Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
As I said a couple of weeks ago, before I went to seminary, I spent sometime as
an intern at a church. One of the projects I took on was starting a 20s and 30s
program.
And no, that’s not a pitch to start one here. I mostly helped start one when I was an intern because I saw an opening for it at the church.
And an opening there was. Before I knew it, we had people volunteering to host us for dinner and a core membership.
And my time before starting seminary got shorter and shorter. And I got worried. What would happen after I was gone? Would the program continue without me? And most importantly, who would take it over?
As I started getting anxious, my boss and mentor gave me some great advice. Pray.
Pray about the program. And not just that it would continue, but that God would use it for His purposes. She told me to pray that no matter what, that God’s will be done.
And so I prayed and I prayed. And I stopped worrying about it so much.
Then one day, one of the young women in our group came up to me and said she would be willing to take over the group. She would be willing to make sure it continued on.
At the end of the day, this program wasn’t going to succeed because of anything I did. Or even because I started it. Because it was never mine. It was God’s to work with. And so only He could do anything about it. And so I had to trust Him and no one else, including myself.
This message that I learned from my own experience is present in all our readings today: to trust in God because He is the only one we can turn to for our help.
And no, that’s not a pitch to start one here. I mostly helped start one when I was an intern because I saw an opening for it at the church.
And an opening there was. Before I knew it, we had people volunteering to host us for dinner and a core membership.
And my time before starting seminary got shorter and shorter. And I got worried. What would happen after I was gone? Would the program continue without me? And most importantly, who would take it over?
As I started getting anxious, my boss and mentor gave me some great advice. Pray.
Pray about the program. And not just that it would continue, but that God would use it for His purposes. She told me to pray that no matter what, that God’s will be done.
And so I prayed and I prayed. And I stopped worrying about it so much.
Then one day, one of the young women in our group came up to me and said she would be willing to take over the group. She would be willing to make sure it continued on.
At the end of the day, this program wasn’t going to succeed because of anything I did. Or even because I started it. Because it was never mine. It was God’s to work with. And so only He could do anything about it. And so I had to trust Him and no one else, including myself.
This message that I learned from my own experience is present in all our readings today: to trust in God because He is the only one we can turn to for our help.
And we see that very clearly in our lessons from 1 Kings and the Gospel. In both
readings, we have a young boy, the son of a widow, who has died.
The fact that it is a widow whose son has died in both cases is very important.
Because in each case it means not just the death of one person, but of two. In ancient Israel, a widow relied on her sons to take care of her in her old age. So the death of a widow’s son meant the end of her livelihood.
In both cases, there was no one left to rely on. Except God.
With Elijah, that is exactly what we see. We see that God is the only one to turn to. Elijah prays over the boy, and even stretches himself over him. But it takes Elijah asking the Lord to “let this child’s life come into him again” for the boy to be saved.
In the end, Elijah doesn’t do anything. He has to ask God to let His will be done.
For Jesus it is different. He doesn’t have to ask for help. He does it all on his own. All He has to do is command the boy to rise.
This is why the people are seized with fear at what has happened. This is something that has never been done by a human before. Because it can’t be done. It requires one who is greater than any of us. Greater than all of us combined. It requires the work of God. Which is exactly who Jesus is. God as man.
The Psalm tells us this same truth when it says not to put our trust in rulers, but instead trust in God alone. Because there will always be tasks our leaders cannot do. There will always be impossible tasks, like raising the dead to life in which we can only rely on God.
And that is why it is so important in any task we do as the church to make sure that God is at the center. To make sure our Gospel is not of human origin, as Galatians puts it today, but one received through the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. We need to have Jesus as our center, otherwise our task will fail. But with Him, it will flourish.
God can work wonders in this world. He can bring us the people we need to keep our programs going. He can raise the dead to new life in Him, as we see in our readings today and as we profess in our hope in the resurrection. He can succeed where we fail. And He can even transform the heart of a hater like Paul into a believer, as we also hear in Galatians.
The fact that it is a widow whose son has died in both cases is very important.
Because in each case it means not just the death of one person, but of two. In ancient Israel, a widow relied on her sons to take care of her in her old age. So the death of a widow’s son meant the end of her livelihood.
In both cases, there was no one left to rely on. Except God.
With Elijah, that is exactly what we see. We see that God is the only one to turn to. Elijah prays over the boy, and even stretches himself over him. But it takes Elijah asking the Lord to “let this child’s life come into him again” for the boy to be saved.
In the end, Elijah doesn’t do anything. He has to ask God to let His will be done.
For Jesus it is different. He doesn’t have to ask for help. He does it all on his own. All He has to do is command the boy to rise.
This is why the people are seized with fear at what has happened. This is something that has never been done by a human before. Because it can’t be done. It requires one who is greater than any of us. Greater than all of us combined. It requires the work of God. Which is exactly who Jesus is. God as man.
The Psalm tells us this same truth when it says not to put our trust in rulers, but instead trust in God alone. Because there will always be tasks our leaders cannot do. There will always be impossible tasks, like raising the dead to life in which we can only rely on God.
And that is why it is so important in any task we do as the church to make sure that God is at the center. To make sure our Gospel is not of human origin, as Galatians puts it today, but one received through the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. We need to have Jesus as our center, otherwise our task will fail. But with Him, it will flourish.
God can work wonders in this world. He can bring us the people we need to keep our programs going. He can raise the dead to new life in Him, as we see in our readings today and as we profess in our hope in the resurrection. He can succeed where we fail. And He can even transform the heart of a hater like Paul into a believer, as we also hear in Galatians.
So as we go out this week to do the work God has given us to do, we can take comfort in the knowledge that He is there with us. That we can trust Him. And that where we falter, He will lift us up. All we have to do is keep Him as our center. Our foundation.