Yet another week of Pentecost, by far the longest liturgical part of the year.  Here’s what the Revised Common Lectionary has for us this week:

1 Kings 17:8-16
 Psalm 146
 Hebrews 9:24-28
 Mark 12:38-44

I’m sure you’re all surprised that a hymn came to mind as I read the Old Testament lesson.  I also thought about another story I heard as a teenager.  The provision of God is on miraculous display as the jar of meal to make bread never emptied.   Thy hymn “Little Is Much When God Is in It” came to mind.  I love that hymn and I think there’s a 99% chance we sing it this coming Sunday.  I could not read this passage and not think about a portion of a book written by Corrie Ten Boom.  Ten Boom and her sister wound up together in a Nozi concentration camp because her family had provided secret housing for Jewish neighbors.  Corrie tells the story of a small bottle of medicine she had managed to keep hidden when they were searched. When her Betsy became ill, she gave her a small drop from the bottle each day.  Others heard about the medicine and Corrie felt obligated to share.  Somehow, some way, that bottle never emptied.  When a drop was needed, there was a drop remaining.  God can provide even in the darkest of places.

I have to chuckle a bit as I read the 2^nd verse of Psalm 146, “Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, for there is no help in them.”  I write this the day before election day, so the irony is certainly not lost on me.  The text goes on to say, “Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!”  I tried to impress a similar message just this past Sunday.  God is our High Priest; he is the one whom our allegiance should be pledged and given.   There’s a song in our hymnal titled, “Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb.”  I have always thought it sounded out of place and almost scoff a bit when I see it leafing through the hymnal.  Perhaps I need to check my allegiances and find that the premise of the song is not so strange after all.

The Epistle is a continuation of what we have been reading these past couple weeks in Hebrews.  We get a second reminder that those things made by human hands are very different than those things that are of heaven.   Likewise, Jesus, being of heaven is far beyond and above the ritual and understanding we have as humans.  What we need to do many times, Christ need do just once.  Paul so warmly describes the second coming, saying that Jesus will return not to deal with sin (because it has already been dealt with) but instead to gather up and eternally save those who are waiting for Him.

The story of the widow’s mite will always remind me of my mother.  As a child, some organization distributed what they called “mite boxes” which were very similar to the little boxes we had for UNICEF at that time as well.   My mother kept her “mite box” in the laundry room and whatever you forgot to take out of your pockets wound up in the box.  With last week’s Gospel in my mind as well, you look at this woman’s actions and understand that she was loving (and trusting) God with her whole heart, soul, mind and strength.  It’s not lost on me that the word strength is in some translations the word “might.”  We sure like to equate money with might or strength, but this woman obviously did not think of it as nearly as important as those watching her that day did or how many of us do today.

I encourage you all to join me this week in looking at these four readings and giving them the proper study that they deserve.  

By the way, the picture attached to this is directly from the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League and reminds me a bit of that box my mom had sitting on top of the washing machine.