The 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 9 "Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you." 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink." 11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." 12 But she said, "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." 13 Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14 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." 15 She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16 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. 17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 She then said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" 19 But he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. 20 He cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again." 22 The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." 24 So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."  (1 Kings 17.8-24 NRSV)

 

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep." 14 Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!" 17 This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.  (Luke 7.11-17 NRSV)

 

“JUST RIGHT”

 

            Many years ago I was helping at the Dubuque Rescue Mission for a summer.  Don was the director.  The goal was for me to learn about helping others in need and also so that by the end of the summer, I would know enough to replace Don so he could take a week off.  The Mission offered people a chance to have a meal each day and for some to stay off the streets.  Don’s approach wasn’t the old style of making the people wait to eat while someone preached at them.  When it was time to eat it was time to eat and everyone who showed up was welcome.  So, much of the work of the Mission revolved around that noon meal.  Food would come in from various sources and whatever was not used for the meal was given away.  Sometimes, there was too much.  One year like this one, a huge picnic in Dubuque was cancelled because of the rain and they donated 1100 lbs. of potato salad.  That is over half a ton.  The problem is with a gift like that is that potato salad, as you know, does not keep.  We made calls and gave it to other shelters and programs, we stuffed every space in every refrigerator and freezer with it.  The next day, I overheard one of the ladies on the lunch line tell another, “Push the potato salad.”

Another time they gave us a roomful of bread.  A whole roomful of loaves of bread.  Again, the freezers helped.  Yet another time, about 50 cauliflower heads.  They set them out on the table by the door.  One man took five.  I said to Don, “He must sure like cauliflower.”  He said, “Just wait and see.  By nighttime he will have traded one for a pack of cigarettes, one for coffee, one for a sandwich, one for a drink, and so on.”  If you are resourceful, you can make too much into just right.

Don, years after I was there, developed cancer.  He retired and was going to fight it.  Some folks advised him to prepare for the worst.  He wondered where their faith was.  He fought it hard, but in the end it took his life.  Sometimes the days run out and there are just not enough.  It is very hard to work with too little.

This morning the reading from the Old Testament is one of the stories from the life of the prophet Elijah.  Many more years ago, God told him to go down to Zarephath to stay and a widow would feed him.  He found her and asked for bread.  The discussion revealed that she had only enough for one meal and then it would all be gone.  It is not a hopeful situation.  Elijah tells her to go ahead and make it but give some of it to him first.  Faith means that she will give up some of it first before she sees what God can do.  There will be no storerooms or freezers full of this food.  But we simply know that it will not run out.  They will continue to eat.  God has promised.  A small amount plus God is enough.

In what seems like a second chapter, the son of the woman died and she accused Elijah of punishing her.  He prayed for him and brought him back to life.  At this, the woman knew that Elijah spoke God’s word.  In the Gospel reading we hear how, in a town called Nain, Jesus brought back to life a young man and gave him back to his mother, a widow.  This incident reminds us of the one with Elijah.  In both there is compassion for the woman.  In both, the woman who received the blessing was a widow and so the son would be crucial to her survival.  In both the miracle is described as giving the son back to the mother.  The miracle leads the people to declare that Jesus is a prophet.  He, too, has God’s power.  He too, speaks God’s word.  God’s presence in the world goes on.  After 700 years, God still cares for God’s people.  There is a blessing of abundance.

If we can make too much into just right, it is much harder to work with too little.  Perhaps that is why we fear that so much.  Perhaps that is why we tend toward excess.  Excess does not require faith, though, because we can trust in what we have on hand.  The problem with excess is that while some have more than enough, others do not have enough.  Perhaps that is the time to live more modestly so that others may have some too.  What is required is faith; that whether we have much, or just enough, or too little, we still have God’s blessing.  That can give us the kind of peace in the midst of life.  And finally, with our lives themselves, since we cannot stockpile them, we have to trust in God who can even give us back to our loved ones, on this day or on the last day.

 

            Few of us live with extraordinary abundance.  Oh, we might have a few things put away, perhaps to enjoy later, or perhaps for the rainy day, but most of us live closer to having enough or a bit more than that.  Faith in God’s goodness can help us live in that state.  Mary Lou Carney found this while a counselor at a summer camp.  They would “weigh the waste”, the food scraped from the campers’ plates.  It was to make them aware and encourage them to waste less food.  It reminded her of the other things in her life that she wasted time on resentments, not using opportunities to listen to others, or not using time to spend with God.  Perhaps by being more grateful for what we have, and having the promise of God’s continuing care of us, we can free ourselves of the habits of taking too much and wasting what we are given.  We can learn to value God’s gifts rightly.

            The oil and flour did not run out.  They are symbols of God’s care that far exceeds our expectations.  Oscar Greene learned that God’s care can at times seem miraculous.  They were away from home when Hurricane Bob hit.  The wind and rain were ferocious but the host of where they were staying saw a triangular spider web clinging to the window and an outside shutter.  After the storm they saw that it had survived Hurricane Bob, and so had they.

 

            Instead of fear, God gives us peace.  Instead of scarcity, God gives us enough.  Instead of death, God gives us life.  That is the lesson of these two stories about prophets.  It comes to us in our world.  If we have none, we are urged to cast ourselves on God’s care.  If we have enough, we are challenged to use God’s gifts fully as the miracle of God’s care.  And if we have far more than enough, we are given a vision by God’s compassion to consider the needs of others.  That will be enough.

 

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