Pentecost 2
1 Kings 17:17-24, Luke 7:11-17

Dear friends in Christ,
We just heard two remarkable stories in scripture that deal, in large part, with a subject we’d rather not think about, death. Who really wants to have their life interrupted today, or any day, with stories that remind us of death? Surely there must be something happier and more cheerful we could focus on.
One way we deal with things that make us uncomfortable is to joke about them. So there are plenty of jokes about funerals and the end of life. My favorite is the funeral notice for a movie theater owner. It read like this: Martin Levine, owner of a movie theater chain in New York City, has passed away at age 65. The funeral will be held on Thursday at 2:10, 4:20, 6:30, 8:40, and 10:50, bargain prices before 6:00PM
Today we read two stories, one in the Old Testament and one in the new, that have a death as central to the story. There is also one sent from God, Elijah in one case, Jesus in the other, who takes action in the midst of this sadness.
In the story from I Kings, the prophet Elijah is sent by God to live in the home of a widow, the widow at Zarephath. It was a time of drought. The widow and her son were starving and expecting to die. But Elijah did a miracle in their midst, taking a handful of grain and a small container of oil and making a jar of meal that did not run out until the drought ended.
Following this, tragically, the widow’s only son becomes ill. He grows worse and worse, and finally stops breathing. The poor widow strikes out at Elijah, as if somehow this was his fault.
But Elijah had no desire to strike back. This woman had hosted him for some time. Now it was his turn to help her. “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took the boy from her arms, carried him to his own bedroom, and laid him on the bed. Then Elijah 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!”
And the writer of I Kings tells us, “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!’”
From this the woman knew with certainty, that Elijah was a prophet sent from God.
Luke’s story is a little different, but has similarities. Jesus and his disciples are visiting a town called Nain. A large crowd accompanies them. As they approach the town gate, they come upon a funeral procession. This is nothing like we do today, with our funeral hearses and lines of cars driving out to the cemetery. No, a body is being carried out--the body of a widow’s only son. Jesus did not know this woman but when he saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Do not weep.” Then he went up and touched the bier upon which the body laid, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” And miraculously this young man who was dead sat up and began to talk, and Jesus, like Elijah, gave him back to his mother. Luke tells us that the people who observed this “were all filled with fear”, understandably, but nevertheless “glorified God.” ‘A great prophet has appeared among us,’ they said.
As I think about both of these miraculous accounts, there are three things that jump out at me. First, there is tremendous grief. Both of the women in these stories are widows. They had lost their husbands to death. Some of you know the pain of that in your hearts, the death of a spouse. You’ve been there. The emptiness. The loneliness. The fear of the future. The life adjustments that have to be made, even though you don’t want to have to make them.
But it gets worse. In both cases, these women also saw their sons die. Today, if we find out about a parent who has lost their only child and is a widow or widower, we grieve doubly for that person, male or female. Facing one of these life events is daunting. To experience both would be more than many of us could bear .
Some of you are probably familiar with Eric Clapton, the Grammy Award winning English guitarist, singer and composer. Clapton is one of the most influential musicians of the rock era. He has been inducted an unprecedented three times into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
On a warm spring day in March of 1991 Eric Clapton received a phone call from his wife, Lori. In a frantic voice she told him that their four and a half year old son, Connor, had just accidentally fallen to his death after crawling out of an open window of their 53rd floor Manhattan apartment. Clapton could not believe what he was hearing and rushed over the ten blocks to find paramedic equipment everywhere, ambulances, and police cars. Only then did he begin to realize with a sinking heart, “Oh my God, it is true.”
Months later he was to say in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, “After it sunk in that my son had died . . . it’s funny, but I really didn’t feel anything; I went blank. I just turned to stone and wanted to go away. I mean there was no way I could have ever prepared for what had happened. But in time I found that I couldn’t avoid feeling the pain of Connor’s death. I had to go through the suffering.”
Out of his suffering, Clapton turned to his music and wrote a very personal song to express his grief . . . his struggle to live with the loss of his son . . . his yearning to know peace in his life again. It became a popular hit. It is called, “Tears in Heaven,” and its lyrics speak of Clapton’s search for the healing of his shattered heart. These are the words he wrote to his son:
“Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
Would you hold my hand, if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong to carry on, ’cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven.”
The last words of the song are these:
“Beyond the door, there’s peace for sure,
and I know, there’ll be no more tears in heaven.”
These stories are both filled with that kind of grief, widows who lost their only sons.
But these stories are also filled with great compassion. These widows were especially vulnerable because they not only lost their husbands, but their only sons. The loss of their sons meant that there was nothing in their future except a life of poverty, isolation, and misery. These grieving widows were extremely vulnerable because of their grief and because they didn’t have any men in their lives to protect them and take care of them.
But in neither case were they left alone. Elijah took action, cried out to the Lord, and prayed that this child’s life might be revived. Jesus saw this grieving woman in all of her pain and, the lesson says, “had compassion for her.” The message is that no matter what pain or grief we encounter we are never abandoned, but God is there to reach out and touch us with love and compassion.
Years ago a man was traveling by ship with his young daughter across the ocean. Earlier that particular Sunday he had preached a sermon about God’s love. It had been a very difficult service to preach, because he was newly widowed. He was standing against the rail of the ship, looking out at the vast and magnificent ocean, when his daughter asked him if God loved them as much as they had loved her late mother. “Of course He does,” answered her father. “There is absolutely nothing bigger and all-consuming than God’s love for us. It’s the biggest thing there is!”
The little girl pressed on for more information, wanting to know exactly how big God’s love was. Finally her father with great tenderness said, “Well, look across the sea as far as you can. Look up and down and all around. God’s love stretches around to cover all of that; above the blue sky and deeper than the deepest part of the ocean underneath us.”
The little girl pondered for a minute and replied, “And to think Daddy, we’re right in the middle of it.” And we are. We’re right in the middle of God’s love. There’s no time God’s love is not with us, and many have experienced God’s compassion in especially strong ways in the most difficult of times. As Jesus looked on this grieving widow’s pain and had compassion, so we believe he comes to us in our times of deepest need.
And finally, I think this lesson presents us with the challenge to be life giving, even as both Elijah and Jesus gave life back to these two widows. Now I’m not talking about raising the dead. I don’t think that’s in our power. But I am talking about being compassionate and loving towards others, bringing life when there appears so often to be only death. I wish we knew more about the widow from our gospel today. I wonder how much her life changed after her encounter with Jesus. I want to find out if she ever met other widows and if she did, did she have compassion for them in a new way with a new understanding? As followers of Jesus, we have the understanding that the compassion and love we have for one another comes out of the compassion and love we experience from Jesus himself.
Jesus met the widow in her need and in her vulnerable situation. As Jesus meets us in our vulnerable places, we meet each other. Unfortunately, life can get pretty rough. The phone call of the sudden death, the loss of a job, the news of cancer, the broken relationship, the addiction, and other things in life that stop us in our tracks and bring us to our knees. That’s when we need compassion. That’s when we can share compassion and give back life, even as Elijah and Jesus gave back life to the widows. As Christ has had compassion for us, out of that core, we are challenged to share compassion and to give life to one another. I hope you will do that, for when you do, you are truly bringing life from death.
Funerals and death are not the happiest of topics for a beautiful summer morning. In the lessons there is tremendous grief, as two widows lose their only sons. But there is also great love and compassion, the promise of a God who is there in our times of greatest need. And there is the clear challenge for us to be like Elijah and Jesus, life givers in a world where so many are hurting. As we have experienced God’s love and compassion, let us faithfully share that so others might rise up and live. Amen