Weekly Bible Notes Ordinary 10
Year C, Colour = Green
Introduction
It is a wonderful passage which we read today about Elijah. A woman and her son are about to die through starvation and she is going to prepare their very last with the last of the flour and oil which she has in the house. The prophet Elijah calls on her to bring him food to eat and if she does there will be provision for her
‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’
It is a tempting offer but there is a need for huge trust. Should she give of the last which she has and trust each day that God will provide for her needs. It is a question which faces all of us, to what extent should we place our trust in God each day and discover his providence?
Then we come to the Gospel reading and we have an equally disturbing scene with the Widow of Nain. It was the practice of the ancient Jews to bury their dead outside the city, usually on the day of death or the next day. There is a funeral procession on the way to bury a young man who has died. Imagine the pallbearers carrying the body aloft, the widowed mother who is following the professional mourners with their cymbals, flutes and high-pitched shrieking and wailing. The dead man was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Not only had she lost a child, from now she would have little hope, widows were vulnerable, weak and without much opportunity for economic support. Her loss of a child would have also brought back memories of the loss of her husband and she would have been desperate with grief, feeling that life for herself was now as good as over.
Into this scene of desperation comes Jesus. He sees the widowed, desolate mother, and we are told by Luke that he has compassion for her. "Do not weep." Jesus ignores ceremonial impurity, reaches out and touches the funeral bier. Can you imagine the scene and what must have been going on in the minds of those around? Imagine a stranger today stopping a hearse, telling folks not to weep and touching the coffin ! We are told the young man sat up and began to speak, and so Jesus like Elijah and Elisha before him, gave the son back to his mother.
Opening Verse of Scripture Psalm 8:1
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have
set your glory above the heavens.
Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray
O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
God of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom, that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son.
God of constant mercy, who sent your Son to save us: remind us of your goodness, increase your grace within us, that our thankfulness may grow, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lord God, your Son left the riches of heaven and became poor for our sake: when we prosper save us from pride, when we are needy save us from despair, that we may trust in you alone; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God our Saviour, look on this wounded world in pity and in power; hold us fast to your promises of peace won for us by your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.
First Bible Reading 1 Kings 17:8-16,17 - end
Then the word of the LORD came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’” She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah. Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”
Second Reading Galatians 1:11-24
I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie. Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me.
Gospel Reading Luke 7:11-17
Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out – the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
Post Communion Prayer
Eternal father, we thank you for nourishing us with these heavenly gifts: may our communion strengthen us in faith, build us in hope, and make us grow in love, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Commentary
We have an interesting story today told by Luke of an unnamed woman and a corpse. The event happens in Nain about 6 miles from where Jesus grew up in Nazareth. I wonder if you have ever seen those occasions in the middle east when a funeral takes place and everything looks like utter chaos? There is wailing and noise and almost the complete opposite of the quiet respect so often associated with funerals in our culture. Well keep that scene in mind when you think of the story of the raising of the son of the Widow of Nain in Luke's Gospel today. There is a large crowd following Jesus and as they approach the gate of the town they meet another large crowd who are with a widow as her one and only dead son is being brought out of the town to be buried. Think of the noise, the smells, the heat, the commotion as people push and bump into one another. The body will be taken to a cave or place of burial outside the town so as not to contaminate the living.
We are told that through all of the distractions Jesus saw the woman and had compassion on her. In spite of all the goings on around him Jesus noticed and his heart went out to a woman who had lost everything. She would have been distraught because of the loss of her son. However apart from the obvious bereavement, the fact that we are told this was a widow and he was the only son draws our attention to the fact the he was her only means of economic support and she now faced destitution without a husband or children to take care of her. Women like her faced difficult choices of how to survive with alternatives such as begging, charity, prostitution, or dependence on relatives, there was no welfare state. The death of a child before a parent is always unnatural and devastating and we can understand people feeling that this was a tragic death and focussing on the young life taken before time. . However it is interesting that all of the attention of Jesus is on this woman. We are told that she was a widow, she had a crowd with her, the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and spoke to her.
