RCL Year C - 3 Pentecost (Proper 5) - June 9, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Episcopal Church

Towson, Maryland

 

RCL Year C - 3 Pentecost (Proper 5) - June 9, 2013

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When we have faith, and trust, and when we are doing the will of God, there is NO doubt that BIG and wonderful things will happen!!!   I wonder who here among us has witnessed what would be considered a miracle?  I mean a real, bona-fide, honest to God, miracle?  Really?  Some of you have never witnessed a miracle?

Why not??? Miracles happen every day!

Don’t they?  So, if they do, why do we say that we haven’t ever seen one?  What do we think miracles look like?  What are we waiting for to happen??  Are we waiting for some “great prophet” to rise among us to declare “God’s Favor” for us…  if that happened, would we even know what a “great prophet” would sound like – or would look like?

I love the story of the old man, who when asked if he had ever witnessed a miracle, he said no…  and then when they asked him how did he know, he said, “I’ll know one when I see one – to me, it’s kind of like a duck – You know, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”

Or the gentleman who – when he heard that the flood waters were coming, dropped to his knees and asked God to deliver him.  The rescue truck came by and they told him to get in and come to safety, he sent them away saying, “don’t worry, God will deliver me.”  The waters started to rise and the man was on his roof.  A boat comes by and tells the man, “get in and come to safety!”  He tell them, “don’t worry, God will deliver me!”  The waters get higher still, and he is standing on the chimney.  A helicopter comes and throws down a ladder.  They yell to the man, “climb up and come to safety!”  The man says again, “don’t worry, God will deliver me!”  The man drowns, and when he meets God, he asks, “God, why didn’t you deliver me?”  God says, “I sent you a rescue van, a boat and a helicopter, what were you looking for?”

How do we know?  How will we know that God is performing a miracle?  Do we need a flash of light, or a voice from heaven?  Do we need to have the dead brought back to life right before our eyes – maybe right here this morning during a Sunday morning service?  (wouldn’t that be something?)   And IF that happened, how would we deal with it?

Would we really know it when we see it?  Would we be better believers – would we then learn to engage our faith in a deeper or more tangible way?  Would we be able to take off the blinders…  the blinders of our own ideas and ideals of how things should be, enough to let the miracle be recognized?

We get so caught up sometimes in looking for something specific to happen, that we sometimes miss what is happening all around us…  I think it’s because miracles are always surrounded by suspicion.  So, in order for us to see them to happen, we must have faith and trust completely in God…

The widow in Zarephath that Elijah is sent to by God in our Old Testament story, is down to her last jar of meal and last jug of oil during a severe drought – she even makes the comment to Elijah that she is out collecting sticks to make a fire so that she can go home and prepare it for her and her son to eat it and die.

This sounds pretty tragic.  Especially for this poor widow… who in that culture was a little less than a second class citizen…   She had barely anything to live on, because she has no one to provide for her.  And it sounds a little selfish and even a bit far-fetched to have Elijah ask her to make him something to eat.

But Elijah told her to trust… trust that the Lord God of Israel will provide for her… trust that the jar of meal and the jug of oil would not be emptied until the rains came down.  And it happened just as Elijah said.

But like so many of us, the woman didn’t rejoice in the miracle, she may have not even recognized it, because her son still got sick and died.  And to make matters worse, she was quick to be angry and blame God through Elijah – but she was obviously feeling pretty guilty about her own life – somehow blaming his death on her recognized sin.

Elijah then took her son upstairs and laid him across the bed and prayed over him “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.”  Elisha prostrated himself over the boy three times and the child revived.  The woman was then finally able to recognize the miracle, and acknowledge that Elijah spoke the prophetic truth.

Is THAT what it takes for us to recognize a miracle?  Would we know the prophetic truth if we heard it?

 

Jesus and the disciples went to a town called Nain and met up with a crowd that was obviously involved in a funeral procession.  The body of a man was lifted up on a bier to be carried to his grave from the city.  Then, Jesus encounters his mother who was a widow (who now had less than nothing because of the death of her son and no one now to protect her).

 

She was obviously upset, and Jesus had compassion for her.  Jesus risked the social faux pas of speaking to an unprotected widow, and went up to her and told her not to weep.  Then, Jesus messes up again, making himself ritually unclean, and touched the bier where the dead body was and told the young man to rise!

 

The young man rose and began to speak – and Jesus gave him to his mother!  The scripture says that fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying “a great prophet has risen among us” and “God has looked favorably on his people” and they spread the word throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

 

We know that when we have faith, and trust, and when we do God’s will, BIG and Wonderful things happen…  the blind see, the lame walk, and the dead rise!  And things that are wrong are always restored to right.

 

In the lessons this morning, two widows lose their sons.  Two widows, who are on the low rung of the social ladder, lose everything that protects them from society’s ills.  And in the blink of an eye – a miracle, both of these women have restored to them what they have lost.

 

In compassion, God reaches out to both of them – touches them and brings them to new life.

 

What would it take for us to recognize a miracle?  Would it take us seeing the dead rise to new life…  Would it take us seeing that which was wrong being restored to right?

 

Every time a baby is born, it is a miracle!  Every time a flower in springtime comes back and beautifies a garden, it’s a miracle!  Every time we get to the end of our rope but somehow make it through till another day, it’s a miracle!  Every time a person that is vexed by guilt and self-hate turns to the self-affirmation found in Jesus Christ and is convinced that God loves him/her, it’s a miracle!  Every time a congregation that is on the edge of self-destruction because of prolonged conflict and polarization comes to a renewed commitment to the common life in the body of Christ, it’s a miracle! 

 

Why is it that we always seem to look for the odd and unusual acts that defy the natural order before we consider them to be a miracle?  These that I listed are pretty BIG and Wonderful things!!  And by every standard that I can think of, these would all be considered miracles!!  I think that miracles happen to us and around us all the time, we just have to have faith and trust in God in order to recognize them… 

 

We all have the opportunity today to participate in a great miracle, the miracle of the bread and wine becoming the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  You probably won’t see a flash of light or a voice from heaven, but you will witness and participate in the miracle none the less…  and in this miracle, we will feel Jesus’ presence with us, and his love and compassion surround us… and when we take in and feast on the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the sacrament, we are spiritually nourished and restored to new life.  And oh, what a miracle it is...