Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“She came and told the man of God, and he said, ‘Go sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your children can live on the rest.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, November 9, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Elijah also performed a miracle with a Widow’s oil. Elisha has taken up his former master’s mantle and appears to be trying to one-up his mentor in this story. Where as the Widow of Zarephath’s cruet of oil stayed full enough to feed her, her son, and Elijah through the course of a drought, Elisha’s miracle took a single jar of oil and saw it fill an unspecified number (but “not a few”) of her neighbors vessels to the brim, producing so much oil from the one source that it could pay off all the debts her dead husband had left her with and then support her and her children for the rest of their lives. That, my friends, is a lot of oil.
I have never found myself in a situation where there are creditors knocking on my door for any reason, much less to take my children as payment for what I owe. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t experienced moments of financial crisis where I wasn’t sure how I was going to cover a car repair or a medical bill or some other unexpected and exorbitant expense. And while no prophet showed up to work a miracle—God is not the money fairy, after all—I can tell you that somehow things have always worked out one way or another. I may have had to ask my parents for help. Or I might have had another windfall at just the right moment. Or there might have been a little pocket of money tucked away in an account that I was hoping to save for the future, but at least it covered the immediate issue.
I am privileged. I have family who has my back. I have access to resources many people don’t. I personally am not in need of Elisha. But there are plenty of people who are. Plenty of people who live on the edge completely unbeknownst to those around them. Plenty more people who live on or below the edge because of unjust systems that trap them in low-wage jobs or have other barriers. These people need those miracles, and one place they can come from is a social service agency such as I write grants for. The agency provides financial assistance to cover that car repair or wages lost because of a sick child or that month of rent that couldn’t be paid because of prolonged illness. It’s hardly enough oil to live on forever, but it’s what that family needs in that moment, and it comes from the generosity of the community—a true act of loving our neighbors. God shows up in our lives in so many ways, and one way God shows up is when we show up for one another.
Are there organizations in my community that help families with financial crises? How is God calling me to be part of their ministry?