Perhaps the most important thing to take from this story is just the fact that Jesus actually notices this woman. The story is about the raising from death of a young man, but it is significant that so much of the episode is about the bereaved woman. Jesus raises the corpse to life and we are told that he gave him to his mother. This ability of Jesus to notice is so powerful throughout the Gospel stories. Jesus sees the forgotten ones, the ones who are insignificant or whom people have chosen to ignore. It is Jesus who gives voice to those society has cast out because they are considered to be sinful, sick or lacking in status.
When I was at theological training for ministry we were told to touch the coffin in funerals because often there was something of a taboo about coffins and it helped to put people at rest. How times have changed! In the last few years increasingly funerals have the curtains left open and coffins are kissed and affectionately embraced by grieving relatives and friends as they leave. In Jesus day there was no coffin, the corpse was laid on a platform. We are told that Jesus touched the ‘bier,’ on which the body lay, perhaps wrapped in a shroud. Interrupting a funeral was a blatant breach of Jewish law and custom. Touching the bier exposed Jesus to corpse uncleanness, the severest form of ritual uncleanness in Judaism. This meant a day’s uncleanness (Num 19:21-22). If Jesus also touched the corpse then this exposed him to uncleanness for a whole week. . Jesus never seems to miss an opportunity to make himself unclean. When Jesus touched this bier he placed himself into solidarity with this woman and showed his willingness to put himself into the circle of those who would be treated as outcasts. He stood alongside and demonstrably gave of himself to minister to the needs of grieving widow and her family. Of course with Jesus it always works the other way around, instead of him becoming unclean the other person is made well, or finds forgiveness, or as in this case is raised from the dead.
This compassion of Jesus which we read about is a strong emotion which moves Jesus into action. He is able to discern the pain which the woman feels, recognise her vulnerability and he is prepared to be used to bring about change. The way Jesus acts in the face of the suffering which he sees is transformative, he is not willing to allow things to simply continue as they always have.
You and I cannot raise the dead, but there are lessons for us as we consider Jesus and this miracle. Perhaps the most obvious challenge is for us to open our eyes to the condition of people around us. How easy it would have been for Jesus to just get out of the way when he saw the large crowd coming through the gate of the town. Instead his eyes are drawn with compassion towards one who was now extremely vulnerable. We too can be used by God to bring about change if our eyes are closed to the plight of those who are forgotten and unable to speak for themselves.
This passage is about the goodness of Jesus overcoming the death and suffering evil which is around. Instead of being contaminated by death, Jesus reverses the usual way of things and his goodness rubs off to those around. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if by the things which we do and the things which we say, something off Jesus rubs off us and changes lives and situations around us. The people said of Jesus ‘God has come to help his people.’ We should seek by word and action to also be people through whom God encounters and helps others. Charles Royden
Meditation
Reading the passage today I couldn’t help but think of the new song by Paul Simon. It is a tale of a rock star prevented from entering his own concert because he doesn’t have a wristband. He uses it to make a point about social inequality, those who are poor and have no voice and feel that the affluent world is passing them by. We have a wristband culture in which some feel left out and forgotten. The Widow in the story today would not have had a wristband and neither would the other marginalised people that Jesus seemed to be drawn to like a magnet throughout his ministry. The words are below
I stepped outside the backstage door to breathe some nicotine
And maybe check my mailbox, see if I can read the screen
Then I heard a click, the stage door lock, I knew just what that meant
I'm gonna have to walk around the block if I wanna get it in
Wristband, my man, you've got to have a wristband
If you don't have a wristband, my man, you don't get through the door
Wristband, my man, you've got to have a wristband
And if you don't have a wristband, my man, you don't get through the door
I can explain it, I don't know why my heart beats like a fist
When I meet some dude with an attitude saying "hey, you can't do that, or this"
And the man was large, a well-dressed six-foot-eight
And he's acting like Saint Peter standing guard at the pearly...
