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Sunday June 8, 2008 "The Miracle of Abundance" 1 Kings 4:1-7 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 6/9/2008 11:05 AM | A few years ago I was having a discussion with my friend and colleague Rev. Bob Tyler. I was privileged to serve with Bob on the staff at Peachtree when I was Associate Pastor and Bob was the minister of Pastoral Care. For those of you who know Bob, you know that he is the very model of what it means to be a pastoral presence and I learned much from him.
Bob is a big man, about 6 feet 4 inches tall with a calming presence, a quick smile and a handshake that lets you know that he is glad to see you. He is a gregarious, extremely upbeat human being.
In his 50 plus years of ministry, I know that Bob has seen devastating personal loss, has dealt with hundreds of crises, is a life saving pastoral presence to many in their darkest hours, yet exudes an optimism and joy that belies the human hurt he has seen in his life in ministry.
It was that juxtaposition of grief and joy, pessimism and optimism, hopelessness and hope that intrigued me, and that we were discussing that day. Here was a man that witnessed the depths of despair that people can reach, yet lived a life on the mountain top every day of his life. “How do you do it I asked?”
“Oh, you know,” he replied, “you’ve seen it. When you see people emerge from their grief to understand that world is one of possibilities, when you see someone turn their life around and go from a place of no hope to understanding that God is with them, you can’t help but be optimistic.” “Yeah,” I replied, “I guess you have seen a few miracles in your day.”
He looked straight at me and sort of chuckled, “Oh, I don’t believe in miracles,” he said.
“Whattaya mean, you don’t believe in miracles?”
“I don’t. It’s only God acting out God’s will. Just because we don’t understand how it works doesn’t mean that it’s miraculous. Gerald Mays said that miracles are nothing more than God’s ordinary truth seen with surprised eyes. It’s just God, being God.”
I was a bit startled and must admit that I struggled with the idea that just because we don’t expect something, that it some how is out of the ordinary and therefore a miracle. What Bob Tyler seemed to be telling me was that what was out of the ordinary in human eyes was nothing more than God’s ordinary truth, from God’s perspectives.
I had to admit that there was something to what he said. We call them miracles precisely because we believe that they are beyond our capabilities, beyond our notion of what is possible. But clearly, nothing is beyond God’s capabilities, nothing is impossible with God.
That’s true, but how else are we to describe what we have come to understand as miraculous? How are we to understand what is natural and what is a miracle, except through our own, admittedly limited point of view?
I do appreciate what Bob Tyler says about miracles. But the idea that God can always surprise us is a source of hope for me, and so I cling to the idea that miracles exist and celebrate them, even as I struggle to understand them.
For the next four weeks our worship will be focused on the theme, “Miracles All Around.” The scriptures will focus on a couple of Jesus’ miracles, and a couple of miracles from the Hebrew Bible, our old testament. It is somewhat natural for Christians to hear the word miracle and automatically focus on Jesus and some of the more dramatic stories that are in our gospels. But the Bible is full of miracles, large and small, and so it makes sense that we spend some time thinking about the nature of miracles, how we interpret their meaning, and how we experience them, either vicariously through our scriptural accounts, or, in our very own lives.
The miracle we focus on today is sometimes called “The miracle of abundance.” It is the story of the prophet Elisha and the widow who is left at the mercy of creditors when her husband suddenly dies. Elisha, the early Hebrew prophet who succeeded the great prophet Elijah, reaches out to help this woman and in so doing, participates in a miracle that will sustain her and her family for years to come.
But before we get into some of the details of this simple, yet miraculous story, let’s focus on Elisha for a minute.
When he was a young man, Elisha was out plowing his father’s field with a team of oxen when the greatest of all the prophets, Elijah, passed by. Elijah stopped, removed the mantle – a sort of stole worn by religious and holy leaders – from around his neck and place it on Elisha’s shoulders. In this way he signaled that Elisha would be the one to take his place. Elisha left the farm and went to become Elijah’s servant. And we read nothing of him in the Hebrew Bible until the day that Elijah is swept up into heaven riding in a chariot of fire. Before he left, Elijah gave Elisha a double portion of prophetic powers, thus paving the way for Elisha to take his place as the leader of all of the prophets of the northern kingdom of Israel.
Elisha worked within the system. He became a respected advisor to kings, but was accepted by virtually every strata of society and was equally comfortable with kings and beggars. He advised kings, yet he also criticized them at times. He was firmly a citizen of Israel, yet ministered to people of all nationalities. He was a part of the power structure of the time, yet many of his activities and miraculous acts were centered on those who had been abused or dispossessed by the officials in power or the policies of the hierarchy.
When we read of the ease with which Elisha moved throughout the countryside, we are without a doubt reminded of Jesus and his ministry. That is especially true when we look at the miracles of Elisha and the miracles of Jesus.
Several things jump out at us: like Jesus, Elisha restores the dead to life. Like Jesus, Elisha provides food to those who have none. Like Jesus, Elisha cures those petitioners whose faith is especially strong. And like Jesus, today’s scripture shows Elisha providing abundance out of scarcity.
There is another way that Elisha is like Jesus: his concern is for the least of these, it is for those who have been oppressed, it is for those who have no resources to protect themselves. And so, like Jesus, he makes a way.
The widow came to Elisha and told him of her husband’s death. Her husband had been a follower of Elisha, one of the group of official prophets whom Elisha headed up. He had been in debt when he died, though, and the Hebrew law at the time allowed for the creditors to claim this man’s children to be conscripted as slaves, in order to settle the debt. This reality was beyond the widow’s control, and so, she went to the prophet to find out what to do.
Elisha was clearly moved by her situation. He reacts to her request by asking her what resources she had at her disposal.
