We have so many powerful images in our readings for today. We hear of prophets, we see the agony of two mothers losing their children, and the raising of not one, but two children from the dead. We see God's healing Word at work in the world striking fear and amazement into those who witnessed those miraculous events. There is much joy in the passages we read this morning and yet I am struck by the tremendous amount of grief that precedes it.

When we take a look at the Old Testament, we can sometimes be baffled at how "odd" some of the stories really are, like our story from 1 Kings. It could be that the stories aren't all that odd as they are striking in terms of how quickly things seem to change from divine and miraculous, back to people having to dealing with the difficulties of everyday life. But if we step back, we see how these "things" that happen in the stories in Scripture is not so different from how they seem to happen in our life and many times trying to make sense of it can leave us even more confused and feeling helpless.

In the verses preceeding our reading today, the prophet Elijah has been sent by God to Zarephath (ZEHR-ee-fath) to be fed by a widow. When he arrives in the region, he finds that it is in the middle of a severe drought, and the widow, who has nothing and is presumably an outcast from society, is gathering sticks to cook the last meal before she and her son starve to death. Elijah requests water and food from the widow, both of which she is in desperate need of herself. She doesn't refuse the prophet, but she tells him that she only has enough for herself and her son for one last meal before they die¹. There is a profound sense of foreboding and tragedy in the widow's story, but Elijah becomes quite literally a god-send for this woman. He commands her to bake bread for her family and himself, and the jar of meal and jug of oil will not run out until God sends rain to the earth. God's prophet has showed up and everything is made well. The drought continues, but the widow, her son, and the prophet remain well fed.

But then tragedy strikes and the young boy becomes ill and dies. Undoubtedly the widow must have asked herself "if God is able keep the flour and oil going during the drought, couldn't he have prevented my son from getting sick and dying?"

This story strikes particularly close to home for me. My father had been battling with diabetes throughout my time in college. I frequently received phone calls that said he was in the hospital and there wasn't much I could do so far away from my family but pray. But through prayer, along with the work of the doctors, my father and family was able to be with me for my graduation. It seemed he had turned a corner and was doing better. I was at home a few weeks before I went off the work at summer camp and I was able to be with my father as he continued to seemingly do well. I remember leaving for camp seeing my dad smile and thinking that everything would be ok. A few days later I received a call that he had suddenly passed away.

It doesn't make much sense. How can stories in Scripture have such a clear picture of the Divine working miracles, where we get so clear a picture that God is working in the world, also include those unexplainable events with which we all struggle in our lives? What makes that question even harder is that most often in our lives, we don't have those happy endings like the widow, whose son was raised back to life. Tragedies, more often than not seem to have the last word². Notice that I said seem to have the last word.

Just like the story of the widow of Zarephath, and our own lives today, things happen in this world which we just cannot explain. Sometimes we receive unexpected blessings or successes we didn't see coming, and then there are those other events. "But then there are those other events-and sometimes they take place in the midst of blessings-that are inexplicable in grim and terrible ways, sudden illnesses and deaths among them. These things just happen, and the people of God are left to make sense of them, crying out to God for an answer and for help but not always getting either one. Things happen. Blessings follow tragedies. Tragedies sometimes follow blessings."³

It may not always comforting to see our lives mirror the stories of Scripture, like that in 1 Kings. But there is still hope in seeing just how similar our lives are to these biblical passages. There is a small amount of comfort in knowing that we are not the only ones who have had to deal with tragedy and loss. God does not always "fix" the tragedies of our lives as happened with the widow, but there is a comfort in knowing that God does not abandon us in our time of difficulty. The reasons why tragedies happen to us or our loved ones or sudden reversals of fortune can be hard to explain, and sometimes don't really have any explanation. But there may also come a time when we realize that even in spite of tragedy, we may realize that God was able to bring some good out of disappointment.

God is with us in our tragedies, just as God has been with His people throughout history dealing with confusion and questions of why. Even Elijah is blindsided by the death of the young boy. He cries out to God and asks "Why?"⁴ And even though the boy is raised from the dead, the question is never answered. But God was present, God was listening, and God acted.

Miracles like that in our reading from 1 Kings and from our Gospel reading in Luke today don't mean that suffering will end for us, but rather that God is with us in the midst of our suffering. In Luke's Gospel we get a wonderful picture of Jesus taking compassion on a mourning mother who has lost her son, touching his coffin and commanding the young man to rise. It reminds us that we follow a Savior who not only had the power to raise the dead, but to rise from the grave himself.

This passage from Luke is a witness to the fact the Jesus is the embodiment that the kingdom of God shall overcome. The miracles of Jesus and Elijah were foretastes of kingdom fullness, not the fullness itself. The miracles were arrows pointing a certain direction; they were not the destination that was being indicated.⁵ God is present, God is listening, and God continues to act in the world today, and we are called as the people of God to help bring about this kingdom in the here and now. We are called to work towards bringing justice and peace to all of God's people. We are called to love one another, and we are called to show mercy and compassion to the widows of Zarephath today.

¹ The Nature of Blessings - found in The Living Church June 6, 2010 edition
² Hoezee, Scott, Commentary on 1 Kings 17:8-24 found at: http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/thisWeek/index.php?pNav=cep
³ Ibid.
⁴ 1 Kings 17:20
⁵ Hoezee, Scott, Commentary on 1 Kings 17:8-24 found at: http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/thisWeek/index.php?pNav=cep