Proper 5

Preparation

    Please begin by reading I Kings 17:8-16 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--Faith

   We hear the word “faith” often, but don’t think much about what that term really means.  If we want a definition, there is probably none better than the Apostle Paul’s in the first verse of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” 

    Faith is trust plus a little more.  It is really trust in the absence of hard evidence or “common sense.”   If we know first hand that something has happened in the past or is happening in the present no faith is required.  We have hard evidence.  We can see it, touch it, feel it.  After the event we can observe its result.  Even simple trust is not required, other than perhaps trusting that our senses do no deceive us.  If we heat a pan of water to 212 degrees Fahrenheit under ordinary conditions “common sense” tells us that water will boil, following the laws of physics and our past experience.   But faith requires a leap beyond empirical proof and provides confidence beyond a confidence in scientific laws.

    This remarkable little story from the Hebrew testament illustrates what faith is.  Common sense, past experience, and empirical evidence told the widow from Zarephath that it was the end of the line.  She was down to the last morsel of food she had to feed herself and her child.   There would be no more where that came from.  She had no money.  There was a drought in the land and crops had failed.  She was on her way home to prepare what common sense told her would be her last meal.

    But God had spoken to her heart.  She may not have understood it or been able to explain it, but she had faith; faith in God and faith in this man God sent to her town.  She acted on God’s promise.  She acted in faith, relying on “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

    All this gets to the heart and soul of what that major life event some call a religious conversion is really all about.  At some point on our journey God calls us to start living in faith.  This call is not to throw out things like common sense and the scientific method.  God gave us a brain and expects us to use it.  Rather, we are asked to add another element to our collection of life skills -- faith.  We are asked to surrender in a way; to surrender to the knowledge that God is truly in control of the universe, loves us, wants the best for us, and if trusted will lead us to places and possibilities beyond our imagination.

    It is that surrender to faith that makes all the difference from then on.  It is faith that gives us the strength to go on when things are, as they were for the widow, objectively impossible.  It is that strength that allows a person of faith to be a rock for themselves and others when others crumble.  It is that certainty that following God’s voice will take us to the best and most productive places even when the “objective” evidence says otherwise.  It is the tool that makes even that most ancient fear, the fear of death, loose its terror.  It is that life ingredient that can turn anxiety into joy.  It is perhaps God’s most wonderful and gracious gift.  My prayer for you is that you will find it in your life.

revclay

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I Kings 17:8-16

    Then the word of God came to Elijah, saying, "Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you."

    So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink."

    As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand."

    But she said, "As your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die."

    Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son.  For thus says the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the God sends rain on the earth."

    She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days.  The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word that God spoke by Elijah.