Putting Christ Back In Christians

The Incarnation As The Good News Of God’s Reign 

The Incarnation is not just about the birth of Jesus, rather, it is a celebration of the entire Christ Event, it is a celebration of God’s Self-communion with the world, with all humankind.  It is a time in which I think about, not “putting Christ back in Christmas, but about putting Christ back in Christians.  It is a time to see and rejoice in the new light coming into the world.   “Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts may shine forth in our lives.” (Collect for Christmas 1, BCP, page 213) 

The Prologue to the Gospel of John in chapter one echoes this sense of the entire Christ Event, Jesus’ birth, life, mission, ministry, death and resurrection as well as the vision of light coming into the darkness. 

"In the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God. . . what came into being in him was life and the life was the light of allPeople. . .The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. . .The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth."
(John 1)
 

“And to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” (John 1) 

So, what does it mean to be children of God, what does it mean to “put Christ back in Christians?”  I believe it means to work for justice, freedom and Peace, to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, to comfort the lonely and to fight oppression.  We see Jesus set this example for us in the fourth Chapter of the Gospel of Luke: “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. . .today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 

This is what I believe it means to put Christ back in Christians.  It is not about a “birthday party for Jesus,” but about the light of God coming into the world to banish the darkness.  And if Jesus is the light of all people, then I believe that that means All People.  If this relationship makes us children of God, then we are called to share the light with all people:  Red and Yellow, Black and White, Christian, Jew, Muslim and Atheist, Gay and Straight, Conservative and Liberal. 

To quote an old song, “they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, they will know that we are Christians by our love.”  There are, unfortunately, some Christians who are better known by their hate and judgment and anger toward those who differ from them than they are by their love.  Rather than judge and hate, the light of Christ calls us to engage those with whom we disagree, and to communicate with them.  Our faith demands that we speak the truth as we know it to those with opinions and actions that we believe are hurting some of God’s precious children.  This is important whether we disagree with President Obama or Speaker Boehner, or Phil Robertson, or even The Episcopal Church.  After all, this is exactly what Jesus did.  I hasten to add, that this also got Jesus killed. 

I believe we must trust and speak the grace and truth of God as we find it in Jesus:  even if people disagree with us?  Yes.  even if the slander us?  Yes.  even if we lose our jobs?  Yes!  We do this because we have been entrusted with the light of the world which the darkness can never extinguish by the one who is called “wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of Peace.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justice for God’s People

Justice for God’s People 

Luke 18:1-8: Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.  

As God’s people in the world we have received God’s Law in many ways.  It the Biblical books of Exodus and Deuteronomy we have received God’s Law written on stone (the Ten Commandments).  As Christians we believe the Bible contains God’s law. It also contains lots of other things; poems, hymns, history, legend, foundational stories of our faith and life.  In fact, story and myth communicate more to many of us than do laws.  They even help us to understand law in ways that often make more sense than codes and codicils. 

I believe that was the goal of God’s communication through the Prophet Jeremiah during the exile in Babylon.  It is just possible that this message will serve us well on our journey of life and faith. 

Jeremiah 31:27-34: The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make

a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like

the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to

bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was

their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the

 house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and

I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

Jeremiah is proclaiming that God is putting the divine law on human flesh, not just any flesh, but the heart, the traditional source of life, thus proclaiming that life in this world is important to

God.  That what happens in this world is important.  That God desires justice for all people. 

Franciscan Friar and Roman Catholic Priest, Richard Rohr believes that when we pray for others, that what we are doing is bringing thinking down from our head to our hearts.  Rohr suggests that:  

next time resentment, negativity and irritation come to our minds, that we move

that thought or that person into our heart space.”  The heart, according to Rohr is

surrounded with silence, surrounded with blood which is warm and life giving.  In

this place it is impossible to comment, judge, create story lines and remain antagonistic.  In this place we do not create or feed on contraries, but on life, embodiment and love.  Love lives and thrives in heart space.  It has kept me from wanting to hurt people who have hurt me.  Could this be what we are really doing when we say we are praying for someone?  That we are holding them in our heart. (Immortal Diamond, Richard Rohr) 

The Law written on the heart makes our faith real.  Faith becomes about flesh and blood, new life; “the word became flesh and dwelt among us,”(John 1:14)  and it becomes dangerous! 

