Text- help- Expectancy background.

Context as provided from the interpreters Bible volume three.

I am drifting from the practice here a little. Part of the reason for this is to be pragmatic. If I have it here on Lectionary ...Go I don't have to bring the text's down with me to Florida.

I was glad Peter helped flesh out the wider context of 1Kings 17. Elijiah has been sent to the widow. Both Elijiah and the widow are in a more precarious situation than I had first imagined. There is no rain. The wadi has dried up. The people are literally dying of thirst and starving. The widow's response to Elijiah is not that she has simply given up hope because her internal compass see's only misery. Her internal compass see's only misery because she is living through a drought and people are dying.

As I read the commentary I could not help but sense a soap opera element. All the elements are there in 1 Kings 17. The first character is Elijiah the wise man making his way by God's grace. He enters the town and finds the widow who is with out hope. Elijiah demands that she feed him and give him drink. She is desperately low on food and water herself but does so sensing that this is a man of God. Not that the situation is not bad enough, the whole land dying from drought, but add to that the unfolding drama of the widow's son dying and Elijiah raising him to life. There is reason for drama here. The widow is first of all a widow. She has lost her husband and men were the means of living. As a widow she can not (I think) own land. As a widow she has no claim to anything but the mercy of others. On top of that add that she and her son (her future hope and potential deliverer) are dangerously close to losing water and meal. Nothing grows without rain. Water sources dry up. Add on top of that her son dying. Truly the widow is without hope.

In the commentary there is some words about God's Mysterious Moves. It makes a comparison between our understanding of the universe and Alice and Wonderland. In Alice in wonderland, Alice is puzzled because the balls and mallets in the croquet game do not stay put in her game. They moved on their own. The commentator states, "Like the child, we adults have to lean that we are not the only players in the game of living." Life at time does not always work as we understand it. I saw a television show on astrophysics and astronomy. In the show they talked about that the universe is expanding at such a rate that in billions of years we will not see the stars we see now because the distance between the galaxies will be so great that the light will not make it our own. They also spoke of something like the dark matter and believe there may be a weight in the universe that can not be seen. The universe that we live in does not behave in the manner that we see it. Science does not preclude God. "The living God in his living universe has a range of activity beyond ours, somewhat as the shades of color exceed our reach of vision" (spectrum and those ranges we can not see) If we can not see something like ultraviolet light than it is not so great a stretch to believe that God might be able to perform miracles that we can not comprehend.

God moves in a myserious way...His wonders to perfom... "This chapter is a study in the relationship between produce and providence. When Jesus bade his disciples, "Take...no thought for the morrow" (Matt. 6:34), he was not counseling them to overlook the morrow, but to look over it to catch the long views of the kingdom ahead." "A miracle is an event with which human comprehension has not yet caught up. It is not an interruption of law, but the working of a law which human reason has not yet charted."

Other good things from the commentary-
In 17:1-24
"Elijah is fed a first by the notoriously voracious ravens, and when the drought has persisted so long that the Wadi Cherith is dried up, he is fed by a poor widow of Phoenicia, herself on the point of starvation...the chapter concludeds with the story of the death and restoration fo the widow's son.

Elijah means Yah is EL...El being the general semitic name for the High God...Elijah's own name is the proclamation of his message

After the raising of the son by Elijah...important ending to pericope..." See your son lives." And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of Lord in your mouth is truth."

ramblings- thoughts for upcoming sermon

Editing is not happening this week...must ...keep...thinking...writing...cleaning up can happen later... this blog is my sketch pad. It does not have to make sense to the reader.

Expectancy is what is speaking to me from this weeks reading. I believe it will definitely be a sermon based on the old testament. It is not that I don't want to jump into the Gospel. There is certainly enough there for several sermons. Certainly I could probably condemn myself each and every time I put on the "clerical gear" and begin to think myself to important. Was not I honored to be the Bishops Asst at Matthews ordination this wednesday? Lord help me from my own ego. Let me not forget that Jesus warns the priests not to take the highest seat. We are called to take the lowest seat not because we are bad but because the master of the house might appear. Better to be asked to join the master than asked to get out of the high chair (high chair? interesting connection between babies and the levitical priests...ie any priest who forgets whom he or she serves. I may never be asked to sit with the Master but I would rather be asked to come up than kicked out of the way.

