"Running on Empty"

 “Running on Empty”

1 Kings 17:1-16

November 1, 2020

Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood 

First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS

Do you have anything you like to hold onto when you pray? A stone? A cross? Prayer beads? A mantra or scripture verse? Something else entirely? If you’re logged into Facebook, share in the comments about what you hold onto when you pray.

Every night before I go to sleep and then again in the morning when I wake up, I pray while snuggled up warm in my bed. And while I do so, I usually hold onto this pendant. My great-grandmother gave it to me when I was born. On one side it has my first name and date of birth. On the other side it has her initials - L.M.K. 

My great-grandmother Lulu was 19 when she gave birth to my grandmother, Isabelle. As she was raising two young children World War I was raging...and then the 1918 flu pandemic. She lived through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, World War II and Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and so much more. 

I didn’t know Lulu very well. She lived several hours away from us and died when I was only eight. But this pendant keeps me connected to her. When I’m holding onto it, I’m keenly aware that my great-grandmother was born in 1897..which means this pendant has been touched by hands that have seen three centuries now...the 19th, 20th, and 21st. 

A couple days ago I was talking with my younger son, who is eight. He asked how old he would be in the year 2100 and at first I laughed. The idea of the year 2100 seems preposterous to me. But then we did the math together and figured out he’ll be 88 in 2100. Which seems not preposterous at all. 

And I wonder if he’ll have this pendant somewhere. And if his 22nd century hands will hold onto this small piece of metal that has been touched by hands that have spanned four centuries. 

The saints who went before us keep us connected to something bigger than ourselves. They remind us that we are not alone...we are not the first people to live through troubling times, or experience excruciating grief or exquisite joy. Through the Spirit we are bound together across time and space and we feel a kindred connection to saints who lived much longer ago than my great-grandma. 

Like the nameless widow in this morning’s story from 1st Kings. Why is it that there are all these wonderful stories in the Bible with women who don’t get names? Oh. I know why. It’s the patriarchy. 

The patriarchy would have made this woman particularly vulnerable. She was a widow, so we know that in a patriarchal society she wouldn’t have had many resources. Plus, she was the mother to a boy who was not yet a man….so she had someone depending on her. And she was living through a great drought and famine. Like Hannah, who we learned about a few weeks ago, she was a desperate woman. She was so poor - the famine was so severe - that she was down to her last measure of flour. She and her son were about to die of starvation. 

Elijah - the great prophet Elijah - comes to her in his own desperation. This part of the book of 1 Kings is a dramatic back-and-forth between God’s prophet, Elijah, and King Ahab “son of Omri [who] did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.” In short: he was the worst king ever. And, really, there are a lot of bad, bad kings in this part of the Bible, so that’s saying something. 

Elijah warns Bad King Ahab that a terrible drought is coming and then God sends Elijah into the wilderness where he is dependent on the ravens for his daily bread. He shelters near the Wadi Cherith until the wadi dries up….and then, in his desperation, he is sent by God to Zarephath...a far away place where he would not have expected to find welcome. God tells him that there is a widow there who will help him. 

And so here we have two desperate people that God has brought together in their time of need. They are both, quite literally, destitute and starving. And there is no one coming to save them. No help is found on the horizon. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from or how they will make it through the next day, let alone the next week or month. 

The woman has just enough food left to make one more meal. When Elijah tells her he’s come looking for help, I imagine her laughing at him. “Are you joking? Your God sent you to ME for help? I’ve literally got NOTHING left. Nothing. My plan here is to make one more meal for my son and me, eat it, and then wait to die.” 

Elijah’s brilliant response is to tell her to make the meal….and give it to him. I have to admit, I kind of want to stick my tongue out at Elijah when I read this part of the story. But the author of 1st Kings has set this up for us as a “test of faith” kind of story...the idea being that if the woman is faithful enough to give away her last meal to this stranger, God will reward her by providing her with more than she needs to keep going in the future. 

