1 Kings 17:8-24
Getting to Know God
James Sledge June
5, 2016
What
does it mean to be the Church? Ask a hundred people and you might get a hundred
different answers. No doubt there would be a lot of overlap, but there would
probably be a good deal of variety and disagreement.
What
if I instead asked, What does it mean to be the body of Christ? It’s just a
different version of the original question, but I suspect that it shifts the
answers somewhat.
Thinking
of the Church as the living body of Christ reminds us that we’re called to respond
to situations and events and people in the same way that Jesus would. I always
thought those old, “What Would Jesus Do?” wristbands were hokey, but they did
capture a truth about Church, that we are called to see things as Jesus did and
respond as he did. And because Jesus is the human face of God, that means to
see and respond as God does.
Of course, a deep knowledge and
understanding of Jesus, of God, especially since there’re no gospel stories about
whether to raise the minimum wage, provide universal health care, or about how
many Syrian refugees to take in. Yet a lot of us Christians – and this is true for
liberals, conservatives, and everywhere in between – tend to picture Jesus
lining up neatly with what we think are our best and noblest and most deeply held
convictions. We may even have a few supporting Bible verses, but our images of
Jesus are very often constructed on an incredibly small about of data.
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When
I was ordained as a pastor, and again when I was installed as pastor here, I
was asked a number of questions, all but the last identical to the questions
asked of the elders and deacons ordained and installed for this congregation a
few weeks ago. The first question is about the centrality of Jesus as Lord, as master,
the one through whom I know the Triune God. The second question asks pastors,
elders and deacons, “Do you accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
to be, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ
in the Church universal, and God’s Word to you?”[1]
Notice
that the question makes a point of saying the Old Testament as well as the New
is a “witness to Jesus.” Yet we pastors and church leaders have often done a terrible
job helping congregations get to know the Jesus witnessed to in the Old
Testament. And that’s a real problem considering that the Old Testament makes
up a good two thirds of the Bible.
I
don’t know if that’s what prompted Diane to suggest a summer of preaching the
Old Testament readings, but that is a great way for us to get to know God, to
know Jesus, more deeply. Take our Old Testament reading for today. On the one
hand it reports things people might think typical of a Bible story. In the
midst of a drought and famine, God’s prophet is miraculously fed, along with a
widow and her son who have taken the prophet in. And to add to the miracle
count, Elijah revives the widow’s son when he dies. The Bible says God can do
miracles. Not much of a news flash there.
But
if you look just a bit deeper, not skimming the story like a newspaper but reading
it like the deeply nuanced narrative that it is, you will find some real
surprises, starting with the story’s location. Elijah has been hiding in the
wilderness, but when the water dries up, God sends him to Zarephath, outside
the borders of Israel, home territory of the evil Queen Jezebel and her god
Baal, whose worship Jezebel has promoted in Israel, even persecuting priests
and prophets of YHWH such as Elijah.
Then
we learn Elijah is sent to a widow. Widows were in precarious economic
straights at the best of times, but this was a time of famine. What a strange
choice to shelter Elijah.
The
prophet must have been a frightening sight, a wild man who had been living out in
the wilderness. And the widow clearly realizes that he is the prophet of a
foreign god. Yet she quickly goes to bring him water. Only when Elijah asks for
bread do we learn how bad things are. She is near death, with only enough meal
to make a few last bites for her and her son.
Don’t
worry, Elijah says. Feed me first, then you and your son, and all will be well.
A
foreigner, from a different religion, shows up and asks you to share your last
meal with him. Hospitality is a big part of Middle Eastern culture, but this is
ridiculous. Yet the widow does as Elijah asks.
The
story is odd and surprising enough at this point, but it is not done. The
widow’s son becomes ill and dies. No doubt some of the neighbors mumbled to
each other about how this was what happens when you take in a foreigner who’s a
prophet to a foreign god. Even the widow suspects Elijah is to blame. She
should never have messed with a foreign holy man.
Curiously,
Elijah takes up the widow’s cause. He rails against God, crying out, “O
YHWH my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am
staying, by killing her son?” And it is calamity. Widows past
childbearing years were of little count in the ancient world, and those without
male children were often reduced to begging, living difficult, short lives.
Elijah
is angry at God for this turn of events, but Elijah also knows God more deeply
than most, and so he imagines, even expects that God will look kindly on the
plight of this widow, this foreigner who presumably is a worshiper of Baal. And
God revives the child.
Foreigners, a widow, hospitality to
strangers, God’s special concern for the weak and the vulnerable. So many
issues dear to God’s heart are on display here. In Luke’s gospel, when Jesus
visits his hometown of Nazareth, he recalls this story to remind his old
neighbors of God’s concern for the outsider. And they try to kill him.
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A
Facebook friend shared a photo this week originally posted by “Joe the
Plumber.” It was captioned, “Tennessee bill bans Islam in schools. What do you
think?” A handful of friends “liked” it, and one commented, “Yeah baby!” I don’t
believe these folks know Jesus, know God, very well.
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And so I’ll loop back to my question
from the start of this sermon. What does it mean to be the Church? What does it
mean for you and for us together to be the body of Christ?
All
praise and glory to the one who came to show us the heart of God and what it
means to be fully alive as a son or daughter or God.
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