Then there is the widow and her mighty mite. There is her trust. There is her example. There is her witness that God does provide. There is her sacrifice...giving of her substance not excess. She would be a good sermon but I think even still it is the widow out of Exekiel who calls.

A few ideas which I want to put down. They might not make sense to any readers of this but I do not want to lose them.

* Start off sermon with sound...as sermon will be heard by examing chaplins it will be important to drown out any heresy- humor ???

* The movie The Rookie...movie about living into calling- scene where he realizes that he is doing exactly what he wants to do..."Today we get to play baseball"..."Today I get to be a priest" Focus on the sheer magnitude of our calling... this might be where I go with the sermon when trying to flesh out how Ezekiel applies. We are not to focus on the difficulties or if we do we need to keep them in context. The context is that if we stand at the pulpit or we sit in the pew we have been chosen...WE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN. How often do we act like the elder brother when the truth of the matter is that God calls us to share the amazing fact that we are to relish being chosen like the prodigal son. We have no claim to the kingdom but God's graciousness. "Today we get to play baseball" ...Today we get to share our lives with others. Today we get to share our talents with those who have not realized the gift that we have been given. It is also for them...those we meet. We get to be Christians! This is gifted ness. This is amazing and at present I am amazed I do not see it that way often.

*** Expectancy- the only time we really use that word is around pregnancy. "She is a mother expecting with child" " We are expecting to give birth in December" And the following is a little bit gross but a week ago when I took Benjamin to the Doctor he had a sore throught and the Dr said there was a little expectorant in his throat meaning that his sickness was seeping out something. Expectant...something that is beneath coming to the surface. Expectant...forthcoming. Expectant...something that is present but coming into being

Church is expectant. The sanctuarys that we sit in were once another churches expectant hope. Expectancy tied to vision...the working out of vision. Christs command to spread the Gospel...the acorn the very being of the tree which will hold hundreds/thousands of acorns...the already and the not yet...the working out of salvation history.

Part of Ezekiel is missionary. Ezekiel is giving away what he has... the widow can not see it. She is like the one (like so many around us) who do not see the hope or can allow themselves the trust of God in their lives. As Christians we are to witness it. We can not witness it if we do not live it. It is our living it that allows others to try it out.

That is all for now...this sermon will come. It will have life.

Mutual Giving

I really appreciate these two previous posts...Steve offers great testimony to the abundance that God provides for us, and Scott has offered a great reflection on Stewardship and on the expectancy needed. Some great thoughts here!

I got to thinking after the "Habit of the Priesthood" class tonight about the ways that both Elijah and the widow minister to one another. Clearly, Elijah has abundance, and knows that he has the Lord's blessing, but also the widow is convinced (maybe it is just after this passage) to offer out of what she has to this stranger. She offers hospitality (even if a bit reluctantly) out of the meager sum that she has. She does this, not knowing the great ministry that Elijah will later perform for her in raising her son back to life.

Elijah is sent by God, sent as in ministry or mission, but he also is received, and is ministered to by the widow. At times we are sent, and there are times that in going to strange lands and contexts outside of our comfort zones there are people who minister to us, even as we strive to provide ministry and mission to them. There seems to be an element of mutual giving -- perhaps not "equal," but collaborative, and on a two way street, nonetheless. Clearly, as we seek out our first "calls" as priests it is bad form to say, "I want to work here because you clearly will minister to me," however if we are honest, we know that we will be the receiver and the giver, the giver and the receiver.

Very interesting story of Elijah and the widow ... lots to chew on ...

Expectancy...John had it, Jesus had it, Elijiah had it

Expectancy... how do we view our blessings?

One of the most powerful sermons that I heard was on stewardship. This I think, is how it should be. Jesus spoke more about money than love in the Gospels. There is a reason for that. The great thing is we see that Jesus spoke about money not for monies sake but for ours. By being a pauper and living in pure expectancy Jesus lives out his own message. This should give us hope that Jesus had integrity. If Jesus had integrity than we might trust that Jesus knew of what he was about and what might be good for us. So if Jesus is speaking about money a lot and he himself is not out there seeking to take it for himself then it follows that spiritually money has a lot of power.