Wristband, my man, you've got to have a wristband
If you don't have a wristband, you don't get through the door
And I said "Wristband? I don't need a wristband
My axe is on the bandstand, my band is on the floor" I mean it's just…
The riots started slowly with the homeless and the lowly
Then they spread into the heartland towns that never get a wristband
Kids that can't afford the cool brand whose anger is a short-hand
For you'll never get a wristband and if you don't have a wristband then you can't get through the door
No you can't get through the door, No you can't get through the door, say you can't get through the door
Hymns
- Now the green blade riseth
- Life giving Christ (Tune Waly waly - see below)
- Jesus the name high over all
- Awake mysould and with the sun
- As the deer pants
- Lord for the years
- Rock of ages
- And can it be
- How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead
"Prayer is a plant, the seed of which is sown in the heart of every Christian.
If it is well cultivated and nourished it will produce fruit, but if it is neglected, it will wither and die."
Friends in Christ, God invites us to hold the needs of our sisters and brothers as dear to us as our own needs. Loving our neighbours as ourselves, we offer our thanksgivings and our petitions on behalf of the church and the world.
Jesus help us to encounter the world with the courage of your prophetic witness of the Gospel. We call on your prompting and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to discern the right ways to engage in the messiness of the world. In thanksgiving, we thank you for all goodness, including the freedom to answer your call of discipleship and your unfathomable love. May your goodness transform our lives to prophetically live the Gospel. In your dear name Jesus, we pray. Amen
Lord our God, open us up to your Spirit living within us, that we may live fully each day of our lives. Touch us, that we may become more aware of all that is around us, growing in a sense of wonder and awe, and in appreciation for all that we see and hear and touch, taste and smell. May we live in such a way hat we never take anything for granted, but always be appreciative and express our thanks to those who are part of our lives. Amen.
Grant us, O God, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your path we may not stumble; through Christ our Lord. Amen.William Reed Huntingdon (1838-1909)
God of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom, that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son. Into your hands, O Father, we commend our souls and our bodies; our loved ones and our neighbours; our benefactors and our friends; all who confess their faith and all who stand in need of your mercy and protection; bless us with your grace and grant that we may never be separated from you; but abide with you in time and in eternity, now and for ever. Amen Edmund of Abingdon, 1180-1240
Perfect within us, O Lord, the work of grace which you have begun. May we think, speak and do only what is pleasing in your sight. Keep us from falling back into the sins of which we have repented. May we live our lives in your presence and finish them in your fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen William Bright (1824-1901)
Additional Material
Commentary
In the last couple of weeks I have conducted funerals for young mothers who have left behind loving families after losing battles with cancer. Why do good people die young? Why when folks live good lives and do the right thing, do tragedies happen to them? Life seems so unfair and there is seemingly no reason to any of it. What does the Bible say about all of this? Is there something which we can do to change the odds in our favour when the chance of finding justice in life apparently lacks fairness and appears more to do with luck and chance, like a game of roulette?
Sometimes people will seek to provide pious platitudes in the face of these deep questions, but truthfully there are no easy answers. The best that we can do is to hold alongside these issues which trouble us, some important truths which help maintain our faith. We recognise that we do not have the answers, as the Apostle Paul said, ‘we see only a poor reflection in a mirror.’
We had a long version of the Old Testament reading today because it speaks to these questions, as does the Gospel reading. Due to a drought a widow expects to die. She decides to gather sticks, build a fire, cook a small meal with the last morsel of grain and oil and then she and her son will die. It is not an uncommon event even today in parts of the world where people die because they lack the most basic needs of life. Elijah, the man of God, does not try and talk her out of it but asks the widow to feed him first. The woman is asked to share food from her starvation. What happens next is a miracle, it is as though God has rewarded her kindness to the prophet by providing food miraculously. The story might end there and we would draw the conclusion that if we live good lives tragedy will be averted.