“Just a single jar of oil,” she responded.
“Well, here’s what you do,” said Elisha. “Gather as many containers as you can find. Borrow them from your neighbors if you have to, just round them up. Then, begin to fill the containers with the oil that you have.”
The scripture is pretty stripped down and does not recount the widow’s reaction to this. If it had been me, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have said something like, “Wait a second, let me get this straight. I have this quart jar of oil, and you want me to round up as many containers as I can – big containers, gallon jugs, five gallon jugs – and then, I am to take this little jar and begin filling up the huge containers. That’s your answer?”
It’s absurd, isn’t it? But, the scripture says that the widow and her sons did just as Elisha directed and one by one, all the containers, borrowed and big, got filled up. When the last container was filled, the original jar of oil was empty.
When the last container was filled, the widown consulted Elisha again. “Now,” he instructed her, “go and sell these containers of oil, pay your debt, and live your life.”
And she sold the oil, paid her debt and had enough to support her family, too.
Where is the lesson for us? In providing for those who have little or nothing, what is Elisha’s example trying to tell us? How does God similarly provide today? Make no mistake, the miracle in this story is that a way was found to fulfill God’s will. I do not believe that God desires for anyone to go hungry. I do not believe that God desires anyone to live in slavery. But God gave us humans free will, and so some are oppressed. God also gave us abundance, it’s just that sometimes that abundance is not shared by everyone. Some have much, some have nothing.
When I first became a minister, one of the things that surprised me the most was the number of people who called or showed up a the church in search of assistance. People looking for help with anything you can think of: food, a place to sleep, or rent, or utilities, or transportation, or prescriptions. People who have not benefited from the abundance of this nation. To be sure, some of these are folks in the grip of addiction, chronically unemployed, forever destined to be on the margins, no matter what. Some of them have emotional and mental disabilities that keep them from truly finding the help that might be available.
But beyond those who consistently find their home on the streets, a few steps outside the bounds of “normal” society, there have also always been those who seek assistance because of an event, an illness, a change in employment. People who seemed to be going along fine who suddenly find themselves in some difficulty. People not unlike the widow who went to Elisha seeking help.
In recent weeks, I have noticed a disturbing trend in the calls and visits that we receive at the church. In the last 2 to 3 weeks, the number of calls and visits to the church seeking assistance for help with rent, utilities, food and gas has probably tripled or maybe even quadrupled. The story is similar in too many instances: they are working, sometimes at more than one job, but an illness, or a lay off, or an unexpected repair bill, coupled with the rising price of gas and food has left them unable to put food on the table.
I need to emphasize this again: more and more of these people are simply looking to put food on their table. They are not looking for money, they are looking to feed their family. They are working. They are trying. They are doing the best they can. This past week a gentleman came to the door and because of severe stutter, I had some difficulty understanding what his need was. He was very nervous, which clearly made his speaking more difficult. At first I thought he was looking for money for clothing, specifically new uniforms for his work. But as we talked, he began to become more comfortable and was able to speak more clearly. He had everything he needed: a job, a new place to live, food in the cupboard, a MARTA card but he was working in a small factory and only had two uniforms and until pay day, he had no money for the washer and dryer at the corner Laundromat. He showed me his laundry bag full of his clothes He told me of his embarrassment, that he had worked hard to take care of himself, but if we could spare, he had figured out that he could do a load of whites and load of darks for $3.75, but if need be, he would wash them together for $2.25. He didn’t know who to ask, so he turned to the church.
I truly believe that we live in the midst of the biggest miracle ever imagined. God’s creation is incredible and awe-inspiring and abundant. But the abundance is not shared equally. Some have much. Some have little. Some have nothing.
The question comes at me again: what are we to learn from the miracle of abundance, Elisha’s miracle that provided for the needs of the widow and her family?
The answer is: God provided through Elisha and God can provide through us. The miracle of abundance for the widow and her family is that God provided a way. The miracle of abundance for so many people today might very well be that God will provide a way. And we might be that way. We might be the source of abundance for others. We might be the miracle that someone is looking for.
How might that be?
Sitting here in the chancel is an empty basket. A simple laundry basket. But if it were filled with canned fruits and canned vegetables and canned meats and pasta and rice and beans….it would be enough to feed a family for many days.
The widow was instructed to find empty containers and begin to fill them up with oil. A miracle.
We have an empty container. Want to see a miracle?
If each one of us were to go home and look in our cupboards, most of us would find several cans, jars, boxes of food that we pretty much take for granted. If each of us were to bring one or two of those cans here next week and deposit them in this basket, we would see the culmination of a miracle: God’s people each giving a little so that a family in need might have food and sustenance.
And so that is the challenge to you today: next week this basket will be in the narthex. Bring your canned goods and deposit them in this basket, and then, we will ask the deacons to bring the basket forward as part of the morning’s offering so that these offering might be blessed for God’s people. But here’s the bigger challenge: I want the miracle to continue every week. I want us to constantly be in touch with the reality of the most basic need of too many people in our community. And I want us to step up and help.
Each week, we will deliver this food offering to the Oglethorpe Presbyterian food bank just down the street. They, too are seeing the need grow in our community and will put it to good use.
But wait a second, I can hear some of you now: This is not a miracle…it’s just each of us using a very small part of what is available to us to help someone who needs it.
Well, it may not be a miracle to us. But what about the people who are hungry, who are on the verge of choosing between paying their rent and putting food on the table? It just might be a miracle to them.
We have an empty vessel. Let’s make a miracle.
Let us pray: We give thanks, O God, for the abundance that you have heaped on us. Help us to celebrate the miraculous in all we see, to participate in the miracle of your life sustaining presence and do our best to surprise those who seek you, through us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. | | | Permalink | Trackback |
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