1 Kings 17:17-24
June 5, 2016 Third Sunday after Pentecost
I was headed to Virginia Beach for our Gathering of the Ministerium, the annual conference of our ELCA rostered leaders in Virginia. Our bishop, our presenter and honored guests would be there, and I would be making their introductions to my colleagues. I thought about the conference, and the engaging discussions regarding best practices that would be taking place. Reviewing the days ahead in my mind, I struggled with this most difficult question. How many pairs of shoes should one pack for a three-day trip? Would four pairs be enough? I would need presenting shoes, and just sitting around shoes, shoes suitable for walking on the beach and on the sidewalks, and they would need to be color coordinated to match my clothes. Would five pairs of shoes be enough? My husband has some wonderful sayings, such as “When given a choice, take both,” and “Moderation is for monks.” How much is enough? How much is not enough?
Our reading from 1Kings raises several issues of “not enough.” To begin with, there was not enough rain. King Ahab was ruling over Israel, and, we are told, “Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than all the other kings of Israel who were before him.”[1] The Lord God sent a three-year drought to the land. Walter Brueggemann says that “drought is an ancient form of energy crisis.” He writes, “The energy crisis means that the government has failed. The king could not cause rain, could not give life. The king was impotent, the government was discredited. The world had failed.”[2]
Sometimes systems fail. Those hit hardest by any form of crisis, be it a natural disaster or an economic failing, are people who already do not have enough. The woman in our reading this morning is one example. She is not named, and in addition to being a woman, that is a sign that she has no status. As a widow, she is dependent upon her son for income, and truly, even for her life. This woman does not have enough—not enough food, not enough voice, not enough family, and not enough security.
God sends the prophet Elijah to this unnamed, non-Jewish woman instructing him to tell the widow to give him food and drink. “I have nothing baked,” she replies, “only a hand full of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” She was making their last supper.
Sometimes systems fail. In VA, 23 percent of households with children live in poverty. More than one in six children in Virginia are food-insufficient.[3] The poverty rate in our state is 11.8%. There is a community near here, the Grove community. Many of the children cannot afford new shoes. They don’t have enough simply to go to school, let alone enough to match outfits.
“I am making our last meal,” the woman said, “that we may eat it and die.”
“Do not be afraid,” Elijah tells her. Do not be afraid? She has been rationing what she has. She has been conserving water and oil for years, but despite her sacrifices, they are all but gone. Use all she has to make a meal for her son and herself, and this supposed man of God, and do not be afraid? Elijah, who was in exile and sustained only by God’s intervention, gives her God’s assurance of a full meal jar and a never-empty jug of oil.
Just as the woman breathes a sigh of relief, her son dies. First there was not enough food, and now there is not enough life for her son. This widow blames Elijah, and Elijah cries out to God. “Oh, Lord, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” “The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.” Then the widow confesses “Elijah, you are a man of God.” The king, the systems, could not help her. It is only God who can give life.
In our gospel lesson today, we hear of another widow whose son dies. For the sake of this widow who also does not have enough, Jesus commanded him to rise up out of his coffin, and the son is revived. Revival from death is a theme for our readings today. Even our psalm proclaims, “O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit….You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.” While our readings involve those who have died and are brought back to life, physical healing is not the point. We know that people die. The point is that God has the power to bring about a new reality. God brings abundance out of scarcity.
We live in a world where we look at food and money and things as finite. If I have a dollar, that is one less dollar that you have. I need to buy more for now because tomorrow there will not be enough for everyone. But God’s economy doesn’t play by the rules of our systems. God’s economy is one of abundance and generosity.
Think about it. The more love you give away, the more love you have. We are asked to forgive 70 times 7, not just once. The more you forgive, the more you are forgiven. When there is only enough bread for a few, it turns into bread for many. So just when we think that there is not enough meal, or oil, God brings an unending supply. The economy of God is a mysterious thing. God’s generosity cannot be controlled or contained. Sometimes we are the ones God blesses to bring meals or to give new shoes, and sometimes we are the blessed who receive.
Just when you’re sure you can’t possibly make it through another day, just when you think you will not love again, or that we cannot forgive or be forgiven, God brings someone into your life to change that. Someone sends a note, or drops off a casserole, and we are the recipients of God’s abundance.
That God came to us a a human baby who would grow to unjustly tried, convicted and executed is the greatest extravagance of all. God became weak for our sake, giving not just a portion of himself. He gave all of himself, weak as human flesh that suffers and dies in ways too horrible to mention. Just when we think that life is over, Jesus is raised from the dead. We’ve received it all. How much is enough?
We celebrate God’s generosity at the altar, eating bread and drinking wine, the body and blood of Jesus. We are reminded that God’s mercies are new each day. Turning not enough into never-ending, making the impossible possible, God turns our mourning into dancing. Thanks be to God.
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1] 1 Kings 16:33b
[2] Brueggemann, Walter. The Threat of Life. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1996. 42. Print.
[3] http://va.nokidhungry.org/hunger-virginia accessed 6/3/2016.