The lectionary reading this week reminds me so very much of a passage that has absolutely nothing to do with Elijah, but actually an individual by the name of Job, a very faithful man, a follower of God, truly a righteous man who, when disaster struck, made this statement that has become so profound in many of our lives: the Lord gives the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And so here we have the message of Elijah, which is essentially the same message that he has been trying to convey to all of Israel, but specifically in this chapter, to the king of Israel, that there is a God of Creation who provided manna in the wilderness, who supplies rain for the fields and who ensures food for widows and orphans. This is the God of our ancestors. Is really what Elijah was trying to say. It is our God who made heaven and earth, but our God asks only that we bless his name and that we bless only his name. Ours is the God who gives, but ours is also the God who takes away. For this is the power he has. And in fact, he will, if you don't turn from your ways and return to God, he will. And then, in fact, he did.

But unlike the Job story, there is nothing capricious about God's decision to take away everything from Israel their king, King Ahab was the one who married Jezebel, a name you have heard time and again and will again later in chapters in first king. But she was the daughter of Israel's enemy, and she worshiped a god named Baal. And so King Ahab also chose Baal over Yahweh. Eventually, Ahab earned the dubious reputation of being the one king who did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than had all of the kings before him. It was because of him that God had taken away everything from the people of Israel. In his time, God gave them drought and famine and death. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away.

Needless to say, Elijah's message was not well received, but God gave Elijah a way out. In drought, God provided water from the Wadi Cherith. In famine, God sent ravens, his unlikely hosts, scavengers, that they were to provide him bread and meat, as it were, manna, if you may, and if you might call it in the wilderness. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away, and Elijah continued to bless the name of the Lord. Now note, Elijah is not spared the suffering of the unbelievers, the rest of Israel, the unfaithful. The very curses that God has foisted upon the country are Elijah's problem too. So eventually the creek runs dry, but because of Elijah's faithfulness, for his reverence for the God of his ancestors, the Lord who made heaven and earth, God promises to provide for his servant. Leave Israel, venture further into the land of Sidon and there, from the hands of another unlikely host, I will give you what you need to survive. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away, bless the name of the Lord, obey and trust.

The unlikely host is a widow, a single mother in the foreign region of Zarephath, culturally, there is really no reason for her to be the giver of grace. In fact, as a foreigner, she's really the last person that Elijah would think to go to. But culturally, from this idea of God's provision to widows and orphans, she should be the recipient in God's economy. And yet there she is collecting wood to prepare the last meal she and her son will eat before they die. She has nothing left. Everything has been taken from her, both hope and resources. Well, this is the part where we as believers say, well, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, and so the Lord is going to give to her. Surely, the God, who has provided manna in the wilderness and rain on the fields, will give care for this widow and this orphan. Well, that's not what happens in the story. The servant of God actually tells her to give him some water. Then he tells her to use whatever she has left, whatever groin and oil she's been holding on to for these last days of her life to do that and go bake him a cake. Everything we know about the Lord is turned upside down in this story. Just when she has nothing left to give, she is being asked to give the last of what is left. And to make things even stranger, this foreigner, this widow, this destitute woman, this woman who has nothing left, she still gives, even though the Lord has taken away.

But then God reveals God's self to her and her desperation. So Elijah, his spokesperson, says, speaks a word of God's possibility in the face of her impossibility. He says to her, don't be afraid. Go home and do as you said. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. The jar of flour that you have will not be used up, and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day of the Lord, when he sends rain on the land. That was the word of hope. Can you imagine Job in his moment of desperation, had somebody like Elijah said, “Don't be afraid, go home. The Lord will provide for you for the rest of your life.”

Now you can imagine that had Job received this message in his despair, had somebody said to Job, the one who believed in God from the very beginning, a person who had just deep and unshakable faith had somebody said to him, don't be afraid. The water will return. There will be flour, there will be oil, you will once again be prosperous. Had someone said that to Job he could have then reasserted The Lord gives the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Except that our Jobian widow doesn't know the Lord. She's a foreigner to Israel's promises. She hasn't been raised in faith. She hasn't sat around campfires or heard old stories or or listened to people share with her remarkable testimonies of God's provision and protection and Providence. She has no reason to believe in the provision of Elijah's God.

