| 2 Kings 4:1-7 "My Cup Runneth Over" |
|
| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 21 October 2006 | |
|
There’s a wonderful story in the UMR (Sept. 22nd) edition about Hurricane Rita survivor, Raywood Sons. Hurricane Rita destroyed Mr. Son’s home. A mission team from a United Methodist Church actually built him a new house on the same site. What surprised me was its size, 400 Sq. ft. Why, some of us have bedrooms bigger then that! But the article states that Mr. Sons knew exactly how much space he needed and he didn’t want any more time or money put into building a larger house. “I don’t need a lot of space,” he’s quoted to say. “I am by myself and at my age, I don’t want anything big to clean!” (Sounds like my kind of guy!) And get this, the biggest part of his new house is the front porch, where Raywood sits and visits with neighbors! That’s someone with healthy priorities in my book! Our scripture reading from 2nd Kings is also about priorities. Written in a time when the lines between natural and supernatural were blurred, when it was believed that words held great power, and even so called “theocratic” government (no separation of church and state), failed to guarantee a just and merciful society. In this context comes an ancient story about a poor widow and a mighty prophet with Christ-like powers to heal, multiply food, and even raise the dead! Our Old Testament lesson comes from 2 Kings 4:1-7. I invite you to listen for Good News. Now the wife of a member of the company of prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant feared the LORD, but a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves." 2 Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She answered, "Your servant has nothing in the house, except a jar of oil." 3 He said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not just a few. 4 Then go in, and shut the door behind you and your children, and start pouring into all these vessels; when each is full, set it aside." 5 So she left him and shut the door behind her and her children; they kept bringing vessels to her, and she kept pouring. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." But he said to her, "There are no more." Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, "Go sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your children can live on the rest." Prayer: O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable to you. O Lord, you are our rock and our redeemer. Amen. It’s a pretty simple and straightforward story. An impoverished widow, threatened with the loss of her children, seeks help from Elisha, the prophet of God. A miracle occurs, and she has more then enough to pay her debt and provide for her family. Biblical scholars suggest this story is part of a collection of Elisha legends recorded in chapter four, that form a “literary collage” revealing the power of God to comfort, heal, and economically enable the poor. This is the prophetic tradition Jesus aligns himself with when he quotes the prophet Isaiah, “The Sprit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”- Luke 4:18-19 The problem as I see it is that most of us here cannot place ourselves in this story. There’s very little here to identify with. We have a prophet who has the power to bend natural law. Who has dedicated himself to a life of poverty and to service of God and God’s people. Let’s see (looking at congregation)…Nope, no one like that! Then there’s the widow. In Near Eastern cultures this typically means she is destitute. She has lost her life-companion and has no visible means of support. Her poverty is so great that creditors have come to take her children to be sold as slaves to pay for her debt. Anyone here impoverished? Nor can most of us identify with the children. To be forcibly removed from those we love. To be victimized, demeaned, treated as less then human? Anyone? I embarrassed to admit we probably have more in common with the creditors! After all, aren’t we by and large among the “haves” verses the have-nots? Aren’t we more inclined to hold others accountable? To demand our rights? To get what’s coming to us? So if none of us have much in common with any of the characters how can we meaningfully engage this story? I think Paul Knitter, author of Theologies of Religion, offers a helpful analogy. He suggests comparing the “truth” or “the way things are” to the starry universe. Because there is so much of it, and it is so far away, that with our naked eyes, we really can’t see what’s there. We have to use a telescope. Its amazing what you can see with a telescope. The rings around Saturn, the red hues of Mars, the giant spot of Jupiter, even celestial stars in deep space. Unfortunately, by enabling us to see something of the universe, our telescope also prevents us from seeing “all of the universe.” A telescope, even the mighty ones used by astronomers, can take in only so much. Knitter suggests this describes the human situation. We’re always looking at the truth through some kind of cultural telescope, the one provided us by our parents, teachers, and broader society. The good news about this situation is that our telescope enables us to see! The bad news is that it prevents us from seeing all of the truth. So what can we do? How can we see more of the truth than what our limited cultural and religious telescope permits? The answer is simple…by borrowing someone else’s telescope! If we can look through our neighbor’s telescopes –even though these new telescopes might seem strange to us and difficult to adjust to our eyes-we can see things that we missed with our own. And the more differently built and angled these telescopes are, the more new things we’re going to be able to see with them. With telescopes, different from our own, we can see areas of the universe that our telescopes weren’t able to reach or weren’t able to bring into focus. And the more telescopes we manage to use, the more our vision and understanding of the truth will expand…” The “truth” we see through our own cultural-religious telescope is not only limiting, it’s potentially dangerous. In not realizing that the truth we have is limited, we see it as the only truth, the whole truth, or the superior truth-not only for ourselves but for all people. -P.11 Theologies of Religion. And any Christian who claims to have a corner on the truth denies our scriptural heritage, a heritage that claims: Beloved we are God’s children now, what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. -1 John 3:2 By the way, this is why dialogue in the church is so necessary to our identity. The confession, “we now only see in a mirror dimly, helps guard us against our beliefs from becoming ideologically oppressive! This last week I had the privilege of looking through someone else’s telescope! One of our members, Beverly Randall is quite wise, has lived a long full life and knows what its like to be a widow. What did she think of this story about a prophet and a poor widow? Beverly’s reflections were incredibly helpful to me and she’s given me permission to share our conversation with you. After giving her some background information and reading her the scripture, Beverly replied, “What a wonderful story about a beautiful and strong woman!” She said, what so impressed her about the