First Reading 1 Kings 17:8-16
8 The word of the Lord came to [Elijah,] saying, 9 “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 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.” 13 Elijah said to her, “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, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15 She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Psalm Psalm 146
1 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 3 Put not your trust in rulers, in mortals in whom there is no help. 4 When they breathe their last, they return to earth, and in that day their thoughts perish. 5 Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help, whose hope is in the Lord their God; 6 who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; who keeps promises forever; 7 who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger. The Lord sets the captive free. 8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord cares for the stranger; the Lord sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked. 10 The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, throughout all generations. Hallelujah!
Second Reading Hebrews 9:24-28
24 Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Gospel Mark 12:38-44
38 As [Jesus] taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” 41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Anxiety
Someone has defined the difference between prosperity, recession, and depression like this: During prosperity, you’re annoyed because the dog and cat won’t eat the expensive canned food you buy for them. In a recession, you’re delighted the dog and cat won’t eat the expensive canned food, and you hope they remain omnivorous until things get better. To be certain, everyone experiences anxiety, in varying degrees, throughout our lives.
In times of economic uncertainty, people suffer from anxiety associated with food, shelter, and long-term sustainability. In school we studied the Great Depression and the effects it had on the citizens of this country. I can remember my grandparents, who lived through the depression, talk about the lack of jobs, of fathers abandoning their families to travel to other parts of this country to find work, of food lines, and of the people displaced because they couldn’t pay their rent or mortgages. The more fortunate lived on farms where they could grow or raise their own food, but they still experienced some level of anxiety from the lack of funds needed to buy the things they couldn’t raise or grow.
My mother, born during the Great Depression, was part of the migration from Oklahoma during the “Dust Bowl” days, moved with her family to the West in order for her father to find work. Grandpa Hargis loaded the entire family in one car and drove until he ran out of money in Buckeye, Arizona. Today, overall, things are much better in this country and we’re not seeing the same problems we did between 1929 and 1939.
This doesn’t mean that we aren’t seeing poverty, and its associated anxiety, in our country today. All the way back to Old Testament days, to the time of the desert wanderings, God reminded the Israelites that there would always be the poor in the land (Deuteronomy 5:11). And in the New Testament, Jesus reminds us that, “you will always have the poor with you” (Matthew 26:11). Today, when it comes to how we talk about poverty, we use terms like food insecurities, the temporarily displaced, and the economically challenged, to describe the various ways in which poverty affects our citizens.
In many places in our country, we have an epidemic of homelessness. This is caused by a variety of reasons, weather related disasters, drug addiction, mental illness, economic factors, as well as the result of uncontrolled immigration. And the anxiety people feel when they’re experiencing hunger, homelessness, and poverty, manifests itself in a variety of ways. Some have a general feeling of helplessness. Some look to chemical substances to escape, others turn to crime, or they join criminal organizations. As I pointed out a moment ago, these problems aren’t anything new, poverty has been with us since Biblical times.
In our Old Testament and Gospel readings for today, we find the story of two ladies who knew about the effects of poverty. Both were widows. Remember, in Biblical times there was no government welfare system. The poor were dependent on society, on the Mosaic laws that governed reaping and harvesting, or their families to provide for them. Widows and orphans were especially vulnerable. The first widow we encounter, in our lessons for today, was out by the town gate one day gathering sticks. A stranger approached her and asked her for some water to drink. As she was going for the water, he called out, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” This was more than the widow could handle.
“As surely as the LORD your God lives,” the widow replied, “I don’t have any bread–only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home that I may make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it–and die.”
Think about the desperate situation she was in. It’s hard for us to fully comprehend the anxiety and hopelessness that this kind of poverty brings, but there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people in our world today who, like her, are just as desperate. They don’t know for certain where their next meal is coming from.
In a report from Haiti this week, gangs are threatening the compounds the churches supported by SMI operate from. As you know, almost three years ago, the government of Haiti collapsed, and gangs took over the streets. Stronger gangs drove out the weaker ones, and the weaker ones have been moving across the country taking over town after town. Now these gangs are in the area where SMI operates, and people are fleeing the cities with only the clothes on their backs and what they can carry. The churches have taken in as many as they can, but the compounds are now full, and there is a shortage of supplies. The people are afraid. They have nothing in which to support themselves and the gangs control the streets. They, like the widow here in 1 Kings, are anxious and their situation appears to be hopeless.
The people of Haiti need a word from God, much like the widow of Zarephath needed to hear the words from the prophet Elijah. Elijah came to Zarephath at the direction of God, knowing that God was a bountiful, giving God. If you were to turn back to the opening verses of this chapter, Elijah had been fed to this point by ravens whom God had commanded to bring him bread and meat, morning and night, until the brook of Cherith dried up. Now God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath.
Elijah would have appreciated a story about George Mueller–that saint of a man who supported his orphanage exclusively on prayer. Mueller never directly asked anyone for a contribution. He simply prayed to God about his circumstances. Someone observed, “It looks like a hand to-mouth proposition.” “Yes, it is,” Mueller responded, “But it is God’s hand and my mouth.” Elijah said to this despondent woman, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread…and bring it to me. Then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’”
The widow did as Elijah said. And “…there was food many days for Elijah and for the woman and her household. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, as the Lord had said.” Two things are needed when we feel anxious, we need to listen to God’s word, and we need to obey in faith, trusting that God will supply our daily bread. Our second widow, in our New Testament reading, is known to all of us.
