"Reimagine: A Just World for All"
Mark 12:38-44
Rev. Emily Labrecque, Westmoreland UCC
October 4, 2026

[Pray.]

This morning, Christians around the world are doing the same thing we're about to do: coming to the table, breaking bread, and sharing a cup. Nobody at this table is asked what they can afford. Nobody earns a seat. Everyone is welcome to this table. Our denomination's vision, 'a just world for all,' is really an attempt to describe what that table looks like when it spills out beyond our walls.

This vision came out of a 2017 Strategic Visioning Report done to REIMAGINE a changing church. The team in charge of this report knew the world was changing and the church was changing. They knew that in order to craft a vision for a denomination at a time when denominations were facing a lot of challenges, they needed to REIMAGINE just exactly what that might look like. But as we know, reimagining in a world that’s constantly changing is difficult.

I’m really grateful for the work of the denomination to try to craft something forward looking because the church-writ-large has been stuck for a long time. The church has been using models of governance and tithing and resourcing that were popular when churches were overflowing with adults and children. We live in a different world, a post-Covid era, at a time when Christianity gets a bad rap. Those systems don’t all work as well as they used to.

This brings me to our text for today. This story about a particular financial system begins with a warning. Jesus warns his followers about wayward scribal behavior. He warns against craving prestige, becoming full of self-importance, and seeking power and control. He also gives an explicit warning against these people, scribes and others alike, who exploit the vulnerable. It was well known in the Jewish tradition that you give to the treasury of the temple to fulfill the Torah’s command to care for the widows, orphans, and the strangers among you. Jesus is speaking here the way the prophets spoke, as a Jew challenging his own community's leaders

The idea is that people with means give so that those who have nothing don’t have to give at all. The original Greek in this text says, not that she just gave all she had, but that she literally gives “the whole of her life.” A system designed to protect her has become the system that renders her even more vulnerable.

Together, these two sections of the scripture portray a lament and an indictment. This poor widow gives her whole life so that the system’s leaders may continue to live their lives of wealth and comfort. The criticism from Jesus is not just about the scribes but any religious practice that masks egotism and greed.

In some ways, the treasury had become a self-serving system. Suddenly it was no longer about protecting the vulnerable but about sustaining the institution. And as we see seminaries closing and merging in unprecedented ways, we can be assured, the days are numbered for religious institutions that exist solely to preserve the institution themselves.

So then, what about us? It is true that the bulk of our stewardship funds go to the personnel and property budgets. But one of the things I am deeply grateful for is that our building does not just exist for ourselves. We are buzzing with activity all week. We host recovery groups,ballet classes, a preschool, English as a second language classes, Immigration Attorney/Client meetings, prestigious choral group rehearsals, and dance classes. AND the rent from all of those various groups covers our expenses. That’s a huge gift.

Then there’s our personnel. I got to sit in with Andrew and Joy this week to discuss Advent and Lent and my goodness, what a gift it is to have such talented people thinking about the mission of our church. I may be biased, but our church staff, every single one of them, is worth every penny.

I am grateful for the continued support of these two sections of our budget because they are crucial. And, we don’t want to lose sight of our work in the world. We don’t want ourselves to become too focused on preserving Westmoreland that we forget the vision to create “A Just World for All.”

So, I have a few things for us to consider as we reimagine a future that not only funds our ministry but expands it into the world.

I believe a church budget is a theological document. When you peruse it, what does it say about our mission and vision? As we come to our budget meetings, I’ll be curious to hear your reflections.

Here's something I've learned: our Social Justice and Action budget lives in a separate fund from our operating budget. That means the question 'what are we doing for our neighbors?' is answered somewhere off to the side, instead of in the budget where we decide what matters. I truly believe this was done with good intentions. But I do think we should ask what that means for us.

And lastly, will we use our money to repair what unjust systems have broken, or will we secure our own institution?

What might it look like to put our resources where our mission is? Here's one example from Illinois.

In April of this year, churches from Champaign and Macon counties united to buy people’s medical debt from collection agencies. Researchers estimate people in the US owe around $220 billion in medical debt. The rising prices of health insurance don't help either. Pastors had been meeting and praying for years trying to determine how best to tackle this challenge. Because they know that when you are in debt you spend so much of your money trying to relieve yourself of the burden there’s little left for the life you’re trying to live.

These churches came together and partnered with a nonprofit called UNDUE. After negotiating with collection agencies, UNDUE helped the churches realize they could pay off $4.7 million of medical debt in the state. It covered 2000 families across 34 counties.

Imagine the relief, the freedom, the liberation those families feel now that they don’t have to pay collection agencies anymore?

Buying off medical debt may not be our call, and I'm not proposing it. I'm showing you that churches like ours are asking this same question and acting on it. This is the kind of creative reimagining I want us to think about. We are blessed and privileged to have the resources to benefit our community. I pray that as we move through this stewardship season and into the next year as a revitalized community we can find innovative and faithful ways to redistribute funds.

Because here’s the thing about the widow giving “her whole life.” She shouldn’t have had to give up everything AND her trust in God to provide for her in her vulnerability was real. She truly believed that in giving, even out of her scarcity, God would make something out of it.

If the widow gave everything and the Temple still fell, what must we build instead? Can we become a community where no one has to give their last coin to survive? Because we practice that every time we come to this table, where no one is asked to pay and no one is turned away. So may the meal we share at this table move us to ask the hard questions, to turn toward each other in love, and find innovative ways to redistribute our resources so we can create A Just World for All.

Amen.