Our Savior’s Lutheran Church
Camdenton, MO
Pentecost, Cycle C, Pentecost 2
“Quiet Miracles”6++
I. As you probably
noticed, the lectionary stories are always
chosen to
match each other. In the story of
Elijah, the
prophet, a
young man is raised from the dead.
In the
Gospel
story of Jesus, the son of the woman of Nain
is
raised from
the dead. And, as we go deeper
into the
stories, we
discover other similarities. We
will get to those
in a moment.
A)
These are distressing stories. We
have not heard in
modern times of resurrections
from death. We have
accounts in medical science of
people who have
coded…been clinically dead
for a short time, and
then who have been revived and
sometimes report
interesting boons from “the
other side”. But, this
is not the way of things
generally for us. We know
nothing of that undiscovered
country until we
once and for all cross
over….and that prospect is
both wonderful…and
disturbing.
B)
Perhaps we have not thought about the fact
that there
are several resurrection stories
in scripture. Jesus
raised Lazarus, the young man in
today’s story, and
the little daughter of
Jairus….and here is the prophet
Elijah also raising a boy through
the same power
of God, though he is not the Son
of God himself.
II. What are we to make
of this? Certainly, these are
wonders
and
miracles beyond our comprehension.
And they
take place,
as authentic miracles are wont to, in
quiet,
unobtrusive
ways…in out of the way
places. But even
the fact
that the scriptures report them is
disturbing.
2)
A)
Why? I would be willing to
venture that all of us
when confronted with a
resurrection or healing
story have a similar reaction
popping up in the
back of our minds…that
nagging question that
our humanity must
ask. Why does God heal
this one…and not that
one? Or…even more
basically…if God did that
for someone…why
hasn’t/ wouldn’t God
do that for me? for mine?
B)
Don’t throw that nagging question
out…we will
come back to it. I
said there were other
similarities in these stories
today. In both situations,
God works through the prophet and
Jesus to effect
the restoration of not one, but
two lives!
III. Each of the sons
raised is the only son of a widow.
For such
a son to
die…was virtually a death sentence
for the mother
as
well. For indeed, if she did not have an
extended family
willing to
care for her as in the story of Ruth and
Naomi,
the widow
left without a male heir would have no
means
of
supporting herself…would likely have to
turn to begging
or other
meager subsistence, and often soon after
would
die herself.
A)
The prophet Elijah cries out to God for
another answer.
Before today’s
story…we read that Elijah is cared for
and given food and water from the
resources of the
widow woman…a foreigner in
this backwater town…
during a time of severe drought
and famine. The
indignation of the prophet is
clear: “God…what are
you up to? This woman
shares with me to preserve
my life when she could have kept
these stores for
herself and her son…and
now this is how you repay
her generosity? Say it
ain’t so, Lord!!” In this
moment… in the upper room
where the boy lay…in
this backwater, out of the way
place…God makes a
quiet miracle…and the
widow’s family and life are
restored.
3)
B)
Now the story of Jesus is a bit different
again. Nain is
certainly an unimportant
place…off the beaten path..
God’s miracle is simple and
quiet…but certainly not
performed in private.
The funeral procession is
passing by. The paid
mourners are wailing their
traditional laments.
Everyone attends to the grief of
this poor widow.
1) Perhaps some of you can
remember what a funeral
was like in a
small town where you grew up.
The procession
moved, sometimes on foot, from
the church to
the church yard cemetery…or to
the cemetery
on the hill outside of town. When
the hearse and
the solemn procession passed
by…cars
would pull over. People would stop
to give
respect to the mourners, or even honor
to the
departed one, whom they likely knew…
Men walking
along the street looked on in still
silence….and often removed their hats in
homage.
2) No more
today. I have seen a guy in a pickup
truck in
impatience cut off a long rural
funeral
procession. No seeming thought
for it at
all…no honor for the bereaved.
IV. In this
story…Jesus is almost like that crass truck
driver.
First he
says to the woman:
“Do not weep”. How was
she to take
that? Not to weep at the loss of
this son?