Would God really have scorned her if she had refused? My gut tells me God is gracious and loving and would have come through for these three desperate people no matter what...but we don’t get to find out because in THIS story the woman does the unthinkable. She does what Elijah says. She makes one last meal….and instead of eating it herself or giving it to her son she gives it to this strange prophet from another place. 

I don’t really know if this is proof of her faith as much as it is proof of her deep desperation. As a mother myself, I can’t imagine giving away my family’s last food to a stranger instead of to my own child. I really can’t. But maybe just maybe if you were so far gone that you really believed nothing you did could even matter any more at all….maybe you’d be willing to try anything because you’d really believe nothing mattered anymore. 

I don’t know. 

There’s a lot I don’t know these days. There’s a lot nobody seems to know these days. 

The desperation, the emptiness of the people in this story doesn’t seem too far away, does it? So many people are really struggling right now. Worried about where their next meal will come from like the people in this ancient story….or just plain worried about the state of the world….uncertainty abounds. The grief that we feel when we pause to feel the immensity of more than one million lives lost around the globe to COVID...it’s truly difficult to comprehend. 

I’ve talked to so many people lately who tell me what a struggle it is just to keep getting up each day and accomplishing basic tasks. 

Our fears about the future and our sense of powerlessness….well, I look at these ancient humans in the Bible and it looks pretty much like a mirror staring back at us. 

Like us, these two people do the only thing they know to do….they turn towards each other for help. We humans are hardwired for connection - which is part of what makes 2020 so incredibly difficult. Here we are in a time where we all desperately NEED connection with each other….but coming together in physical space can be dangerous for our communities. We protect one another by staying apart, which just feels so unnatural. 

Like Elijah and the widow, our instincts are to turn towards one another. So we keep doing it...we call each other for support, we drop notes in the mail to let someone know we’re thinking of them. We organize drive-by birthday parades and figure out creative ways to keep Halloween joyful for the kids. We get together outdoors even when the weather is gross and log onto Zoom again to share virtual space. We are hardwired for this connection….we need each other, especially when our stores are depleted and we are running on empty. 

One of the particularly difficult things about right now mirrors this story: how do people who are ALL running on empty help each other? 

When you’ve got nothing and you turn to your neighbor for support and THEY’VE got nothing, too….what next? 

I have an image in my head of all the beautiful, creative, strong, resilient humans I know with their tanks empty...running towards each other for help...but everyone’s depleted. What now?

Now, my friends, NOW is the time to let God. Now is the time to let God sustain us, comfort us, nurture us, support us, give us hope. When everyone is empty, we can still turn to the One who assures us she will never leave us or forsake us. 

Time and time again in these ancient stories we are shown a God who is faithful to us. Even in the depths of our deepest desperation, our most profound grief, the kind of hopelessness that feels irreversible….God does not leave us abandoned. 

I’ve heard this story preached so many times as a story about the woman’s faith. But, for me, in this moment, the part of this story that stands out to me...the part that I want to grab onto with two hands and hold onto for dear life is the part of the story about God’s faith. 

Our God is faithful. Our God is the God of hope, restoration, and new life. Our God is the one big enough to hold all of our desperation and speak into the storm: “Peace, be still.” Our God is the Spirit we can turn to when we are all just as empty and empty as can be. And we can trust that our faithful God will sustain us. Always and in all ways. 

There are a lot of people who are running on empty right now. If you’re one of them, please know you’re not alone. It is my hope and prayer for you that you will reach out to another person and be honest about your desperation and need...and if that person is also running on fumes, it is my prayer for you both that you will experience the faithfulness of God moving in your life and giving you what you need to make it through this moment, this week, this month, this year. 

Beloveds, this is the time to let God. To allow God’s faithfulness to wash over us and comfort all our broken places...to bind up our pain and anxiety and hopelessness. To give us each day our daily bread and sustain us day by day. 

And as we lift our desperate prayers to God for help, we have something to hold onto. 

We can hold onto these stories. These stories that have been cradled in the hands of so many generations. These stories that still live and breathe and offer hope today. 

Thanks be to God.