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/But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” -1 Kings 17:12
So Elijah is living through a terrible, terrible time of drought. God tells him to go hide himself by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan, which he does. He drinks from the wadi, and morning and evening, ravens bring Elijah bread and meat to eat. But the rains still do not come, and the wadi dries up. So God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath, and there he will find a certain widow who will feed him. He follows God’s command and finds the widow near the gate to the city, gathering sticks. He says to the widow, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” And she apparently goes to fetch some water for him from somewhere. But as she was going to bring it, he called to her and also said, ‘Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ To this the widow replies, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
So things are pretty dire. And the widow is feeling the stress of scarcity and does not believe she has much to share. But, as Elijah shows her, nothing is impossible with God. We’ll read the whole story this Sunday.
We live in a world of scarcity when even when we have what we need, it can feel like there just isn’t enough - enough time, enough money, enough _______ (you fill in the blank.) What if we trusted that God is with us and watching over us and providing us with whatever we need to be the people God is calling us to be? What if we trusted this is true even in times that are difficult or scary? Even when we are suffering or the world seems to be in chaos? What might that kind of radical trust do for us and for our world? How can we practice that kind of trust? I hope you’ll come to ponder such questions and to celebrate the abundant love and grace of God at St. James this Sunday.
Our readings for this Sunday are HERE. Note that in ordinary time, we are using “Track 2”