Sunday's coming!

Luke 7: 36 - 50 The story of a woman anointing Jesus is one that is found, with various differences to the details of the story, in all four gospels. This must be an important, even a vital, story. So let’s look at the story first from the point of view of Simon, the Pharisee, who Luke tells us is the host for a meal to which he has invited Jesus. Simon is a Pharisee: he is very concerned about knowing, understanding and keeping the law of Moses, as a means of showing loyalty to God, being one of God’s peoples, obeying the command to love God and love others. He is presumably impressed by what he has seen of Jesus – his teaching and healing ministry, and he wants a chance to see Jesus close up for himself.     So imagine how disconcerted he is when a woman in the city, a well-known sinner, gate-crashes the meal and begins making a spectacle of herself, weeping on Jesus’ feet, wiping his feet with her hair, pouring expensive ointment on Jesus’ feet. There’...

This is my last sermon for this church, as I move in less than three weeks' time: there will be another goodbye, to the other 3 churches, next week!  1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) and Luke 7:11-17 We have heard three amazing stories this morning. First the story of Elijah & the widow of Zarephath. I love the story. The widow takes pity on Elijah (who is in the middle of a battle of wits with King Ahab) and uses the last of what she has to feed him - but then find that her oil & flour lasts all three of the – the widow Elijah & her son, for many days. Then in the second story, the son dies. The widow wonders whether she is being punished for some sin, and feels that the presence of Elijah has brought her to God’s attention in an unwelcome way. So Elijah takes the boy, prays for help from God, and he is restored to life and given back to his mother. And then the third story our gospel reading of the raising of the son of the widow of Nain by Jesus. ...

Readings for this week are: 1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) and Luke 7:11-17 I'm much taken by the story of Elijah & the widow of Zarephath. I love the story of the oil & flour that lasts - but also like the extension into the story of the widow's son, which of course lies nicely alongside the raising of the son of the widow of Nain by Jesus. So what do we make of these stories? On one level the Elijah story could just look like 'you scratch my back & I'll scratch yours' - the woman has cared for Elijah in the famine & now he cares for her by raising her son. But the fact that she is named as a widow, give the story more depth. God's concern for a social justice that extends especially to 'widows and orphans' is well attested in the Old Testament. And what can be more heart-rending than a woman who has not only lost her husband, but also her son? So God's justice & God's kingdom demands action. Elijah is moved to ...