More than one person has reached out to me this week saying, “I hope you’ve been working on your sermon, because I really need to hear a word of hope and encouragement from you.”
But there’s a tiny little problem with that. I am not sure I have such a word, because after this week, I need someone to share a word of hope and encouragement with me.
What I need today, and what I believe you need, is not a word from a preacher. What we need today is a word from the Lord.
The good news is that is how our Hebrew Lesson this morning begins. In verse 8 we read:
The word of the Lord came to him.
Whenever I read a verse like this one, someone will inevitably comment: “I sure wished the Lord spoke to people today like God did back in the day.”
Well, I believe God is still speaking. The problem is we’re usually not listening.
The passage continues:
Go now to Zarephath and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you when you arrive.
The good news is that the Prophet Elijah is listening. For he sets out and goes immediately to Zarephath.
And when he comes to the gate of the town, just as the Lord had said, he meets a widow who is gathering a couple of sticks to build a fire for supper. Elijah calls out to this one who has been commanded by the Lord to invite him to supper: “Will you pour me a glass of water? And while you’re at it, bring me a slice of bread?”
But she answers:
As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked. I have only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug.
Like many our nation today, maybe she wasn’t listening when the Lord commanded her to extend hospitality to strangers when they arrive at your border.
Or perhaps she heard the command. She just doubted the command. But maybe she didn’t so much doubt the command as she feared the command.
Perhaps she wanted to follow the command. She just didn’t feel like she was able, that she had any more to give. For she had fought so hard, given so much, only to have everything for which she worked for taken away.
Like us, the widow remembered more triumphant times: when freedom was won for the enslaved; opportunity won for immigrants; liberation won from fascism; civil rights won for minorities; reproductive rights were won for women; and civil rights and protections won for the LGBTQ community.
But now there’s a great famine in the land, and paralyzed by grief, the widow didn’t know how to follow the commands of the Lord. How could she keep giving? How could she continue loving? She had almost nothing left. She’s distraught and disillusioned, dejected and depleted. She didn’t see any way forward.
The last time she checked her pantry, she saw that she had only enough flour and oil to make one final meal for her and her family. Then, in the midst famine in the land, she knew that they would surely die.
Elijah then says something to the widow that many of us need to hear today. The prophet says: “Do not be afraid.”
But, there’s something patronizing, hollow, even offensive, about those words.
Hebrew Scripture Professor Katherine Schifferdecker imagines the widow responding:
Easy for you to say! You’re not the one preparing to cook one last meal for yourself and your son before you die. You’re not the one who has watched your supply of flour and oil relentlessly dwindle day-by-day, week-by-week, as the sun bakes the seed in the hard, parched earth. You’re not the one who has watched your beloved son slowly grow thinner and more listless.
In other words: the privileged audacity to tell me not to be afraid! You’re not a widow. You’ve never been devalued, been the victim of injustice or ever been this vulnerable.
We can hear her saying:
You’re not an immigrant. You’re not transgendered. You’ve never had anyone despise your very existence. You’re not poor. You don’t depend on Affordable Care or live on Social Security. You don’t live in Ukraine or Gaza or in states where women have fewer rights. You’ve never had to worry about being refused medical care and you have never feared dying from a miscarriage. You’ve never had to plead for your life to matter, only to get ridiculed for doing so. You’ve never been labeled “the enemy from within” or “the problem with the country.”
You’ve never walked in my shoes. You don’t know how many miles I have marched for liberty and justice. You don’t know how many friends I’ve lost, how many family members I’ve offended, the bullying I’ve endured, by standing on the side of those demeaned by sick religion and by a culture of greed. You don’t know all I’ve sacrificed. You’ve never felt my prayers of anguish and tears.
But Elijah says to her once more: ‘Do not be afraid; go and bake a little cake and bring it to me, and afterwards bake something for yourself and your son’ (1 Kings 17:13).
Schifferdecker continues:
How dare this prophet of God ask me for cake, knowing that I have so little? Who does he think he is, asking me for bread before I feed my own? I told him that I have only ‘a handful of meal, a little oil, and a couple of sticks.’ There’s not enough. And Death waits at my door.
Then the good news, a word from the Lord comes:
For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: ‘The jar of meal will not be emptied, and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.’
When you are knocked down and can’t see any path forward, when you feel like we have nothing left to give, if you can somehow, someway summon the courage to rise up to continue following the difficult and risky commands of the Lord, loving courageously and giving generously, if you dare to step outside our comfort zones to follow the steps of the Lord, you can be assured that “Your jar will not be emptied, and your jug will not fail.”
So, she got up, maybe hesitantly, perhaps fearfully, but that didn’t matter.The only thing that mattered was that she got up and faithfully followed the Lord’s command. And she and her household ate for many days.
The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah (1 Kings 17:14-16).Do you hear it? Are you listening? It’s a word from the Lord.
Maybe we hear it, but we are still doubting it, still fearing it.