You see, it's one thing to have grown up with God, to know God, a creator, a provider, a protector. So it really can't be her righteousness which is being tested because she doesn't know God. What she is being tested with is her willingness to believe that there may be a god, that there may be a promise, that there may be something to believe in. And so in her case, the Lord takes and the Lord gives but more importantly, the Lord reveals. You will have daily bread. Is what Elijah is saying. Manna of your own sort, rain will return to the land and and this will feed the fields, and therefore your family. But the Lord God, your Creator, will give you life. You will be spared from the inevitable death you were facing. And how does she respond to this? She blesses the name of the Lord too, not with words of theological import, not with those that become hymns and handles Messiah. She blesses the Lord with her hospitality, with her obedience, with her trust, simple and unspoken. She just simply went away and did as Elijah told her to do.

You know, as I read this particular passage, particularly as it comes in this lectionary time. It seems to me there ought to be some sort of mic drop here. That the testimony of this Widow's faith is strong enough, is significant enough. She's offered such a convincing testimony of blind faith that we are taught as believers what it means to be hospitable and trusting and obedient. That we who do believe, who have all this background, who have Sunday school and Bible studies and community groups and fellowships, we should be reassured by this unbeliever, this foreigner that God will provide and promise, especially to those of us of faith. Well and frankly, countless sermons have done just that. It's almost unfortunate that this passage falls in that time that many Protestant churches call stewardship Sunday, because as if we use this particular passage of a person who didn't know any better and still gives to sort of guilt us into giving.

But I'd like to turn the table one more time, and the table I want to turn is that this story in context, isn't a moral story. It isn't one of those stories that's supposed to button hole us into giving more. It's actually providing us a profound illustration of what it is that God desires to give us. To give not just to the widow, but to all who believe in God, the Creator. You think about it, Elijah is running from the worst king ever. And time and again, Elijah has tried to come back to the king and to Israel to remind them that God is the God of heaven and earth, the God of our ancestors, the God who loves, the God who gives, the God who wants them back. And when it finally got through to Ahab a little later in chapter 21 it finally gets through to Ahab that this behavior he's doing, the decisions he's making, the actions he's taking, are going to have direct impact on him, and, oh, by the way, his bride, Jezebel. And when he heard how what God was going to do to him personally, he tore his clothes, he put on sackcloth, and he fasted. And then he lay around in his sackcloth, and he went around meekly. And then the word of the Lord came back to Elijah and said, Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me, because he has humbled Himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day. The Lord was going to take away everything, but when Ahab finally responded with faith, God gave him mercy.

Think about also our protagonist, Elijah. Another chapter later, Elijah’s still running, still being pursued by those who have placed a death sentence on him. Feeling like God had taken from him any chance to survive. He was trapped in a cave and a pity party. And he said to the Lord, I've been very zealous for you. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, have torn down your altars and have put your prophets to death and the sword, and I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too. And the Lord spoke to Elijah, now I hear you, but I want you to do me one more thing. Just go out on the mountain, and the presence of the Lord is about to pass by. Elijah, feeling some sort of relief, said, Finally, God has heard me, and so he was waiting to hear this profound and final word of God that would allow him to continue in his ministry and to live the life that he thought God had directed him to. And a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. But the Lord did not speak in the wind, And when there was an earthquake, but the Lord did not speak in the earthquake. And after the earthquake came a fire. And you guessed it, the Lord did not speak in the fire, either. It was only after the fire where there came a gentle whisper. God had taken away all his expectations of how God would act, how God would speak. God had taken that all away. And in a whisper, God gave him hope.

And now we have our final story, our story of today, where God has taken the last morsel of food from the least likely, the most vulnerable, and God asks this nearly destitute woman with not much left to give, to give what she has left. And when she chose to believe in the impossible, God revealed what was possible only through Him. Without me, your life will be taken. With me I will give you life. These are powerful messages. Has more to do with what God has so desired to give to us.

The God of creation, who has, throughout history, provided manna in the wilderness, whatever shape or form that has come, who has supplied rain for the fields. Again, maybe a reality, maybe a metaphor, but God has provided and God who has ensured that widows and orphans will be cared for as dramatically as our own widow in this story. Or as we have seen in countless ways in our own community centers, in food banks and neighborhoods. This is the God who has desired from the very beginning of time to reveal God's self to us in our disasters, in our escape from challenges, from threats, from death, in our last moments. This is the God, the God who made heaven and earth. This is the God who continues to give. To give mercy, to give hope, to give life. And while he does have the power to take everything away, he only does so that we would appreciate how much more he desires to give. So the Lord does give. The Lord does take away.

How do we bless the Lord? In this, may we discover how God has revealed His love, His desire, His compassion, His salvation to us. Amen.