God Filling Empty Vessels

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

The land of Israel has seen the Kingdom that God had established as His people, Israel fall apart. The Kingdom of David was spilt into two, the North and the South. The people were turning their back on God and His promises - as they had begun to worship other gods. And in that day, God appointed prophets to be His mouthpieces to deliver important messages, messages of hope to a burden people, messages of judgement to people who need to hear that. This is when Elijah comes on the scene. Elijah delivered the message earlier that there would be a drought because of the people’s turn to idolatry. And in the midst of this drought, God decides to send His prophet to a city outside of Israel - which was also feeling the effects of this drought. God says to Elijah, “Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”And Elijah hears the word of the Lord and went. Elijah was leaving his homeland, he was leaving something familiar, he was leaving for a place not knowing exactly who he was going to meet, but he took God at His Word and got up arose. Elijah as he was traveling and approaching the city gate, there was a woman there gathering sticks. This is a God ordained appointment. Elijah doesn’t have a picture of who he will be looking for. He isn’t given the woman’s name who will take care of him. But Elijah in faith calls out to this woman before him, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And she was bringing the water, Elijah speaks up and asks, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” Elijah hears the woman say back to him, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, I only have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in jug.” In other words, I have nothing to give, I have nothing ready. And throughout their conversation this woman reveals that she is preparing her and her son’s last meal. She tells and reveals to Elijah - I’m going to use whatever I have left bake it for my son and then we will die. Elijah responds delivering her God’s Word of promise. Do not fear, go do and what you have said you are going to do, but first bring me a cake and then afterward make something for yourself and your son. And Elijah adds this Word of promise from God - ‘For thus says the Lord, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.”This woman is here faced with a decision, does she trust in the words of Elijah or not? Does she believe what he is saying to her or will she prioritize her son and her over the prophet standing before her? Will this non-Jewish woman believe in the words of promise from the God of Israel? Although this woman shows incredible faith as she went and listened to the words of Elijah. And just like God promised her jar of flour and her jug of oil did not become empty. We have this woman running on low, down to the very last crumbs of her food supply and she responds in faith to the Word of God given to her and God is faithful to what He has said. For this woman in the middle of famine, for Elijah also relying on God we see God causing something that was empty to be filled with life.

Imagine with someone who doing their best to try and make it in this world. They are doing everything that can to provide for their family. This person is working two different jobs to keep everything going, two different jobs to try and keep up the appearance and the lifestyle that they everyone to recognize. And after working all day and sometimes even into the night or evenings, they have parenting responsibilities. This person has to drive their kids here to this sporting event, that school thing, the extracurricular thing that everyone else is going to. And by the time the work week and school week is done, this person feels like everything is spent; they feel like they have nothing else to give. They don’t want to spend time doing things that other people, but only things that they want to do hoping to find enough energy, enough strength, enough joy to be filled up again to tackle the next long week ahead. It was one day after an extremely long week with the schedule full of meetings, a close friend of this extremely busy person, called them up and said, “Hey do you want to come to church with me this weekend - we are starting this new Bible study series or we have this really great music in all of our services, or the young hip pastor is really cool - you’ll like him. And after some convincing, and after a long time of asking, this extremely busy came to church for the first time. And as they sat next to each other in church, the one who invited kept glancing over making sure their friend could follow along, or as they gathered in the narthex they attempted to come introduce their friend to all the fun, outgoing church people. And after all that church experience - the friend who invited their busy friend to church asked, “Did you like it?” “What was your favorite part?” Their busy friend replied, I finally heard the comfort of Jesus that everyone is talking about. I finally heard clearly, the promises that Jesus gives even a broken person like me. I finally heard clearly, the gospel message. God through His Word caused a person who was empty to be filled with life.

Maybe there are moments in our lives when we feel like we have nothing to give - like the widow from Zarephath, someone who is clinging to their last crumb of bread. Maybe there are moments in our lives when we feel ourselves torn so many different directions, that we feel void of purpose. Or perhaps there are moments when feel the seriousness of our sin, we reflect on how we lived this past week - how we haven’t lived up to the Word of God this past week. Maybe there are moments when we feel distant, we feel the weight of current circumstances and situations and those feel stronger than God’s Word and His power. Perhaps there are situations when we feel in a season of famine from the Words of Life God gives. But even in these difficult times, our Lord reminds us to look to and cling to the work of Jesus. Its through the cross, that is now empty - where you and me find life that has no end. It’s through the work of Jesus - when He rose from the tomb leaving it empty - where we have the assurance that His promises for forgiveness and life for us our real because death couldn’t hold Him! In our moments of emptiness or famine - our Lord invites to be just like the woman, the outsider, the one who God at His Word trusting that He has done it all for you. He invites to look to Him to take comfort in His Words of life! Its through His Word, its through the working of the Holy SPirit in our lives, where God take us, you and me, empty vessels and He fills us life, life abundant.

May you and me today, people of Bethany continue to have eyes of faith to see and ears to hear the power of God taking Him at His Word, that He doesn’t leave us empty - but He shares abundant grace with us! In our lives He takes something that once empty, and gives us life.

Now may the grace of God, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding may it guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.