Ministry at the Brink
Jacob Needleman described the launch of Apollo 17 to Bill Moyers in this way: "I was an observer at the launch of Apollo 17 in 1975. It was a night launch, and there were hundreds of cynical reporters all over the lawn… drinking beer… wisecracking… and waiting for this 35-story-high rocket. The countdown came… and then the launch. The first thing you see is this extraordinary orange light, which is just at the limit of what you can bear to look at. Everything is illuminated with this light. Then comes this thing slowly rising up in total silence, because it takes a few seconds for the sound to come across. You hear a 'WHOOOOOSH! HHHHMMMM!' It enters right into you. You can practically hear jaws dropping. The sense of wonder fills everyone in the whole place, as this thing goes up and up. The first stage ignites this beautiful blue flame. It becomes like a star… but you realize there are humans on it. And then there's total silence. People just get up quietly, helping each other up. They're kind. They open doors. They look at one another, speaking quietly and interestedly. These were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder… the experience of wonder… had made them moral." What does it take to pull us out of our self-centered existence and cause us to pay attention to people and things who are always there, but we never really see?
Just outside the town of Nain, two processions meet… one group of people is on its way into the town after having traveled the twenty-five miles from Capernaum on foot… the other group of people is going out of the town bearing the body of a dead man to the cemetery for burial. I think it is pretty safe to say that most of those in both processions were absorbed with their own thoughts and feelings. The band of disciples who were with Jesus were probably anxious to get to a place where they could rest… sit down… have some food… something cool to drink. They certainly weren’t interested in stopping to chat with anyone at that point. Those in the funeral procession were probably also preoccupied… either with memories of the one who had died and their own sorrow… or their minds may have strayed to those tasks that still needed to be done once they returned home after burying this young man. Then, Jesus did something so out of the ordinary that it pulled them all out of their private thoughts into a place of wonder… amazement at this event that so radically challenged their assumptions about life… about death… about what was possible.
The son of the widow from Nain was not the only person that Jesus raised from the dead. There was his friend, Lazarus. There was the daughter of Jairus. We can rationalize why he might raise those two individuals. In the first place, their families, believing in Jesus, knew he had the power to do miracles. There was also his long friendship with Lazarus’ family… with Mary and Martha. And, in the case of Jairus’ daughter, Jairus demonstrated faith in Jesus and his power to heal… and Jesus’ willingness to act may have been coupled with the knowledge that the word would spread through the Jewish community… for Jairus was a leader in the synagogue. But the widow in Nain was a nobody. In that culture, with no husband and no living sons, she was less than nobody. And this nameless widow never asked Jesus to intervene… to save her nameless boy from death… to save her from a fate worse than death. There was no demonstration of faith… no ties of friendship… so why did Jesus intervene? And why did Luke record this story… when none of the other gospel writers did? Why did God send Elijah to the widow at Zarephath?
Luke tells us that when Jesus saw the widow, he had compassion on her. The word used for compassion here is only used two other times in the gospel of Luke. It is used to describe the feelings of the Good Samaritan for that man who was beaten and robbed. And it is used to describe the feelings of the father for the Prodigal Son when he returned home. In both of those stories, the men acted in a way that was contrary to expectation… contrary to public opinion… because of their feelings of compassion. In this case, Jesus delays the rest and refreshment that his tired and hungry entourage needs because of his compassion for this no-name woman. God sends his powerful prophet… the one who regularly speaks to kings and princes… to an isolated widow in Zarephath. Why? And why is it important to us today?
It is easy to get caught up in the headlines. The fascination that we have with people in power is amazing. It fuels an entire industry of paparazzi journalists… weekly magazines… and talk shows that focus our attention on every move that is made… and every word that is spoken… by those in positions of power… or prominence. We hang on their every word and our opinions about everything from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico… to the economy… to the content of textbooks used in the public schools… to the clothing worn… or not worn… by the stars of Hollywood… are shaped by the media and what it reports. Or we get buried in our own lives. Sometimes, it is impossible to think beyond the next bill that must be paid… the next event our children will participate in… the next problem at work… the next doctor’s appointment… the next social engagement… or the next opportunity we will have to simply crawl into bed and drift off into oblivion. Are we aware of the people who live in margins… whose lives rarely, if ever, intersect with ours? How often do we set aside our own dilemmas to focus on those we never even see… those whose silent agony never drifts into our consciousness?
Luke is the gospel writer who reminds us of these people… and reminds us that these are those ones to whom God… in the person of Elijah or Jesus… brings a powerful message of hope. Yes, God brings us a message of hope… of love… for our own lives, but that message is not ours to keep to ourselves. Jesus’ message to his own disciples in this act of charity… this gift of love… was to say, “Even when you are tired… travel-weary and hungry… when you long for rest and refreshment… there are those who do not have the luxury of the promise of food… or shelter… or family.” We have been blessed, yes… and God calls us to share from our abundance with others… for there are those who do not have even the little that we have. Research has shown that love and acceptance within a community… welcome and inclusion in a community… is far more important to our sense of well-being than wealth. Maybe you and I cannot give the gift of life… the gift that Elijah and Jesus gave to the sons of these women… but we can step out of the trajectory of our day to bring a message of love… hope… and acceptance to those who have none. These widows will never forget the kindness of these men… yet they had no reason to expect it from anyone.
Who are the ones who live on the fringes of our society today? Is it the elderly widows who live alone… with a lifetime of memories they long to share? Is it the ones with a terminal diagnosis whose friends have been frightened away because they don’t know what to talk about… and they are afraid to talk about the elephant in the room? It is the college student away from home who is struggling with managing money and fearful of failure? Is it the gay son or daughter who fears his parents’ rejection and longs for their love? Is it the unemployed single mother who lies awake at night wondering how she will protect her children from eviction and the shame of homelessness? Is it the disabled woman who disability keeps her isolated from friends… and family… and even her community of faith? Is it the silent screams of abused and neglected children whose agony we never see… never hear?
I am sure that you can think of many more in our community who live lives of silent struggle and painful isolation. These are the ones who will never make the news… they just aren’t important enough to rate a story. These are the ones we will never notice in the daily grind of our own lives… for their paths never cross ours. But these are the ones to whom God send his prophets… his messengers of hope. These are the ones whom God… in Christ… went out of his way to minister to in their times of need. What will it take to pull us out of our self-centered lives… our focused existence… to see… to reach out to… to bring hope to… even in the midst of headlines… and our own concerns? How much time does it really take to bring a message of love to the unlovely… of hope to the hopeless? If Jesus stopped to bring hope to this unnamed widow, can we stop… for a moment… and bring hope… bring love… bring light… to our corner of the world?
I know that you have all heard the story of the man who walked on the beach, tossing sand dollars or starfish back into the ocean because he wanted to make a difference… to save a life. When others laughed at him because the number of sand dollars or starfish the beach was more than he would ever be able to throw back into the water in a lifetime of walking the beaches of the world, he calmly responded that, even if he could not make a difference in the lives of all the sand dollars or starfish on the beach, he could make a difference in the lives of the ones he picked up that day. We can make a difference… maybe not in everyone’s life… but in someone’s life… today. It is what Christ did. It is what he would have us do. Amen.
Luke 7:11-17