Based on the following readings:
1 Kings 17: 17-24 – Elijah Revives the Widow’s Son
Luke 7:11-17 – Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son at Nain
So what are the similarities of these stories? Both of our bible stories start with heart-wrenching scenes. In both stories a widow’s son has died, in the first reading her son is still in her arms, whilst in the second story we are witnessing the funeral procession.
These are the darkest days of these people’s lives.
These women have both already mourned the loss of their husbands, as widows they are already seen as one of the lowliest in society and now they are both mourning for their sons. But then we have the miraculous healings in both stories.
There are also many less obvious similarities to these stories. Notice how in both of these miracles God took the initiative.
Elijah said ‘give me your son’ and in the second reading Jesus healed without being asked. We read that both Elijah and Jesus were considered to be prophets by the witnesses and in both stories God shows compassion by restoring life. God has the power to give life.
God also brought wholeness to both these families. If a widow lost her son she would also lose her security and future. God restored wholeness to both the boys, to their mothers and to their family units.
And finally, in both stories God was being gloried. To Elijah the woman said “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” In response to Jesus’ actions and words, they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favourably on his people!”
As a result of these miracles the people acknowledge God as the one who gives life; who takes the initiative; who is all powerful; who brings wholeness and shows compassion. How many of those similarities were you able to spot?
But before these miracles were performed the scenes were of despair. Heart-wrenching scenes. In both stories a widow’s son has died. Every parent’s greatest fear. The darkest days of these people’s lives.
These scenes prompt the question, where was God? Where was God in their darkest hour and where is God is our darkest times?
Well, in their darkest hour they witness a miracle. God’s presence is obvious. In the Old Testament reading God acts through the prophet Elijah. We read that the ‘Lord listened to the voice of Elijah’ and as Elijah cried out to the Lord to ‘let the child’s life come into him again’, the child was revived.
In the New Testament reading God in Christ is physically present. He’s physically there on the scene. As the funeral procession walks towards Jesus, he literally put’s himself in the way of death by stopping the funeral procession. Jesus does not wait to be asked to perform this miracle. He touches the unclean funeral ‘bier’ (the frame on which the dead son is being carried) and commands the son to ‘rise’. Immediately the dead son sits up and begins to speak.
Where was God in their darkest hour? He was right along-side them. God acted through the prophet Elijah and in the second story God in Christ is physically present. He was right along-side them.
But where is God in our darkest hour?
This is a question where we must not give a flippant response. Imagine yourselves now in the situation of the widow. Imagine if your friends and family were in that situation. Their darkest hour. Knowing that you are a Christian they may turn to you, expecting that you know all the answers, and ask, ‘Where is God?’ How would you respond to that question?
Traditionally in the Methodist faith, questions such as these would be discussed in house groups but with numbers declining many groups have been disbanded or with such busy lives few people find time to attend.
The concerning thing is that there are tough questions that need answering. By declaring ourselves as Christians we put our head above the parapet and so we are open to being asked to answer such questions.
There may be a temptation to avoid these questions but the answers to these types of questions are what the world is crying out for and we need to prepare ourselves to share the good news.
The first step is to not fear being asked. If we fear the question ‘Where is God?’ then we fear our involvement and we fear the outcome.
We must not fear. We live in faith and not fear. There’s implicit instruction throughout the bible that we are not to live our lives in fear.
So the first step is to take fear out, literally take the word fear out of the question. So with confidence, rather than in fear, we ask ‘where is God in our darkest hours’, what is our involvement and what is the outcome?
Firstly the question, Where is God in our darkest hours? Well the answer, just like in the stories of the widows, is God is right along-side us. Nothing has changed since then, he is an unchanging God. He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He is right along-side us. He is with us always, to the end of the age (Matt 28:20).
God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. We may not receive physical healing, such as in the miracles of today’s readings, but in our darkest hours we can receive spiritual healing. God promises to give us comfort, strength and guidance.
God is good and desires only what is best for us. We know that God is love and we have experiences of his love that we can draw upon in our darkest hours.
But then comes the follow up question, if God is good and desires only what is best for us then why do bad things happen to us, or to our friends or to our family? A challenging question. Have you ever been asked that question? Would you know how to respond to it?
The answer lies somewhere in the fact that our world is severely broken and we demanded our independence from God. Nothing is as it should be, as God the Father desired it to be, and as it will be one day.
