Freedom of the Servant

This sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 26, 2016, the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time.

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:51-62

May the words of mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The Reverend Chip Andrus is the Pastor at South Salem Presbyterian Church in South Salem, New York. I knew Chip when he was the Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Harrison, Arkansas. He’s one of those people I want to be when I grow up. If envy wasn’t a sin, I would covet his musical talent. I tell people I’m musical, but not musically talented. Chip is both.

A few years ago Marie and I went to Sunday worship at First Harrison and the sermon had to do with being a servant. The choir didn’t do an anthem that day. Rather than the full choir and organ, Chip and a small combo of guitars gathered around the font. They sang the first single released from Bob Dylan’s 1979 studio album “Slow Train Coming.” It was his first release since becoming a born again Christian. They played “Gotta Serve Somebody” and played it quite well. During the sermon, Pastor Chip quoted the song:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

There are two things from last Sunday’s sermon that I want to say again. The first is this paraphrase of Paul from Galatians, “there was a time when the nation of Israel lived under the custody of the Law, the Torah, until the faith could be revealed. The Law acted like a guardian taking care of the nation. Then the Christ came and we are now justified by faith and now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”

I bring this back because this leads us to the beginning of our reading from Galatians. The words found on the cover of our bulletin, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees literally turned the law into a yoke of slavery. To be right with the law was to be right with the Temple Elite was to be right with the Pharisees. If you didn’t do as the Pharisees wanted, your relationship with God would be brought into question. In Jerusalem, at a time when everything revolved around the temple, if you ran afoul with the leaders you could be kicked out. Being kicked out would lead to spiritual, social, and financial ruin.

In the sacred and the secular, the Pharisees had the people in a yoke of slavery made from the law. In and of itself, the law was not bad, but when people use the Law, the word of God, to make the people slaves, that is bad.

We are no longer under the guardianship of the law, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need safeguards. Without rules people have a tendency to get off the leash and run. Folks can become overzealous. Our gospel reading from the New International Version says, “Jesus sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him.” Remember, the Jews and the Samaritans were cousins who didn’t get along. Back to the story, “[they did] not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ’Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them.”

Another translation, the New American Standard Bible, includes a comment by Jesus not found in earlier manuscripts. In this translation, Jesus rebukes the disciples saying, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” In that translation, not only do we know that James and John were rebuked, but how they were rebuked.

James and John were two of the most trusted disciples. They will see the transfiguration. They will accompany the Lord to Gethsemane when the time comes; and they get scolded for offering wrath when that is not the will of God. The Samaritans are the Hatfield’s to their McCoy and the nuclear option looks pretty good, but that is not the will of God.

To live in the age of grace that follows living under the law, we need to live in the right spirit, the Holy Spirit of God in Christ. To do that, I first want to bring back the other thing from last Sunday’s sermon. In the conclusion I said, “This is the good news of Jesus Christ. The God who sent his Son to show us a better way, to be the better way, became the living Torah so we can live by faith and not under the law.”

It’s not wrong to ask the question “if we don’t live under the law, then what do we live under?” You might even ask me if I am “anti-law-and-order.” Rest assured I love order contrary to the appearance of my desk at any given moment. But I heard it said that laws and rules are written for society’s dumbest people. Why is there a speed limit? So people don’t drive 145 mph through downtown OKC. Why does the NFL make football stadiums quit serving adult beverages after the third quarter? To reduce the number of drunk drivers. Why can’t you drive drunk? It’s about safety, the drinker’s and everybody else’s.

As Paul writes, the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and what the flesh wants is, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Paul sure knows how to make a list, doesn’t he?

When talking about Jesus as the Living Torah, the Law of God that came to be with us and to be one of us, we must remember that the Messiah only wants what is good and right for the children of God. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. I’ll say that again. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. This is the breadth of God’s love for us. The Lord who can do all things from creation to destruction, chooses love. There is no hate, no spite, no arrogance, no ignorance, no impatience, no grudges in the name of God.

