week 24

Psalm: Psalm 127
Old Testament: 1 Kings 17:8-16
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44
Epistle: Hebrews 9:24-28

Welcome to another Sunday.  Out here in Kansas, we are finally feeling the effects of fall and we actually had some icy-rain mixture on our car after church.  No snow yet, but it’s still cold.  I want to start this week with the Psalm because I know my mom wouldn’t want me to pass this one up.  I can still hear her saying “Blessed is the person whose quiver is full of children.”  And since she wanted to have like 7 kids, I guess she really thought this was true.  Of course, we don’t take verses like this as prescriptive, as in, if you don’t have a lot of kids, you won’t be blessed.  Rather, we should take them as descriptive: children are/can be a blessing, thus we can observe that those with many children are blessed.  Hopefully that makes sense because sometimes I think we fail to understand just what type of statements we are reading in the Bible.  One person might have 10 children, yet still have a pretty rough life.  Whereas others might live celibate lives or marry and not have kids and live perfectly blessed and content lives. 

OK, let’s move on to looking at 1 Kings 17.  Chapter 17 is the first chapter that Elijah entered the scene in Israel.  He announced a drought as a sign of God’s judgment and then immediately fled to Sidon.  He flees for a number of reasons; first, his life might have been in danger by the king of Israel.  Second, Israel was in a drought and there wasn’t any food or water.  And third, it was a sign of God’s judgment that God’s mouthpiece had left the land.  This is all pretty straight forward, but the miracle came when Elijah arrived in Sidon.  He meets a widow there who agrees to take care of him despite the fact that she doesn’t have any food either.  The drought had reached her as well and she says that she was about to cook the last of her bread and then her and her son would die.  Yet, she trusts the Lord, makes food for Elijah, and then miraculously, the Lord provides so that the widow never runs out of food and is able to make bread for her family and Elijah for the rest of the drought.

The story of the widow and Elijah brings us to our passage in Mark when Jesus observes another widow.  This passage is the story of the “widow’s mite.”  Jesus says the widow who barely gave a few cents actually gave more than all the rich men who came before her.  He tells us this is because the rich men “put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” 

I think what both the widow in Sidon and the widow in Mark had in common was that they both put their entire trust in God.  In 1 Kings, the widow used the last of her bread to feed Elijah.  There was no guarantee that she would be able to eat again.  In Mark, the widow gave all she had and again there wasn’t a guarantee that she would be able to afford food for her next meal.  Yet, they each gave to God and trusted Him to provide.  In 1 Kings, this works out and God provides; in Mark, we actually don’t know what happened to the widow.

The implications for us are clear.  Whether we are rich or poor, our trust needs to be in God.  This happens to be easier when one is poor, the Bible seems argue.  When we are rich, it is easier to put our trust in ourselves and our own accomplishments.  The rich people are able to give large sums of money to God, but they don’t feel the sacrifice.  They can live comfortable lives whether they give or not.  So for us today, the question is not whether we are rich or poor, but are we giving all that we have to God?  Are we giving out of our surplus and not feeling the sacrifice, or are we giving so much that our only option is to trust God?  Remember, this isn’t just about money.  It’s about our time, our thoughts, are talents, and our very lives.  We must give all we have to God.  And that is how we talk about sanctification without actually saying it.  Give it all to God or in old school language, be entirely sanctified!

Let us strive to serve God and give to those in need physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Grace and Peace.