"The Real Miracle". A sermon on Luke 7:11-17 preached at Littlefield Presbyterian Church on June 5, 2016

"The Real Miracle"

Luke 7:11-17

The gospel story we just heard starts out sounding like a story about bad news.  Jesus and his disciples and the crowd that was following him come to Nain, a Galilean town not far from Nazareth. As they start to enter the town, they encounter a funeral procession that’s making its way to a burial place outside the town.  A young man who had died was being carried out.  He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow. 

            The bad news begins with the announcement of a death and continues when Luke tells us that the man was young.  If this news isn’t bad enough, Luke tells us that he was his mother’s only son.   For you and me, this would the terrible tragedy of a parent losing an only child.  But in Jesus’ day, the death of an only son would make the tragedy even greater, as this son would have taken care of his mother in her old age.  She had no retirement fund, no social security.  She had only one son, and now he was dead, along with her hope for a secure future.

            As a widow, this woman has known tragedy before.  She had buried her husband, and now she was making the same mournful walk to the cemetery to bury her only son.

            There is a reason why the Law of Moses commanded people to care for the widows and orphans, because they were among the poorest of the poor and very vulnerable.  For this woman, the death of her husband plus the death of her only son would have added up to a life of poverty, hunger, disease, and possibly an early death.

            The way Luke tells it, when Jesus sees the widow’s situation, “his heart went out to her.”  He has compassion on her, and he responds to her need.  He approaches her son’s body.  Jesus commands the young man to rise-- and he does.  

            The conclusion to this healing story is important to Luke’s theological message.  First, the crowds are filled with awe and they praise God, saying, “God has come to help his people.”  Jesus’ healing actions point to God’s restoration, now begun in Jesus.

            In Luke 7, we hear again themes of how God’s prophets—those who bear God’s word into the world—reach out to heal and save.  Now, the Greek word sozo can be translated as either “heal” or “save.”   Along with the people of Galilee, we see that God’s purpose continues to be about healing.  Just as God had worked in the prophets Elijah and Elisha, so God works in Jesus. 

            In the gospel according to Luke, Jesus heals a lot of people.  In some of the stories, Jesus praises them and tells them that their faith has made them well.  But the woman in today’s story doesn’t ask Jesus to raise her son.  She doesn’t fall on her knees and beg Jesus to bring her son back to life.  All she does is cry.

            Luke doesn’t tell us that either the widow or her son thanks Jesus.   So it doesn’t seem that the point of the story is about faith or gratitude.

  I think maybe this story is simply about grace.  The widow’s son isn’t raised from the dead because of his mother’s faith or the son’s worthiness.  It happens simply because Jesus has compassion for her.

            Luke tells us that when Jesus approaches and sees the widow’s tears, he comprehends all the layers of her tragedy, and he is moved deeply.   Luke tells us that Jesus responded to her out of “compassion.”  The Greek word we translate as compassion means, literally, “to be moved to the depths of one’s heart… or bowels.”   Jesus allowed himself to be touched to the very core of his being by this woman’s pain.

            In coming to live among us, full of grace and truth, part of what Jesus came to reveal to us is how much God loves us.  The scriptures tell us over and over again that God feels our pain, but a lot of people have a hard time comprehending that.   Our God is a God who is intimately involved with us and who even weeps with us.

            When the funeral procession left the widow’s home that day, they  weren’t planning for a celebration.  They were mourning.  When grace comes into our lives, it doesn’t require anything of us but a choice:  to receive it--or not.   Perhaps part of the point is that we should always pack our party clothes, because, with Jesus, you never know when you might need them to celebrate some surprising, amazingly gracious happening.

           

            When Jesus saw the widow’s grief, he had compassion for her.  He didn’t stand at a distance.  He came forward and reached out and touched the funeral bier, even though, according to Jewish purity laws,  that would have made him ritually unclean. 

Next, he spoke to the corpse.  Jesus speaks to the dead son in this story, as he spoke to Jairus’ dead daughter, and called Lazarus out of the tomb.   Jesus simply says.  “Let there be life.”  And there was life.

            When the young  man sat up and started talking, fear seized all the people, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably upon his people!”

            I like the way Eugene Peterson translates this passage in The Message:  “They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them.  They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!”  The news of Jesus spread all through the country.”

           

I believe that God acts in power to bring new life, even to situations where that seems impossible.  In the story we heard today, Jesus uses this power to raise the widow’s son from death.  Yet the power of God’s resurrection is more than the power of God to give life after death.  God’s resurrection power spills over into this life so that those who are survivors of the tragedies of this world can live with our pain and sorrow and can overcome the deadly despair. 

