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Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, November 3, 2024
by Dr. Miles Hopgood, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God’s word is not like our word. Whereas our speech merely describes, God’s speech creates. Our promise can fail, but God’s promise carries fulfillment with it.
A year after his career as a reformer took off with his 95 Theses in 1517, Martin Luther came out with another set of theses. Rather than posted, these were argued at a disputation in Heidelberg. While some might consider the Heidelberg Disputation a sophomore slump, these theses pack some serious theological heft. One in particular, Thesis 28, gives us something to chew on. There, he writes that, “The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of [humankind] comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.”[1] Luther’s point is that God’s love is not simply a greater version of our love or even the greatest possible version of our love. It is something wholly different. Whereas you and I love something because it is lovable, God loves what is unlovable in order to make it lovable. “This is the love of the cross, born of the cross” Luther writes, “which turns in the direction where it does not find good which it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the bad and needy person.”[2]
What is true about God’s love is also true about God’s word, and we see both on display in this episode from the ministry of the prophet Elijah. At every beat in these events, everything hinges on God’s word, because when God speaks, reality conforms. There will be no rain “except by my word.” God commands the ravens to feed, and lo! the prophet eats. God says the jar of meal and jug of oil will not empty, and they endure until the rains return, again by God’s word. It can even raise the dead, as with the widow’s son.
At first, these descriptions of God’s word may cause us to despair, for the gap between our speech and God’s feels like it creates an incredible distance between us and God. But remember: just as God’s love drew near to us and remains with us in Jesus Christ, so too as Moses says, God’s word is very near to us, in our mouth and in our heart (Deut 30:14). For though the word belongs to God, it is ours to speak, just as Elijah speaks God’s promise to the widow. Rather than creating distance between us and God, these events from Elijah’s ministry remind us of the power that comes when we boldly proclaim God’s promises to one another and our world. Through the proclaimed Word, the Spirit moves and acts, echoing the widow’s faith when she declares, “the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
[1] Luther’s Works, American Edition, 31:41.
[2] Ibid, 31:57.
