Dwellings Series: Victory Mark 12:38-44
Recap of Last Week: Last week we began a series on the dwelling places of God. Where does God dwell, we asked? Most people would say, heaven, and they would be correct. But what is heaven and where is heaven? We briefly looked at some biblical images of heaven, namely from Rev. 21:1-6, and found that heaven is not way out there. Heaven, in fact, is just a thin veil beyond. The space of heaven is just beyond our physical senses. Consequently, we said, if heaven is not far way, neither are the saints, the loved ones who have gone before. And neither is our Lord. In fact, our Lord is Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” Finally, we couched this closeness of heaven, our passed loved ones and our Lord in terms of hope. God is in this hope. We hope, because God, in all his power and might and goodness, is in heaven, and heaven is not too far away. When we keep hope, we make space, we open windows, for God to work in our lives. God dwells in our hope.
But God also dwells in our victory. Life is not accepting Christ into our hearts and then taking a long winter’s nap until Christ returns, or until we join the saints in glory. We can experience victory today. There is victory for you and for your life, and you will find that God dwells in that experience of victory. 1 John 5:4 tells us, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” Deuteronomy 20:4 says, “For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” Now, you either believe that or you don’t know. You have to have ears to ear, and you have to have a heart that is prepared and ready to receive this assurance of victory. But if you will accept Christ into your life, this victory becomes real and will transform your life and your relationships. Our victory is in God, and God will be found in our victory.
In Mark’s Gospel we read this morning a story that demonstrates that God can be found in our victory. But we first must be clear what we mean by victory, because the world has many definitions and images of victory. In our day, victory might look like your favorite sports team winning the championship. It might look like your political party running the table in an election. It might me you win that promotion your were competing for with your coworkers. Victory might be the young man bench pressing more than his teammates. For some people, victory means getting even, settling a score. As elating and satisfying as these victories might feel to us, Jesus has something else in mind when he speaks of victory for our lives.
So let’s look at Mark’s story of the widow and her two coins.
First, let’s look at an example of what victory is not and where we will not find God dwelling.
Our story begins like this: “As [Jesus] taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, 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 synagogues and places of honor at banquets!”
Victory in the kingdom of God doesn’t look anything like what the hypocritical holy men would have you think. Parading around in long robes in the streets, saying look at me, or having the best seats in the house and at parties, that is not a sign of true victory. That is a sign of an empty, hollow victory. God does not dwell in the hearts of such men, nor can he be found in the victory they claim. Be cautious of such men and women, braggarts, showmen. Let’s call them merchants of holy bling.
Beware of them, says Jesus, because these worldly victors are not spiritual warriors or holy men but ravenous wolves, who will steal, kill and destroy – quietly and behind the scenes – to maintain their shallow power. They devour widows’ houses, Jesus says, even while they say long prayers. Our president might say these kinds of men deliver not good news but…fake news. And be sure, Jesus says, they are fakes and they will receive greater condemnation (12:40).
We can extend this characterization to other proud, showy, loud people in our midst who are braggarts, showy, flaunting their worldly success and acquisition of power to impress the rest of us. They look victorious by worldly standards, and there are plenty of shallow fans who will swoon and faun at their feet, hangers on hoping for some crumbs. But such victors, if their wealth and power are used for selfish ends, have achieved a shallow victory, and their shallowness, vapidity and emptiness will soon become apparent to us. It is like looking back to your high school years and realizing just how shallow the popular ones often were.
After showing us an image of a shallow and even dangerous victory, Jesus next would have us turn our eyes elsewhere to find God at work. He would have has look elsewhere to find the dwelling place of the divine.
Mark says that Jesus, “sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums, and “A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.”
So, just like that, Jesus begins to define for us a different kind of victory, a divine victory, that contrasts sharply with the shallow and ravenous worldly victors, such as the scribes and Pharisees.
To make sure we understand the contrasting images, Jesus says in verse 43, “Truly I tell you” (King James says, “Verily, I say unto you), which means listen up, lean up, pay attention, what I’m about to say to you, you can take to the bank. He calls his disciples and says to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” And in that act of complete devotion we find the true meaning of Christ-like victory.