However the story goes on, the son gets sick and dies (or stops breathing). Then what follows is characteristic after somebody dies, everybody looks around for somebody to blame. Somebody must be guilty, so the widow blames Elijah and blames herself. She thinks that God has brought death to punish her past sins, that happenss lots too. Elijah responds perhaps as we often do, he is utterly confused and angry with God at the lack of justice in the world. “You repay this woman’s generosity by killing her son?” We are told that Elijah managed to resuscitate the man, but sadly such miracles are rare and so how do we respond when the dead cannot be brought again to life?
Then we come to the Gospel reading and we have an equally disturbing scene with the Widow of Nain. It was the practice of the ancient Jews to bury their dead outside the city, usually on the day of death or the next day. There is a funeral procession on the way to bury a young man who has died. Imagine the pallbearers carrying the body aloft, the widowed mother who is following the professional mourners with their cymbals, flutes and high-pitched shrieking and wailing. The dead man was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Not only had she lost a child, from now she would have little hope, widows were vulnerable, weak and without much opportunity for economic support. Her loss of a child would have also brought back memories of the loss of her husband and she would have been desperate with grief, feeling that life for herself was now as good as over.
Into this scene of desperation comes Jesus. He sees the widowed, desolate mother, and we are told by Luke that he has compassion for her. "Do not weep." Jesus ignores ceremonial impurity, reaches out and touches the funeral bier. Can you imagine the scene and what must have been going on in the minds of those around? Imagine a stranger today stopping a hearse, telling folks not to weep and touching the coffin ! We are told the young man sat up and began to speak, and so Jesus like Elijah and Elisha before him, gave the son back to his mother.
So what can we discern from these two episodes? We can see that misfortune is not brought about by God, who does not delight in our suffering. Perhaps the most important word in the two readings is found in verse 13 of Luke 7 7:13
kai idôn autên o kurios esplagchnisthê ep autê
And seeing her the Lord felt compassion over her
In our translation the words are translated, ‘his heart went out to her.’ The point is that when confronted by a funeral Jesus wants to touch the suffering with compassion and raise the dead. God doesn't cause death and suffering he wants to overcome it. We don’t understand why it happens, it makes no sense, but that is probably all we need to know, for now. Charles Royden
Commentary
Larry Gillick describes todays readings as stories which show how we as humans often can distrust in the hard times of loss and fear but then find how much easier it is to thank God when we see how things do work out. We hear a wonderful story about Elijah in today’s First Reading from the First Book of Kings, about the recovery of a son’s life and the recovery of faith for his widowed mother. Elijah is one of the great prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures. Unlike many of the other prophets he does amazing things, usually for the poor and needy. The others have their duties of denouncing the present causes of God’s coming punishments and announcing calls of repentance. Elijah walks around doing the good deeds which announce the presence of the living and active God.
We hear today how Elijah is taken into the house, as a guest of a widowed mother. While he is staying there, the mother’s son has a breathing attack and seems to be dying on his mother’s lap. She questions whether Elijah has brought the sickness upon her son to punish her for some free-floating guilt she has. Elijah takes the son from his mother and celebrates a kind of liturgy where he calls upon God and seems to press life into the lad’s body and lungs. Elijah then returns the boy to his mother who makes her faith statement of praise. In great joy and gratitude the mother acknowledges Elijah not as a punisher from God, but as a Holy Presence of God. It is a little story of how we, as humans, distrust in the hard times of loss and fear and how much easier it is to thank God when we see how things do work out.
The Gospel has a similar little story about a widow who is accompanying the funeral procession of her only son. These are two important elements, her being a widow and her having only one son who is now dead. A husband and a son were signs of God’s blessing to a woman in the times of Jesus. He is moved by the sight and approaches the dead man. “Young man, I tell you, arise.” In the same way that Elijah rose the son up, Jesus gives the mother back her son who begins to speak. All who heard him and saw what Jesus had done responded in great proclamations of faith, saying that God had visited his people. The Jewish telegram service began sending reports of this Jesus who is now living out exactly what he announced he would be doing when he unrolled the scroll in his hometown. He was going to be the fulfillment of all the predictions of the coming Anointed One. We will spend the remainder of these Ordinary Times watching, listening to our Savior at his best.