story was not so much the actions of the prophet but this widow. She not only showed great faith in Elisha (and trust in his ability to help her), but great love for her children! I asked Beverly why she thought Elisha asked this woman to gather empty vessels from her neighbors as opposed to “poof,” just fixing the problem. Beverly replied that this woman had to be involved, “stretched” in some way. And she told me a story. Her mom was 23 when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. Because there were no jobs and little money, most of her extended family relocated to Olen, New York. Fortunately, there were three gainfully employed family members. A butcher, a train conductor, and her granddad, a refinery worker. Every Sunday after church, the family would gather at the grandparent’s home for a family meeting. They’d share a meal and talk “family business.” Beverly quipped, “Not all forms of socialism are bad.” Paychecks were cashed and all the family income went into one pot, to be shared among the family members as needed. Family worked together to make sure everyone had their basic needs taken care of. No doubt it stretched them, their individual resources and faith but in the end, the family made sure no one did without. The fact that there was a butcher in the family meant there was always some meat at meals. Family members pulled together. Everyone contributed their abilities and resources for the good of the family. No one was left out, no one suffered. After all, this was family business. Beverly went on to tell me how surprised she was to discover at both of her grandparents’ funerals how many people they had touched through their generosity and faith. She told me a story about her grandfather, about how one Christmas he bought shoes for all the children in the neighborhood because he just couldn’t bear the thought of them trudging through the snow to school without good shoes on. This was back when peopled used to cut out cardboard soles to insert into their shoes to get more mileage out of them. She told me other stories about her grandparents as well but the one constant was that these were good Christian people willing to sacrifice personal want to love God and neighbor. Her grandparents’ faith, compassion and generosity were part of their Christian identity. And this is Beverly’s spiritual legacy. I think Beverly was saying, it is when we are “stretched” that miracles happen! “What great faith this woman had,” Beverly concluded, “She not only saved her children from lives of slavery, her obedience “saved the farm!” So I asked her, “What do you think the moral of the story is?” And Beverly replied simply, “Faith is rewarded.” I think she’s right on there. But then she asked a question that caught me entirely off guard. She asked, “What do you think happened to the children?” She said this so genuinely; it was as if she expected me to know the answer. When I asked her to explain, she said, “I wonder what they did with the gift their mother’s faith? What did her faith come to mean to them? What did they learn from the example of her faith; what did they learn from helping her honor the prophet’s instructions, and from the reward of obedience?” And that’s when the full import of what she was saying hit me. Why this miracle wasn’t Elisha’s at all; it was this woman’s. It was her faith and her obedience that made it happen! MIRACLE, it’s a big word, I know. Some think “miracle” means checking your brain at the door of the church. After all, reason asks the questions, “Does it make sense? Can you subject it to one of the senses; touch, sight, smell, hearing, or taste? Is it reasonable?” A widow’s pot of oil filling many times its volume is impossible. Scientific method proves that. “What we’ve got here,” some people will reason, “is quaint myth; sacred story for sure, but not anything that’s real.” Last week our children’s director, Jana Jones said, “If your faith doesn’t change you, what good is it?” I add, “the proof of God’s reality is that our faith can and often does change us.” This is how Beverly knew her Grandparents’ faith was real! Aquinas claimed faith is the way you know all the things that can’t be known with the other senses. The human mind is, after all, finite. Can the mind, individually or collectively understand all the truth there is to be known? In my mind, that would take a whole lot of telescopes and many, many lifetimes! All I can say is this miracle may not be real to you, but I believe it was for this widow and I have no doubt that its real for Beverly. And I am so thankful that Beverly allowed me to look for truth through her telescope! Stewardship is about family business. It’s about priorities. It’s the willingness to be stretched. It’s about pooling our resources; equal sacrifice. Everyone contributes their abilities and resources for the good of the family. No one is left out nor do family members “opt out,” this is especially poignant when we hear stories about members on Social Security and unemployment, tithing on their income! Like Beverly, I bet we all know someone past or present, who has inspired us with his or her faith, compassion and generosity. These qualities were and/or are apart of their Christian identity and the question is, “What will we do with their gift?” What will their faith come to mean to us? What have we learned from their example of faith? Better yet, what are we learning from helping this Church accomplish God’s purpose; and from the reward of obedience?” “Therefore,” says Hebrews 12:1, “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us...” You see it is only when we are stretched miracles happen! Does your stewardship of your time and resources stretch you? I was in Starbucks on Saturday when a large group of women stopped in for coffee on their way to the Susan B. Komen “Race for the Cure.” Let me tell you, the place was “electric!” And it wasn’t just the double Expressos! Many of these women were either survivors of breast cancer or know someone with breast cancer and they wanted to get involved to make a difference, to contribute to the miracle of cure. And I have no doubt this willingness to stretch themselves may someday soon lead to a cure for breast cancer! When we are “stretched” miracles happen! And if that’s true, is it also true that our failure to stretch, our unwillingness to get involved and make sacrifices frustrates God’s purposes. Each Sunday, we gather around this table to do family business. I believe everything this church needs to do the work God is calling us to do is right here in this congregation. And everyone is to contribute sacrificially of their abilities and resources for the good of the family. It’s about priorities. After all, this is family business! Closing prayer: O most gracious God, we confess that we spend much of our lives on that which does not satisfy. We do not always count our time and resources as precious gifts, but squander them in meaningless activities and seemingly urgent needs. Look kindly upon us, for the temptation to waste is overwhelming in our world. Enable us to understand what is important, and to use the gifts of life responsibly, for we want to be your people in word and in deed. In the name of the Christ we pray. Amen. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