Victory doesn’t belong to the one who succeeds in acquiring worldly things and then uses his wealth and power for even more corrupt gain while neglecting the poor. Jesus says victory belongs to the one who has a generous, devoted heart. And it is in that quiet, humble, unassuming, devoted heart where we will find God dwelling. You have known such hearts, haven’t you? After spending time with such good hearts, you say to yourself, “Christ has been in our midst.”
I have a copy of a letter that I pull out once a year around Veterans Day. It is a letter from My Great Uncle Arville Hedden to his mother. He did not live to see his 25ht birthday. He was a tenant farmer from Breckinridge County, Kentucky. (I come from a long line of dirt farmers). In 1917, Uncle Arville received a letter from the US government telling him to put down his plow, pack his bags and come join in the fight against the German Kaiser. His first stop was McAllen, Texas where he would train to be a soldier, a Doughboy they called them. The letter, which my Aunt has the original of, was written by Arville to his mother. You want to know what devotion sounds likes, what victory sounds like? It’s not about bling, showiness or pride. It is about being scared to death but being strong and full of courage. It means not knowing for certain the outcome, but committing yourself to a worthy cause, nonetheless. I want to read part of the letter from Texas, before he sailed for New York and then for the trenches of France:
Dear Mother, I am tryin’ to write you a few lines to let you know how I am alright. I guess this is my farewell letter for I think I am bound for France for we are getting’ read to leave for new York…and then I guess we’ll head the ship for France to fight Germany, so farewell to you all if I don’t get to see you all anymore. If you never hear from me, you can go get my pension from them which belongs to you, for that will help you all some. You will all have to do the best you can. Don’t greave a bit. I will say goodbye for it won’t do no good if I get to where I am going. So good bye from your son, Arville Mattingly. [There is a P.S. that says “to my loved ones at home xxx”
Let me close by saying that this is a time like no other in our nation when we need people of strong devotion. This morning we honored our veterans past and present who signed up to, if necessary, give the full measure of devotion for their country: their lives. We need men and women today who are willing to give of themselves to a society that is under attack from all sides: Forces that are attacking our religious and cultural heritage and threatening to end the America that our ancestors worked tirelessly to build. The veterans of old would hardly recognize the decadent, weak, whiney, nihilistic society that is invading our American culture. I will tell you that they did not fight and some die for the decadence, godlessness, crass materialism and slothfulness that is overtaking our culture. They served and some died to preserve a western, Judeo-Christian culture, morality and ethos that we are permitting to let slip away.
The Church needs a people who are all in, who are devoted fully to defending the Gospel, for depending our traditional Christian way of life. Casual or cultural Christianity in such an age as ours, when radical voices are threaten to dismantle our nation and our western, Christian heritage, is not acceptable.
It is time that each of us give our full measure, that each of us make the Church something that we do but part of something who we are. A casual relationship to the Church is no marriage, but we are called the bride of Christ. Revelation 19:7 says, “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” Our clothes as the Church are our righteous deeds. What linens are you wearing? The stale linens of Church membership not validated by service and mission? Are your linens worn on the behind from where you never moved from your pew in your decade or more of membership? Are your linens the clothes you pull out every so often to make an appearance before the Lord? Or are your linens fine linens that hare the deeds of faithful, devoted saints like that widow who gave of herself, not because she was a member or because she wanted to make a show, but because she was in love with God. And in her devotion there was victory, and in victory there was God.
Do you love the heritage, culture and Christian society that we are seeing being driven out by a radical movement that mocks marriage, child-bearing and rearing, hard work, morality and love of country? Are you wondering why God does not seem real to you? Why your spiritual life seems lacking and empty? You wonder why you cannot get anything out of Church? Have you considered what you are pouring into the Church, with your life? Have you considered what linens you are wearing? Christ call us wear linens, which are our righteous deeds. By God’s mercy, may we be found wearing clothes of righteous works and devotion.
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