A Strong and Trusting Love

by Pastor Kathy Barlow-Westmoreland

This week's focus scripture is I Kings 17: 17-24.

There was a drought throughout the land. And where’s there’s drought, there will be famine. Without water to grow grain, or to help trees bear fruit, soon the food sources with dry up with the river beds.
Among those most affected by the drought are widows- widows and orphans. Without any other means of help, they were often the last to be considered, when sharing food.

The prophet Elijah has come to the town of Zarapheth at the Lord’s command. God has cared for Elijah during this drought and now God is bringing him to a widow with a young son for her to care for him. Zarapeth is in the heart of Baal territory, Baal being the pagan god of the region, and the god of Queen Jezebel. This is not the land of the Hebrews, Elijah’s people. And yet God leads Elijah to this widow, who is not a daughter of Sarah and has him ask her for food.

The widow’s face falls. To not give what was is needed was so difficult as to be painful. But she has her own sorrows. She only has enough flour and enough oil to make one last meal for herself and her son, and then they will wait for starvation. I cannot imagine what it took for her to speak these words out loud, to speak of the death of her own child. But she does.

Elijah speaks the words that have been spoken to generations of people. He says, “Do not be afraid.” God will not let the flour or oil run out. Fix your meal, but first prepare a cake for me. Do not be afraid.
I don’t know what it was about him, but this pagan woman, who knows nothing of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, does it. In this moment, I am already pretty sure I could not be her. I am not sure that I could trust someone else, even someone I knew, much less a stranger, to be obedient to his wishes, wishes that if they were not true would shorten my son’s life. I must honestly admit, I don’t know if I could do it.

But she does it. She is able to trust the prophet enough to make him and cake and sure enough there is enough for them all for many days. She trusted and learned about the providing care of Elijah’s God.
This, however, is not the end of her trauma. Some time later, her son became ill and died. This new found trust has been broken. Where is the providing care of Elijah’s God now? Has this been some cruel trick? Was the child saved only to die of sickness later? Following the logic of superstition rather than faith, she pours her anguish and anger out over Elijah. She accuses him of causing her child’s death by revealing her past sins to God. And thus God took this blessing from her. This mother, in her grief, is not afraid to confront Elijah. She holds him accountable. Trust? There is very little now.

Elijah doesn’t try to defend himself or offer any answers. He simply says, “Give the child to me.” Again, there must have been something in his voice, because this woman gives her son to the man she had just held accountable for his death. The prophet is not without his questions as well. He takes the child upstairs and lays him on the bed. He then laments to God- Why, Why have done this to this widow. She has cared for me and now you kill her son! And then he prays to have the son’s life restored.

God doesn’t answer the why question. God doesn’t engage in debate about who is responsible for this tragedy. What God does is what God has done through out this whole episode of Elijah’s life. He has provided life- first in food and water, then in restoring life that has been lost.

The mother’s faith is also restored. She sees that God does care for her and the Elijah’s words of hope and trust are true.

I have always been attracted to this widow. Her strength in doing all she can for her son. Her willingness to trust Elijah’s words, to set aside her fear and be obedient. And yet she is so human. Tragedy strikes and the fear comes back with a vengeance. That trust was so new- it was so fragile, it had not yet been tested. But now it has been tested with the worst life can throw at us, the loss of a child. When faced with this unspeakable pain, she does what any of us would do- go back to what you know. That superstitious faith she had before where if something bad has happened it must be because we have displeased God in some way. Even Elijah seems to buy into this, when he cries out why to God.
In these moments these two remind me that fear and doubt are part of the life of faith. Things happen that shake the foundations of our faith. Why this, we ask. Why now, we ask. Why me, or why him? We start looking for reasons, scapegoats for the unfair, unjust, undeserved wrongs that happen. We immediately begin to wonder where God is and what is God doing and why isn’t God preventing this or changing the course or making it all okay.

God does not answer Elijah’s cries. God doesn’t come back and debate. God simply acts. God, through Elijah breathes life into the small lifeless body. And in so doing, God also restores the new and fragile faith of a grief stricken mother.

Not all our life stories have such happy endings. And we do stand with the widow, allowing the grief to roll down our cheeks, allowing the fear to grip our hearts and we wonder why and what is God doing? How is our faith restored when the ending isn’t so fairy tale like?

Because we believe God provides. Because we trust God enough to trust God with those who are most precious to us. And somewhere in there, the mother wanted to trust more than she wanted to fear, for she gave her son to the prophet, not knowing what would happen. Sometimes we need to lament first, to shake our fist, to cry out to God- remember not only the widow but the great prophet himself did that. The path from fear and doubt back to faith often goes through the forest of our fears and doubts, or where we can shout our laments and listen to them echo across canyons. And know that God understands and will work to provide for us- some way, some how. We will not be left to just fend for ourselves.

Even when the outcomes are painful. Even when the ending is not what we would have chosen, we do not face it alone. Elijah as the presence of God, hung in there with this mother and sought to bring the comfort of God to her in some way. We too, can name those who have hung in there with us, have been the presence of God in our midst for us. And believe it or not, there are times that God works through us to be the divine presence to others, saying, “Don’t be afraid. God is with you.”

This Mother’s Day, I celebrate this mother of scripture. For her quick trust of Elijah and obedience to God. For her human weakness in the face of great pain. For her deep love for her son. For her hospitality to Elijah. For her ability to trust Elijah even with her only son. For her real, fragile and yet sincere faith. I celebrate her and all those of us like her, who seek to set aside our fear in order to trust. Who try to listen beyond our own cries for God’s voice of comfort and hope. Who seek to love in sacrificial ways.

Thanks be to God for her witness of faith. Amen.

St. John's Westminster Union Church
1085 Neeb Rd. Cincinnati, Ohio 45233
(513) 347-4613