generosity

A Pilgrimage to the Cross

Walking through Lent with Jesus

Tuesday 5^th April

As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.

                                                   Luke 21: 1-4

Generosity is letting go- not just letting go of something we own, whether that is money, time, possessions or hospitality. It is also letting go of control, allowing something that we did have control over to be given away, for someone else to use. A generous spirit is one that holds onto possessions lightly, and maybe holds onto rights lightly as well. The rich in these verses could not really relinquish control. Their lives were based on the security that their money gave them, and they only gave away what they knew they could afford to be without. It had no effect on their lives. The widow, however, was poor and would not have been blamed if she had carefully hoarded every penny. But she gave generously, profligately, with abandon- and in her generosity she also gave away her chance at some measure of independence, the illusion that wealth gives security and control over our lives.

What would be the hardest thing for you to lose? Your independence? Your financial security? Your health- eyesight, mobility, ability to care for yourself?

What do you find hardest to give away- money? Time?

What do you hoard, frightened that the little you have might never be replenished?

Who can you most identify with in these verses, the rich or the widow?