“He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting in money. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.Then he called his disciples and said 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.” (Mark 12:41-44)
Hi Fighter,
A priest by the name of Wes Seeliger tells of a time he shopped for a motorcycle where the Harley-Davidson salesperson gave him a compelling sales pitch – “this machine will go from 0 to 150 in 20 seconds and will hug the road at 150 k/h. It will outrun anything on wheels.” He then asked “and what do you do for a living, sir?” Seeliger said “I’m a priest”. “It’s also very, very safe,” the salesperson quickly added.
Religious clerics have a reputation for being mild and cautious, and it’s an association often made with religious people in general. We all know that when we switch on the Christian radio station that we are not going to hear a lot of thrash metal. On the contrary, we’ve almost certainly tuned into the ‘easy listening’ station that caters to easy-going people who live life at an easy-going pace where nothing too outrageous ever happens. And yet we find in our ranks today this widow who pours everything she has into the offertory plate. She is an extremist!
There are at least two obvious problems with this woman’s behaviour, the first of which is that she was supporting a corrupt institution.
The entire religious establishment was being critiqued by Jesus in the verses preceding this story, and it wasn’t simply the failings of individual clerics. The system itself was corrupt and the temple had devolved from being ‘a place of prayer for all nations’ into ‘a den of robbers’ (Mark 11:17). Jesus had just cleansed that temple with his whip of cords, yet this woman was another cog in the temple machinery.
The other problem with this poor widow was that she had put everything she had into the offertory plate and, even though it was only a small amount, Jesus makes clear that it was all she had to live on! This sort of behaviour is not something we are unfamiliar with. Even so, it’s not the sort of thing we admire either.
Many of us who are parents will have had that experience where our child insists on spending all of their long-saved-up pocket-money on some useless trinket that suddenly catches their eye, or perhaps, as teenagers, they gave all their money to a homeless guy who told them a good story. Perhaps you were once that teenager (as I was)? Either way, such scenarios invariably end up with a parental lecture.
‘That homeless guy probably wasn’t going to use your money to get a train ticket to reach his mother who is on life support at a hospital on the other side of the state. He probably wanted to purchase drugs or buy himself a drink. By giving him money, you’re only reinforcing his dependency. Good on you for caring, but next time …’
The impulsive ‘I’m going to give you everything I have’ behaviour is childlike. For an adult, it is irresponsible, as it is when you realise that you now don’t have enough left to pay the rent, and so you gather up all your remaining coins and put them a horse to win your way out of trouble. When that doesn’t work, you put your last pennies into the offertory plate, hoping that God will bail you out. This too is irresponsible
We know people who live like this. We may well have behaved like this ourselves. Our children may still act like this all too often. It’s all very understandable. What is harder to comprehend is why Jesus commends this sort of behaviour. Indeed, He extols this extremist widow as a model of faith and virtue!
I’ve only done very basic training in ‘Christian counselling’ but I’ve certainly known plenty of qualified Christian counsellors. What I have never found is a Christian counsellor who truly models their counselling style on Jesus. Can you imagine your counsellor putting down their notebook and saying “look, I think you’re really only lacking one thing. I suggest that you go and sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and then hit the streets as an itinerant preacher!”
Jesus took things to the extreme. He pushed the envelope, and He encouraged His followers to do the same. In the history of the church there has, of course, been no shortage of saints who have been extremists of one form or another. The greater mystery is how these communities of radical extremists ever devolved into the sort of spiritualised golf clubs that we are more familiar with today.
Over my years as a parish priest, I had a number of people suggest that we should serve grape juice rather than wine at the communion table. In response, I always quoted them the wisdom of Bishop Will Willimon.
“Grape juice”, he said, is a refreshing, if somewhat insipid, thirst-quencher on a hot day. Wine, on the other hand, is volatile stuff. If you have too much of it you may start behaving strangely. People get inappropriately amorous when they drink wine and fights can break out! Which sounds more like the Gospel to you?”
Our Sunday Eucharist
We celebrated another wonderful Eucharist last Sunday. A big thank you to my dear friends, David Baldwin and Tom Toby, for joining me on the panel.