            We can know the power of God’s resurrection as the power God gives us to slowly but surely pick up the pieces, bind our wounds, and live a new life, as Easter people.  We can embody God’s resurrection power for others when we reach out to them in compassion    and walk with them in their pain.

             

            I think the real miracle in the story is what happened after Jesus restored the widow’s son to life.  Luke tells us that when the people of Nain saw Jesus restore the widow’s son to life, they shared the good news.  The report of what happened spread throughout all the surrounding regions. 

            I pray that we will all come to recognize the holy mystery:   that our compassionate God is at work among us.  God is indeed with us, looking to the needs of all the people!  God has graciously raised us from spiritual death and given us a living faith in the message of forgiveness and abundant, eternal life in Jesus.  God calls us to new life.

            The scripture passages we heard today help us to see into God’s heart and help us to see what God is up to in the world.  God acts with compassion for widows and for all kinds of people who are pushed to the margins of society…and people who don’t have enough of what they need. 

            We gather together every week to listen to God’s word to us, to try to get more in touch with God’s grace and compassion, and to practice praying together, so that we can get better in tune with what God is up to.

            We gather to learn together and encourage one another and to teach disciples old and young what it means to say we follow Jesus.  We come to be reminded of the good news of Jesus:  that God is love…that God loves the world and chooses to create and redeem you and me and each and every person we encounter.  God chose to come in the person of Jesus, to live among us, full of grace and truth, to embody God’s love for us and teach us what it means to be beloved children of God.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to love God and our neighbors, to work for peace and reconciliation and justice for all, to embody the love of Jesus Christ in all our relationships. As we grow in faith together, we trust in the Holy Spirit to guide us, to lead us further into the truth, and to empower us to live into God’s Kingdom.

            Maybe a small church like Littlefield can’t save the world or transform society in big ways.  But we can embody God’s compassion for our community.  We can look to the needs of God’s people.  We can witness to God’s love and justice locally and beyond.  In our witness we can announce that the way things are is not the way things should be, and that God desires something better for the world.  I believe we can change the world in small ways and perhaps in ways that are bigger and more important than we know. 

            God’s grace keeps breaking into our lives, healing and calling us to new life, and promises to be with us as we live further into the God’s grace and truth.

            Thanks be to God!  Amen.

           

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
June 5, 2016

"Don't Be Afraid. There Is Enough" A sermon on Mark 12:38-44 from Littlefield Presbyterian Church, during stewardship season

"Don't Be Afraid.  There Is Enough"

Mark 12:38-44; 1 Kings 17:7-16

We don’t know this woman’s name.  We really don’t know anything about her, other than that she is an impoverished widow in first century Palestine, living on the margins of her society, with no safety net. No husband to protect or advocate for her.  No pension.  She’s part of a poor and vulnerable class of society. 

            So don’t you wonder what it means to point to a destitute woman who gives her last two cents to the Temple?  Should we applaud her self sacrifice—or see her as naïve and impractical?

            Mark only uses this word for “widow” twice in his gospel, both times in the passage we just heard.  Unlike Luke, Mark doesn’t emphasize a mission to “the poor” in his narrative.

             The first time Mark mentions the poor is when a wealthy man comes to Jesus asking how he can inherit eternal life.[1]  Jesus responds:  “Sell what you own and give the money to the poor.”  The man couldn’t do it.

            But this poor widow does just that. She gives it all.

            What do we do with this?  What does it mean?   Why would this poor widow give everything she had to live on?  Surely her small gift couldn’t make any difference to the Temple.   In ancient Israel, the “poor” were not required to give to the Temple.[2]  If they did give, they might have done so out of a sense of obligation… or a sense of hope.   We just don’t know.     

            Our gospel lesson today is framed by verses that show what Jesus thinks about what was going on in the Temple.  Jesus has visited the temple and cleansed it by driving out those who were selling   and tossing the tables of the moneychangers.  He quoted the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah to explain his prophetic action:  “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’”  But you have made it a den of robbers.”[3] 

            In today’s lesson we heard Jesus teaching his disciples to “Beware of the scribes,” those religious leaders who like to walk around in their long robes.  Jesus said, “They like 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.”                             

            In the two parts of today’s lectionary passage Mark offers us contrasting examples of discipleship.   These are teaching moments for Jesus as he calls his disciples to pay attention to the scribes, who “will receive the greater condemnation.”   Then Jesus points to the widow’s giving.

            This is one of the widows Jesus had just accused the scribes of abusing—offering her copper coins amidst the grand displays of generosity from the rest of the temple crowd.         

            The widow gives sacrificially—all she has to live on.  Her sacrifice is complete—so complete that Jesus wants his disciples to witness it.   “Truly,” Jesus says, “this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.  For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

            That is why we know about her today, this nameless woman—because she gave all the little she had, holding nothing back.

