I don't like to change my mind, but it is even harder to change my actions. And a change of heart is harder still. Often the best way to make some headway is to come at things sideways. Sister Emily was right to encourage us to tell the truth but to tell it slant.
Frederick the Great of Prussia is known as the potato king. People leave potatoes on his grave to honor his memory. And this is fair enough, because King Freddie introduced the potato to Germany on a massive scale. The potato provided people, notably peasants, with a cheap form of food that they could grow for themselves. When the king first offered it to his peasants, did they rush out to welcome his innovation? No. Of course they didn't . Peasants are shrewd. They are suspicious of new things. They ignored and neglected King Frederick's foreign 'taters. So the king developed a plan to introduce the potato to the German people. His plan was based on peasant shrewdness. He planted a large field of potatoes near a peasant village. He set an armed military guard over the potatoes. By day, the guards fiercely protected the spuds, on the pain of death to any intruder. But at night, the guard let down their guard, under the very command of the king. The peasants knew anything worth guarding, was worth stealing. Obviously, they acquired the potatoes, grew them and enjoyed the improvement for their family. The King shifted the people's thinking.
Jesus shifts thinking all the time, often with his stories and sometimes with his actions. In Mark 12, Jesus waits in view of the temple deposit system. All day long men come to make prominent, gold clanking and silver tinkling gifts. Then comes the thin tinkle of two copper coins from an old woman. "Her gift is greater than everyone else's." From a human account point of view this is silly. Three coppers coins is more. Two silvers coins is more. One gold coin is more. But Jesus is accounting by the Kingdom of Heaven standards.
This is super good news for us, because the little bit we contribute is counted as more. Less can be more. It shocks us to shift our thinking.