June 6, 2010

An Unexpected Gift – Life

Celebration of our Lord’s Supper

Luke 7:11-17

Preached by Linda Jo Peters

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
This passage comes at the end of a series of events beginning with Jesus’ reading of Isaiah 61:1-2 at a local synagogue. Jesus declares this is his mission: "to bring good news to the poor, ... to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." The events which follow in chapters 4 – 7 show Jesus doing just that. Including the most amazing of all, raising of the dead.

Luke 7:11-17
11Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” 15The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” 17This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.


SERMON
A woman in ancient Palestine lived much as radical Muslim woman do today. She came into her husband's household as an outsider. Her labor and bearing of children for the family was her only bond to them. Upon the death of her husband, the fragile tie to his family was likely to be broken, unless she had given birth to a son in the household. Her son would become a part of the household in a way that she could never be, and his relationship to the family would bind her to them thus making a place for her. This woman of Nain has not only lost her husband but now her son. The only income she could legally receive was from begging, unless she had a wealthy family that could afford to take her back, she might become homeless. Notice that Jesus has compassion not on the dead man but on his mother. He gives life to her son but the real gift is life to his mother.


Do you know people whose retirement disappeared in a ponsi scheme or the market crash? Do you know someone whose identity was stolen? What did you feel? Compassion? This is what Jesus feels. He might have felt anger at the injustice of the system in which this widow lived. But changing a whole social system takes more time than he had. Instead in his life he sows seeds of compassion that then are lived out in his disciples and eventually most people have come to see that care of “widows and orphans” is a responsibility of the whole community not just the family. That is the nature of change. Some things happen very quickly but real changes of the heart take years, generations, even centuries. Our role as part of the church of Jesus Christ is that we are in it for the long haul. We work for change that we may never see in our life times. Real transformation, long lasting change that brings life takes consistent effort.

Now I know you are not in church to hear more about the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. But if we are Jesus’ disciples we are called to bring life to every situation. Jim Wallis writes:


There is not one answer to this calamity; there are many: corporate responsibility; serious government regulation; public accountability; and real civic mobilization to protect the endangered waters, coasts, species, and people’s livelihoods. But at a deeper level, we literally need a conversion of our habits of the heart, our energy sources, and our lifestyle choices. And somebody will need to lead the way. Who will dare to say that an economy of endless growth must be confronted and converted to an economy of sustainability, to what the Bible calls stewardship. What about the community of faith?  (" A Time for Moral Reckoning” by Jim Wallis Sojourners 06-03-2010)


From now on, the bottom line must be balanced against the well being of employees, including subcontractors, clients or customers and creation. I know this is too big even for the US government, so how can we a small congregtion in Indiana, make any difference? We are thinking about building phase II, what if we built the next building so energy efficient that we sold electricity back to the power company? The church has a history of both great good and terrible evil done in the name of Jesus. We have a choice to make. Will our choice give life.  What child needs raising up to give life to a widow?


If you do not feel called to stewardship of our shared planet, what about our schools that are struggling to provide good education, to raise up the child to care for the mother.


Start with prayer. Not as an excuse to avoid action but as a way to seek God’s direction through the power of the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and read the newspaper, watch TV, cruise the internet, but do it with a purpose to hear God’s call in the cries of the mother’s whose children are no more. May you make a difference every day born of the love and compassion of Jesus the Christ. Amen.