It’s a well-known story. Jesus is sitting in the Temple, across from the collection chest, watching the people as they come to bring their tithe and offerings. The widow, seemingly unseen by everyone but Jesus, made her way quietly through the crowd to offer what she had to God. Some of the wealthier worshippers that day were making a spectacle of their giving, throwing auspicious amounts of money into the temple treasury. Since the offering container was made of bronze, the temple shekels used would cause the bronze container to ring, according to the amount thrown in. It was a display of wealth meant to demonstrate the affluence of the one making the contribution.
Shyly this faithful widow put in two very small copper coins. This was the least one could put in the treasury: Rabbinic law forbade putting in a single coin. To put this into perspective, think of this in terms of the US Dollar. If you made $1 for a day’s wage, what this woman give, in comparison was 2 of our pennies, it was all she had. There is a saying, “I’m so poor, I don’t have 2 nickels to rub together.” All this woman had was two pennies, 1/5 of the definition of poor, and she gave it to God. But this story isn’t about what you and I think, is it?
Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything–all she had to live on.” Two widows–caught in the throes of poverty. Both have every right to feel anxious. Their futures were uncertain at best, bleak and hopeless at worst.
Today in Western North Carolina, there are a good many people who are putting their lives back together after Hurricane Helene. Sadly, a good many of these people had no insurance. One story I heard this past week tells of a family of 8 who was evicted from their home before the storm and were living in their car. During the storm their car was swept away by flood waters. God spoke through someone and now they at least have a travel trailer to live in. It might not sound like much to you and me, but to them, it’s God’s word of hope. Hope for a family who literally lost it all. But thanks to the generosity of someone God had blessed, anxiety was replaced by relief and hope for a new start.
To this point it would be easy for me to continue to follow the money trail, as it were, and make this a sermon about stewardship, but that isn’t my purpose this morning. Today, I want us to focus on the anxiety we’ve all experienced and of how we, as Children of God, deal with the worries of the day. And the first thing we need to do when anxiety fills our lives is to never give up. That’s what the first widow was ready to do.
As God was sending Elijah to the widow of Zarephath, she had resolved to simply go home and make preparations for herself and her son to die. That’s about as desperate as a person can become. On December 20, 1986, Sir Harry Platt, 100, died at his home in Manchester, England. Platt was unusual not just because he lived to be 100, nor because he was considered to be a founder of modern orthopedic surgery, nor that he was a president of the Royal College of Surgeons and the International Federation of Surgical Colleges. What was unusual about Platt was that as a child he was a chronic invalid.
Platt suffered from serious bone and joint disabilities. Imagine how easily Platt might have become embittered and felt sorry only for himself. Instead, knowing the pain he himself endured, he decided to help others. At an early age he learned one of the great secrets of life: Don’t give up. Turn your scar into a star! And he didn’t. They say that was part of the genius of tennis star, Boris Becker. At seventeen he was the youngest player ever to win at Wimbledon. He described his most important secret like this: “I never give up! I never give up in a match, in a game, or when going after a shot.”
Becker’s daring style of play is the epitome of a never-say-die mentality. With dirty knees and bloody elbows, he would leap and race after shots many others would have given up on. He knew that if he kept giving his all, even when a game wasn’t going well, good things were likely to happen. Satan will use every tool and situation he can to get us to give up, to give in, especially when all seems lost. But God has a word of hope for each of us, which brings me to the second thing we must do, believe in God. In times of difficulty, in times when our anxiety is running high, this can be a very difficult thing to do.
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once described a familiar boyhood experience. He was being taught to swim by his father. Splashing wildly with both arms and kicking with one leg, he called to his father, “Look at me, look at me. I’m swimming!” But, says Kierkegaard, all the time he was touching the bottom with his big toe. Many of us are like that in our faith. “I have faith!” we declare, but it’s an untested faith. At best, it’s a tentative faith. We keep one toe on the bottom and claim we’re letting go and letting God! It is an enormous step to abandon our fears and trust God. In an issue of The Upper Room, the Rev. Dr. William Willimon tells about taking his four-year-old son to the local YMCA.
Dr. Willimon had taken his son to the YMCA for swimming lessons. Initially, he had some misgivings about this. He wondered how much a four-year-old could learn about swimming. To his surprise, the boy’s teacher said, “I wish we could have gotten him a little earlier. It’s so much easier to teach younger children to swim.” “Younger children?” Willimon asked in disbelief. “Oh, we like to get them before they can walk,” she replied. “Don’t forget, a baby is in water for nine months before it’s born. Also, babies are still very trusting and will allow you to do more with them.” We must trust God: Remember Jesus told His disciples, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
Along life’s journey, we lose that child-like ability to trust–to rest our concerns on God. If we can assume that the first widow was a worshiper of God, then before Elijah arrived, she had quit trusting God. But God was already at work and was sending Elijah to not only give her hope, but to provide for her throughout the remainder of the famine. His message, trust God. This brings me to the final thing we need to see in these readings, someone is always watching.
Unbeknownst to the widow in our Gospel reading, Jesus was watching as she dropped in her two small coins. I believe we can glean from her actions, that she, unlike the widow of Zarephath, had not quit trusting. Those two coins were all she had in the world, and she was willing to turn them over to God. That’s faith! No wonder Jesus praised her. The point is, even amid our uncertainties, even as we’re feeling anxious about what’s happening in our lives, we can take comfort in the fact that someone is watching; God always sees the situation we’re in. And just as importantly, God is already at work preparing the way to provide for our daily bread. Remember, it was at God’s command that Elijah came to this widow and helped her through the drought.
Let me close this morning with something Jesus said about anxiety during His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matthew 6:25-34).
We can learn important lessons about not giving in to anxiety and hopelessness from the widows in our lessons for today: Don’t give up, trust in God, and God is always watching. We also have a word of hope from God: Jesus tells us that our heavenly Father is watching and knows what we need. And what are we to do? “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Amen