Following the commands of Jesus these days is just too dangerous. We need to play it safe. Focus inward. Get out of from politics. Stay away from trouble.
As sure as the Lord God lives, it’s too risky to speak truth to power. We can’t continue to call out their lies and their greed, their stoking the fires of fear, their fanning the flames of hate, their sowing the seeds of vulgarity, division, and violence.
As sure as the Lord God lives, we just don’t have enough power now to fight for the rights of women which have been stripped away, the rights of immigrants threatened with deportation, or fight for the rights of transgendered people, that those with all the power now, want to erase.
Have you heard the news? Do you know what is going on? There’s an anti-Christ spirit gripping our land! As sure as the Lord God lives…
We can’t afford put the needs of others over our own when it is more popular to serve only ourselves.
We can’t identify with the least when it is more popular to scapegoat them for all the country’s problems.
We can’t welcome the immigrant when it is more popular to dehumanize and deport them.
We can’t be peacemakers when it is more popular to support a militia.
We can’t preach loving our enemies when it is more popular to call for their executions.
We can’t care for our environment when it is more popular to scoff at science.
We can’t mention words like “racism,” “sexism,” “Antisemitism,” “Islamophobia,” and “transphobia” when it is more popular to hate.
We can’t support affordable healthcare, fair living wages and access to equitable education when it is more popular to do the exact opposite.
We can’t follow Jesus these days when it is more popular to just worship Jesus.
We simply don’t have enough left to follow the risky commands of the Lord.
We don’t have enough sticks to lose ourselves.
There’s not enough meal in the jar to deny ourselves.
And there’s not enough oil in the jug to even think about picking up a cross.
When morale is low and our sticks are about to run out, when we can see the bottom of the jar, and we’re squeezing mere drops from the jug, the grace of Jesus seems too extravagant, the mercy of Jesus too generous, and the love of Jesus too gracious. The light that Jesus commands us to shine takes too much energy and involves too much risk! And we are afraid we just don’t have what it takes.
We doubt such light. We question such light. We fear such light.
Our defense mechanisms are telling us that, right now, it’s best to keep the light hid, out of sight, tucked away under a bushel. Fear tells us to take down the flag, get off the internet, and retreat behind locked doors.
But then comes a word from the Lord.
Are we listening?
When an anti-Christ spirit possesses the nation;
and we’re tempted to believe we do not have enough sticks to keep the fire burning;
that we need to retreat into the sanctuary;
that we need to accept a personal, private Jesus, keep him deep down our hearts and out of the public square;
that we need to be tightfisted with grace, scrimp on mercy, and be stingy with love;
Behold, we hear a word from the Lord:
“Do not be afraid. Because when you follow the commands of God, your jar will never be emptied and your jug will never fail, and as long as you are working for justice, you will always have a great big pile of sticks!”
There’s no number of bomb threats from Russia, no amount of misinformation from Elon, no amount of lies on Fox News, no amount of false prophets in our churches, bullies on the city council, or fascism in the White House, that will ever empty your jar.
There’s no amount of hate in Congress, meaness in the Senate, and Christian Nationalism on the Supreme Court, that will ever cause your jug to fail!
There’s no new policy, no executive order, no tweet, and no political rally that will ever deplete your basket of sticks!
In the Second chapter of Kings, we read about a man who brings the prophet Elisha a prophet’s tithe: Twenty loaves of bread and some fresh ears of grain in a sack.
Elisha accepts the tithe, but says, I want you to take this food and give it to 100 people who who are very poor.
The man responds: “But there’s just no way. There is not enough food here to set before a hundred people.”
But then comes a word from the Lord: “Because of your great faith in giving to the Lord during this time of scarcity, I have this feeling that there’s is going to be more than enough.”
The man set the food before the people, and there was not only enough, but it was indeed more than enough, as they had leftovers.
Just like they had after the disciples fed 5,000 people with a few loaves and a couple of fish.
Just like I am sure they had had after Jesus turned water into all that delicious wine!
Just like I am sure they had after the father welcomes the prodigal son home with that extravagant dinner party!
The good news is that God is still speaking today. God is still filling jars and replenishing jugs, and in God’s kingdom, the sticks that fuel the fire of the Holy Spirit are renewable resources!
So, let’s listen up! Don’t doubt, and don’t be afraid!
Let’s follow the commands of the Lord. Let’s love generously, love extravagantly, and love graciously! Let’s deny ourselves. Take up a cross. Take a risk. Continue to put the needs of others ahead of our own. Let’s make some folks uncomfortable. Be willing to lose a friend. All the while being kind, doing justice, walking humbly, speaking truth to power, preaching good news to the poor, and proclaiming freedom to the oppressed.
Let’s show the world that hope will never be silent, faith will never fade, and love will never cower.
Because, although we may think we don’t have what it takes, there is enough. There will always be enough.
No, in God’s abundant mercy, there will always be more than enough.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Just Love 