Proper 5
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook, SERIES II
for use with Common, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic Lectionaries
Comments on the Lessons
In the reading from 1 Kings Elijah restores the widow's son to health after the breath or animation had left him. There is virtual consensus on the Galatians reading. We should not omit verses 20-24, since they serve to bring the reference back to Paul's original persecution of the church and to his ministry, and this brings praise to God. The Lucan passage is the miracle in which Jesus restores life to the widow of Nain's son.
Commentary
1 Kings 17:17-24
Our pericope is part of a larger section of verses 1-14. This is the beginning of the story of Elijah. Since verses 1-7 begin rather abruptly, we can only assume that the beginning - with a proper introduction of Elijah the prophet - has somehow been lost. Note also that our pericope is part of a larger historical account of the affairs in the northern kingdom found in 1 Kings 17--2 Kings 10. This features the prophets Elijah and Elisha, Ahab's reign, and the destruction of the dynasty of Omri. Refugees from Israel brought these stories to Judah, stories based on good northern sources. However, the final redaction was done in Judah. Note especially that the ancients did not have our modern scientific understanding of the uniformity of nature. Consequently, the miracles in this story (and those later in the cycle of stories) must be accepted as a vital part of the method used by the writer.
Zarephath was in territory beyond the control of Ahab and is now associated with the village of Sarafand. It is nine miles south of Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. Recall that this widow has just fed Elijah with the last of her meal and a little oil, ingredients which she made into a cake. By a miracle the jar of meal was not spent and the cruse of oil did not fail until rain came again to the region.
Now our pericope picks up the story with the illness of the son of this same widow. He was so ill that his breath had left him. The word used for breath means animation or breath rather than life, indicating he was not necessarily dead.
In verse 18 appears the notion that the sickness of the child was divine punishment for some obscure sin. The widow thinks Elijah, the man of God, has brought God so near to her that he has discovered some hidden sin and that the loss of breath in her son is punishment being meted out. While this may seem to us to be a rather primitive idea concerning God, it is far from outdated. People suffering from an illness or the illness of a loved one today still ask, "What have I done to deserve this?" There is still a view of God rendering judgment immediately, tit-for-tat, on the person who commits a sin. So the widow thought that the sickness of her son was divine punishment for some obscure sin, a sin which made her and her son incompatible with the divine presence, thought to be in this man of God.
Elijah takes the lad to the upper chamber on the rooftop, where Elijah himself lodged, and lays him on his own bed. It was accessible by an outside stairway. Then Elijah cries out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, hast thou brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?" (v. 20) Thus Elijah sees the loss of breath or death of the son as an act of arbitrary injustice on the part of God. This calamity had come to the very widow to whom God had directed him for food. It is as if the poor widow had not had enough trouble and anxiety due to lack of food, so that now this extra burden of the loss of her son adds to her distress. This notion about God, current in the ninth century B.C. emphasized the arbitrariness of God rather than his justice and mercy. In pagan societies today there is a fear of the spirits of the gods, spirits which must be placated by sacrifices. The belief is that one never knows whether the spirit powers will harm or bless a person.
The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, says that Elijah breathed into the child. The Hebrew says he stretched himself over the boy three times and cried a prayer to God. A similar story occurs in two other places: 2 Kings 4:34-35, and Acts 20:10. Elijah did this three times. The number three shares with seven a special power, both religious and magical, but the true magic number is seven. Repeating something three times is not regarded as being effective nearly as much as it is sometimes thought.
Some scholars see this cure as an example of contactual magic, a phenomenon well known in the ancient world. Sometimes the sickness of a king is transferred into a clay image, or into the corresponding parts of an animal. But here the health of Elijah is conveyed to the corresponding organs of the boy without breath.
In verse 22 the Hebrew word used does not mean the boy lived after he had been dead. "He revived" is the desired translation.
In verse 24 the widow admits that the word of God is in Elijah's mouth and she does not doubt this.