When God’s Law is written on our hearts, we are able to find God within us as well as beyond us.  This is an exquisite balance that I believe religion is able to achieve.  People who find this balance that both Jeremiah and Jesus had, find a wholeness and tend to blossom and flourish.  As we flourish in our faith we move beyond being mere conformists or mere rebels who just take sides on everything—no wisdom required.  Sounds like a pretty good place for Christians to hang out. 

When we live into this Law Written on the Heart, this law of flesh and blood, we have nothing to prove.  We only need say with Mary, “the almighty has done great things for me and Holy is His Name.”(Luke 1:49)   We can also say, must also say, the Almighty has done great things for all of God’s children, not just those of us who know God through Jesus. 

Those of us who are God’s Children, those with God’s Law written on our hearts, might just become co-creators with God, might just become the people who can help God put back together our sometimes sad and fragmented country and world.  Not lording it over others, but welcoming them, even those who are different, into this place, this world God has given us as home.

(A WRITER’S CREDO)

(A WRITER’S CREDO)

Reflections on an Essay by Edward Abbey 

“It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be the critic of the society in which he lives.  It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rile away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders, and at those within our borders  who question the prevailing order.” (Edward Abbey) 

Abbey believes that if a writer is not willing to take on this responsibility that he or she should become a surgeon or a truck driver or a cowboy or a nuclear physicist.  Writers, particularly free lance writers, are in a position to serve as the conscience of our nation, to speak truth to power.  So many Americans are in positions in which speaking out can put ones employment, and thus one’s ability to feed self and family in danger.  This does not mean that writers will not pay for their comments, but that they will have a forum through which to communicate with the public. 

According to Abbey, the writer as critic is able to point out those decisions and policies from government and business alike that support the status quo to the detriment of all the citizens of this country.  “Far better to remain silent than to use the written word to shore up the wrong, the false, the ugly, the evil.”   

I gather from reading Abbey that writing matters, that what writers do actually makes a difference in the world. Whether poetry, essays, or novels, writing makes a difference. Writers must, in fact, become political.  That is, they must become involved, responsible and committed.  The writers’ duty according to Abbey is “to speak the truth, especially unpopular truth, especially truth that offends the powerful, the rich, the well-established, the traditional, the mythic, the sentimental.” 

A writer can do these things when others cannot because they have the freedom to do research, to not lose their jobs, though of course, people can refuse to by their books or their writings.  As an aside, we priests and preachers should be able to speak the truth as well, but unfortunately the church is often the last bastion of the status quo and truth can be a real threat to that status quo; whether the truth is theological, political or anthropological.  And this is true even when we preachers make a point that what is being asked of people is not to agree with us, but to reflect on what we say or write through the lens of their faith and their life experience.  I am sure this is true for teachers and others in our world as well. 

Nothing should be sacred or spared from the writers work, whether it be Health Care, Immigration, Greed, In-effective Government, Homosexuality, Racism, or any other issue.  And writers do not have to be of one mind in what they write.  The must however speak the truth as the see it and understand it.  Writers may be one of the few forces in our world that enable civilized dialogue, a quality quite rare in our day. 

To become a bit more personal, Abbey’s essay inspires me to remember that I have been given the gift of writing, and as a retired priest, the freedom to speak the truth as I understand it and the responsibility to share this truth with the world.  As a priest I have been blessed to struggle with life and faith with “all sorts and conditions of people,” those who are likeable and those who are unlikeable, those who seek a newer and in their minds a better world, and those who are quite content with the past.  I have learned to see the world through the eyes of people who are in a different place in life than am I and therefore to see the world through many different lenses. 

One person does not possess all truth, but many people together sharing their portions of the truth can bring us much closer to “the truth” than simply trusting our own favorite sources of truth and the institutions which provide them. 

