PENTECOST 2, C – June 6, 2010

SCRIPTURES – 1 Kings 17:11-17; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17 

 

“Tell me about yourself.” Have you ever been asked this? “Tell me about your family.” “Tell me about your job.” These are all things that we are asked now and then. People are interested! And, we can usually go on for a while answering such questions.

 

 “Tell me about your God.” Have you ever been asked this? I’ll bet not. “Tell me about your God. Who do you believe in, worship, and follow?” I’ll bet you haven’t been asked this. But, the question does come up. Life raises the question.

 

And, boy, do we have great answers! Just these two readings today, from 1 Kings 17 and Luke 7, tell us that we have a great God. Imagine: three people raised from the dead! Three people who were seemingly beyond help and beyond hope are suddenly and miraculously raised up to life!

 

WHO IS YOUR GOD?

 

We Christians have a clear, and wonderful, answer. Our God is the One who gives life!

 

He gives life because He is able to do so. He is powerful, and nothing, not even death, can prevent Him from accomplishing what He desires. Do you believe this? Do you speak of this? Does your life show that you believe this?

 

It’s not easy to believe and show this, for life so often seems to say that this is not true, that God is not all-powerful and able to accomplish anything. If He is, then why do so many bad things happen? Why do they happen even to those who believe in Him? Why have we all lost people we have loved dearly?

 

How do you respond to such things? The woman in our Old Testament reading responded with blame: “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” She blamed the prophet Elijah, and so also, by implication, his God; she blamed herself, her sins. It’s easy to do this, isn’t it?

‡       “Why didn’t you warn me? You knew what would happen!”

‡       “Why didn’t I stop when the light turned yellow?”

It’s easy to cast blame because we’re all guilty. We all mess up. We all make poor decisions at times; we all make selfish, sinful decisions. We bring sufferings and hardships upon ourselves. We are to blame!

 

So, God can’t help, then? His power cannot overcome our foolish actions and our sins? We see this morning in the raising of three people from the dead that it can! Our God is more powerful than anything, even sin and death! Rejoice in this, call upon Him for help, and trust Him.

 

Do so especially because He cares. God is compassionate; His heart goes out to us. He sees and knows our needs and our sufferings, and is grieved by them. He truly desires to help.

 

So what! President O’Bama is being skewered by many right now because he doesn’t seem to care enough about the Gulf oil spill and the devastation it is causing. Even Democratic supporters are saying, “Get down there and do something!” But, do what? Will his being more openly emotional and caring change anything? I don’t know.

 

God can change anything, of course. But, does He care enough to act? Well, long ago He raised three people from the dead. Great! But, what about us?

 

Well, look at who helped. Elijah was God’s prophet, and God sent him to the woman. She thought that he had come to bring her sin to remembrance and punish her for it, but she found out that he had come with God’s mercy. Look especially at our Gospel reading. Who helps? Who raises the widow’s son? The Son of God Himself – who is standing there in the flesh!

‡       God became a helpless baby, growing in His mother’s womb..

‡       God became a child who needed to be cared for by His parents.

‡       God became a man who lived in poverty, and walked around in dust and heat.

God became a man for us all. This is how much He cares! Look at Jesus, God in the flesh. See Him dying on the cross for you. This is above all what we must focus on and tell people when asked, “Who is your God?” He is the God, the only God, who cares for us so much that He came among us to take our sorrows and sins upon Himself and, by His death for us, take them away from us. How shocking it must have been for the widow when Jesus not only stopped the funeral procession for her son but then touched her boy’s coffin. According to Jewish law doing this would make Jesus unclean, dirtied by sin and death and so unable to associate with others for a while. This is why He came, however. Our God is not unwilling to look upon our sins or ashamed to associate with sinners. He doesn’t separate Himself from the “bad” people and associate only with the “good.” He comes to take our sins upon Himself – and overcome them. Just as Jesus overcomes the dead man’s uncleanness by raising Him to life again, so He overcomes the sins of the world by being punished for them – enduring the punishment of death – and then rising to life again. Our God cares, and so comes and helps!

 

It is here especially that we Christians have a lot to say when asked, “Who is your God?” Just consider again our readings. Three people are raised from the dead! Great! But: why? Were they raised because of something they did? Well, let’s see. The mother in1 Kings 17 went to Elijah… and accused him (and so also his God). “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to cause the death of my son!” She had no faith. How about the widow Jesus helped? Did she ask for His help? Did she see Him coming and say, “Look, it’s the Rabbi Jesus! Thanks be to God, he will help me!” No, she is doing nothing except crying. All the initiative is with Jesus. He sees her and His heart goes out to her. He stops the funeral procession and touches the coffin. He speaks to the dead man and calls him forth to life again. He gives life: all by grace. It is all His initiative, His choice, His work.

 

Who is your God? He is the God who helps us and saves us by grace alone. We haven’t earned or deserved His help. It wasn’t our fervent prayers and acts of contrition that brought Jesus down from heaven. He sees our needs, our sorrows, and our sufferings, and His heart goes out to us. Our God is a God of grace and mercy, and it is that grace and mercy that raised from the dead the three people in our readings.

 

You have been hearing me correctly, by the way: three people. The child Elijah raised to life and the young man Jesus raised were two. They were raised from physical death to physical life. The third was the woman who came to Elijah with accusation. This woman, you see, lived in Zarephath, a town north of Israel. She worshiped Baal and Asherah, fertility gods who she believed were the givers and sustainers of life. They did not give life freely and gladly, however. They gave it only to the deserving, to those who earned their favor by offering gifts and sacrifices that pleased them.

 

Then, Elijah, the prophet of the God of Israel, came to her. Who is your God, Elijah? She saw and came to believe that the God of Israel, the Holy Trinity, is the true and only God, for He not only gives life but can restore it when it is taken away. And, He does so by grace: freely and gladly, even to an undeserving sinner like her, who had accused Him and His prophet. What a great God! What a different God, a God of love and mercy! “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth,” she confessed. She had come to know and believe in Elijah’s God, and so received the greatest life of all: eternal life with God.

 

This is what we have to share. Our God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is all-powerful. He is compassionate. But, above all, He is gracious. He gives eternal life with Him freely.

‡       In Holy Baptism He receives and gives eternal life to the infant who doesn’t yet know anything about Him and can offer Him nothing but a sinful nature.

‡       He saves us stubborn adults who are quick to blame and slow to respond with joyful thanks and praise.

In His Son, who died and rose for us, He gives life to those who are dead in their sins, that they might praise Him; tell of Him; and, when their lives on this earth end, be raised to live with Him forever in heaven.

 

This is our God. Let us gladly thank and praise, serve and obey Him forever!