Inhuman Caring

1st Kings 17:8-24; Luke 7:11-17; Galatians 1:1-11

Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA

10 June 2007

We have all talked with customer service representatives. Negative experiences have taught us to discount the titles as farcical. We have learned that people with authority are often beyond our reach in a concerted effort to make a show of caring for the concerns of customers. All too often concerns are brushed aside as a show of human caring displays an underlying lack of concern. In our growing cynicism with concerns of corporate world, do we believe God no longer cares for our concerns?

In the midst of a drought centered in Israel, Yahweh sent Elijah to the care of a poor widow. While Israel’s faith was being tested, so was Elijah’s. Ahab had come to power and taken the nation furthest yet from serving Yahweh in sincerity. In the face of his taking the nation to serve Ba’al, a god of fertility and storm, Yahweh had declared a drought that would prove Ba’al’s impotence. As Israel dried up, Yahweh continued to care for his prophet. Elijah was sent first to the care of birds in the wadi. Next he is sent to the realm of Ba’al and placed in the care of the poor and helpless.

The drought was about larger issues than individual needs. It was about a face-off between competing claims for Israel’s allegiance: Ba’al—god of fertility and storm—and Yahweh—Creator of Israel. Seemingly lost in the shuffle were those suffering the end results of national policy. Ahab had chosen to follow Jezebel’s desire to worship Ba’al, turning his back on Yahweh’s role in forming Israel. We can easily grasp God’s concerns with this larger picture of Israelite idolatry. We understand national disaster as a portrait of divine intervention to rectify national waywardness. What is surprising in this story is Yahweh’s care for those unavoidably trapped by the faithlessness of others.

Elijah cared for by birds is a picture of Yahweh’s provision in the midst of disaster. Now in the care of a widow of Zarephath, Yahweh continues to care for Elijah and this foreigner as well. This is a different take of extending care than we are used to considering. We look at the larger picture of disaster and think of hoarding and protecting ourselves from demand pressures on limited resources. Elijah helps this helpless widow trust that amid her hopelessness Yahweh’s provision is forever sufficient. We are not to know how the oil and meal are supplied. We are not to know how Elijah restores the widow’s son to life. We are simply to rest in the assurance that amid God’s control over international calamity Yahweh has not lost sight of the needs of a helpless widow in Zarephath. Can we accept God’s caring for big picture issues and small scale needs alike?

Elijah did not believe God was removed from the issues faced by individuals. Sure, Yahweh was in charge of the big picture issues of drought and growing officially sanctioned idolatry in Israel. God was looking at the longer term effects of displaying true character, power, control, and provision for a people’s needs. God was also concerned with feeding a hungry prophet and caring even for a widow struggling in a foreign land. Am I too preoccupied to see real needs I can meet?

Jesus often ignored convention. He often overlooked the right way to do things. He seemed not very concerned with cultural, traditional, and religious propriety. In the case of a widow’s dead son, we see the same once more. Faced with the mourning procession and the widow’s need, Jesus walked right up to the bier and touched a corpse. This body represented the widow’s loss of hope. The dead man was her means of support, her future, her security. Friends and community gathered around to mourn, wail, and aid with the burial, but not to assume the burden of her economic and social needs.

It was appropriate to wail and mourn and to assist with a burial. It was not appropriate in human convention to assume care for this widow turned childless. This is where Jesus intervened. He entered the mourning procession to restore hope and security for this now helpless widow. While the crowds were content to mourn her loss, Jesus provided for her future. Telling her to let go of her fear, Jesus ordered the young man to arise in recognition of God’s presence for the people’s welfare. While this mother was in turmoil and fear over her loss of station, Jesus called her to focus on God’s care and provision. Are we too focused on our abilities or limitations to appreciate God’s will and enabling power to fulfill it?

Paul had accepted the gospel demands that he give his life to serve outsiders with the gospel. From the outset, God told him that suffering would categorize his ministry from start to finish. He was well aware that it was on behalf of people who were different that he was being commissioned. He was to take the glorious news of God’s visitation of Israel in Christ Jesus to peoples who considered the Jews worthy of being looked down upon, despised, and ridiculed. Rather than looking upon them according to his heritage, he was to look upon them according to the extent of God’s grace. Are we willing for God’s mercy and care to flow through us in such a radically transforming manner?

Paul wrote his letters always with a purpose in mind. Letter writing was costly and he saved it for pressing issues and putting out fires where he could not travel. His opening words to the Galatians are already focused on the message he wants to convey. His gospel and commission are not of human origin. The words he shared and shares are not about human endeavor, wisdom, or initiative. The gospel concerns things of a higher order. It is not about things humane, after all, but divine.

Many voices wanted Gentiles to first become Jews in order to accept the gospel. Paul saw such as concerned with issues of the wrong order. They wanted converts to be like themselves. Paul was saw grace in Christ as sufficient for all, Gentiles included. Rather than placing human obstacles in the way of grace, Paul called them to remember the grace gospel as pleasing God, not people. God did not care for making Jews out of Gentiles. God cared for bringing all peoples to fellowship in the cross of Christ Jesus. Making others acceptable by becoming like us is the human way. Paul proposed that we look beyond the humane to accept fullness of divine grace. He reminded them of God’s commission to take the gospel to the Gentile world in offer of unadulterated grace. Any impediment to grace in Christ was an adulteration. The gospel does not allow for restrictions on who can accept it. How far are we willing to allow God to reach out through us?

The good news of Christ is not about our traditions. It is not about our heritage. It is not about how God has brought us to a comfortable living. It is not about the sacrifices of those who have come before us. It is not about the buildings and institutions we have erected over the years. It is about taking individuals like ourselves beyond the mundane issues of life to live as ministers of God’s grace.

Paul struggled with limitations placed upon the scope of the gospel. He struggled against rules and regulations placed upon who was worthy of hearing and accepting it. Jesus struggled against the very same issues. They worked to open our eyes to the scope of God’s love and care that goes far beyond the limits of human compassion. From caring for others in a humane manner, God would have us reach out to the world under the banner of divine caring. Humane compassion is all too often inhumane at best. Are we willing to risk allowing the God of divine compassion to care through us?

—©2007 Christopher B. Harbin