Abbey ends the first part one of this essay: “Since we cannot expect much truth from our institutions, we must expect it from our writers.  Tolstoy said: ‘The hero of my work, in all of his naked unadorned glory is truth. . .Thoreau said: The one great rule of composition is to speak the truth.  And that other trouble maker said, Ye shall hear the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer, Some Reflections

“Teach us to pray, asks one of Jesus disciples (Luke 11:1-13), as John taught his disciples to pray.”  Since the dawn of consciousness human beings of all faiths, and perhaps even people with no faith, have thought about prayer, talked about prayer, tried to pray and given up on prayer.  At times many of us believe our prayers have been answered and at other times feel that our prayers never “make it out of the room.” 

I want to reflect on a few questions about prayer in hopes that it will help someone (if only myself) as they struggle with some of these same questions.  What is Prayer? How does prayer work? Does prayer work? What is the difference between prayer and magic? Does God change the natural order of things to answer our prayers? 

Certainly this is not an exhaustive list of questions about prayer but will hopefully spur you to conversations and reflections about this ubiquitous area of human life 

We begin by looking at Jesus’ response to the disciple’s request in Luke 11.  Luke’s version of this prayer is shorter and more direct than the corresponding version found in the Gospel of Matthew and therefore likely closer to the original.  In Luke we find five petitions rather than the seven found in Matthew.  They seem to me to be short, sweet and to the point: 

·         Father, hallowed be your name.

·         Your kingdom come.

·         Give us each day our daily bread.

·         And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

·         And do not bring us to the time of trial 

First Jesus tells the disciples (and hopefully us, by extension) to recognize God’s holiness and therefore the holiness of all that is.  Then we ask that God’s kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven (my reflection).  Next we ask for what we need today:  Just today, not tomorrow, or next week, but today.  Food for today, work for today, relationships for today.  Remember what happened when the children of Israel tried to gather enough Manna for two days?  Yes, the manna turned into worms. Ugh. 

Then we ask to be forgiven of our sins, because we have already forgiven those who have hurt us (maybe?)  And last but not least we ask God to protect us from the trials and tribulations of this life, to be with us when they come and to help pick us up when we fall. 

This is the beginning of prayer: To whom do we pray; for what do we pray; how do we use what we receive; will prayer help God heal our divisions and give us a chance to start anew; be with us, guide us and protect us. 

This is a good foundation for prayer, and it is followed by a parable encouraging persistence.

“And he said to them, Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.” 

This persistence is vital and I believe also binds us together with others in our prayer, strengthening our relationships with one another and with God (not unlike being bound together by the Holy Eucharist.  But,  Luke 11 then takes us into dangerous waters.  Prayers of petition!  Are we beginning to ask God to perform magic tricks, to re-arrange the natural order or setting ourselves up for failure when our prayers do not appear to be answered.  How does this affect our faith or the faith of others who have heard and been taught the following lesson from Luke 11. 

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 

I continue my reflections on prayer based on Luke 11: 1-13 and I invite your reflection and response as well.  I believe that this form of the Lord’s prayer invites us to praise God, ask for what we need, participate in the living out of God’s Kingdom.   I believe the key to prayer is this: risk openness to others as God in Christ risked openness to us and for us. 

We bind ourselves to one another in praying for their needs and asking them to pray for ours.  We risk “failure:” why did my loved one die, we all prayed?  Why did someone less worthy get the job instead of me? What we gain through prayer is trust, persistence, and faith.  We learn to trust others because we believe we can trust God.  Persistence helps us to learn how to pray and being bound together with others in prayer gives us the courage to pray, NO MATTER WHAT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justice, Mercy and Non-Violence

Justice, Mercy and Non-Violence 

In the eighth century BCE, the Judean Prophet, Amos, inspired by God, did his best to communicate the importance of justice and mercy to the leaders of the nation of Israel.  Amos described people who cheat their customers and overcharge the poor, in order to enhance their own wealth.  And he describes how God feels about this and what God plans to do. 

Amos 8:1-12: . . . . The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says the Lord GOD; the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!  Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the Sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat. . . . .On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.  

