Giving Some, Giving All

PROPERS:         PROPER 27, YEAR B   

TEXT:                 MARK 12:38-44

PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY, PENSACOLA, ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2018 (VETERANS’ DAY)

ONE SENTENCE:        The breach between hubris and God’s purpose is filled                                        with self-offering.      

                                    

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

            I memorized that poem in the fifth grade – something you likely did during your schooling.

            It memorializes the scene after the Second Battle of Ypres in Western Belgium, beginning on April 22, 1915.  It was written by 42-year-old Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, a Canadian surgeon. He would die of pneumonia 10 months before the Armistice, which we commemorate today – the 11^thhour of the 11^thday of the 11^thmonth.  One hundred years ago today.

            He described his view of an aftermath of the battle – the first instance of the Germans using poison gas in World War I.   The war would end three-and-a-half years later on a rail car outside of Compiegne, France.  It was in that same rail car in that same forest that France would surrender to the Nazis 22 years later. Lessons were not learned.

            The Second Battle of Ypres was fought some 15 miles from Dunkirk – perhaps the low point for the British during World War II. The issues which led to one led to another.

            All of this took place within a theological context.  It could be called hubris– pride– one of the seven deadly sins. Pride in self-reliance. Pride in invincibility. 

            Pride. There was, on the European continent and especially in Germany, a sense of the inevitable progress of human nature.  Pride. Stoked by the fires of the Enlightenment, scholars and the people believed in the ability of humanity to know what needed to be known, to do what needed to be done, and, in a sense, to create a utopian state.

            Pride. There was a sense that human beings could perfectcreation.  Rationalism– reason and knowledge – would create a flawless world.

            All that was before the Great War – the bloodiest of all time before that moment. And it was before World War II, which followed soon, and claimed the lives of three-percent of the world’s population.

            Yes, the march of knowledge continued.  Yes, we continued the march of human progress as well as our rebellion against God. We unleashed the elemental forces of creation in devastatingly destructive ways.  We showed that we had, within our grasp, the ability to destroy the world.  

            But, did we have the ability to save ourselves?

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            There was a movement that came after the ashes of the Great War.  It was known as Neo-Orthodoxyand it emphasized the importance of faithand God’s revelation.  Its leaders would be people like Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer – who would ultimately give his life in a Nazi death camp.

            They emphasized the importance of God’s self-revelation and the need to be transformed by his word.  They argued that we, through our own actions and knowledge, cannot save ourselves. We had to depend on God and his self-revelation.  We had to depend on the ways God had shown us.

            Sadly, we had shown that through two world wars. that we could not do it on our own.

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            Jesus shows us the way – the antidote to pride… to ambition… to self-glorification. It is in the gospel lesson today.

            Jesus sat down at the Treasury – one of the open courtyards of the glorious Temple of Herod’s creation.  The Treasury had a large brass receptacle to receive the people’s offerings.  It would clang noisily with large offerings.

            Jesus watched as the wealthy came forward and ostentatiously – and loudly – placed their offerings in the receptacle.  He was not impressed.  They were giving small sums from their riches. They relied on themselves and what they had.

            Then a poor widow came forward.  She humbly placed two small copper coins in the receptacle and went on her way, without fanfare and, as far as she knew, without notice.

            Jesus noted the humility versus the pride – the generosity of spirit, as opposed to the ways of the world.

“Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those 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 that she had to live on.”

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            In a world which gave us Gettysburg, the Marne, the Bulge, the Chosin Reservoir, Hue, Baghdad, and Tora Bora, millions of veterans have sought to correct a world animated by pride. Led by pride down a pathway of war and destruction, the world has again and again been led back to a more just world, by the self-giving of millions of veterans. Humility. Freely offering of self.

            As the saying goes, All gave some, some gave all.

            We have learned through their example – such as my father, a veteran of World War II – that we do not have it within ourselves to build a perfect world. But we do have a model for moving in the right direction. We trust in a world beyond our grasp.

            And giving generously of self, for a higher purpose, is one of the teachings which can change the world.