We should note that the name "Elijah" means "Yah is El." El was the general Semitic name for the High God. This makes Elijah's name mean the very message he proclaims: Yah is El. The name fits the character of his mission, as in the case of Jesus, whose name means savior, and Isaiah, whose name means Yah is salvation.
Galatians 1:11-24 (C) (L)
Galatians 1:11-19 (RC)
This pericope contains Paul's call to be an apostle. It also details events of Paul's life which shed light on a chronology of his life and ministry. In verses 11-16b Paul shares the circumstances of his call, in which he emphasizes the divine origin of his Gospel and call to be an apostle. Note that Paul calls the Galatians "brethren," in spite of the severity of his address to them. By "man's gospel" Paul means a merely human message. In verse 12 Paul refers to the Gospel he preached as one having come "through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (pointing to Paul's conversion). (Acts 9:3-6)
In verse 13 Paul refers to his former life in which he persecuted the church violently and tried to destroy it. (Acts 8:3; 9:21; 22:4) Then he tells of his attainments in Judaism and his extreme zeal for his religion. Paul may be listing these things in order to answer charges against him by his opponents, those who doubted Paul's sincerity. But Paul goes right to the source of his call and Gospel, Christ's revelation to him on the road to Damascus. Paul answers charges by saying he received his commission from the risen Christ, and points out that he is independent of the Jerusalem apostles. He tells of his public disagreement with Peter at Antioch.
Like the Old Testament prophets Jeremiah (1:5) and Isaiah (49:1), Paul refers to his prenatal call by God and stresses God's initiative in calling him to be an apostle. Note that Paul does not distinguish between his conversion and his commissioning. In verses 15-17 Paul stresses that his conversion and commissioning were by God's sovereign plan and come not from human teachers. He says he went to Arabia (that is, the Nabataean kingdom, of which Petra was the capital). Following his trance at Damascus, it would have been normal for him to consult an interpreter of dreams. We don't know exactly where Paul went, but he preferred cities to the countryside. There is no evidence he went to Mount Sinai.
Paul says that after three years in Arabia and Damascus he went up to Jerusalem and remained with Peter for fifteen days. Paul doesn't say whether he is counting the three years from his conversion or his return to Damascus. It was customary to count parts of years as whole years, so the actual period may have been much less than three calendar years. His reason for leaving Damascus is given in 2 Corinthians 11:32 and Acts 9:23. But he did not see any other apostles except James, the Lord's brother, who was then the leader of the Jerusalem church. We are not told the reason for Paul's visit. It may have been to get information, to give an account of his ministry, or simply to get acquainted. To get acquainted seems the mostly likely purpose, since Paul's main concern is to demonstrate his independence of Jerusalem. He mentions this visit to show how short and insignificant it was for the motivation and content of his ministry.
Note that in verse 20 Paul takes an oath which shows his defensiveness, and may indicate he knows counterarguments are likely to be presented (or may already have been made).
When Paul left Jerusalem, he went to regions of Syria and Cilicia to preach the Gospel. (vv. 21-24) We don't know anything else of this period of his ministry. Acts seems to skip over it. It may be that Paul means to say that he started out in Syria and Cilicia and that, before revisiting Jerusalem, he went on from there to Asia, Macedonia and Greece. Recall that the Acts narrative assigns these travels to a later period, however.
Paul says he was not known by sight to the Christians of Judea (v. 22), but this raises some questions about the reference in Acts 22:3, where Paul says he studied with Gamaliel the Rabbi, in Jerusalem.
Consider that verses 23-24 serve to underscore the point already made, namely that Paul's past persecution of the church authenticates rather than raises doubts about the divine origin of his calling. Note that verse 24 raises the new point that opposition to Paul is something fairly recent. The glory of God mentioned in verse 24 is God's character made manifest in Christ. To glorify God was to so live as to cause others to think right thoughts about God and to turn to him in faith in Christ. Thus, glorifying God was far more than singing praises about him. God's glory was expressed in his forgiveness of sinners. To glorify God is to forgive one's fellow sinners. This meant that the churches which Paul had earlier persecuted had to receive a former deadly enemy as one of themselves, in order to show him and the world a love which never fails and which overcomes all obstacles. We learn from Galatians and Acts how difficult this was because of the stresses and strains of the Galatian controversy. There was great risk involved for conservative Jewish Christians in receiving such a dynamic, restless, creative person as Paul - and one who had formerly persecuted them!
