June 9, 2013
Lauralei Kraski
SERMON
I was very blessed, it seems, to have been given the readings that were dealt to me about the widow of Zarephath and Nain (NAY-IN), you see, they have very symbolic similarities. In both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel, we see a widow facing suffering and even death, yet she is saved by the grace of God in her darkest hour. Why? That is the question that we as Christians, as humans, are always asking, isn’t it? Why? Why did God choose to help these widows and their sons? Why not help someone else? Why did they deserve that compassion? There are so many obstacles that we face every day; so many seemingly uphill battles. And we have so many questions regarding these battles! Why do we even try? Why are we here? Why? I can see you all now looking up at me, silently pondering, “Does she really have the answer?” Well no. No I don’t. Well then, why did I waste my time with that string of rhetorical questions? I believe that With God, every answer- every non-answer- is worth the question: the simple act of asking defines us and can even shape our lives.
So… why did God choose to help the widow in Zarephath and the widow in Nain and their sons? Historically speaking, it is common knowledge that women were not highly regarded past the concept of motherhood. They gained value through marriage; a husband meant survival even if it also meant living essentially as a piece of property. Also, looking at the sons’ positions; they were not really respected either. They were, after all, children who were not always loved and cherished as they are today. They were a financial and time-consuming burden. The sons were no better off than their widow mothers. These widows were at a societal low: female, no husband, no money, no nothing. In terms of our human definition of importance, these women were not worth a sideways glance; but God felt compassion for them. Why?
When I first read these passages, I immediately thought of a lesson that I have learned well this past year. Everything is connected. Some people call it Karma, some call it fate, some people call it my obsession with the movie V for Vendetta, I call it God. “What goes around comes back around” is only a small part of this lesson; the lesson at surface value. ‘The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.” God sees all the connections of life; like a builder of a domino line. Many of those connections involve regular people; even people who are not what we consider important. No matter what status in life each domino comes from, they are all aligned together to make a pattern. We, as the dominos, can not always sense the trigger that lies farther up or down the line; we can only see what is immediate. But God sees the design and places us accordingly. Yes these analogies are all well and good, but how do they apply in real life? One example that I lived where I saw the domino effect on a small scale occurred about 2 months ago. It was a rainy school morning and I was waiting anxiously in the car for my little brother David; we were ALMOST running late for school. He had just recently broken his wrist and was clumsily learning the awkward ways of the cast as he was locking the front door and taking forever to do so. I was sitting in the car watching him fumble about… I could have gotten back out and taken 30 seconds to help him myself. But Id idn’t. He finally got in the car and I drove us to school; I was cautious due to the rain but I was not cautious enough obviously. We got into an accident that morning; no one was hurt, it was very minor! Once I cleared my head, that little voice that comes up in those moments when you know you have done something wrong started talking to me; not about the wreck itself but the real reason it happened at all. Yes, I could have looked more closely and been more tentative in my decision-making that morning; trust me I am not avoiding my fault in the accident! But there was something more. If I had gotten out of the car to help David lock the door that morning and thus delayed us by 30 seconds, we could have avoided the wreck and all that trouble! If I had done the compassionate thing, even though it was an act that seemed at the time inopportune and unimportant, the dominoes could have fallen differently. Later on, as I had more time to ponder over what had happened, it got me thinking about something else. What if my being in that minor accident kept me from a much more dangerous accident… or someone else from a dangerous accident? If I could see farther down the line of dominoes, I would be able to tell you. It got me thinking… how far does my influence carry as one domino? What if I unknowingly altered someone else’s life? Why me? I know this seems silly that I am blowing a tiny accident into a philosophical argument; call it my own personal coping mechanism, but again, with God every answer or non-answer is worth the question. The point; however, is not that I am special, that I am God’s favorite, that I am the key to life in Knoxville, but that, like the widows, I am part of the design. We all are. So it was not that God chose to relieve these women because they were perfect or because they were royalty, but because everyone matters. Everything has a purpose, no matter how small.
