not giving to the church.

I just don’t think that this story of the widow’s mite, as it is commonly called, is about giving to the church. I think Jesus was pointing out this woman as she contributed her coins in order to say something else.

It’s easy to listen to this passage of scripture and have the image of the widow giving her last coins stick in your mind. But I think many times we forget about the first part of the passage. Jesus is teaching in the temple and in his teaching he warns his followers about the scribes.

Now a scribe, in Jesus time, would have been an educated person. He (and they all were men) would have known how to read and write. If someone received a letter or written communication and didn’t know how to read, they would take it to the scribe who would read it for the person and if necessary write a reply. Since scribes were valuable to the running of society they were treated with a great deal of respect. Some of them expected to be acknowledged as they walked along the road or when they entered a room. They got the box seats at the synagogues and sat at the head table at banquets.

Jesus gives one particularly interesting warning about what the scribes do. He said they "devour widows’ houses." When a woman had no living male relative to care for her, the leadership of the temple or synagogue took on the responsibility of managing her financial resources. Jesus indicates that some of the people entrusted with caring for the financial management of widows’ resources took advantage of their position. They took a higher fee for their services than was right. They did not manage what had been entrusted to them in a trustworthy manner. They "devoured widows’ houses."

It is right after giving this teaching that Jesus goes over to the treasury and sits where he can observe the action. He can watch the rich people as they place their vast sums of money into the treasury.

That’s when he sees this widow taking out the last two coins in her pocket and place them in the treasury. Jesus knows, whether by overhearing a conversation or simply by being God in the flesh, that this is all the woman had to live on. She put it all in the box for the temple. She piled her two small coins worth about a penny on top of the large denarii and gold coins already heaping up in the box.

Jesus calls his disciples over to him, points to the woman and says, didn’t I warn you about the scribes. This woman has given everything she has, though it wasn’t very much. She is one of the widow’s whose house has been devoured. She has been taken advantage of and therefore doesn’t even have enough to live on.

The others who were at the treasury gave out of their abundance. The widow gave out of her poverty. But why was she in such a desperate financial position. The placement of this event immediately following Jesus’ warning about the scribes seems to imply that this is one of the widows who has had her house devoured.

So if this passage is not about following the example of the widow and giving generously to the church what does it mean? Martin Luther King, Jr. was asked many times about why he was marching and working for civil rights. King said, "there comes a time when you get tired of pulling people out of the ditches on the side of the road to Jericho. There comes a time when you begin to think that the whole road to Jericho need re-paving."

Jesus is troubled by all those he has seen pushed aside by the rest of society. Jesus focused his ministry on those who are normally not in the spotlight. Jesus shines his light into the dark ditches and impoverished places to refocus our attention. Perhaps we should pay a little less deference to the scribes of our time and a little more attention to those who are giving all they have. Perhaps we, as faithful people, need to take hold of the spotlight our culture shines on the glamorous and rich and shine it on those who suffer behind the scenes.

Perhaps we should look at what is "devouring widows’ houses" in our time. From predatory lending practices that focus on squeezing every penny out of the poor to policies that make it harder for people to get adequate health care – or perhaps they get adequate care but have to give their last two coins to pay for it.

Perhaps we need to look not only at the poor who are suffering and do our best to alleviate their suffering but also look at what makes them poor to begin with. Perhaps we need not only to look at the people who flee to refugee camps but we need to look at what they were running from.

Perhaps we need to ask the difficult questions of how our spending practices devour the houses of those who are forced to labor for such a small price that they can’t afford to feed their family. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves how good of a job we do in caring for the financial resources entrusted to us.

Maybe it’s not about faithfulness verses foolishness, but about responsibility verses irresponsibility. Maybe it’s more about being faithful to God by caring for others and less about making sure we get fancy clothes to walk around in. Maybe it’s more about providing for the needs of others than providing for the greed of ourselves.

Maybe the widow’s story is about stewardship after all. But maybe it has less to say about the stewardship of giving generously to the treasury and more to say about giving generously to others so that they might live.