Courageous Compassion

For the next few weeks, we will be following the stories of the prophets Elijah and Elisha.  These two prophets were working in Israel, the northern kingdom, during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in the first half of the 8^th c. BCE.  Their importance is shown, among other things, that Elijah is one of the three figures who appears with Jesus at the Transfiguration, and that even today, it is Elijah for whom Jews leave a seat at the Passover Seder.  In the verses immediately before today's reading, Elijah has made his first appearance before King Ahab and predicted a drought.  Then, following God's instructions, he went and lived by a creek, the Wadi Cherith, where he was fed by ravens who brought him food at God's command.  When the drought happened and the brook dried up, Elijah had to leave.  At God's command, he went to Zarephath, an area north of Israel, near the city of Sidon. That's where we pick up the story.

The spring rains never came that year.  As summer came it was evident that a drought was upon them.  The drought affected the whole region.  Elijah's creek dried up, and he headed north to Zarephath because God commanded him to go, but also because he needed food and water. Now, Zarephath is an interesting choice of places for God to send Elijah.  It's just eight miles away from Sidon, the place Jezebel, Elijah's greatest enemy, comes from.  It's the heart of worship for the Canaanite gods.  But that's where God tells Elijah to go.

We find this over and over again in the Bible. God sends us into difficult places, places that are outside our comfort zone.  God sends Abraham and Sarah on a journey where they don't even know where they'll end up.  God sends Joseph into slavery in Egypt.  God sends Moses to talk to Pharoah.  God sends Jonah to preach in Ninevah, the heart of enemy territory.  God sends Paul into one difficult place after another.  Over and over, God moves us out of our comfort zone.  Part of what it means to be a person of faith is to take the risk and go. I wonder where our Zarephath might be - foreign territory where other gods are worshiped?  For some, it might be the streets of Chester or Philadelphia.  For others, it might be a mission trip to Appalachia.  But for many of us, it might be just outside our church door.

This afternoon, some of us are stepping into Zarephath.  We're handing out invitations to our Outdoor Movie Night  next Saturday.  And part of the plan is that we're not just dropping a flyer in a mailbox.  We want to talk to the people in our community so they can put a face on our church, and we can find out who our neighbors are.  It won't be a long conversation in most cases, just an invitation.  But it's a first step.  What will we find when we go?

When Elijah arrived in Zarephath, he was both thirsty and hungry, so appealing to the ancient and binding rules of hospitality,  he asked the first person he met for some water and maybe a  little bit of bread.  Sometimes when we are sent into the world, it's not because our hands and bellies are full, but because we have our own needs - for a job, for technical help, for an answer.  What Elijah found, though, was a woman who was even worse off than he was.  She was a widow, a person who was perpetually living on the edge in the society of the time anyway because she had no man to provide for her.  The drought had only made things worse. When he asked her for food and water, she said, "I was just on my way to get sticks to cook the last food I have, so my son and I can have one last meal, and then die."  Both need food, and food is the one thing they both lack.  

This story could have gone another way.  Elijah could have left the woman there and gone to look for food from someone who had more.  The woman could have not listened to Elijah and gone home and baked that last cake and died.   But in the midst of this desperation, God offers hope and another way.  Elijah and the woman show hospitality and compassion toward each other.  Because of this, they and the widow's son all live.  God, who can bring abundance even in the midst  of apparent scarcity, acts.  The jar which held only a handful of meal never gets empty, the bottle which held only a little oil always had just enough, and so Elijah, the widow and her son are all saved, by the grace of God.  Together they have enough to get them through the drought.

That's the way it works.  We go out into the world, partly because God calls us to go, but also partly because our own survival depends on it.  What we find there is other people who have needs as well - some needs that are physical, like flour and oil, some needs that are spiritual, like not knowing the God who truly can supply our needs.  In that meeting with the other, God is at work.  In that meeting with the other, God's abundance supplies each of us with what we need.  I've heard this so many times.  One story that sticks in my mind is of a minister who wanted to do a tribute to a remarkable older woman in her congregation for Mother's Day - a slide show and video of this woman's life.  But she lacked the technical knowledge.  But in a friend's basement, she found two teenage boys who had the technical knowledge, but no knowledge of God or of the wisdom they would find in the old woman.  Together, the boys, the minister and the woman created a remarkable presentation bearing witness to a life lived in faith, and all their lives were changed.  

The story of Elijah and the widow doesn't end with the miraculous meal jar and the oil jar.  The widow's son gets sick and dies, and looking for someone to blame, she blames Elijah.  Elijah too is filled with grief, and once again, with compassion.  He takes the boy to his room, and there he fervently prays to God.  It doesn't seem fair that the boy should be saved from famine only to die of sickness.  Elijah passionately pleads with God, and the boy begins to breathe.  He is saved.  It's then that the woman really believes what has been in front of her all along - that Elijah is truly a man of God, and that the God he serves is the true God of great power.  Her last recorded words are a witness to that conviction"Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of God in your mouth is truth."

Today we elect/ordain leaders for our church, people who have responded to God's call as Elijah did.  We don't know the details of where God will lead us over the next three years - the length of their terms .  But there are a couple of things we can say for sure.  That God will lead us, as he led Elijah, into some strange and possibly uncomfortable places, and that there we will meet people we never expected to encounter.  We will be called on to use resources we may not think we have.  We will find unexpected blessings along the way.  For our new leaders, I pray that they may be as compassionate as Elijah, as hospitable as the widow.   If they do this, I am confident that God will sustain them and us even in the midst of scarcity,  and bring new life out of dead ends, so that we and those we meet may all, in the end, bear witness to the steadfast love, compassion, and life-giving power of God.