Amos condemns the wealthy for taking advantage of the poor and for breaking the customs of the land.  The rich, it seems, even plan to sweep the scattered wheat off the floor and sell it rather than leaving it for the poor to gather.  To put this in perspective, this is not unlike congress passing the huge farm bill and gutting it of the food stamp provision which would help feed those who lost their jobs in the recession of 2008, among others.  The farm bill has not gone to conference yet, nor has it been signed by the president but it does give us some idea of how the poor in Israel in Amos’ day and the poor in our day are often treated in similar ways. 

Around 1500, Martin Luther continues Amos’ concern for the poor when he proclaims that “those who can steal and rob openly are safe and free, unpunished by anyone while the petty sneak thieves who have committed one offense must bear disgrace and punishment to make the others look respectable and honorable.” Luther just might be referring to public officials and religious leaders of his time. 

Yes, our world is different from the Eighth Century BCE world of Amos, and even from the 16^th century world of Martin Luther, but if we listen closely we can hear echoes of theirs in our own.  In Amos’ day we saw dishonest balances as well as the discontinuation of customs which made food available for the poor.  In our day we see money lent to people who the lenders know cannot pay it back, we see “pay day loans” that can put people in permanent debt, and we see bundled mortgages which make it impossible to extract one’s own mortgage from its entanglement with many others and almost brought down the world economy. 

We as Christians are called to an activism that encourages healthy business practices and discourages dishonesty, builds community and affirms individual strengths and talents and their use for the building up of the community, the nation and the world.   

As we use our talents in community, Christian Activism calls some to contemplation and learning and others to action.  Some of us are called to teach and listen, others to protest the actions of the church or state, some are called to follow the rules, others, like those who worked for civil rights or for the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church, or for rights for homosexual people are called to break them.  Some are called to support the Status Quo and others are called to question it with all our might. 

 I believe Amos is calling for a divine sense of fairness and kindness that perseveres even when the historical moment is one that’s poor in mercy because we who minister in the name of Jesus cease to hear the prophetic call.   

Everyone belongs and no one needs to be scapegoated or excluded.  Evil and Illusion need only to be named and exposed truthfully, and they die in exposure to the light (Richard Rohr). 

Being God’s Person, being part of the kingdom of God is not easy. It requires us to look not only at our own good, but at the good of others, to look not only at the actions of others but at our own actions.  We must stay in relationship with one another and with God in order to make the right decisions, in order to know what is required of us and to have the supportive community in order to carry out what God asks of us. 

By re-reading the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount we will see again the importance of non-violence and simplicity in life taught and lived by Jesus.  And to remember that God reminds us through the Prophet, Micah, that “what is required of us is to do justice, to love Mercy and to walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Reflections on George Zimmerman, Trevon Martin and How America Might Become A Less Violent Nation.

Some Reflections on George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin and How America Might Become

A Less Violent Nation. 

Based on Luke’s Version of “The Good Samaritan Story,” Luke 10: 25-37 

“A lawyer asked Jesus, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  Jesus answered, ‘what is in the law?’  He answered, ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and should and strength; and your neighbor as yourself.’  Jesus said, ‘you have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.’” 

The lawyer (wishing to justify himself) then asked, “who is my neighbor.”  At this point Jesus told a story which most of us have heard over and over.  What caught the attention of Jesus’ hearers was the surprising twist on who helped the man out, the foreigner, the Samaritan, the one who should not have helped, the other.  Then Jesus asked, “which one was a neighbor to this man?  To which the man responded, “the one who showed him mercy.”  Jesus replied, “go and do likewise.” 

As I turned on my computer on Sunday morning to review my sermon for Sunday, the first thing I saw was the news that George Zimmerman had been found Not Guilty of the murder of seventeen year old Trevon Martin.  The irony of this news in light of the Gospel of the day was palpable as the whole issue of what did or did not happen comes back to the lawyer’s question, “who is my neighbor.”  Now I know that the goal in a court of law is not to establish neighborliness, but to prove guilt or innocence “beyond a reasonable doubt.”  I believe, however that it may well be useful for us to look at this situation, this human tragedy, regardless of what actually happened in light of this powerful story. 

