Twente, Nijmegen Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17
Raised to New Life by an Awesome God
I was on TV yesterday. Maybe you missed it. I was among the 38,000 at the Gelredome for EO Jongerendag. And no, I’m no longer a ‘jongen’ but the organizers are gracious. 38000 people singing God’s praises is a tremendous boost if you may feel a bit alone as a young Christian in a secular country. But yesterday was proof positive that decline in attendance at some churches does not mean a decline in Christian worship, just perhaps a shift in the way it is done. EO Jonegerendag may not be your scene if you’re not into youth culture and Christian pop music. Yes, Christian pop music! There is such a thing: a whole world of contemporary music with fast-paced and catchy tunes, but with faith-based lyrics – quite a refreshing alternative to Madonna and others. In every generation, Christian musicians try to speak to their generation. These days Michael W Smith, Chris Tomlin et al.are simply doing what Charles and Samuel Wesley et al. did: ‘sing to the Lord a new song’ (a phrase that recurs throughout the Psalms (33:2; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1))At the end of EO Jonegerendag, all the bands assembled on stage and sang Rich Mullins’ now famous praise anthem ‘Our God is an awesome God.’ It continues: ‘He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love; our God is an awesome God.’ (That’s admittedly very American wording, but it has resonated around the world.)Many new praise songs proclaim God’s greatness and glory – just like ‘O for a thousand tongues’ and ‘How great thou art’ have always done. (Critics of the Wesleys complained about repetitive lyrics, too, but we still sing the Wesleys’ hymns and have forgotten the critics names.)‘Our God is an awesome God’ could be the theme of our Scripture readings today. In 1 Kings 17 and in Luke 7:11-17, in particular, we see God’s awesome acts of power in providing for people and bringing new life in desperate situations. God often does awesome things in the lives of people who frankly aren’t feeling, at the moment, that God is awesome or gracious. But God surprises them.Take the widow of Zarephath. Around the middle of the 9th c BC, King Ahab was king of Israel. If you’ve read Kings or Chronicles, you’ll know that Israel and Judah went through a cycle of pretty good to not so good kings. Ahab was in the latter category. In fact, according to 1 Kings 16:33, Ahab ‘did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Isreal before him’ – and that’s saying something! Ahab had married Jezebel, who was a fairly vicious queen who hated God. Jezebel wanted Israel to worship her country’s god: Baal, a Canaanite storm god. So Ahab built temples to Baal to please his wife, but this did not please God. So the Lord told Elijah to proclaim a drought in the whole region. As a result, there was great hunger, even starvation in the land.Then the Lord tells Elijah to 17:9‘Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there.’ The Lord was sending Elijah to the heart of Baal worship, to Sidon, where Jezebel’s own father was king! Elijah is sent to enemy territory, and not just to visit, but to live there. Elijah was not thrilled, but as one of the few in Israel who knew the true awesomeness of the one true God, he did not disobey. ‘So he set out’.There he met a poor widow who was preparing the last scraps of what she thought would be her last meal on earth. She and her son were dying of starvation. What a desperately awful situation, but sadly, one that we know occurs on a daily basis in many parts of the world even today. Imagine the widow’s irritation when this foreign man of God shows up and demands, ‘Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.’ And 11 ‘Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ Obnoxious? But Elijah trusted that the Lord would provide for him, and perhaps, too, that those who helped him would be shown God’s power and be helped, too. The word of God was not welcome in Israel, but in other places it would be received.Isn’t it curious that the poorest of the poor in foreign lands open their hearts to the wonders of God and give their all for God? It is an odd world we live in, where often those who are the most blessed and best off and should have the least worries are also often the least generous and least receptive to God’s word. The writer of 1 Kings is making a sharp point.But let us admit that the widow of Zarephath was not a cheerful giver. Still, she was, when it came down to it, incredibly generous. Perhaps she knew what hunger was, and wanted to alleviate it. Perhaps, even though she did not worship Israel’s God, she had respect for a man of God even when his own countryman had rejected him. She gave what she could. Lo and behold, a miracle: her jugs of flour and oil, so desperately empty before, flowed over: an example of how God provides, somehow, for those who trust him, whoever they are. We missed out the rest of 1 Kings 17 today, but it sets up a contrast with our Gospel story. After the miracle of the flour and oil jugs, Elijah moves on. Sometime later, he returns to visit the woman only to find her in a state because her one and only son had fallen ill and stopped breathing. She cries out, as anyone would: ‘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!’ (1 Ki 17:18). She’d been spared starvation only to lose her son to a disease. Was God mocking her? What did the man of God have to say? He wasn’t about to say, this happened because it’s your fault. No, he answers in two ways. First, he shouts out to God in prayer, saying 20‘O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?’ Then he acts: ‘21He stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’ 22The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Faithful (even desperate) prayer and faithful action are a powerful combination.Our awesome God is better than Baal, better, even than Mammon. God rescues the desperate, revives those in despair.That story is a prelude to what happens Luke’s Gospel at Nain in Galilee, when the awesome God comes to town in the person of Jesus. Our God is not just awesome, but compassionate. Jesus comes into Nain only to see a mother’s only son being carried out of the gates for burial. 13When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ 14Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. They would have. To touch a dead body was to break the Levitical laws about cleanness. In Jesus, the compassionate, awesome God crosses our boundaries, touches the untouchables, and brings healing. Jesus said (he did not have to pray, like Elijah!): ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ 15The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God has looked favourably on his people!’ 17This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country. But this was no prophet like Elijah, but the awesome God himself, who is so surprising and compassionate that he reaches out to touch us and lift us up. Let us never tire of praising him, whether we’re ‘jongeren’ or not. Amen.
Any questions? Contact:
The Chaplain, Revd Sam Van Leer, 026 495 0620
