Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
June 6, 2010

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

The Bible is full of stories about people who did acts requiring great courage. Peter, James, John and the others abandoning their families and their livelihoods to follow Jesus. Paul beginning to proclaim the faith he once persecuted. And of course Jesus, proclaiming a message and living a life that were very likely to get him killed but doing it anyway, even when it became clear that they would indeed get him killed. Faith, it seems, is not for the faint of heart. Courage, it seems, is a requirement of the life of faith. We have another of those stories of immense courage this morning in our reading from the Elijah cycle in 1 Kings.

It’s the story of the Widow of Zarephath. The setting of that story is that the prophet Elijah has called on God to inflict a drought on all the land because the people had been worshipping other gods, the local gods of the Canaanites. God complies, as God usually does when Elijah asks for something. It must be nice to be able to order the Divinity around like that, but never mind. There’s a drought on; and in that world when there’s a drought, people starve to death. Lots of them. That’s the situation facing the Widow of Zarephath. She and her son have only enough food for one more meager meal. They, they are certain, they will starve to death along with so many others. That’s why the widow says she’s going to prepare what she has left for her son and herself, and then they will die.

And along comes this Hebrew prophet who says give me some of that meager bit of food you have left. He’s saying, in effect, hasten your death and the death of your son by giving some of what you have to me. Reduce your chance of survival by giving up some of the only means of survival that you have. And she does. True, Elijah has told her that if she does the God of Israel will see that she doesn’t starve, but she doesn’t believe in the God of Israel. You see, she’s not Hebrew. She’s Phoenician. That’s the significance of her being from Zarephath of Sidon. So she has no particular reason to believe Elijah. She doesn’t know who Elijah is. She doesn’t know who the God of Israel is. But perhaps moved by compassion for another suffering human being she does what Elijah asks. She gives him some of the last of her food, no doubt believing that she has hastened the death of herself and her son in the process. The Widow of Zarephath acted with great courage. She gave selflessly. And the story goes on to say that the God of Israel in fact sustained her and her son through the rest of the drought and famine.

Now, I don’t know if all that really happened or not. I don’t really care if it happened or not. I do know, however, that this story is true. This story is teaching us a truth that it is important for us to learn. We live such fearful lives, most of us. We hold on tight to what we have. Yes, we give. Some. But I know that I don’t give as much as I could, and perhaps you don’t either. I don’t mean just give to the church, although that is part of what I mean. I mean give to worthwhile causes generally. There is so much need in the world; and we, most of us, are so blessed with relative abundance. Yet we hold on tight to what we have. And I don’t mean just give to charity. Charity is necessary, and it is good as far as it goes. But justice is more fundamental than doing charity; and we, most of us, don’t work as hard as we might to create a more just world. A more just society. A more just economic, political, social, and legal system than those that we now have. We don’t do it because we aren’t suffering. We don’t do it because we fear the consequences. We fear being arrested for participating in sit-ins or marches. We fear what people will think of us, people who disagree with a position we’re taking on political or other issues. We fear what real change in the direction of justice might mean for us and for people like us. We fear not having enough for ourselves and our families. We, most of us, really do lead fearful lives. The lesson that the story of the Widow of Zarephath is trying to teach us what Elijah says to the widow in that story. “Do not be afraid.” Do the right thing even when it’s scary. Do the right thing even when it will cost you. Do the right thing even when it might cost you your life.

And we Christians don’t actually need a story about Elijah to teach us that lesson. We follow Jesus, and doing the right thing cost him his life. We learn from him that “Do not be afraid” doesn’t mean don’t feel fear. He felt fear. In the Garden of Gethsemane he felt a lot of fear. “Do not be afraid” means do the right thing despite your fear. Do it because it’s right, not because it’s easy or because you’ll get something out of it.

Yet the story of the Widow of Zarephath, and the story of Jesus, tell us to that doing the right thing, doing the courageous thing, has its rewards too. In the story of the widow the reward is that the meal and the oil didn’t run out. Maybe the reward is that immediate and tangible, although often it isn’t; but that doesn’t mean there is no reward. It may not be material. It may not make us rich and famous. But doing the right thing, acting and giving courageously, does have rewards. It has the deep, spiritual reward of simply knowing that we did the right thing. It has the deep spiritual reward to bringing us closer to God and to God’s will for our lives and for the world. We don’t do the right thing to earn a reward. We do it because it’s right; but in that there is reward too.

So let us live and give courageously. Let us live and give boldly and with courage as the Widow of Zarephath gave and as Jesus gave and lived. Let us lay our fear at the foot of the cross and set out boldly on the life of faith, the life of Christian discipleship. Yes, this church needs money. As the old joke goes: The minister said to the congregation the good news is that we have all the money we need for the capital campaign. The bad news is that it’s still in your pockets. But this church isn’t the only cause that needs our money, our talents, and our time. There are so many of them that do. Christian discipleship requires courage. It requires courageous giving, in the church and outside the church. May God help us live up to the challenge. Amen.