            But don’t you wonder?  Are we really supposed to admire a poor woman who gave her last cent to a religious institution?   Was it right for her to surrender her living to those who lived better than she did?   By ordinary human standards, what this widow did makes no sense.  Is Jesus saying we should all follow her example?  What does Jesus want us to learn from her?           

            Did you notice?  Nowhere in this passage does Jesus praise the widow for what she is doing.  Nowhere in this story does he say, “Go, thou, all of you, and do likewise.”   He simply invites the disciples to contemplate the disparity between abundance and poverty,  between large sums and two copper coins, between grand donations--and real sacrifice.   He doesn’t dismiss the gifts of the rich.  He simply points out that the poor widow turns out to be the major donor in the story.

            In Mark’s gospel, this is the last of Jesus’ lessons in the upside-down kingdom of God, where the last shall be first, and the great shall be the servants of all.   When Jesus leaves the Temple that day, his public ministry is over.  In four days, he will be dead, giving up the two copper coins of his life.  The widow withheld nothing from God; neither did Jesus.    

            In the scriptures, there are recurring themes of abundance and of trusting in God to provide what we need.

            In the Exodus story, the people begin to complain, afraid that they won’t have enough provisions for the journey ahead of them.  God responds by sending them manna—white flakes of bread falling from heaven—just enough manna for today.  The people aren’t willing to trust that God will  continue to provide, so they try to hoard their food for tomorrow.  But when they wake up the next morning, they find that the left-over manna has rotted overnight.  God was trying to teach them that hoarding and lack of trust deny God’s daily providing…the predictable and faithful grace of God.

            In today’s lesson from the Hebrew scriptures, God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath, and that a widow there will feed him.  The widow is preparing to bake the last little bit of meal and oil into a last supper for her and her son—everything she had—and then they would die.  Elijah says to her, “Don’t be afraid.  Make me a little cake, and then make some for yourself and your son.  God promises you won’t run out of meal and oil as long as the drought lasts.”  And it was so.  There was enough.

           

            Jesus, the one who gave his all for the sake of the world, for the sake of all of us,  calls us to follow him… and learn from him.  The gospel gives us clues about how to live joyful lives of freedom and trust. 

            Like the angels who keep showing up in the Bible, saying, “Don’t be afraid,”  so Jesus uncovers our motives, those habits of the heart that keep us holding on tightly to things, to money, clinging to the things we think might keep us safe.  Then he invites us to care for the poor, and he  offers us a new life of  freedom from fear-- an abundant life of gratitude and trust.

           

            So how are we to love God?  With trust, instead of fear.  With gratitude, instead of demands.  With hope instead of despair. 

           

            How do we comprehend the poor widow’s offering in the Temple?  I think we can see it as a statement of radical trust.  She chooses not to play it safe.  Instead, she gives her love gift first, trusting in God to provide what she needs. 

            But how does this happen?  How could she give everything?

I wonder if she somehow has come to feel that she has enough, and that she will have enough.  I wonder if she has allowed herself to experience life as a blessing.  I wonder how this poor widow has come to trust in God as the one who blesses and provides—abundantly, predictably, faithfully. 

            I wonder if she has discovered something about the ultimate meaning of life-- that when we give,  we are most like God.  Could it be that she has come to see that--  when we are lavish and gracious and generous--  we are most like our lavish and gracious and generous God? 

             

            How much do we love God?  How much do we trust God?  These are ongoing questions that we encounter on our journey of faith.  No one can answer these questions for you.  I don’t have an easy, pat answers for you today.  But not to keep asking the questions is to shut God out of some of the most intimate details of your living.

            Like many of you, I enjoy supporting charitable and social causes I think are important, causes that help me to live out the Christian values that shape my life.  But my main giving is focused on the church, in the local congregation, as well as several church-related missions.  There is something about putting a check into the offering plate as part of worship that gives focus to my life and to my faith.  It’s part of my spiritual discipline to write the check each week.  It’s part of my spiritual growth to increase my giving each year.  I believe that my giving is a witness to the gratitude I have for life…and the joy and freedom that I experience when I give my money to the church and the causes that express my faith values..

            You and I have received commitment cards in the mail.  Sometime between now and next Sunday morning, I hope you will hold it and pray over it…and then fill it out with joy and gratitude.  Then, I hope you will offer it with great joy during worship next Sunday.   

            How do we love God?  Let us count the ways.  And then let us respond with the offering of our very lives.

            May it be so.

            Amen.

             

           

 Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

November 8, 2015

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[1] Mark 10:17-24

[2] Emerson Powerey, Commentary on Mark 12:38-44 at www.workingpreacher.org

[3] Mark 11:17