A number of changes took place in Paul's life because of his Damascus road experience. At center
was his new understanding of Christ, revealed by God to Paul as his Son. Paul's earlier reaction to the first Christians was due to their incomprehensible message about a crucified Messiah, a notion foreign to an orthodox Jew. Paul had a greatly changed view of the people of God. He found himself on mission not only to the nominally religious Jews but to Gentiles who were completely outside the pale of the law. There are many other changes which took place in Paul, such as his way of reading the Old Testament, his awareness of God's way of setting things right in the world, and his understanding of the purpose and function of the law. These issues are taken up in other passages of Galatians.
Luke 7:11-17
In the original Q material it seems that the story of the centurion was followed by a collection of material about Jesus and John the Baptizer. Jesus answered John's questions about who he was by including the message that "the dead are raised up." (v. 22; Matthew 11:5) To illustrate the fact that Jesus did raise the dead and show himself to do the work of a prophet, Luke inserted this miracle story from his special source, written or oral. Similar miracle stories are found in the Old Testament, in the doublets of Elijah and the son of the widow of Zarepath (our 1 Kings pericope today), and of Elisha and the son of the Shunammite woman. We may see in the story for today and in the account of the raising of Lazarus in John's Gospel symbols of Jesus' life-giving power.
Here at the beginning we should note the exclamation the people offered after the miracle, when they glorified God and said, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" (v. 16) A major purpose of the story is to portray Jesus as a miracle worker, like the powerful prophets of old.
Nain was a town six miles southwest of Nazareth and there was a cemetery outside its east gate. Jewish custom dictated that a person was buried in the late afternoon on the day of death. Honoring the dead was meritorious work. For this reason a large funeral procession would normally be expected. This was the saddest kind of funeral of all, since the mother was left alone and the family line of descent was cut off.
Note that in verse 13 Luke calls Jesus "Lord" for the first time. The mission of Jesus is now revealed to be one of delivering Israel, not from the Romans but from the captivity of death. While this is obvious to Luke's readers, it was not fully understood by those witnessing the miracle. Jesus is portrayed as the Lord of life and the motivation of his miracle is compassion. Nothing is said of faith.
Take notice of the fact Jesus touched the bier (v. 14), thus contaminating himself with ceremonial uncleanness. The Jewish method of funeral rites called for the body to be wrapped in a shroud and carried upon a stretcher.
At Jesus' command the young man rises from the dead. This miracle shows Jesus as the one who calls forth the living from the dead. The people see this miracle pointing to two facts: (1) a great prophet has arisen among them, and (2) God has visited his people. (v. 16) God is truly present in Jesus' act of raising the dead. We should not be surprised that fear seized them all. God had not forgotten his people!
In verse 17 Luke makes an editorial comment. Judea refers to all of Palestine, as in earlier verses of Luke. The main thrust of this miracle is the Christian conviction that life comes through encounter with Jesus Christ.
Theological Reflections
The 1 Kings account of Elijah restoring breath to the widow's son and Luke's account of Jesus' raising the son of the widow of Nain were chosen for reading today because both point to God's power to give life. Because Elijah is a man of God, he can give breath back to the child and return him to his mother. Jesus gives evidence to the people that he is a great prophet and that God has visited his people. This miracle also speaks to John the Baptizer, who asks for evidence that Jesus is the one who is to come (Messiah). The Galatians passage tells of Paul's conversion and commissioning to be an apostle. It, too, is the account of God's power to give life through Christ, since Paul was transformed from Saul the persecutor of the church to Paul the leading missionary of the church.
Homiletical Moves
1 Kings 17:17-14
See, Your Son Lives!