Not to weep
at the loss of her very life? How
could this
man be so
crass….and then…he does the
unthinkable.
He cuts off
the funeral procession. Luke uses
very
simple
language. He touches the
bier…and the bearers
stop
still. They were probably shocked.
No one but
the bearers
was to even touch the bier of the
dead. And
Jesus bids
the young man “get
up”….and he sits up…
alive…speaking!....and here comes the very
simple telling
of the
whole miracle of restoration performed by
this
4)
Jesus….Luke reports: “He gave him
back to his mother”.
Life for
both of them was reclaimed….and
those who saw
it could
only marvel at the wonder of what happened
when
the
stranger stopped the funeral cortege.
A)
We, too, want to utter loud praises along
with the
amazed crowd in that dusty little
town…but there
is still that nagging question in
the back of our
minds…remember that one?
B) If
God can do such things…then why
does it happen
for this one…and not that
one…why can it not
happen for me and mine?
What is God up to?
V. Now, some might say
that such miraculous happenings are
a
dispensation for Biblical times…something
long passed..
but I know
that healings still happen. The
fact is, that
they do not
usually happen in big, flashy
auditoriums on
the stage
before all the cameras with Benny
Hin. God is
still often
about quiet miracles.
A)
When Frank and Shirley Canavit came back to
the lake
area after wintering down south,
she came up to me
in the gathering hall. I
asked, naturally about her
mother, Mary, who had been
diagnosed with
inoperable pancreatic
cancer. Along with her sister,
she attended her mother, trying
to make her time
a little more
comfortable…but she also told me of
something that took place along
side Mary’s medical
treatment. They had made an
appointment with an
Amish man who reputedly had a
gift of healing
through the laying on of hands
with prayer.
B) Of
course, they couldn’t call to make
an appointment.
They had to write a
letter…the Amish, you know!
I was excited. What
happened? After visiting this
healer, Mary’s doctor
reported that the malignancy,
a particularly aggressive type of
cancer, although not
5)
gone had stopped
growing. It was inexplicable…
except to the eyes of faith.
I knew a man with similar gifts
in the Chicago area
when I was a
seminarian. He was so well known
by word of mouth that researchers
took curlian
photography of his
hands…and documented a
certain kind of energy that
emanated from them
when he prayed for a
subject. Now, talk about
doing things in
secret…this guy was not Amish,
but he was an old Swedish
Lutheran…and their
motto is “never put
yourself forward!”. He confided
to me that he knew if he ever
tried to make money
or fame from the gift,
God’s Spirit had told him
that it would be taken from him.
VI. The point of this
little digression is this. Although I
can tell
you about
real instances where God still does these
miracles….even the ones who do them through
the Spirit
will tell
you that they have had about as many
failures as
successes….and that they, too, like the
prophet Elijah and
all of us,
are left with the nagging question of
“why this
one and not
that one?”
A) God is still about
these quiet miracles…we know
that they are
not like the ones touted by those
on TV who urge
us to “claim our miracle”….
which turns
out to be money, fame, or position.
That’s
not God’s miracle…it’s just greed!
B) If you search your heart
today, I think you, too,
could think of
a moment…or a situation…a time
when God did
not necessarily remove your
“thorn
in the flesh”…your suffering, your
disease, your
struggles….but when you had
a sense of
being visited… an assurance even
in the midst
of your storm which brought you
through
it…and set your feet on firm ground.
6)
VII. You know
what? That small moment could be your miracle.
They are
small rather than flashy, often….and
such gifts
of
God can go unnoticed or at least little
esteemed.
As Paul
says: “We have received from Him
grace upon
grace”….and the Psalmist today reflects
upon a time
of illness
or sore trial in a similar way:
“Weeping may linger for the night…but
joy comes in the
morning….You have turned my
weeping into dancing.
I am
so glad that now and then, Jesus
interrupts the
procession
of unrelenting death….and touches
us…
lifting us
into new life!
AMEN.
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