There can be no love of God that does not express itself in the love of one’s neighbor. James the brother of Jesus, makes it more clear in his letter when he simply says that “if you say you love God who you cannot see and don’t love your neighbor who you can see then you are a liar.”  Jesus’ message to the lawyer in this story and to us is “we have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so and so is our neighbor or not, we must get into action and behave like we are a neighbor to him or her. 

Perhaps this parable will help those of us who have differing opinions about the outcome of the trial, those of us who were not in the courtroom, those of us want to be safe as well as provide an environment where the other is safe as well, to make better decisions about how we can be neighbor to those around us.  The fact that there are demonstrations and that they are for the most part peaceful gives me hope that our system gives us a way to deal with important issues in a constructive way.   

I also have hope that as we strive to be neighbors that we will have constructive conversations about race in this country, about guns in this country and about violence in this country.  I believe all these issues are present in this situation, pushed down under the surface, but present none the less.   I also believe that these important issues are just under the surface in some form or fashion in most of our lives and communities. 

Above all I believe that this whole situation is a human tragedy that did not and should not have happened.  I believe that having a gun as Zimmerman did may have made him bolder than who should have been, and may well have been the reason he confronted Martin rather than allowing the police to handle the situation after he called it in.  I believe that Martin could have pulled the hood down from over his head and not tempted fate.  I believe that it is time we as a society find ways to settle our differences in peaceful ways. This will be a challenge for us as a nation.  All we have to do is look at Washington to see that our nation’s leaders need some work on how to live and function together in a healthy way.  All we need to do is look at the founding days of our nation and note the way we were built, not only on the freedom of religion and on laws, but on violence against the people who were here when many of our ancestors and founders arrived on our shores.  And we can look at the violence perpetrated on the slaves and indentured servants who were brought here from Africa and from Europe to do the difficult work of carving a nation out of the wilderness. 

We cannot go back and change our history and make the conquering of our land any different than it was.  But, we can acknowledge our past, that we were not always the good guys, that we did not always make decisions based on our faith, but on our interests.  If we acknowledge the violence, cruelty and deception of the building of our nation, we may well be able to understand better why violence still exists today, why it will destroy us if we do not make some changes and we will be able to become the nation that we see glimpses of when we are at our best, we can truly become “. . . .one nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for All.”

I Give My Heart To

I Give My Heart To 

“On the evening of the first day of the week Jesus stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he showed the disciples his hands and his feet.”  He then told them that he was sending them out as the Father had sent him, and here is the important part, “He breathed on them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit.’”  Not a bad gift to receive from Jesus on the day of His Resurrection. 

“A week later he appeared to them again, and Thomas, who had not been with them the first time, was there with them. If you remember the story, you remember that Thomas had boasted that he would not believe until he put his fingers in the nail holes and his hand in the hole in Jesus’ side.  When Thomas saw Jesus, his response was simply, “my Lord and my God.”  Jesus’ response was important not only to Thomas and the other disciples but to us as well. “You believe because you have seen, but more blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” 

As God sent Jesus to bear witness to God and to lead us back into right relationship with God and Each other, Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit to empower us to lead others back into these two right relationships, to by co-workers with Jesus in building the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven.  This is truly our calling to be the Body of Christ in the World.  To do the business Jesus did in the world.  And what is that business?  Do you remember what the 12 year old Jesus told his parents when they finally found him in the temple?  That’s right, “Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?  And what is that business?  The prophet Micah tells us that that business is “to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.” 

This business involves speaking “truth to power,” as Jesus did, because the truth is the “Good News,” the Gospel which Jesus came into the world to teach, but more importantly, what He came into the world to do and to show us how to do.  Our business as the body of Christ is to move ourselves and others from lies to truth, from greed to generosity.  Living into this truth can be difficult or dangerous as we see in the life of Jesus, but it can point the way to many wild and exciting possibilities.  

