Do Not Be Afraid 1 Kings 17:8-16 Cora Glass Sermon for Epworth UMC Chicago 11/16/2014 1 Kings 17:8-16 The Widow of Zarephath 8 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. Introduction I not sure what exactly inspired me to start baking, maybe watching my mom or grandma, or maybe watching hours of the food network; but I fell in love with baking at an early age. In fourth grade I gathered, baked, and evaluated cookie recipes for a school project- resulting in my own cookbook. When I became involved at my church in middle school, I realized that one of the ways that I could serve others was by contributing to church bake sales. I would sign up for 2, 3, or 4 dozen cookies one Sunday and then dream about what I d make all week long. It would come to Saturday and I d throw open the pantry, ready to get to work. It was always unfortunate however when the flour container was emptier than I remembered. Often it was too late to go to the store- especially as a middle school student with no store in walking distance. Yet, I d be determined to make my
quota. I d scape together all the flour at the bottom of the Tupperware container and maybe even find the whole-wheat or bread flour to fill in the extra. I d get a wave of relief when the cookies began to come together only to find that it would only give me two dozen and I had signed up for four. Then I would have to get creative, maybe making oatmeal no-bakes, or covering pretzels with melted chocolate. When God called me to bake cookies, there was no doubt I was not going to let a bit of flour disappoint me! Body Our passage from 1 Kings begins in the middle of a drought. Elijah, a prophet, has been finding provisions during the drought from some crows who have provided him with daily meals. However, when our story begins, God tells Elijah to leave the crows and go find provision from a Widow in Zarephath. Zaraphath was a coastal town that belonged to Sidon. Just a few chapters before this story, in 1 Kings 16, Sidon was introduced as the Homeland of Jezebel, a heathen princess that instigated persecution against all of God s people. Will everyone in Sidon be wicked heathens like Jezebel? Yet, as God commanded Elijah to go, Elijah sets out to Zarephath, which may have been one hundred miles away. Thus, it is not a surprise that he only makes it to the gate of the town before he is looking for someone to give him water. Those who were on the outskirts of town were often the poorest and most in need, they were outsiders. Elijah
approached a women who is gathering sticks- small twigs- that she might use to fuel a fire and make a meal. This women doesn t have servants or a husband to help tend to these tasks. She is going to any length necessary to provide for herself and her son. She is the poorest of the poor, and suffering from the same drought as Elijah. Yet, Elijah asks for a drink. The women begins to walk away and find water for Elijah- finding water is a hospitality that she can afford. However then Elijah asks the women for a morsel of bread. Water, is a request that the widow can fill. It only requires her journey to the well with Elijah s vessel. However, to provide bread is a challenge. The widow has no bread in her house, and very little flour and oil. The widow has begun to believe that this day is her last. Feeding Elijah would require the very last of her pantry- it would require her to sacrifice the last meal for her and her son. Now a spectator might think that Elijah is being cruel to ask this woman for something that she cannot even provide for herself, but Elijah has been called by God to ask the widow for food- Elijah is following God s call. Everyone in this drought is going hungry, seeking water, and wondering which God they need to pray to in order to make it out of this bareness alive. Given the location of the widow, we believe that she would have been a worshiper of Baal. Worshiping Baal, the Cananite God of Fertility often required human sacrifices or self-injury. Many people worshiped Baal with alters of sacrifice and loud cries, hoping that Baal would save them from
the drought they found themselves in. For this widow, down to her last meal, crying to Baal, god of the Canaanites, has not sustained her. And so she has become fearful that feeding Elijah means that this day will be her last. We all have times in our lives when we feel like the Widow of Zarephath. When we put our hopes and dreams into something that doesn t work out- Something other than God. When unforeseen and unknowable events send us into a spiral where we do not know where we will turn to find abundance in our lives again. When my grandma died in 1999, my family heard that investing in rental properties was a wise investment- something you could put your hopes and trusts in. So we purchased two rental properties to make the inheritance we had received grow. This was to be the investment that secured my college education. Our trust was in the market economy. Yet, when the market crashed, so too did our investment. The repercussions of losing this investment has cause many times of fear and scarcity for my family. Not just has my family been challenged, but the market crash was a time of drought for our economy that has made the last decade challenging for everyone. Too often like the widow of Zarephath we look at our lives through the only s. I only have a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug says the widow. We walk past the man on the street thinking I only have enough for my dinner, I can t feed you too ; We open our bank accounts and think Only that much?! When we live our lives by the onlys- looking to provide first