In this “What Would Jesus Do?” moment, we have to remember that the answer is to live in the spirit of God. Paul has a list for what it means to live in the Spirit too, ‘love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” He ends saying, “Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Our reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians ends with an admonition that can be read as a prayer, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” He tells the Galatians that they live in the Spirit! Yes, they live in the Spirit!

Paul says freedom is in Christ. When we stand firm in Christ the burdens others place on us are gone. That doesn’t mean everything in life will automatically be peaches and cream; there are people who will try to put the yoke of the law around your neck again and again. There are Pharisees in every age who will tell you what to think and how to act and will do it in the name of God. When done to lift up what is not Godly, Paul tells to beware, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

Yes, people err. People goof. People make mistakes. You know the old expression, “To err is human, to blame is also human.” This is the nature of sin which we will not escape this side of glory. We can rejoice that while to err is human, to forgive divine. Living under the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are not servants to the law or, more importantly, the Pharisees, whether ancient and modern, who would bind us with it.

Pastor Chip quoted Bob Dylan saying:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

I love Chip as a friend, pastor, and colleague in ministry. I follow him on Facebook, but not as a prophet. I am not a servant of Chip. As for Dylan’s music, I like this song. The album got fair to good reviews and the song won a Grammy. I’m not a servant of Dylan or his music. We are servants of Christ, and as his servants we are free from the yoke of the law. We are free. Free to live by the Spirit, serving one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Heirs to What Comes After

This sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 18, 2016, the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Happy Father's Day.

1Kings 19: 1-4, 8-15a
Psalm 42-43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Last week during the collection of the prayers, when the shooting at Pride in Orlando was mentioned, I had seen the headline on my internet newsfeed, but had not read the article. The headline was poorly constructed because the way I read it, it sounded like over fifty law enforcement officers had been shot and killed. I knew if I said this to Marie she would have been so very upset she would have been beyond consolation, so I kept it to myself. When it was mentioned in church I didn’t share my misconception and I’m glad I did not for all the right reasons. Then I found out what really happened, that was enough of an atrocity.

Marie and I have been living without TV for a little over two years now. There are some things each of us miss. She would love to see her favorite crime shows, but she’s been catching up on them between unpacking boxes. She has also been very patient waiting for me to get Starz so she can see Outlander. Me, I miss ESPN. I didn’t get to see my hometown baseball team in either of the last two World Series and I missed that. What I haven’t missed and will never miss is cable news.

News on television has quit being news. It has become 24-hour editorial. I’ll agree that every news outlet has an editorial bias, but we’ve gone way beyond bias and gone to a slant that makes the Leaning Tower of Pisa look vertical. What I’ve avoided on cable news I’ve gotten on the computer, and it’s 99.9% noise.

People yelling at each other, both literally and figuratively. It’s as if the loudest wins. Not the best or the smartest points take the day, it’s the loudest points that take it instead. Then comes the bickering. The infernal bickering between “friends” done in Hatfield/McCoy style. It’s when Gun Control folks look like they want to kill you that you know it’s getting real.

The problem with that though is that truth is never found in the noise.

Consider Elijah…

Just before our passage, Elijah had set the people to kill the 450 prophets of Baal who ate at Jezebel’s table. Of course this doesn’t make the queen happy. You know the saying “behind every great man is a great woman.” Considering we know the name Jezebel from scripture and the name Ahab from Moby Dick, I think I know which one has left a greater impression on our culture and on us.

Elijah might be mighty; he knows he has the Lord on his side, but he also knows when it’s time to pick up his cape and his staff and get out of Dodge. Jezebel gets the news and she gets… upset. She’s come after Elijah with both barrels blazing.

Reaching Beersheba Elijah leaves his servant behind and travels into the wilderness. He has made his way into places where people don’t go. He has evaded capture. He is where nobody will find him. He is safe. In his newfound safety he cries out, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life.” More a cry of passive suicide than victory.

