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!