for ourselves and then for others. There will never seem to be enough. We begin to live in fear. We find ourselves seeking survival- how to live another day- rather than seeking to live life to its fullest abundance. Luckily Elijah is not a prophet of only s but a prophet of God s providence. Elijah tells the widow Do not be afraid. Elijah knows the Widow s fear that this is her last day is not true. Elijah knows that his God, the God of Israel, can provide for the Widow. Elijah calls out to the women, who represents all those who are outcast, destitute, suffering, or unloved that he knows a God that will provide. A God that like the women s provisions of flour and oil will never fail. Elijah s God, the God of the Israelites, is the one who provides during the drought and who sends the rain to make the harvest. With this God by our side there is no need to be afraid. However, Elijah requests, the widow must first care for Elijah, for God s messenger. Only after caring for another can the Widow provide for herself and her son. After the Widow is brave enough to share her scarcity with Elijah will she find that God has not only provided for her and her son, but also for others. Thus the Widow turns, away from false Gods like Baal, away from her fear, away from her last meal; she turns towards God, towards abundance, towards sharing her bread, towards caring for God s people. What the widow thought was the ingredients for a last meal become more than enough. The widow finds that her
flour and oil never run out. That this God Elijah speaks of is one that will never fail; a God that will always provide. This God provides even for the widow, the outsider, the foreigner, the destitute, the single mother, the fearful, the doubting. God s universal love reaches beyond the boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, and even religious affiliation 1. Once we show our faith in God, by giving, even out of our scarcity, to care for others- God will provide what we need to survive. We are not told that the Widow s faith makes her wealthy or extravagant or magnified, but we are told that she always had food to put on the table. It seems a part of our being is to make sure our needs are meet before we meet the needs of others. It s the motto of the airlines- put on your own facemask before assisting another. But, becoming entrenched in the interests of our own selffulfillment distances us from living into the people God calls us to be. While our culture implores us to seek to acquire and spend and consume more in order to enjoy life; God calls us to be content with less. Like the Widow, we fear that we might die if we share our limited resources with other. We might not have enough food on the table, or money to put a roof over our head, or time to finish our reports and homework. We hear little children exaggerate their desires in phrases like I have to have that or ill die! But God calls us to renounce these cultural exaggerations and the fears that companies instill in us so we desire to buy more, 1 NIB 130 V. 3
and more, and more. If caring for ourself is the first priority, then there will never be enough to care for another, but if caring for another is our first priority then we will find that there is always enough left for ourselves. God calls us to share of what we have, even when resources seem scarce. Where we see scarcity, God sees abundance. Where we see one meal, God sees a feast. Where we see death looming, God sees life everlasting. God transforms our sparseness into our community s abundance. Conclusion When I made cookies in middle school, my flour container often made me wonder if I d have enough to meet the goal I d set- four dozen cookies for this Sunday s bake sale. By having a creative mind and an empowered spirit, I trusted that I could make my small amount of flour multiply into all the cookies I needed. But even better was the morning of the bake sale when I brought all those cookies to church. I d enter the kitchen with all my goodies and find that others had brought cookies too. To our surprise the baked goods table would overflow with sweet choices for young and old alike to savor. When each person gave a little we produced an abundance that exceeded our expectations. This week, when we consider how we will support Epworth next year, I hope that we will consider giving generously, even if it seems scary. We all have resources that are scarce- time, money, belongings. Do not be afraid of what seems
like scarcity. If we find ourselves thinking I can only give a little - whether of time, money, or talent- let us have faith that we can give generously. Let us think first of how we can care for others, and then know that God will provide what we need to live. Next week, when we gather for Celebration Sunday we will find that God will send us rain in our times of drought and sustenance in our times of hunger. We will celebrate God s blessings as we enter another year of serving together, as God s people. Fearlessly give to the work of God and God will transform our individual giving into an abundance for our community.