1. Elijah was staying in the home of a widow whose son became ill and there was no breath left in him
2. The widow thought God was bringing her sin to remembrance by the son's loss of breath
3. Elijah took the son to the rooftop room where Elijah lodged, stretched himself upon the child three times and prayed to God to let the child's soul come into him again
4. The soul came into the child again and Elijah brought him to his mother and said, "See, your son lives"
5. The widow said she knew Elijah was a man of God and God's Word in his mouth was truth
6. Let us trust in God's Word to restore us from the bondage and death of sun to new life in Christ
Galatians 1:11-24 (C) (L)
Galatians 1:11-19 (RC)
Paul's Gospel and Commission to Preach
1. Paul had formerly persecuted the church and tried to destroy it
2. Paul was zealous for the traditions of his fathers
3. But God, who set him apart before he was born, called Paul by his grace and revealed Christ to him so he might preach Christ to the Gentiles
4. Paul did not confer with humans, but went into Arabia for three years
5. Paul conferred briefly with Peter and James in Jerusalem, but then went into Syria and Cilicia to preach
6. The God who transformed Saul the persecutor of the church into Paul the leading missionary can transform our lives by the power of the Gospel
7. Let us open our lives to receive the Living Christ and follow his leading in telling the good news of salvation to all we meet
This Preacher's Preference
Luke 7:11-17
"Young Man, Arise!," Says Jesus
1. Jesus came to Nain where he found a funeral procession for the only son of a widow
2. Jesus had compassion on the widow and told her not to weep
3. Jesus touched the funeral bier and said, "Young man, I say to you, arise"
4. The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother
5. The people were seized by fear and said Jesus was a great prophet, and that God had visited his people; and the report of the miracle spread widely
6. Trust in the Living Christ who raises those dead in sin to a new life of freedom, joy and love
Hymn for Proper 5: Now Thank We All Our God
Prayer
O God of life, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, raise us up to new life in Christ, we pray. May your Spirit so move in our hearts that we may be turned from love for sin to love for righteousness. May we encounter the Living Christ and so find eternal life through him. Amen
In the reading from 1 Kings Elijah restores the widow's son to health after the breath or animation had left him. There is virtual consensus on the Galatians reading. We should not omit verses 20-24, since they serve to bring the reference back to Paul's original persecution of the church and to his ministry, and this brings praise to God. The Lucan passage is the miracle in which Jesus restores life to the widow of Nain's son.
Commentary
1 Kings 17:17-24
Our pericope is part of a larger section of verses 1-14. This is the beginning of the story of Elijah. Since verses 1-7 begin rather abruptly, we can only assume that the beginning - with a proper introduction of Elijah the prophet - has somehow been lost. Note also that our pericope is part of a larger historical account of the affairs in the northern kingdom found in 1 Kings 17--2 Kings 10. This features the prophets Elijah and Elisha, Ahab's reign, and the destruction of the dynasty of Omri. Refugees from Israel brought these stories to Judah, stories based on good northern sources. However, the final redaction was done in Judah. Note especially that the ancients did not have our modern scientific understanding of the uniformity of nature. Consequently, the miracles in this story (and those later in the cycle of stories) must be accepted as a vital part of the method used by the writer.
Zarephath was in territory beyond the control of Ahab and is now associated with the village of Sarafand. It is nine miles south of Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. Recall that this widow has just fed Elijah with the last of her meal and a little oil, ingredients which she made into a cake. By a miracle the jar of meal was not spent and the cruse of oil did not fail until rain came again to the region.
Now our pericope picks up the story with the illness of the son of this same widow. He was so ill that his breath had left him. The word used for breath means animation or breath rather than life, indicating he was not necessarily dead.
In verse 18 appears the notion that the sickness of the child was divine punishment for some obscure sin. The widow thinks Elijah, the man of God, has brought God so near to her that he has discovered some hidden sin and that the loss of breath in her son is punishment being meted out. While this may seem to us to be a rather primitive idea concerning God, it is far from outdated. People suffering from an illness or the illness of a loved one today still ask, "What have I done to deserve this?" There is still a view of God rendering judgment immediately, tit-for-tat, on the person who commits a sin. So the widow thought that the sickness of her son was divine punishment for some obscure sin, a sin which made her and her son incompatible with the divine presence, thought to be in this man of God.
