I think the reason that we keep returning to Scripture over and over again, and have done so for the last several thousand years is that we see so much of ourselves there.
It’s true of course that Scripture exists to reveal to us the nature of God and the quality of God’s mercy and the bounty of God’s love for us. And we certainly see that in our Old Testament reading this morning about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and in our gospel reading today from Luke about Jesus and the widow of Nain. Both of those readings depict a loving and compassionate God who restores life to a beloved child. Certainly in these moving stories from Scripture we see the live-giving love of God in action.
The Talmud, an ancient commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures is a great compendium of much wisdom. There are many aphorisms contained in it, but one of my favorites reads, “We see things not as they are, rather we see things as we are.” So true, isn’t it? When male Scripture scholars look at today’s readings from 1st Kings and from the gospel of Luke, they often comment on the restored and resurrected life of the sons – that would be, of course, who male scholars would most identify with. When women and feminist critics explore these passages, they are more likely to look at the widows. And in the widows they see some of the most vulnerable people in the ancient world.
Widows in the patriarchal society of the ancient world were often poor. They did not have the right of inheritance of their husband’s property. They had no way to earn their own living, and had to rely on others to provide for them. They were often under the authority of brothers-in-law or fathers-in-law, or they returned to the home of their own fathers.
But a widow with a son was much better off, for that son usually was the heir of this father’s property and was required by custom and in some cases by law to provide for his widowed mother as his own father had. So in these two stories of the widows this morning, we see God’s special regard for the vulnerable, for those on the margins of society. For both Elijah and Jesus restore the lives of an only son, and in so doing, they help keep their widowed mothers from falling through the economic cracks of the ancient world’s patriarchy.
Different eyes see different things. There are different points of identification for each of us when we read Scripture.
In our reading from Galatians, Paul tells us a bit of his own story, his personal history. We hear from Paul that he was, at one time, one of the church’s most zealous persecutors. Saul, as he was known then, was a passionate harasser of the fledgling Christian church at its very beginnings, its most vulnerable point. Of course, as we know, something happened to Saul.
On the road to Damascus, Jesus revealed himself to Saul, and Saul became Paul; and the church’s greatest persecutor became the church’s greatest promoter. Paul’s letters are our earliest Christian scripture. And Paul was Christianity’s first missionary, starting congregations throughout Asia Minor. Historians of the early church often say that if it weren’t for Paul and those Paul inspired, it’s doubtful that the gospel of Jesus Christ would have found its way out of Judea and Galilee to the rest of the world.
What I find so interesting about Paul’s conversion is that while Paul changed due to his experience on the road to Damascus – in some ways, Paul didn’t change at all. Saul and Paul shared quite a bit in common. The level of commitment and passion that Saul brought to being a Pharisee is the same level of commitment and passion that Paul brought to being an apostle of the gospel. We might be more accurate if we say that Paul didn’t change who he was, but he changed what he did. Paul grew, and developed, and God reoriented the focus of Paul’s passion, but who Paul became was in part who Saul always was…
The Acts of the Apostles tells us that young Saul of Tarsus was a student of Gamaliel. Gamaliel is somewhat known to us from the historical record as a highly respected scholar of the Torah, a teacher and a Pharisee.
And just a word here about the Pharisees. During the first Roman-Jewish War in the first century, Rome captured and destroyed Jerusalem and left the Temple at Jerusalem in ruins. The most radical of the Jewish sects, the Zealots, were wiped out, the Sadducces who were so closely associated with the Temple, disappeared, the Essenes disappeared as well, withdrawing into isolation in the desert.
The Pharisees remained, and with their emphasis on atonement for sin through acts of loving-kindness rather than Temple sacrifice, they provided the Jews with a way forward after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans. The Rabbinical Judaism of today is the faith brought into being and preserved by the Pharisees. Properly speaking, Judaism was born at nearly the same time as Christianity, and that remarkable generation of Paul and Gamaliel and his successors preserved and promoted two of the world’s great faiths at a time when their survival was sorely threatened.
Paul says that he learned the Law of Moses at the knee of Gamaliel. I’m sure from time to time; Gamaliel looked at the zealous student Saul and saw a bit of himself reflected there. Perhaps he hoped that young Saul would follow in his footsteps to be a member of the Sanhedrin and a proud Pharisee and defender of the law. But God had a different plan for Paul.Paul was always zealous for God but in a different way than Gamaliel may have planned. It was not what his teacher saw in Paul (that reflection of himself) that mattered in the end, it was what God saw in Paul that eventually won out. God had set Paul apart from his very beginnings for a special purpose – and Paul proved uniquely suited to that special purpose.
Today is Youth Sunday and as you see, many of our young people are playing leadership roles in our liturgy this morning. Some of you have known these folks since they were quite young. Not too long ago, one of you was sharing with me memories of when Kathleen and Declan brought Rafael and Svetlana home. This past Christmas, we were desperate for a Joseph for the Family Service on Christmas Eve, and one of you said that it was too bad we couldn’t still make Malcolm do it, because poor Malcolm, when he was younger, was obliging enough to be our Joseph year after year, for like a decade; right, Malcolm?
Our community has helped form these young people in the faith. Those of you who have served as Church School teachers have done that quite literally. But we all help these young people grow in the faith that we profess. They see us care for one another and for them, they see us celebrate and mourn together, they hear us pray for those in need, they see us work to feed those who are hungry. They see how we live our lives as Christians, and from us they learn what it is to be a Christian.
And we see wonderful things in them, wonderful gifts and brilliant futures. We see mathematicians and dancers and Broadway stars. We see mothers and fathers, doctors and lawyers, future flower guild members, certainly a few vestry members and wardens. I’m sure there’s a Church School teacher somewhere in the midst of them, and I think I see a priest or two in the making – though I might be guilty of seeing things not as they are but as I am…
But much as we love and care for them, proud as we are of them, as much as we see in them, their talents, their independence, their integrity, their strong spirits and their spirituality. In the end, what will matter is not what we see in our young people – as wonderful as those things are -- but what God sees in them.
What matters most is what God sees in them. What God has planned for their lives. Because the best that they can be, the best that they can do is to align themselves with God’s will for them.
Glory to God, whose power working in each of us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God, from generation to generation, from the generations that have passed the faith on to us, and to the generations that we in turn pass the faith on to. Glory to God in the church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. (Ephesians 3: 20, 21 para.) + Amen
(c) The Rev. Mark R. Collins
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