He has won! He has evaded capture. As long as he has water he can survive, but you know what, he is done. Elijah has had enough. Elijah is sick and tired of being sick and tired. He knows truth and light are on his side and there are 450 prophets of Baal enjoying their afterlife to prove it. The Lord accepted Elijah’s sacrifice while Baal has proven to be the lump of clay it is. His servant is faithful. His Lord is faithful. And Elijah is finished. Done. Kaput. He lay down, fell asleep, awaiting his fate.

Fate was not going to make a final stop under that broom tree, not today. Fed by an angel, Elijah travelled forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb. Finding a cave to where he slept. The next day the Lord asked the simplest of all questions, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah wasn’t shy either. Reading scripture, realizing this is a story, an oral tradition passed down from generation to generation long before it was written, I often wonder how this was told. What tone of voice was used? I imagine it could have been like Elijah was giving a report, like a branch manager to the CEO. But I also imagine a bit of whine in his voice, a prophet speaking to his Lord with more than a grain of “aren’t you paying attention to what’s going on with your people?

I can imagine Elijah starting with Hey, look here, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The Lord, being the Lord, is of course the one to say, Relax, it’s going to be alright. “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now Elijah knew two things about the appearance of the Lord. He knew: One, it was going to be impressive and Two, you can’t see the face of the Lord and survive.

So Elijah left the cave and went out to see the spectacle; and a spectacle he saw. There was a wind so great and powerful that it tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. Then there was an earthquake. The ground beneath Elijah’s feet rumbled and rolled. The noise was great and frightful. Then came fire burning all that could burn and scorching all that would not burn. The crackling and popping and the sound of the air being sucked past him to fuel the fire would have been great and terrifying. Surely this impressive display of power is just the sort of impressive demonstration of the proverb “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

But the Lord was not in the wind.

Nor the earthquake.

Nor the fire.

Friends, I’m fifty-some years old. Some of you say, “That’s all?” The children think “Wow, people get that old?” Still, in those fifty years, which have been framed by the Kennedy assassination, urban riots, Watergate, the Charleston Nine, and the shootings at Pride; all around us we have been braced by the wind, felt the ground roll from the earthquake, and been singed by the flames. Our world has been stupid, I don’t care if you are conservative or liberal, left or right, rebellious or reactionary, progressive or regressive, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female, our world has become less because people tend to listen to the noise when we should be listening to something else.

Elijah heard the noise, and he did not hear the voice of the Lord in the noise. He listened. He paid close attention. Then after the fury of the wind and the earthquake and the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then the voice of the Lord asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Again, with the oral tradition I get to imagine the voice of the storyteller. I imagine a more reticent tone as Elijah repeats what he had told the Lord. In response, the Lord told him what to do. The Lord gave Elijah instructions and said “Go.”

In the words of Paul, there was a time when the nation of Israel lived under the custody of the Law, the Torah, until the faith could be revealed. The Law acted like a guardian taking care of the nation. Then the Christ came and we are now justified by faith and now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

But we still tend to think and act like we not only need to but want to live under a legal guardian, and for some, any law will do. For some, bad law is better than no law at all. The perfect example of that are kids in gangs who live by a code we don’t understand.