To the widow who was starving in Zarephath, who had accepted her closeness to death with her son who was also starving, God sent Elijah. He didn’t send him with bread in his hand nor water to give to the widow; Elijah came empty handed and offered nothing except the blessing of God. In that moment, when Elijah said: “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…”, the widow could have done one of several things. Like many of us today if faced with a similar situation, she could have said, “Leave me alone, creep and let me die in peace.” Or she could have said, “You know what would be great? If you gave me some money and I bought us some food and water with that!” Or she could have done what she ended up doing; going as the Lord asked and doing the compassionate thing. She shared her last bit of food; a difficult task at an inopportune moment with nothing but compassion and love. Elijah was a domino; had he ignored the Lord’s request to go to Zarephath, the widow and her son would have perished. The widow was also a domino; had she ignored Elijah’s request and God’s mercy, she and her son both would have starved to death. The reading ends shortly after assuring us that the meal and the jar of oil never failed. It is up to us to imagine what good things that widow and her son did as a result of their salvation. Did they go proclaim the word of God and his mercy to others? Did the boy marry and raise an entire family of good people who loved others and opened up new ways to love Christ? Did the widow find peace in her life through her faith in God and a new companionship with grace? We can only imagine.
To the widow in Nain who lost her only son, God sent Jesus. He could have seen the grieving mother and town around her and simply walked on with the excuse “The boy is already dead, there is nothing I can do.”. Instead, Jesus stopped and felt compassion for the widow. We don’t know if she was sad due to the misery of losing her son or due to the fear that as a widow and no son to care for her, she could slip into poverty and die alone. No matter what the reason, Jesus told her just as Elijah did, “Do not be afraid.” Jesus brought her son back to life. Again, the story ends before we can see what the widow does with her gift from God. As a domino, she could have triggered a new wave of faith in God, in life, and in love that would travel throughout the town. Her son no doubt brought his mother happiness again; as he may have to others as well! We can only imagine. Why did God choose the widows? No matter how small, insignificant, or unimportant, each of us is a child of God with a purpose.
But those why questions keep ringing in our ears; those unanswerable questions that have plagued us for centuries. why do we even try?Well, I attended church last week and upon hearing the Bishop’s wonderful sermon, I found part of the answer. In his sermon, the bishop last week said, and I am paraphrasing, “What if our entrance into heaven was dependent on the word of the grocery store cashier, or the waitress at a local restaurant? Would you still get in?” We should try because we should love every single person; no matter how unimportant they may seem. As for the question of why are we here?... Could it be, unselfishly, that we are here for the sake of others? Is it not true that when you have a line of dominoes, and you remove one from its space, the effect, the falling, the design, fails? Sometimes one domino changes everything for the others. We see this when someone we love becomes very sick or even in the gravest of circumstances dies. AS a church, we have experienced loss in the recent weeks in this manner. We say in those times that we feel there is a hole in our hearts; we feel incomplete for a time. God’s design, God’s plan lives in each of us; it tells us what is right, it is the little voice that arises when you know you have done something wrong. It is our memory, it is our life essence. Removing one domino; creating that hole, yes can be frightening to face. When we experience a loss that is ground-shaking enough, we feel that nothing can fill that hole. I debated inserting this next part into the sermon at all because it is very personal and I am not normally one to come out with such things in front of others. But that little voice in my heart has been saying since I began this process, “You never know who could be listening and what they may need.” When I was younger, my father passed away. He was an idol to me and I found that I was incomplete for many years. There were times when I did not want to continue living; the feeling of him being gone and never coming back was too much. Then I started dancing more; I joined the dance company that I am in now; and though it is unbelievably difficult sometimes, it became my home. I met new people in new places. I found new talents I never knew I had. I experienced a very abnormal life! That hole that occurred when my biggest domino left my life was filled! What if I hadn’t gone on living? I would have missed out on so much. In the time since my dad died, I have danced for 12 years, travelled to Bolivia with my church, taught children, taught adults, survived high school, met someone who showed me what true love really looks like, and found beauty in the world in far away places. So, I know why I am here and I know why I try. “Love thy neighbor as thyself”- we are taught this because every domino is important. In the greatest design, we all fit and we are found and we are healed through the goodness and grace that we pass along to the next domino; a chance encounter; a coincidence; all fabricated together into you and me and all of us. Uniting us as a common people and uniting us with God.