Anyway, the best sermon I heard was on stewardship and it was based on expectancy. The preacher did not dodge around the issue as if when we talk about money we are talking about persons outside of ear shot. This happens doesn't it? He spoke directly to his congregation. He challenged them with the question and he talked about the offertory. He challenged them with, "Go ahead, try and outgive God." The challenge was out of Expectancy...that we give in order to be God like. We trust that God does really like a cheerful giver. We trust that when we give faithfully that God will continue to be faithful to us and continue to provide as we provide to others. We give in response to God's mission to share but we also give as an act of faith that the God we worship will continue to provide for us.

In the OT reading Elijiah has expectancy. The woman to whom he ministers to (and provides a nifty miracle like Hanakah...the non terminating meal and oil) does not have expectancy. And this is not to condemn her. She was poor and she had children to feed. She was unable to see how God might have her interests at hand. What is interesting is that God does not bless her out of thin air but through Elijiah. Elijiah shows up with the message. He does have the gift of Expectancy. God tells him to enter a village and he does so. He is called to meet a widow and he goes out to find her (Widows by the way are those...like aliens, who are marginalized) Elijiah finds the widow who can no longer take care of herself. Obviously things are bad as she tells Elijiah..."I am going back to die" The widow does not have expectancy... the jig is up.

Elijiah brings her a miracle which should change her thinking. She is reminded that she is not alone. She is reminded that God is involved. Expectancy.

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." As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." 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." 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. 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."

all she had to live on

The only easy thing about seminary, for me, is the ability to feel high and mighty about myself. Since I started the process toward ordination, whenever I read the story of the widow's mite I immediately associate myself with the widow. "I've given up my college education, my career plans, my comfortable life, &c, &c, all I had to live on to follow your call, God. Now what are you going to do for me?"

In reading today, however, it occurs to me that neither sentence I just spoke appear on the lips of the widows in Mark. She doesn't place here two copper coins in the treasury, stop, and make a claim to how great it is to give out of poverty. Instead it is Jesus, the righteous judge, who makes the claim of her greatness.

It is so easy to give out of abundance. Sure, I've given up a lot to follow this call (my wife has given up a lot more), but I by no means am close to giving "all I have to live on." As I sit here typing on my laptop, dressed, and in a warm (albeit grossly overpriced) apartment surrounded by books and gadgets and things of all sorts I'm realizing just what abundance looks like. Sure, I donate (well its Cassie's money really) $10,000 + to Virginia Theological Seminary each year, but I certainly get something out of it. Sure, we make a token gift to my Field Ed site, but we're no where near a tithe, let along "all we have to live on". Sure we sponsor a Compassion child at $32 a month, but who in that relationship is living in abundance, certainly its us.

Perspective has allowed me this day to see the great abundance around me. So too have I realized that God is the judge of who is the greatest, not me, not society, but God alone. So we'll continue to offer our gifts, but I certainly won't be nearly as self-righteous about their impact, on me or the world.

Feeling Beat

Between my two young children keeping me awake, an increased amount of animosity among people in my church, The Episcopal Church, some classes that I am working to just get through, and a busy family life, I am feeling tired ... in need of healing, rest, but all I have is coffee ... (actually, not such a bad thing, afterall...)

Elijah (and Yahweh) go outside of the expected land...

An interesting thought...where is this passage placed, and looking at how it functions within the entire story of Elijah....

Please forgive this excerpt from a paper I wrote on the passage, I Kings 17:17-24 ..

"Canonical criticism would ask the question of what is the importance of where this story is placed. That placement leads us to see that it offers insight into Elijah (i.e. that he has the word of God, that even God listens, he haggles); into the Power of the Lord (that he has power over weather, over life and death, even outside of Israel/Judah); and makes a clear contrast between this foreign, Phoenician Woman and Ahab, the king of Israel (one recognizes the word of Elijah, recognizing the truth, welcoming him in rather than chasing him away). The story of Elijah the Tishbite is tied with other stories of this prophet[i] who suddenly appears on the scene in King Ahab’s court in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Just before this pericope about the rising of the widow’s son, the prophet Elijah speaks to Ahab and proclaiming in 1 Kings 17:1b that there “. . . shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”[ii] (NSRV) Ahab does not listen to Elijah and does not believe that Elijah has the word of God and that he is a man of God. The action of God’s to cause drought across the land was the first dramatic example of God’s control over life and death. In 1 Kings 17:14, Elijah says to the woman that if she shares her food with him the Lord will bless her, “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.” (NSRV)

