TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – 12 NOVEMBER 2006
ST PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ABQ NM – THE REV. P. L. HOLMAN
1 Kings 17:8-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
“What’s Really Real”
Phil and I are notoriously bad at updating our household electronics. We still have AR-5 speakers for the stereo. We were talking with some friends the other day and really surprised them when Phil announced that we are getting a new television set. If you’ve ever watched TV at our house you know that we really NEED a new set. The one we currently have is a 16 year-old model with a 20” screen (it replaced a 13” screen TV so old that when we put it out on the curb no one would take it!). The contrast is shot – even comedies look like “film noir” that background is so dark most of the time we have to imagine what’s really there. The remote doesn’t work right either -- the time on the VCR is still Daylight savings because only the “1” button works and Phil hasn’t managed to be around at 11:11 AM or PM to change it. The real laughter came when he confessed we aren’t actually BUYING a new TV – we’re getting the one our kids don’t need because they’re getting a new one…Honestly, while I don’t watch much TV, I am eager to watch a few programs now that we have hope of seeing, well, what’s really there!
“Do not be afraid.” Elijah’s words to the widow of Zarephath call her to see her meager circumstances as filled with possibility, to see “the really there” of God’s abundance over against the world’s lie of scarcity -- to know the “really real” life that comes with trust in God. She trusts, and the Lord provides. “The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail,” for the rest of her days. Of course, when we read on we learn that her son did indeed stop breathing, and her trust was challenged, but again through the ministry of Elijah hope was restored, the boy lived -- God be praised. The woman gained her life when she trusted enough to share her life – when she trusted enough to turn from fear to hope.
Daily God calls each of us to that turning – calls us to trust the Spirit’s power to lead us from greed to gratitude, from fear to hope, from death to life. That is no small movement, one we often have trouble making unless a crisis forces us. As part of the final confirmation lesson on the Bible this week we looked at a passage from Isaiah about war and a passage from 1 Corinthians about death and resurrection. After some discussion I asked the students to write a brief reflection either on war or on an experience they have had with death; I invited them to make the connection between the words of Scripture and the Living Word present in their daily lives.
Half of the students wrote about the death of someone close to them. The death of a grandparent was a common theme, and with that they shared images of sadness, anger, and the pain of seeing parents’ tears. Pain, and also hope. One girl wrote, “I felt sad and a little angry…then kind of happy because [my grandmother] would be in a better place where she wasn’t suffering. I…can still picture how that church looked during her funeral.” And another shared: “I think [the experience of being with family in the hospital as my grandmother died] really brought my family closer, because we all went through it together...I think all of us being together to cheer each other up and really understand what everyone else was going through was what got us through all the bad stuff.”
The other students reflected on war. Taking the hopeful image from Isaiah of “swords into plowshares” they imagined what some of the weapons being used in a current conflict might be turned into if God’s love held sway over human hatred. Barbed wire and guns could be melted for metal or turned into lawn mowers, bomb chemicals used for scientific practices or as a source of energy to power people’s homes, tanks converted for use in the fields or to transport people and goods, soldiers could be retrained to be farmers, and the chemical weapons used for pest control. One young man took it in a slightly different direction, imaging what “God’s way” would be with the ways and means of war: “Often times, bombs are dropped in extremely impoverished areas. So, instead of dropping bombs out of planes, I believe that God would drop kits full of food, medical equipment and other support. Instead of planting land mines, God would plant seeds that would grow into farms sustaining hungry communities.” Hmm, I believe God has begun doing that already!
The world we live in does not and cannot offer hope for life. Trust in worldly things will always fail us when death calls. First trust God, and watch the world change. Like the widow of Zarephath, and the widow at the treasury – like the widow Mary at the foot of the cross of her son Jesus, we need to serve in order to find joy, we need to let go of our fear of death in order to find life.
A certain spiritual director found life by being willing to die in the mountains of Tibet. He was crossing a high mountain with an experienced Tibetan guide when the weather suddenly turned bitterly cold. They feared they might not make it to the next village several miles away before succumbing to the frost. Suddenly they came upon a man who had slipped from the path and was lying in the snow. The traveler checked and found the man still barely alive. But when he invited his guide to help him bring the man to safety the guide refused: “If we try to carry that man none of us will reach the village. We will all freeze. Our only hope is to go on as quickly as possible, and that is what I intend to do. You will come with me if you value your life.” Without another word, and without looking back, the guide set off down the path. The traveler could not abandon a living soul, so he lifted him onto his own back, threw his blanket around the two of them the best he could, and slowly and carefully picked his way along the steep slippery path; the snow increased, making his forward movement all the more difficult. Just as daylight was beginning to fade the snow cleared and the traveler could see houses a few hundred yards ahead. Near him, on the ground, he also saw the frozen body of his guide. Nearly within shouting distance of the village the guide had succumbed to the cold and died, while the traveler and his new companion made it to safety. The exertion of carrying him and the contact of body to body had created enough heat to save them both…
This is the truth, the really real of life: No one can live without the help of others, and in sharing our lives we receive life ourselves.
The commitments of time and treasure we present today are a reflection of our trust and thankfulness, a sign of our gratitude for God’s abundance freely given and our willingness to share life. God has called you. Do not be afraid – open yourself to the reality of God’s possibilities, and live.