Offering (3)

But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.(12:42)

A poor widow put in two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny. Did the widow see the rich throwing large amounts into the box? The content of today does not tell us this. However, as readers of the Bible, we have to exercise our imagination and presume that the widow could have seen the rich man dropping offering into the box. If she saw this, she might be a little quailed. Even now this frequently happens to be quailed as a result of others offerings. What on earth, offering make people proud of or get quailed?

It happened when I was young. A church had a protracted meeting. At the end of the meeting, there was a program to unanimously decide the budget for the construction of church building. The preacher shouted, “Hands up with $10,000.” The amount of went down as he continued to invite congregation to voluntarily decide and make pledge in public. In this way the amount came down till $10. The leader approached the one who voluntarily decided to contribute for the cause and got a decision statement. The one who offered $10,000 was immediately known to the public. There was no second thought that such public declaration would hurt the sentiments of those who could not offer as much as the rich people.

It is not certain whether the same kind of system and church norm is found even today but there are many churches that continue to nurture the long-practice tradition of calling the name of those who voluntarily donate for the church building at worship service. No matter how hard I try I cannot understand why they did so. If there was a reason behind for doing this, it would be to stimulate others to offer more.

In my point of view, the audiences may not offer though they do like this. It works temporarily but it may not continue. On the contrary, declaration of the amount offered by someone in the service does not influence the congregation to offer more. The crux of the matter is how religious we have become as matured Christians.