One Day at a Time

All Saints which we celebrated at the beginning of the service and commemorate each year after Reformation is the day we remember all those saints who have gone on before us in this life. A Saint isn’t a Mother Theresa like we typically think about when we hear the word saint. Well Mother Theresa is a saint, and so are the 12 disciples and Paul the Apostle, but so are you and me.

Martin Luther redefined the word saint to mean everyone, not just those who were the elite of the faith. He also called all of us sinners. We are all simultaneously a saint and a sinner. We are saints because we are always forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. We are also always sinners becuase we are in constant need of being forgiven for the sins that we commit. We are forgiven sinners in Luther’s eyes. So each of us is a saint and each person that we have lost in our lives are the saints who have gone on before us.

It is never easy losing someone we love like a spouse or a parent. There are days when I wish I could pick up the phone and call my mom and ask her for advice. Instead I pray now, but that doesn’t negate the sadness of not having her physically present. You pile that on to the hardships of everyday life or a pandemic or a drought and it makes things that much harder.

It’s a drought that we find Elijah the prophet and the whole land going through in our story for today. It is also during that drought that Elijah is sent to Zarephath where he meets a widow and her son.

Now, there are some things that we should know about this encounter and the background to it. The whole reason there is a drought commanded by God is that King Ahab wasn’t a good follower of God and he married Jezebel who was a worshipper of Baal. Ahab built two altars to Baal in the land which greatly upset God. Baal was primarily known as the storm god. So in response to this inviting Baal worship into the land God declares there will be no rain, effectively declaring that you may want to worship Baal and as much as you pray to this storm God, there will be no rain until I say so.

The other main thing we should know about the background is that the land of Sidon and Zarephath are outside the lands of both the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom of Judah and is actually right in the middle of the land that Jezebel is from. Which means that it is right in the middle of Baal worshippers. This is made clear when Elijah asks for water and some bread the widow responds by saying that “by the Lord your God,” not the Lord our God but your God. I don’t think this widow is very happy about Elijah’s presence at this moment because he is asking for hospitality in a moment when she feels she is going to make her final meal for her and her son before they die, and the whole reason they are going to die is becuase the God of Elijah is the one who brought this drought upon the land. She has no husband so she is relying on who knows what, but probably not much which is why we find her in this state in this moment.

Remember how I said it can be hard when we’ve lost someone we love, and that other factors don’t help? This widow is going through a major hardship on top of and probably becuase her husband is gone and this drought has literally dried up every reserve she had for her and her son.

But as we see the Lord didn’t let the jar of meal empty nor did the jug of oil ever dry up. Each day she made cakes of bread pr0bably expecting to be the last and yet it kept on giving. They all put their trust in God and in one another and each day there was enough for that day. This immediately reminded me of the manna that came down from heaven each day for the Israelites a they wandered in the wilderness as they made their way to the Promised Land. Enough was given for each day.

Then as if it were not enough then God miraculously brings her son back to life through Elijah. Now I don’t know if the widow was starting to believe in the Lord through the daily bread that they received or not, but it is clear that she is very easily goes back to blaming God for this new loss she is experiencing in the death of her son on top of the death of her son and the constant not knowing if they are going to have enough food to eat. It was too much for her in that moment and she lets Elijah and God have it for all that she is going through. To me, that is a totally human reaction. It doesn’t mean that it’s right, but it does mean that she is just like you and me when we experience loss and don’t what else to say or do in the moment.

At the word of Elijah God listens and the son is brought back to life and whether it was just this act or a combination of this act plus all the days that they lived by that basically empty jar and jug, but the widow finally declares that what Elijah says is true and that he is a man of God. I also feel that this a her way of declaring her faith in God as the one true God.

When God makes sure that the oil and meal never run out it does remind me of the manna for the Israelites and it also reminds me how Jesus reminds us to ask God for our daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer. Which to me shows just how much God truly does provide for our daily needs and that we should walk daily with God as God walks daily with us. God provided just enough for Elijah, the widow and her son for each day, but he provided enough for each day. In the widow’s loss of her husband, whom I’m going to assume was a saint in her life, God provided enough for her each day. It may have been represented as oil and meal, but God provided for them each and every day.

Then when God brings her son back, her only other person in her life, it is a miracle, but it also says to me that there are times when God does so much more for us than we can ever imagine. God provides not only for our daily bread, but God goes above and beyond that as well. God is a God of abundance and gives abundantly to us. Which is why I truly believe that when Luther says that we are simultaneously saint and sinner, that is the greatest sign of abundance of love that I can think of. Despite our sins, and all the ways that we fail to recognize the abundance of God, God still forgives us and calls us saints, and children, and a part of God’s family. No matter the hardship, the loss, the pain we experience in this life we have a God who provides daily and abundantly. We are all saints in God’s eyes because of God’s love as given to us through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.