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Second Sunday After Pentecost
                             June 6, 2010  The Rev. Bill Van Oss                               
              Readings                  

Death is a difficult experience under any circumstances.  Hopes and dreams for the future die when a loved one passes away.  The death of a child is especially difficult.  It’s not supposed to work that way, people are supposed to grow old and die.

The death of an only son for a widow in Palestine in the first century would have been even more difficult.  Widows were dependent on their sons for economic support and social status.  A childless widow could be outcast from the community.  The notion that it was some sin she committed that caused her to be without a husband or a son made the social stigma worse.  The widow to whom Elijah was sent in today’s first reading was resigned to her fate.  There was a great drought throughout the land, food was in short supply. Her son could not feed her, or himself, and so the widow knew once her remaining flour and oil ran out, she and her son would die.  Things were precarious for the widow in today’s Gospel as well.  She had lost her only son, and even though she’s surrounded by a large crowd in his funeral procession, there’s no guarantee she would be cared for after.

And then God shows up for each of these widows and God brings new life. Through Elijah, God comes and asks the Widow of Zarephath to trust, to not be afraid, to share what little she has so that she might be gifted with abundance.  God brings new life out of death for the widow and her son.  And in the Gospel, Jesus comes upon the funeral procession for the widow’s only son and He is moved with compassion.  He sees the widow’s and the crowd’s grief and he is moved in his guts.  The word compassion literally means “to suffer with,” Jesus hurt to see the grieving widow and so, without even being asked, he brings the young man back to life.

 God brings new life out of death because that’s what God does. God brings new life wherever there is faith.  “Arise” to a life of compassion and forgiveness.  “Arise” to a life where you know that God dwells within you and works through you.  “Arise” to become part of a life that never ends, a life that does not cease even when your heart stops beating, a life that continues with God in eternity.

This is the new life that we are given in baptism; it is the new life that we will celebrate with Adelaide and Caitlin in a few minutes.  The new life that comes to us in the waters of baptism means we become a part of something bigger than ourselves.  We become part of Christian community, we become part of the Body of Christ.  It means that we have responsibility for each other.  That was the danger for the widows at the times of Elijah and Jesus, that they would be alone and outcast, separated from God and community.  Christ comes and says “Arise”.  He lifts us out of our isolated separation and reconciles us with each other.

God brings new life to overcome death in a variety of ways, ways bother big and small. We experience God’s new life in the waters of baptism, and in many ways, from day to day.  It can be dramatic, but it’s often more subtle.  My dad had an experience of new life just the other day.  My dad has been very sad and feeling alone and isolated since my mom’s death last September.  It turned his world upside down, everything seems to have changed.  When the seed catalogues arrived a couple of months ago, my dad decided not to plant a garden this year, too painful.  The garden was something he and Mom worked on together, she would always can things and he doesn’t can, and anyway, he just doesn’t eat very much so why does he need a garden?  He’d just bring the things in and set them on the kitchen counter and not know what to do with them, he told me.

 And so I was surprised, when I talked to him the other day, that he told me he had just come in from weeding the garden.  “I thought you weren’t going to plant one.”  “Well,”  he said, “I got an idea, there’s this young couple at church, they have three young kids and they bother work and so they’re very, very busy.  But when your mom was so sick she couldn’t cook, they started bringing over a meal each week.  Every week, like clockwork, she would show up with food enough for three meals!” my dad said.  “And then, even after Mother died, they kept bringing me a meal each week, it’s enough for three days.  And I got to thinking” my dad said, “maybe I could plant the garden for them.  They don’t really have time to take care of a garden themselves, and so I could grow the stuff and then bring it to them so they can have nice, fresh things all summer, and so I can say ‘thank you’ for their kindness.”

It’s just a simple story, I know, it’s the story of a young couple who had compassion for an old man and his dying wife, it’s the story of a man who sees beyond his own grief and pain to think of someone else in need.  It’s not nearly as dramatic as jars of flour and oil that never run out or raising a young boy from the dead, but it’s a story of new life nonetheless.  It’s new life out of death, new life out of the hallowed ground of my parent’s garden, it’s new life out of the hallowed ground of a young couple’s and my father’s hearts.  It’s new life that gives purpose and meaning and connects people to each other, overcoming the pain of isolation.

God blesses us with opportunities of new life, in ways both great and small.  Let us seize every opportunity to experience God’s new and abundant life as richly and fully as possible.