So now in Christ Jesus we are all children of God through faith. We come to the font because we who were baptized into Christ clothe ourselves with Christ who is the living Torah, the living law. In this new way there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. We are not different; we are one in Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise of God. We are heirs to what comes after the wind and the earthquake and the fire. We are heirs to God’s question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Our world loves the wind and the earthquake and the fire, and we’ve got to stop paying attention to the noise that surrounds us and pay attention to the whispers from the voice of God in Christ. It’s time to stop arguing about the horrors of this world and if we can’t solve what’s going wrong surely we can be with the victims. We can offer cold water. We can hold a hand. We can shed a tear. There is no slave or free, for we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. There are no Jews or Gentiles—that would be people from our nation and people from other nations—there are only brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is the good news of Jesus Christ. The God who sent his Son to show us a better way, to be the better way, became the living Torah so we can live by faith and not under the law. This is the God who made Israel the children of God, a nation to be a blessing to the world. This same God sent his son Jesus so that we, the foreigners, the gentiles, can be part and parcel of that holy nation to be a blessing. This is what it means to be a holy nation, a Christian nation. It means that it’s time to listen for the whisper of God and be the heirs of what comes after the noise. Then “Go” where the Lord tells us to go; doing what the heavenly Father tells us to do.

Un/Worthy

This sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 12, 2016, the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

1Kings 21:1-21a
Psalm 5:1-8
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Here’s a name baseball fans will remember, Al Hrabosky. “The Mad Hungarian” came up through the St. Louis Cardinal Minor League system to become one of the most influential relief pitchers of the Seventy’s. Was it his wicked delivery? His unrivaled intensity? His Fu Manchu mustache?

If you selected “All of the above” you got the Hrabosky effect.

In 1978 he left the Cards to sign a contract with the cross state rival Kansas City Royals. Two years later Hrabosky became a free agent and signed with the Atlanta Braves. When asked why the Royals did not choose to match the Braves’ offer, General Manager Joe Burke said he wasn’t worth it. Hrabosky countered, “The Braves are willing to pay me, so I must be worth it.”

This is today’s lesson in free market economics, something is worth as much as someone else is willing to pay for it. We’ll get back to this.

In our gospel reading, it’s getting along to be mealtime. It seems Luke’s gospel has Jesus going from one meal to the next, my kind of gospel. Jesus is invited to the home of Simon the Pharisee for a meal. Others are invited too.

Just a couple of things you may not be aware of that will be helpful. This isn’t a closed off banquet hall with high style chairs. This table is not very high at all and those who will eat lay on mats on their left elbows and eat with their right hands. Their legs will be splayed back and away from the table. Also, strangely to us, it is not uncommon for people to just drop in on the festivities seemingly for no good reason at all.

So Jesus goes with Simon to the festivities. Everyone was reclined at the table and the servants brought the food. Among the passersby is a local woman who has led a sinful life. As you see, anybody can just drop by a fancy dinner, even this sinful life leading woman! She breaks open an alabaster jar of perfume and anoints the feet of the Lord Jesus.

Can you imagine how good that felt after a long day on the road? The oils and the balm being rubbed lovingly into your feet. She’s weeping. She’s washing your feet with her long, long hair. Do you think he might have closed his eyes enjoying this tender care?

Well, she’s in his house, on his grounds, and Simon can’t keep quiet. He mumbles “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

This is Simon the Pharisee’s “Al Hrabosky” moment of human economics; and as far as he’s concerned she’s not worth all that and a bag of chips. Jesus on the other hand teaches that heavenly economics are not human economics.

Jesus engages Simon in a riddle, actually a common form of entertainment at get-togethers like this in the day before college football and TiVo. He offered the story of a moneylender who forgave two debts, one of fifty denarii and another of 500 denarii.

First though, a quick lesson in ancient finance. A denarius was a day’s living wage for the common worker. It was fair, it wasn’t extravagant, it was a living wage. So 50 denarii would amount to a healthy credit card bill and 500 would pay for a nice sedan.

Neither bill so high it can’t be incurred or repaid over time, but when bankruptcy comes, broke is broke.

Jesus asks, “The moneylender forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Isn’t it obvious? It is to Simon, the one with the larger debt.

Jesus tells him he made the right choice. Technically it’s not much of a riddle, but then again, I find the rest of the conversation has a bigger riddle.

