Loving God, you show us through people like Elijah and the widow at Zarephath that wherever you guide, you also provide.  Teach us to trust in you for all that is needed, and strengthen us in faith and in love by the power of your Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            “Confidence in God’s goodness and provision in the face of despair and doubt” – this is one description of what it means to trust God (workingpreacher.org).  Wouldn’t that be a helpful thing to have right now? - “Confidence in God’s goodness and provision in the face of despair and doubt”.  We hear about at least two people in today’s reading who show us what this might look like.

         The first person we are introduced to is Elijah the Tishbite (because he’s from a place called Tishbe).  He is sent to King Ahab with a message from God – presumably because Ahab has been indulging in almost every sin imaginable.  The message is that there is going to be a drought.  It will not rain again in the land until Elijah comes and tells him so.

         Meanwhile, God sends Elijah to a new location.  He is to travel many miles and go and hide himself by the Wadi Cherith – presumably because Ahab is not particularly happy with Elijah’s message.  There, he will be able to drink water from the wadi, and some ravens will come and feed him.

         Now, you might want to know that a wadi is a channel that only has water in it during the rainy season.  You also might want to know that in Hebrew, the consonants in the word for raven are the same as the consonants in the word for Bedouin.  Thus, the translator needs to decide which word was intended, as there are no vowel points in the original Hebrew.

         The interesting thing, however, is that whether Elijah was fed by ravens or by Bedouins, both would be considered ritually unclean to an Israelite.  Bedouins are Gentiles and are thought to be untrustworthy.  Ravens are scavengers that eat dead things and garbage and pretty much anything they can find.  Regardless of which method God used to get food to Elijah, both would have been considered very strange choices.  However, Elijah does get fed, and he is able to stay there until the wadi dries up.

         The next place God sends Elijah is to a widow at Zarephath – also an interesting choice because Zarephath is in Gentile territory.  God has supposedly commanded this widow to feed Elijah, but it seems as though she has not received the message.  In fact, she is down to her last meal.  However, the truly amazing thing in this story is that she has enough faith in what Elijah says to go and make him some bread – essentially taking her last meal and giving it to him.  And after this small act of faith, there remains enough meal in the jar and oil in the jug to feed them until the drought is over.  Thus, Elijah stays with her and her son for many days.

         These days, a number of people have been talking about pivoting.  The idea is that whenever conditions change, we need to pivot and adjust how we are doing things to the new conditions.  This is not necessarily an easy thing to do – especially for those who don’t like change.  In the story of Elijah, however, it seems that he is constantly being asked to pivot.

         He is sent to King Ahab and then needs to go hide from him.  He is sent to the Wadi Cherith and then the water dries up.  He is sent to the widow, only to discover that she is down to her last meal.  And then, while he is staying with her, her only son dies, and so he needs to deal with that.  We don’t know how quickly each of these events happened, but it is still a lot of pivoting.  Elijah’s faith was constantly challenged, but when he prays and looks to God for all that is needed, God always provides.

         Many of us, too, have had to do a lot of pivoting over the past number of months.  Some have needed to learn how to work from home.  Some have not been able to work at all.  Some ended up both working from home and having their children at home.  Some workplaces don’t have enough staff because so many are either sick or self-isolating.  Some need to stay away from family members for various reasons.  And those in positions of management or leadership have had to decide what to do each time the public health orders have changed.

         This has been true in the church, as well, as we have sought to find different ways to worship together, or to hold meetings, or even to give our offerings.  And partway through our confirmation classes this fall, we had to move from meeting in person, outdoors, to sending out lessons by email and meeting on Zoom.  At the same time, as you will hear in today’s prayers, many have made the transition from this life into the life to come.

         For many of these saints whom we remember today, no service was held.  For others, only a small number could attend the service.  In some cases, no family members could visit or say good-bye.  There were no prayers for the dying, and no communion was given or received.  Yet, as we remember them in our prayers today, it is in faith and in trust.

         We have faith that all have been received into the arms of God’s mercy.  We have faith that we join with them today at the Lord’s supper as part of the communion of saints.  We have faith that God has heard our prayers, whether we were able to be physically present with them or not.  We have faith that God made us God’s children in baptism and made us holy – saints! – by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We have faith that God continues to guide and to provide for all those who come to God in prayer, trusting in Jesus Christ.  For, it is through Jesus that we have, not only access to God, but salvation and eternal life.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

All Saints Sunday (NL 3)                            1 Kings 17:1-16

November 1, 2020

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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