I always appreciate Tom’s heartfelt commentary on the ongoing struggle in Palestine and Lebanon. I’ve included some snippets below but encourage you to watch the whole broadcast on my YouTube channel if you missed it, or check out the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page to enjoy at larger collection of short clips.
This Sunday I’m very much looking forward to having Father Mark Battison and Rob Gilland back with me. Will we hear form Father Ola this month? I haven’t been able to contact him yet but remain hopeful.
Either way, we will start our broadcast, as usual, at noon this Sunday on TheSundayEucharist.com and on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn Instagram, Faithia and Streamyard.
Did anyone try tuning in through Faithia last Sunday? I have no idea whether our Faithia broadcast worked. Please, someone, give Faithia a go this Sunday and let me know how it goes. You just need to download the app to your phone. You should be able to find me from there. The QR code is in the P.S. at the end.
Let me work your corner
If you’d like to see my work continue, please click here to make a one-off donation, If you can afford a monthly contribution, sign up at Patreon.comand choose either:
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Every dollar helps keep the wheels turning – the websites, the newsletters, the broadcasts, the boxing club and the bush camp. Even so, it’s not a one-way process. I want to support you in return, so please fill out the Physical and Spiritual Fitness Assessment form and get it back to me, and then sign up at Patreon.com.
What’s On?
- Saturday, November 9–Father Dave vs. Tony Brazier for the. NSW Professional Masters Title @Cowra Showground
- Sunday, November 10 – Our Eucharist from noon @thesundayeucharist.com (or through Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Faithia or Streamyard).
- Tuesday, November 12 – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
- Thursday, November 14 – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
- Friday 15 to Sunday 17, November – @Binacrombi. Please join me.
Yes, my dairy will return to normal next week, assuming, of course, that I don’t get killed in the ring tonight. I’m not trying to be overly dramatic by saying that. It’s something that I learnt from Kostya Tszyu. If you’re not ready to die in the ring, you’re not ready to fight.
As a boxer, you must go into a fight fully committed and determined that no amount of pain or difficulty is going to stop you. Like Yahya Sinwar, who threw his stick at the assassination drone when he had run out of ammunition, you never stop righting. Thankfully, of course, in the boxing ring, you have a referee who will stop you before anyone gets seriously hurt.
I will go into the ring tonight with that attitude. Even so, I don’t expect to be killed. Indeed, I’m expecting to survive and thrive. Either way, I am convinced that this fight will be a far better experience than my last one. I’ve met with Mr Brazier (as you can see from the pics) and he is a gentleman. I’m looking forward to the showdown with him, and hope to walk away tomorrow, wearing that belt!
I’ve already started talking about following up this fight by battling a celebrity boxer in the Citadel in Aleppo (in Syria). It’s feels like the right time for Boxers for Peace to return to the region.
I’ll let you know if that idea develops over the coming weeks or if I have any other crazy ideas. Please share your extremist ideas with me too. Perhaps, between us, we’ll outdo the extremism of the widow of Mark 12, though none of us, of course, will ever be able to push that envelope as far as Jesus did!
Keep me in your prayers, as I do you. ❤️
Your brother in the Good Fight,
www.fatherdave.org
www.fatherdave.com.au
www.fatherdave.net
www.father-dave.org
www.fatherdave.info
www.binacrombi.com.au
www.boxersforpeace.com
www.fightingfathers.com
www.fighting-fathers.com
www.fightshop.biz
www.prayersforsyria.com
www.savethesheikh.com
www.softwareresales.com
www.warriorweekends.com
www.thesundayeucharist.com
www.israelandpalestine.org
www.oldschoolboxing.academy
www.christiansandmuslims.com
www.christianswithdepression.com
P.S. Below, again, is the QR code for the Faithia App. Alongside it you’ll see the code to for my Telegram account. Please download Faithia, and follow me on Telegram for uncensored updates on the situation in Israel/Palestine and Lebanon.
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About Father Dave Smith
Preacher, Pugilist, Activist, Father of four