Back in the day, hospitality rules said that when you invite someone over you provide water for them to wash their feet. When you wear sandals and share roads with beasts of burden, you’d want to wash your feet too. On a side note which will become a matter of no small importance, you wash your own feet. A slave can’t be compelled to wash someone else’s feet.

Well, Simon didn’t provide so much as a basin of water. Simon did not meet his guest with a kiss either. Nor did Simon give oil for washing. This sinful woman provided perfume, her kisses, her tears, and her hair for our Lord’s feet. She could not be compelled to wash his feet, yet she did she served him on her own accord out of love. Yes, she may have been a sinful woman, and we don’t know what her sins are, but by my count the score is Sinful Woman 5, Simon 0.

Jesus continues, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” To her alone he says, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

This woman seemed to know what Paul tells the Galatians over and over. They are not saved by the Law, but by grace. Yes, she is a sinner, a sinner serving God. By accepting Jesus the Christ, by loving and serving Christ, she has found her way to forgiveness. She has found shalom. She has found peace.

Paul says what Christ shows, we who know God, we who know the Christ will find ourselves “among the sinners.” I find this ironic, I have always found that when we find ourselves around those who know God we find ourselves among those who sin too. People like Simon.

While we are on this earth, we sin. People sin. Some days we sin like we owe fifty day’s pay. Others like 500 day’s pay. Others we owe a government sized bailout. Who needs more love? Of course it’s the one who owes more.

But let’s ask this question, who’s more worthy?

The question of worth is always based on some scale. Some external scale that somebody sets up and interprets. Did you meet the scale? Did you exceed expectations? Did you earn this bonus? Are you worthy of this reward?

The Jews measure this through the law. The 613 Commandments, the 613 Mitzvoth. The 248 positive commandments and the 365 negative commandments; if you were going to be judged by a code, that was quite a code. There were people who would judge. There were courts and there were scribes and Pharisees. Paul knew all of this. Paul was raised in this and he was esteemed in all of this.

Then Paul received the revelation of the better way. “So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

By his interpretation of the law, Simon judged the woman a sinner. She was way down on his totem pole. He, a Pharisee, was having Jesus, the “next big thing,” the “Flavor of the Month,” over for dinner. Simon’s star was ascending. He was seeing and being seen by all the right people. He had kept the law since a young child. Simon was living right. He thought he was on top of the world and in all the right ways, he was.

But with Jesus at the table, everything had changed. Paul says it this way to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Jesus didn’t give himself for those with the best marks in the law. God in Christ knew the people who needed him most were those in the most difficulty, those who owed 500 denarii.

Those who owed fifty couldn’t save themselves though. It’s just that those who are in worse shape will love the redeemer more.

That’s the issue here. We have laws. We have lots of laws. They can be called benchmarks or standards or goals or outcome projections. They will end up as judgements. We face them every day and we will be judged worthy or unworthy.

In God’s law, we have all fallen short of the mark. We all sin. We are unworthy of the salvation freely offered through the life, work, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Yet, in God’s economics, as the children of God, though we are unworthy, we are saved. God loves us so much, that even if we think we have done enough, we haven’t, we can’t, and his grace is sufficient.

This takes me back to Simon and the sinful woman. Simon the Pharisee serves the Church and the Law, but he forgets the simplest principles of hospitality, water, oil, and greeting. The sinful woman brings these and the tears of shame knowing she’s not worthy, or is it tears of joy knowing that while she is not worthy, she is yet at the feet of her Lord.

Scripture doesn’t say. But this question makes me wonder this riddle, in our reading is Simon the fifty denarii sinner or is he the 500 denarii sinner? It also makes me wonder which I am. But in truth, all the answer to that riddle will show us is how grateful we should be when the moneylender forgives our debt.

In the end our response to this question must be to be like response of the sinful woman. Seek the feet of Christ and serve him where he is, for there is forgiveness. Not because we are worthy, because we are never going to be. Our human condition will forever keep us from that.

But here’s the Good News of Jesus Christ, like the sinful woman we seek and serve the Lord not because we are worthy, but because he is.