Right now our world is lost in darkness and chaos and horrible things happen to those he loves. God feels our pain and, like any good father, he is along-side us in our darkness.
We make our choices, we have free-will and out of love he would never violate those choices. There are millions of reasons why God allows pain, hurt and suffering rather than eradicate them, but most of these reasons can only be understood within each person’s story. God is not evil. God is love, God is good and desires only what is best for us.
The good news that we need to share is that our choices are not stronger than God’s purpose and God uses every choice we make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome. When we ask where God is, we will see him working incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies.
But one warning – when we see God working incredible good out of those unspeakable tragedies, we must never, ever, make the mistake in assuming that it means that he caused the tragedy. We must never conclude that. God is not evil. God is love and desires only what is best for us.
Much of what happens in this world is not of God’s will but of man’s doing. The miracle is that God can turn the tables on such wrong doing and bring good from it.
So in answer to the question, ‘Where is God in our darkest hour?’ God is always with us. God is right along-side us; he gives us comfort, strength and guidance; he shares love that surpasses all understanding and he will work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies.
Secondly, what should our involvement be? What should be our response in our darkest hours or during a time of need of a friend or family member?
Well, we need to bring the situation to God and we do that through prayer. We may not know what to say, we may not know what to ask for, words may be impossible. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that we bring the situation to God. Words may fail us but our Father knows what we need before we ask him (Matt 6:8).
We also have the help of the Spirit in our praying. In the letter to the Romans we read that ‘the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express’ (Romans 8:26).
We need to bring the situation to God even if we don’t know what or how to pray.
We also need to listen, we need to listen during our prayers to discern God’s will. What does God want us to do, how does God want us to be involved?
God’s Spirit is inside us and in these situations we need to listen to that inner voice, that emotion, that tug, which is God’s wisdom. God communicating back to us with his instruction.
If you are anything like me, I’m good at rattling off a list of requests to God but I’m awful at devoting time to God to listen for a response. One-way rather than two-way communication. Prayer needs to be a two-way conversation if we are to discern God’s will.
There needs to be less words and more listening during our prayers.
We must also trust in the Lord. His purpose is bigger than our ability to pray and to discern his will, so we do not need to fear that we haven’t done enough or prayed enough. We must trust in the Lord with all our heart. God can work through us in ways we cannot imagine. Our perceived limitations will not limit God.
So we have looked at the question of ‘Where is God in our darkest hour?’, what our involvement should be and finally we need to address the outcome of the situation.
I shared with a friend that I would be writing a sermon on the theme of ‘Where is God in our darkest hours?’ She has been through some very dark times and she responded that, in her experience, God was always there with her but his answers to her prayers wasn’t always ‘Yes’.
What if the outcome isn’t what we hoped for, imagined, or even pleaded to God to deliver?
It may take us years to discern how God has brought good out of our darkest moments. It may remain a mystery, a source of lifelong sadness and a challenge to our faith.
We may never in this lifetime understand the outcome. Other widows lost their sons in the time of Jesus and Elijah (and even now) and there is often no obvious happy ending like in these two wonderful stories.
But for our own sakes we need to trust God; learn to rest in his goodness and know that, like any good father, he desires only what is best for us. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” The darkness isn’t as scary when you follow the light of the world.
The good news that we must be sharing is that God does perform miracles by bringing good out of our darkest hours and that thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice there is no outcome to fear. For those who believe, no matter what the outcome, there is nothing to fear, not even death.
Everything that is taking place is occurring exactly according to God’s purpose, without violating choice and will. If we could see how all this ends and what will be achieved, then we would understand.
If we trust that God is good and that all of life is covered by his goodness, we can let go of our obsession with the outcome. We can let go of our need to be in control and our need to understand everything.
God can and will act through us, so we must simply allow God to work in and through us without concern. We need to let go and let God.
We may never in this lifetime understand the outcome, but we will find great comfort in letting go and by remembering that the outcome was never ours to control in the first place.
We need to trust God and learn to rest in his goodness.
Where is God in our darkest hours? God is always with us. During our darkest hours God is right along-side us and he gives us comfort, strength and guidance. He loves us beyond all understanding and he does not want us to be in pain.
We must trust in his goodness and allow him to work incredible good out of those darkest hours. So we need to pray to discern his will; allow him to work in and through us and finally we must rest in our Father’s goodness and grace. Amen
Debbie Story 