The story in 1 Kings 17:17-24 specifically takes place outside the area of King Ahab, outside Israel. God shows, through Elijah, that God is more than just a local God and that God works his wonders outside of the area that might be expected. Yahweh’s power extends into the supposed jurisdiction of the Phoenician God, Baal, whose role it is to govern the weather.[iii] Not only that, in this pericope, Elijah lives with and raises the son of a widow.[iv] There is a contrast between the way that Ahab responds to Elijah, by chasing him into the desert (and out of Israel), and this foreign, Phoenician widow who ultimately accepts Elijah and recognizes him as a “man of the Lord” who speaks God’s word."

---

[i] “These stories about the prophetic ministry of Elijah the Tishbite, originally independent, now form a tightly organized literary unit.” Walsh, Jerome T. and Christopher T. Begg, 1-2 Kings in New Jerome Biblical Commentary, (New York; Prentice Hall; 1990), 171.

[ii] “for it is a theme of this whole narrative (chs. 17-18) that God has control over all aspects of nature.” Carson, D.A. editor New Bible Commentary: 21^st Century Edition (Downers Grove, Ill; InterVarsity; 1994), 358.

[iii] “The first theme sounds from the beginning. Baal was worshiped as the God of storms and fertility. A Yahwist claim to control rainfall constitutes a direct assault on Baalist religion.” Walsh, Jerome T. and Christopher T. Begg, 1-2 Kings in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, (New York; Prentice Hall; 1990), 171.

[iv] “. . . a certain widow: Widowhood was a mark of dependency, since such women often lacked the means to support themselves, even more so in times of famine.” Cogan, Mordechai, The Anchor Bible:1 Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York; Doubleday; 1964), 427.

I got nuthin'

I'm struck in my reading today that nothing seems to be jumping out at me. Sure, I'm working through Scott's response to my post yesterday, as well as the implications of the wrong widow proposition. I'm also struggling with the Church today. I posted over on a bored seminarian about this new group call The Episcopal Majority that ENS says is "standing up for 'middle' chuch". This coupled with the recent action by the KJS's new Chancellor have left me feeling uneasy. Will the tenure of the new Presiding Bishop be one of rooting out conservatives? Or will she live up to her hype as reconciler and leader? I'm nervous, too nervous to get much beyond the collect for Proper 27b.

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

We are all heirs of God. We are called to be pure. We are to strive to be like Jesus. And what do we do instead? The work of the devil; tearing down the Church, tearing down fellow believers, focusing on our own problems instead of doing the work of the LORD. Psalm 146 give us our mission:

7

The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; *
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;

8

The LORD loves the righteous;
the LORD cares for the stranger; *
he sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.

And still we ignore it. Still we fight. So today, I've got nuthin'. I'm nervous and tired and ready for it to be over.

Is it the right widow?

I enjoyed Steve's last post and the idea of whether or not the widow who feeds Elijiah is in fact the widow whom God sent Elijiah to. One sort of concludes it must have been because she does in fact feed Elijiah. His question of mistake and call raised in me not only the image of the widow who is blessed by Elijiah but other call and deliverance stories. It is my contention that God is just as willing to utilize ignorance as willing obediance. We might be called to seek God in obediance but this does not mean that he must always lead folks who are aware. I could not help but think of the man who helps Paul after he is struck blind. This man is certainly not willing yet does it anyway. How could he know the miracle that was going to unfold? How could he possibly have known that the one who was most despised was going to become the greatest champion? He could not have known. Paul certainly did not know it. Happenstance reveals itself as God's will and this creates a bigger question, is all happenstance created equal? Just how active is God? Does God insert himself as it appears in the Elijiah and Paul story or is he always active becoming more active to lean on certain events and thus influence outcomes or is God always leaning (active) on all events and we only seem able to recognize it now and again? If God is always active it would mean that everything is miraculous and if everything is miraculous why are we not aware of it? It could be that we have become complacent in our awareness. If I no longer think life is by its very nature miraculous I become able to snuff it out. If I no longer think nature is gift I can cut it down. What would it be like to live seeing that the Elijiah feeding the widow and the Paul call story are not the exceptions but the rule? This in fact might be the very reason that the widow's mite is such an important story. She gives her all in expectation that she will receive because in some form or another God will provide.

a teaching moment

I've spent a good part of my spiritual journey looking at how God uses the mistakes we make. A friend with whom I taught Sunday School many years ago put it this way, "We are like clay pots. Each time we make a mistake, or get dropped, a new crack is formed. Yet the light of God lives within us, shining through the cracks of our mistakes to show His light to the world." Seems an apt analogy as millions of pumpkins will allow light to shine through their cracks tonight, but I digress.