Elijah takes the lad to the upper chamber on the rooftop, where Elijah himself lodged, and lays him on his own bed. It was accessible by an outside stairway. Then Elijah cries out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, hast thou brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?" (v. 20) Thus Elijah sees the loss of breath or death of the son as an act of arbitrary injustice on the part of God. This calamity had come to the very widow to whom God had directed him for food. It is as if the poor widow had not had enough trouble and anxiety due to lack of food, so that now this extra burden of the loss of her son adds to her distress. This notion about God, current in the ninth century B.C. emphasized the arbitrariness of God rather than his justice and mercy. In pagan societies today there is a fear of the spirits of the gods, spirits which must be placated by sacrifices. The belief is that one never knows whether the spirit powers will harm or bless a person.
The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, says that Elijah breathed into the child. The Hebrew says he stretched himself over the boy three times and cried a prayer to God. A similar story occurs in two other places: 2 Kings 4:34-35, and Acts 20:10. Elijah did this three times. The number three shares with seven a special power, both religious and magical, but the true magic number is seven. Repeating something three times is not regarded as being effective nearly as much as it is sometimes thought.
Some scholars see this cure as an example of contactual magic, a phenomenon well known in the ancient world. Sometimes the sickness of a king is transferred into a clay image, or into the corresponding parts of an animal. But here the health of Elijah is conveyed to the corresponding organs of the boy without breath.
In verse 22 the Hebrew word used does not mean the boy lived after he had been dead. "He revived" is the desired translation.
In verse 24 the widow admits that the word of God is in Elijah's mouth and she does not doubt this.
We should note that the name "Elijah" means "Yah is El." El was the general Semitic name for the High God. This makes Elijah's name mean the very message he proclaims: Yah is El. The name fits the character of his mission, as in the case of Jesus, whose name means savior, and Isaiah, whose name means Yah is salvation.
Galatians 1:11-24 (C) (L)
Galatians 1:11-19 (RC)
This pericope contains Paul's call to be an apostle. It also details events of Paul's life which shed light on a chronology of his life and ministry. In verses 11-16b Paul shares the circumstances of his call, in which he emphasizes the divine origin of his Gospel and call to be an apostle. Note that Paul calls the Galatians "brethren," in spite of the severity of his address to them. By "man's gospel" Paul means a merely human message. In verse 12 Paul refers to the Gospel he preached as one having come "through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (pointing to Paul's conversion). (Acts 9:3-6)
In verse 13 Paul refers to his former life in which he persecuted the church violently and tried to destroy it. (Acts 8:3; 9:21; 22:4) Then he tells of his attainments in Judaism and his extreme zeal for his religion. Paul may be listing these things in order to answer charges against him by his opponents, those who doubted Paul's sincerity. But Paul goes right to the source of his call and Gospel, Christ's revelation to him on the road to Damascus. Paul answers charges by saying he received his commission from the risen Christ, and points out that he is independent of the Jerusalem apostles. He tells of his public disagreement with Peter at Antioch.
Like the Old Testament prophets Jeremiah (1:5) and Isaiah (49:1), Paul refers to his prenatal call by God and stresses God's initiative in calling him to be an apostle. Note that Paul does not distinguish between his conversion and his commissioning. In verses 15-17 Paul stresses that his conversion and commissioning were by God's sovereign plan and come not from human teachers. He says he went to Arabia (that is, the Nabataean kingdom, of which Petra was the capital). Following his trance at Damascus, it would have been normal for him to consult an interpreter of dreams. We don't know exactly where Paul went, but he preferred cities to the countryside. There is no evidence he went to Mount Sinai.