It may mean standing up to our government, to our churches and other religious institutions and to our friends who do not understand us or why we are doing what we do.  The truth to which we are led by the Holy Spirit will allow us, or perhaps force us, to let Jesus out of the box we sometimes put him in.  This truth will prevent us from creating God in our own image so that God hates the same people we hate and likes the same people we like.  This truth will take us back again and again to Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown Synagogue. 

            The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to

the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the

blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’(Lk 4:18-19) 

The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, but it also appears that this truth involves right living and right acting as well as, or more so, than right thinking and right believing.  Truth involves the true meaning of the Latin word for belief; Credo, I GIVE MY HEART TO.

 

 

 

 

 

A God Who Visits

A God Who Visits 

Yahweh is a God who visits!  Traditionally we think of God as Emmanuel, God with us, A God who visits.  Often we lean in the direction of a God who visits to punish, but I want to suggest that Yahweh is a God who visits in order to bring Salvation as well.  We see this in the ancient Prophets of Israel; in the Christ-event that brings life out of death, and in word and sacrament in the Church. 

Two stories, “the Widow of Zaraphath” in 1 Kings 17:8-24, and Widow of Nain in Luke 17:11-17, give us windows through which to view this God who visits. 

In both of these stories, the prophet, Elijah in one case and Jesus in the other resuscitate the only son of a widow and give the young man back to his mother.  I believe that these two stories convey a truth about God, that God is Lord over death, by means of a story rather than by means of history.  We can know this truth about God, even if we cannot know exactly what happened historically.  Whatever happened, I believe that the “more than literal truth” is the important message in both of these stories.  Taking a look at these stories may help us see the power of the presence of God in our lives and in our world, the importance of our God being “a God who visits.” 

In the Kings story, the prophet, Elijah, asks a poor widow to feed him even though she is preparing to share her last morsel with her son and then lay down to die.  Elijah assures her that she will not run out of flour or oil.  That God will care for her.  When the son dies, Elijah prays, both physically and spiritually, that God will restore the child’s life.  When, according to the story, the son is restored to life, Elijah gives him back to his mother.  The truth and power in this story come from the mother’s words to Elijah: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord is in your mouth is truth.” 

In the Luke 7 story, Jesus encounters a funeral procession in which a man, a widow’s only son, is being carried out to burial.  “Jesus raises him from the dead and gives him back to his mother.  The crowd glorifies God, Saying, “A great prophet has risen among us! God has looked favorably on his people!” 

Whatever happened historically, the truth in both of these powerful stories is found in the words of the Widow of Zarephath and in the words of the Crowd in the Village of Nain.  I  share them again with you. 

(Widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings): “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” 

(The Crowd in Nain): “A great prophet has risen among us! God has looked favorably on his people!” 

Again the truth about our God: The Lord is a God who visits, God is the Lord over death and therefore the God of life! 

Deaths and loses are a part of our lives, all of our lives.  Some can be overcome more easily than others, and some threaten to drag us down into depths we fear we cannot overcome.  These deaths can take the form of the actually death of loved ones, or the death of a relationship or a job that was vital to our life.  We can lose our hopes and our dreams, our physical abilities and other strengths.  Some will even lose their memories or their memory entirely, effectively dying while they are still alive.  

The God who is Lord over death, and thus life, is also with us in the daily deaths and loses of our lives.  This God visits us in the presence of friends who God has put into our lives, friends who do not have to know what to say, who do not have to say anything.  Their mere presence is enough.  God visits those visits us in the word and sacraments of our worship, whether Christian worship or the worship of other faiths.  And above all, God visits us in the form of the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to guide us, to give us wisdom and to lead us into all truth.

Psalm 146 communicates this presence of a God who visits in a very real and powerful way.

Psalm 146

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
² I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
   I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

 

Do not put your trust in princes,
   in mortals, in whom there is no help.
⁴ When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
   on that very day their plans perish.

⁵ Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the Lord their God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth,
   the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith for ever;
⁷   who executes justice for the oppressed;
   who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;

⁸   the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
   the Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
   he upholds the orphan and the widow,
   but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign for ever,
   your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!