Her view of the redemption of mistakes is one that has stuck with me through more than my fair share of goof-ups. And in the First Kings reading from Proper 27b has light shing through it as well. I'm probably reading too much into the text (or at least viewing it too literally), but it looks like Elijah runs into the wrong widow upon arrving at Zarephath.

The Lord commanded Elijah to go and live in Zarephath "for I have commanded a widow there to feed you." Having not looked at the Hebrew, it seems to be straightforward enough. God is calling Elijah to move having already called the widow to feed him. Elijah, not knowing which widow in Zarephath has recieved the call, calls out to the first one he sees.

"Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink," he says. I wonder if that was a litmus test for the widow. Because she agreed to get him water, Elijah assumed she was the widow called by God. "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand," he shouts as she departs. In the words of my 12th grade English teacher, "we all know what happens when you spell assume backwards." [pause]

Anyway, in her response to Elijah it seems clear that this was, in fact, not the right widow. "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..." This doesn't sound like a woman called by God to feed Elijah, but alas God works through the mistake. Elijah speaks a word to her, a new call to a new widow to take care of Elijah.

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. 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.

This new call will test the faith of both Elijah and the widow, but is a wonderful teaching moment for them both. Through Elijah's mistake God is given the opportunity to show both Elijah and the widow what He can do with meager means. A mircle happens over and over again for "many days" as the meal and oil never run out. Each day as they ate, they were able to give thanks to the LORD for the gift of daily bread, bread which should not exist, but for the mistake of Elijah.

i smell stewardship

One thing I'm sorry I haven't learned at seminary is what group put together the lectionary, and how decisions were made regarding what texts would be read when. It seems to me as though they knew that late fall was stewardship time and the readings for later propers should reflect that. Proper 27, Year B is no different. Elijah and the widow (a story that I had overlooked before - but will no doubt reflect upon this week), the once for all gift of Christ, and the widows mite, geeesh, these guys (I assume they were guys) were good.

But today I can't help but notice something not stewardship related. Instead I'm still thinking of the rules I wrote about on Friday and am awe struck by the words of Jesus in Mark 12.

Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.

After the consecration service of our new Diocesan, my wife went ape sh*t over the pomp and circumstance that necessarily goes along with a service of such historical significance. (I say necessarily only because I've been formed in a tradition of apostolic succession, Cassie feels differently). Her argument, which is an apt one, surrounds the focus on the individual, in this case the robing of a new bishop, when the church's one foundation, the church's one focus should be on the saving work of God through Jesus Christ. For her, the words of Jesus could just as easily be read, "beware of bishops, who like to walk around in funny hats and long robes, and to be greeting with respect because of thier purple shirts, and to have the best seats in the churches and places of honor at all times! The money spent on their accutremont devours widows' houses and for the sake of appearance they read prayers from a book. They will recieve teh greater condemnation."

As an anti-oxford, anti-cambridge evanglical episcopalian I can certainly see her point. These things we do; from processions to mitres, are exactly that, things we do. It seems to me they are inherently neutral; neither good nor evil themselves, but it is in their use that they gain an identity. If a bishop is using the material particularities of his or her position to "lord it over" those not of that order the office of bishop with all of its material components is then one that is evil. If instead a bishop uses her or his office to the glory of God then the office with all its purple, pomp, and circumstance is one that is good.

The scribes themselves were not bad people, they were just caught up in their role. They lived a lifestyle that focused attention on themselves and not on the LORD. So too it can be with bishops (and priests and deacons and laity). Our job, instead of worrying about titles and such, is to make pure the intentions of our heart, so that we might come before the Lord our God blameless and seeking only His glory. Otherwise, prepare the condemnation.

Image from the archbishop of canterbury website, http://www.anglicancommunion.org, a press release