One of the points about today’s stories is that they not only demonstrate a prophet’s wonderful power but that they also validate his work. The story in Kings shows how the widow’s faith gradually increased until she is in the position to acknowledge Elijah as a man of God and his words as the words of Yahweh. Luke, points forward to Jesus’ own resurrection story where Jesus Himself will emerge from the other side of death and validating too all that He has said and done. In so doing Jesus graphically shows that there is more to life than death, and that death is not necessarily the end of life. It’s seeing things the other way round to how we normally view them. Interesting too that there is no evidence of, or apparent need of, the widow’s faith. This seems even stranger because just prior to this encounter Jesus has just commented on the faith of the Centurion and seemingly linked this to healing his servant. In one sense the act of Jesus raising her son from the dead seems completely random. He happened to be travelling by and just raised the man in passing. Perhaps the two stories are linked by a common theme of faith, salvation and healing coming to all the world, not just Israel. There are also two ‘rising ups’ in the gospel story arising out of Jesus’ compassion. The word used in both cases is the same. We have the widow’s son who is ‘raised up’ and we have Jesus being ‘raised up’ as a great prophet.
As we show God’s compassion in the world not only are those we touch renewed and ‘raised up’ by his presence and power, we too are renewed and ‘raised up’ as we see God continually active among us in our world and lives. Sam Cappleman
Meditation
The French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said in one of his works. ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience – we are spiritual beings having a human experience.’ When we see the world and ourselves in this light, Elijah’s raising of the widow’s son in Zarephath or Jesus raising the widow’s son in Nain is perhaps not so remarkable. As humans we far too often just see things from our own human perspective, and we become blind to the seemingly impossible being possible. When we see things from God’s perspective, and our own true God given perspective, the impossible becomes possible and we become part of that world which transcends human understanding and catch a glimpse of God at work as he continues to create and renew the world in which we have our human experience as a spiritual being.
Meditation
Early in the Second World War, in May and June 1940, the German Army made great advances and kept pushing the British Expeditionary Force towards thesea, as well as the French and the Belgians. For a while, Hitler halted his advance outside the French port of Dunkirk. The Allied soldiers presumed they would all soon be captured as prisoners of war, and they destroyed much of their fighting equipment, to prevent the Germans using it. Ships, small fishing boats and pleasure craft set out from England to try to rescue some of the many soldiers trapped around Dunkirk. By June 4th 1940, almost by a miracle, over 330,000 British, French and Belgium troops had been evacuated from Dunkirk, under gunfire from the Germans. Would Hitler now invade Britain? On that same day, Winston Churchill, Britain’s Prime Minister, gave one of his most famous speeches in the House of Commons: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” Dunkirk was a terrible and humiliating defeat for Britain and her allies, but most of the men were rescued. Four years and two days afterwards, Britain and her allies would return on D-Day to start to liberate the occupied countries of Europe.
Prayer of Saint Ignatius Loyola: Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and to ask for no reward, save that of knowing that we do your will. Amen.
1 Life-giving Christ, our hope and head,
who met the sad and raised the dead;
new miracles of love begin
for mourners, and the dead in sin.
2 Draw near to homes of double death
where stirs no sign of pulse or breath:
confront this last of enemies;
command the dead, that they arise!
3 By the compassion of your heart,
your Spirit given, your hand stretched out,
by costly power and kingly word
bring life to lifeless ones, O Lord!
4 So shall they rise and breathe and speak;
death's powers dissolve, its shackles break:
old wounds are healed, old wrongs put right;
on ancient darkness shine your light!
5 Then filled with praise and holy fear
let all in wondering faith draw near
and know that Christ our hope, our home,
our prophet and our God, has come.
6 Praise Christ who raised a widow's son;
in Christ the Father's will be done:
Christ with the Spirit's fulness came;
all glory to the Saviour's name!
Tune Waly Waly