Changes

This sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 5, 2016, the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

With thanks and praise to God and grateful thanks to the people of The Federated Church, this is my first Sunday as Pastor of The Federated Church.

1Kings 17:8-16
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

I want you, for a moment, to consider the plight of the family in our reading from 1Kings. At the beginning of this chapter, Elijah declared a drought upon the land because Ahab, the son of Omri the King of Israel had built a temple to worship Baal. At the same time Hiel of Bethel sacrificed two sons, his oldest and his youngest, to rebuild Jericho.

Joshua’s son Nun warned this would happen. These chickens have come home to roost at Bethel. It’s ironic that Bethel is the Hebrew word for “House of God.” This would be the First Commandment, “The Lord is our God” God, not the god Baal. So yeah, ironic. Hence, the prophet has declared a drought.

This also reminds me of wealth distribution like it is today, the powerful cats play, the weak mice pay. While everybody was hurt by the drought, those who were better off weren’t hurt so badly nor so quickly. For the rich things hurt, but not immediately. For those on the fringes of society, the widowed, the single parents, pain already knew their address.

As we read, sometime later the brook died up at Zarephath. Everything dried up at Zarephath. Even hope dried up at Zarephath. In a time when without a man you were nothing, she became less than nothing. She had a son to feed, we’ll never know his age, but he wasn’t old enough to earn his keep. Imagine how she scrimped and saved to get meal and oil for bread.

So here comes Elijah. The Lord commands him to see the widow who has likewise been commanded to supply him with food. So he arrives asking for some water and a piece of bread.

How does the widow prepare for the prophet’s arrival? She’s fetching sticks. Her words, not mine, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

Prepare a meal for myself and my son so that we may eat it and die. Desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, isolation, desolation—poverty caused by a drought caused by men who would not follow the Lord the God of Israel. The powerful curse the prophet, all the while the poor prepare to die.

Take just a moment in her shoes my friends. You know her decision was not made lightly. It’s not that she hit a quick bump in the road and said, “Well,
it’s time to shut off the lights.”

She had a family. She has a son who is dying of malnutrition. All they have left is nothing but one more meal and sticks to heat it up. She has nobody, nobody to fight for her in this life. No husband, she literally has no breadwinner. There is nobody else she can rely upon since there is no other family. If there was a widow’s share from life insurance or the union or social security or food stamps, it’s long gone because the economy has gone to… yeah, you know, the drought.

On death row you can get steak and lobster, she doesn’t even have any more oil to put on the bread.

How distressed is she? How depressed is she? How hopeless does she feel? Verse nine says the Lord tells Elijah the woman has been told to give the prophet food. God has spoken to her and still as far as she’s concerned there’s nothing to do but to have a last supper, curl up and die.

She acknowledges the Lord God lives and she still can only see death for her and hers. Desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, isolation, desolation.

Elijah cries out, fear not! (Are lovelier spoken in scripture?) Do this for me and the Lord God promises you have meal and oil until rain comes again upon the land.

Now take a walk in Paul’s shoes. The shoes that have lived the life he now shares with the Galatians. How he has changed, and how he hasn’t, is the heart of this part of this letter. Paul who persecuted the church. Paul who was Pharisee Employee of the Month at the Stoning of Stephen is now Christ’s Apostle to the Gentiles. Changes don’t get much bigger. This one is so big he isn’t completely trusted.

Paul makes it clear that he is not the disciple of any man. When he received his revelation it came from Jesus himself. He then spent three years on the road before going to Jerusalem. When there, did he go to “All Disciples Temple” to get his teaching approved? No. He did go see Peter (Cephas in our reading), James, and John, and he didn’t seek their approval.

Now it’s time to put on our gospel shoes and walk with the widow of Nain from Luke’s gospel. This reading takes the setting from a step further. Her stresses are raised exponentially when her son dies. This woman now has no family. There is nobody to take her in. Her life is lifeless on a bier carried by bearers.