Paul says that after three years in Arabia and Damascus he went up to Jerusalem and remained with Peter for fifteen days. Paul doesn't say whether he is counting the three years from his conversion or his return to Damascus. It was customary to count parts of years as whole years, so the actual period may have been much less than three calendar years. His reason for leaving Damascus is given in 2 Corinthians 11:32 and Acts 9:23. But he did not see any other apostles except James, the Lord's brother, who was then the leader of the Jerusalem church. We are not told the reason for Paul's visit. It may have been to get information, to give an account of his ministry, or simply to get acquainted. To get acquainted seems the mostly likely purpose, since Paul's main concern is to demonstrate his independence of Jerusalem. He mentions this visit to show how short and insignificant it was for the motivation and content of his ministry.
Note that in verse 20 Paul takes an oath which shows his defensiveness, and may indicate he knows counterarguments are likely to be presented (or may already have been made).
When Paul left Jerusalem, he went to regions of Syria and Cilicia to preach the Gospel. (vv. 21-24) We don't know anything else of this period of his ministry. Acts seems to skip over it. It may be that Paul means to say that he started out in Syria and Cilicia and that, before revisiting Jerusalem, he went on from there to Asia, Macedonia and Greece. Recall that the Acts narrative assigns these travels to a later period, however.
Paul says he was not known by sight to the Christians of Judea (v. 22), but this raises some questions about the reference in Acts 22:3, where Paul says he studied with Gamaliel the Rabbi, in Jerusalem.
Consider that verses 23-24 serve to underscore the point already made, namely that Paul's past persecution of the church authenticates rather than raises doubts about the divine origin of his calling. Note that verse 24 raises the new point that opposition to Paul is something fairly recent. The glory of God mentioned in verse 24 is God's character made manifest in Christ. To glorify God was to so live as to cause others to think right thoughts about God and to turn to him in faith in Christ. Thus, glorifying God was far more than singing praises about him. God's glory was expressed in his forgiveness of sinners. To glorify God is to forgive one's fellow sinners. This meant that the churches which Paul had earlier persecuted had to receive a former deadly enemy as one of themselves, in order to show him and the world a love which never fails and which overcomes all obstacles. We learn from Galatians and Acts how difficult this was because of the stresses and strains of the Galatian controversy. There was great risk involved for conservative Jewish Christians in receiving such a dynamic, restless, creative person as Paul - and one who had formerly persecuted them!
A number of changes took place in Paul's life because of his Damascus road experience. At center
was his new understanding of Christ, revealed by God to Paul as his Son. Paul's earlier reaction to the first Christians was due to their incomprehensible message about a crucified Messiah, a notion foreign to an orthodox Jew. Paul had a greatly changed view of the people of God. He found himself on mission not only to the nominally religious Jews but to Gentiles who were completely outside the pale of the law. There are many other changes which took place in Paul, such as his way of reading the Old Testament, his awareness of God's way of setting things right in the world, and his understanding of the purpose and function of the law. These issues are taken up in other passages of Galatians.
Luke 7:11-17
In the original Q material it seems that the story of the centurion was followed by a collection of material about Jesus and John the Baptizer. Jesus answered John's questions about who he was by including the message that "the dead are raised up." (v. 22; Matthew 11:5) To illustrate the fact that Jesus did raise the dead and show himself to do the work of a prophet, Luke inserted this miracle story from his special source, written or oral. Similar miracle stories are found in the Old Testament, in the doublets of Elijah and the son of the widow of Zarepath (our 1 Kings pericope today), and of Elisha and the son of the Shunammite woman. We may see in the story for today and in the account of the raising of Lazarus in John's Gospel symbols of Jesus' life-giving power.
Here at the beginning we should note the exclamation the people offered after the miracle, when they glorified God and said, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" (v. 16) A major purpose of the story is to portray Jesus as a miracle worker, like the powerful prophets of old.
Nain was a town six miles southwest of Nazareth and there was a cemetery outside its east gate. Jewish custom dictated that a person was buried in the late afternoon on the day of death. Honoring the dead was meritorious work. For this reason a large funeral procession would normally be expected. This was the saddest kind of funeral of all, since the mother was left alone and the family line of descent was cut off.
