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In these days of Despair
there is a way of Hope
💔 we lose hope because life seems to have lost all sense of possibility, all long-term meaning and legacy.
💔“Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”💔
a polite way of saying,
💔“I don’t want to help.”💔
💔Generosity flows out of hope, and hope seems in very short supply these days.💔
💔“That we may eat it & die.”💔
💔But then Elijah makes a promise – an outrageous promise: Give me some food, and God will take care of you and your son. 💔
💔The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.”💔
💔she did what Elijah asked, and that God made good on Elijah’s promise. 💔
💔The prophet stayed with them for many days, and the three of them had enough to eat. The jar of meal never ran out, and the jug of oil never ran dry.💔
💔leap of faith – that leap of utter desperation 💔
💔Elijah truly was a holy man, and God was faithful.💔
💔comparing the religious leaders to murderous thieves. They try to trip him up with questions about paying taxes, and the nature of the resurrection, and debates about the identity of the messiah.💔
💔They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”💔
💔God miraculously multiplied the meal and oil, saving the lives of the widow and her son. We see echoes of this story in Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. When we offer up what we have to God, there is enough to go around.💔
💔The widow’s gift to Elijah was a leap of faith, but tithes to the temple were a tax imposed by a wealthy elite. Elijah lived on the margins, fleeing the wrath of a corrupt king; the temple was the very seat of power.💔
💔The story of Elijah and the widow takes place in the least holy place possible – among the gentiles in Sidon. The temple was home to the best and brightest; Zarephath was full of unclean outsiders who had nothing left and were preparing to die. The rulers of the temple demand religious devotion and economic sacrifice, but Elijah comes begging and offering good news to the poor.💔
💔a poor widow came and put in a couple of copper coins – practically nothing. And Jesus says to his disciples: “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”💔
💔 when we look at the context of this passage in the Gospel of Mark, when we look at Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and all the struggles and debates that this action unleashed, the story of the widow’s offering starts looking less like a model of faithfulness and more like an example of economic oppression.💔
💔the holy men of the temple do not possess the same character as Elijah.💔
💔The widow at Jerusalem gave away everything she had to live on to satisfy the demands of an abusive and unfaithful temple system – men who “devour widows’ houses, and for the sake of appearances say long prayers.” 💔
💔The faith of Elijah relieves poverty and famine, but the temple’s tithing system exacerbates it.💔
Where do we find ourselves in these scriptures?
💔Do we live in the faith of Elijah? The faith of the margins? The prophetic faith that stands with the poor, the widow, the hungry? Or have we been seduced by the spectacle and violence of the temple?💔
💔the faith of Wall Street, the faith of the Pentagon. The faith of Silicon Valley.💔
💔 the prosperity gospel that tells us we all get what we have earned – that the rich deserve to run the show, and the poor deserve to eat their last meal and die.💔
💔This kind of religion centers the people and institutions that already have a lot, and says they should be given more.💔
💔 This is the kind of faith that devours widow’s homes and for the sake of appearances says long prayers💔
💔The way of the wilderness, the revelation of the burning bush. Theirs is the way of utter dependence on God,💔
💔 the way of the cross. It’s a way of liberation. To walk with Jesus is to hear the voice of God calling to us on the tattered edge of empire💔
💔The prophetic faith of Jesus turns its back on the center, the holy, the important, the wise, in order to embrace those who are rejected and despised by the world.💔
💔refugees stream northward seeking refuge and safety – in times when political power seems bankrupt of moral authority 💔
💔In our hunger for a faith that can speak to our distress,💔
💔challenges oppressive structures and liberates his people from slavery? Will we walk in the faith of Jesus, who surrendered everything – his life, honor, and dignity – to open the door to healing and reconciliation?💔
💔the way of the temple?💔
💔Will we place burdens on the poor and the marginalized that they cannot bear? Will we side with the economic and political system that is choking our planet and tearing families apart? Will we allow our hopelessness to congeal into cynicism? Will we seek personal advantage in a time of societal breakdown?💔
💔Our God is the holy one of the wilderness💔
💔Jesus bears the suffering of the weeping parents and hungry children.💔
💔 In his resurrection power, he invites us into the ministry of reconciliation, turning away from the glitz and glamor of celebrity and power and toward the daily needs of those who have been cast away by our society.💔
💔 He came as a homeless beggar.💔
Like Jesus and the early disciples, he carried nothing with him but the clothes on his back and
💔 the good news of God’s salvation. Liberation for the poor, and justice for the oppressed.💔
In these times of darkness, when we are tempted to despair,
💔Jesus and Elijah offer us a way forward.💔
💔Together with the unexpected friends that God will reveal to us, we might even find hope.💔
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