As hopeless as the widow in Kings was, this woman’s plight was much worse. Imagine the crying. Imagine the wailing. Imagine the horror. Imagine the people thanking God it wasn’t them.

They weren’t thanking God it was her, but they were grateful it wasn’t them.

Burying a spouse and an only child, nobody is prepared to face that change.

These folks have faced changes that are absolutely brutal. Paul’s life was set. He was a learned man from a good family. He could have been head of the Sanhedrin. Instead his life, socially, politically, and economically were ruined. He went from being greatly esteemed by one group and greatly feared by another to being loathed by everyone. Now he is hated by his fellow Jews and not easily trusted by the followers of Jesus.

The women, the widows have faced changes that have taken their lives away. With no other family they have nowhere to go. With no means of support they have no way to put a roof overhead or put food on the table. The widow of Nain also lost any hope of gaining a place in her son’s home in the future. One woman was preparing for death and the other was as good as dead already.

But they had one thing in common, one thing. They had an encounter with the Living God. An encounter that changed their lives. Paul went from trying to destroy the Church to being the its greatest evangelist. It is rightly said if not for Paul the Good News would have died as a limited reform movement in Judaism. If you are looking for proof, the Christian movement came out of Rome and Constantinople, not Israel.

As for the women, they received something more important. Their very lives were redeemed. Through the work of God delivered by the words of Elijah a family was saved. As for the widow of Nain, not only was her son raised from the dead, but in a very real way, she too was raised from the dead.

By the work of God through Elijah, Paul, and Jesus; in the power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; changes were made in the lives of these people lives were saved.

Yes, oh yes, there was terror. There was no promise that the terror would not return. The story of the woman in 1Kings parallels the story of the woman in Luke’s gospel. This even after she meets Elijah and is blessed by the Lord God. The fate of Paul is well known, ultimately ending in exile from the Holy Land. Terror, oh yes, but there is salvation in God.

These are interesting texts to use for my first sermons with you as your pastor. They come from the Revised Common Lectionary, a group of readings which ensure that I don’t focus on one book of the Bible or one topic for years on end. So in that way, these readings picked us.

They became special to me because they describe tragedy and turmoil that lead to wonderful changes. These are people who know God is in control and still have to face demons.

I’m sure the widow in 1Kings would have loved Elijah to have arrived well before she was at the brink of passive suicide. The woman in Luke never knew she would meet her redeemer on this side of the tomb. There’s a surprise I can only begin to imagine.

As for Paul, he knew his Lord. He didn’t know he was persecuting his Lord’s people. Now he’s sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ until the people came to know him as a great prophet of the Risen Lord.

As for me, I have faced my share of demons. I have faced horror and turmoil I had rather not. At least if I had to make them I wish there was another way to make them. I seemed to have taken the hard road for a good long time.

I know too there is relief that there is a pastor here in the pulpit, in the office, and in town. That was a long and difficult road to hoe and as the old saying goes, no job is done until the paperwork is finished and that’s not all done either.

Still, here’s the good news.

We have faced these changes.

By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we have survived and thrived in these changes; even when the world was intent on making the road seem like an Everest summit.

In relying on Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are stronger. Our faith is stronger because it is based on the Christ revealed to us through scripture, prayer, and work.

Together these are the things that will take us into the future Jesus intends us to live together.

In Christ, there is hope. That is what we know from our readings and from our experience, there is hope and it is only in Christ.

No, it won’t always be easy. But what it can be is joyful. Glorious. Peaceful. Fun. We don’t have to give into the drama Paul saw in the ways of men.

Rather let us together seek the way of God. Yes, we will do that for one another, and we will do that for our community too.

Above all, the first reason we will do what we do as the Body of Christ is for the Glory of God and the Kingdom of God.

By our hope in God the love of God, in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.