Note that in verse 13 Luke calls Jesus "Lord" for the first time. The mission of Jesus is now revealed to be one of delivering Israel, not from the Romans but from the captivity of death. While this is obvious to Luke's readers, it was not fully understood by those witnessing the miracle. Jesus is portrayed as the Lord of life and the motivation of his miracle is compassion. Nothing is said of faith.
Take notice of the fact Jesus touched the bier (v. 14), thus contaminating himself with ceremonial uncleanness. The Jewish method of funeral rites called for the body to be wrapped in a shroud and carried upon a stretcher.
At Jesus' command the young man rises from the dead. This miracle shows Jesus as the one who calls forth the living from the dead. The people see this miracle pointing to two facts: (1) a great prophet has arisen among them, and (2) God has visited his people. (v. 16) God is truly present in Jesus' act of raising the dead. We should not be surprised that fear seized them all. God had not forgotten his people!
In verse 17 Luke makes an editorial comment. Judea refers to all of Palestine, as in earlier verses of Luke. The main thrust of this miracle is the Christian conviction that life comes through encounter with Jesus Christ.
Theological Reflections
The 1 Kings account of Elijah restoring breath to the widow's son and Luke's account of Jesus' raising the son of the widow of Nain were chosen for reading today because both point to God's power to give life. Because Elijah is a man of God, he can give breath back to the child and return him to his mother. Jesus gives evidence to the people that he is a great prophet and that God has visited his people. This miracle also speaks to John the Baptizer, who asks for evidence that Jesus is the one who is to come (Messiah). The Galatians passage tells of Paul's conversion and commissioning to be an apostle. It, too, is the account of God's power to give life through Christ, since Paul was transformed from Saul the persecutor of the church to Paul the leading missionary of the church.
Homiletical Moves
1 Kings 17:17-14
See, Your Son Lives!
1. Elijah was staying in the home of a widow whose son became ill and there was no breath left in him
2. The widow thought God was bringing her sin to remembrance by the son's loss of breath
3. Elijah took the son to the rooftop room where Elijah lodged, stretched himself upon the child three times and prayed to God to let the child's soul come into him again
4. The soul came into the child again and Elijah brought him to his mother and said, "See, your son lives"
5. The widow said she knew Elijah was a man of God and God's Word in his mouth was truth
6. Let us trust in God's Word to restore us from the bondage and death of sun to new life in Christ
Galatians 1:11-24 (C) (L)
Galatians 1:11-19 (RC)
Paul's Gospel and Commission to Preach
1. Paul had formerly persecuted the church and tried to destroy it
2. Paul was zealous for the traditions of his fathers
3. But God, who set him apart before he was born, called Paul by his grace and revealed Christ to him so he might preach Christ to the Gentiles
4. Paul did not confer with humans, but went into Arabia for three years
5. Paul conferred briefly with Peter and James in Jerusalem, but then went into Syria and Cilicia to preach
6. The God who transformed Saul the persecutor of the church into Paul the leading missionary can transform our lives by the power of the Gospel
7. Let us open our lives to receive the Living Christ and follow his leading in telling the good news of salvation to all we meet
This Preacher's Preference
Luke 7:11-17
"Young Man, Arise!," Says Jesus
1. Jesus came to Nain where he found a funeral procession for the only son of a widow
2. Jesus had compassion on the widow and told her not to weep
3. Jesus touched the funeral bier and said, "Young man, I say to you, arise"
4. The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother
5. The people were seized by fear and said Jesus was a great prophet, and that God had visited his people; and the report of the miracle spread widely
6. Trust in the Living Christ who raises those dead in sin to a new life of freedom, joy and love
Hymn for Proper 5: Now Thank We All Our God
Prayer
O God of life, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, raise us up to new life in Christ, we pray. May your Spirit so move in our hearts that we may be turned from love for sin to love for righteousness. May we encounter the Living Christ and so find eternal life through him. Amen
