A Mother With Extreme Faith

This is the manuscript of Mother's Day sermon at Christ Church on May 9, 2021.

Today on Mother’s Day, we are going to look at a woman of faith. The single mother and widow of Zarephath did not start out having extreme faith. In fact she had little faith but she acted on it by letting go of everything that she had and God used that little faith as an example to us that He can take a little faith use it and grow it to extreme faith but we must first let go of everything and give it to Him.

1 Kings 17:12 NIV “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

1 Kings 17:15‭-‬16 NIV She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

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Scripture 

1 Kings 17:8‭-‬16 NIV Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”  “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”  Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ”  She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

Introduction

The clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.” This celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service. Over time the Mothering Sunday tradition shifted into a more traditional holiday, and children would present their mothers with flowers and other tokens of appreciation.

The roots of the modern American Mother’s Day date back to the 19th century, before the Civil War, where Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children. These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.

Another precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. In 1873 Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2. 

The official Mother’s Day holiday arose in the 1900s as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis.

Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children. After gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908, she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. That same day also saw thousands of people attend a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia.

Arguing that American holidays were biased toward male achievements, she started a massive letter writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special day honoring motherhood. By 1912 many states, towns and churches had adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and Jarvis had established the Mother’s Day International Association to help promote her cause. Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.  In the United States, Mother’s Day continues to be celebrated, and it has become one of our biggest holidays. 

Today on Mother’s Day, we are going to look at a woman of faith. This woman in the  Scripture that Jean read in 1 Kings doesn’t start out as a woman of faith, but she sure ends up a woman of faith.  Whoever you are, and whatever your faith is like – to end up as a person of great faith, you start out as a person with  less than great faith. But God can and will still use you even if you don’t start with great faith, we see this in our passage today.

In our example today the nation of Israel, is in the middle of a great drought, predicted by the prophet Elijah himself. 

1 Kings 17:1‭-‬3 NIV Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord , the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”  Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

Elijah has been in isolation in the Kerith Ravine, which is a small tributary to the Jordan river, and in vRiver, of 1 Kings 17 the word of the Lord comes to him and directs him to go to Zarephath which was in what is today Lebanon.

Now the prophet Elijah must know life is going to get difficult. Kerith, where he was staying, means separated, and the name depicts Elijah's situation – he was alone, and without human contact for an extended period of time. God then sends him to Zarephath, which means, fiery trial. So God calls him out of the frying pan and into the fire. You can imagine Elijah walking to Zarephath thinking, “Holy Smoke, what in the world has God planned for me next?”.

Notice, God doesn’t give him much to go on.  All He says is “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” 

So, does the woman have a name? What will she be wearing? What is her address? Does she know I’m coming? 

Does God do this to you too? Life is moving along, you’re doing your thing and bam, out of the blue something hits you and you ask, “God, what is going on?” and you get no details. 

What we do know about Elijah is that he is bold, confident, strong, and faithful. Elijah is a man who will do whatever God asks of him, so why the lack of details? 

Sometimes God is silent because his awesome power is revealed….slowly. Sometimes the time spent waiting will intensify the impact of the work of God on our lives. Sometimes the wait will make us more than ready to receive the Word of the Lord.

So Elijah goes if faith alone with minimal details to his Zarephath, his fiery trial.

Now at the gate he finds our woman of faith. What I love is that when Elijah arrives at the gate – there’s the widow, front and center. He doesn’t even have to look or ask around, she’s right there.  

We want the details of our circumstances from God upfront don’t we? But God supplies the details as we walk in faith – as we step out and arrive where God has directed us, and there are the details, standing right in front of us.

So here is this woman gathering sticks and Elijah calls to her. 

1 Kings 17:10 NIV So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”

What he does is play a trick on her, so to speak. Elijah calls her and asks for a drink and as she is going to get the water he adds, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” 

In the ancient Middle East hospitality was a very big deal. If someone asks for a drink of water, it is rude, even an unspeakable act to refuse the person a drink. It would be shameful for this woman to refuse him a drink of water. She may be broke, she may be at the end of her rope, but she still has her dignity and she can perform this act of hospitality, so she heads for the water jar – but to give away her bread, that is another thing altogether. Yet she is trapped by Elijah adding on a second request. Understand this second request is asking for her life commitment, for the request is asking for all she has.

 1 Kings 17:12 NIV “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

So who was this woman? Her name is never even mentioned. What we do know is that she is a single mother who is trying to make it, and it looks like she isn’t going to make it. She is trying desperately to take care of her son, but it is clear that she cannot provide for him. Usually a widow would have family to help take care of her. But this woman apparently doesn’t have anyone. If she dies, no one will notice. As a woman she has low social standing and as a widow she has no social standing. She is a nobody, a phantom to neighbors as she comes and goes from her house. She is so much a non person, we never even learn her name. She is literally a nonentity. At this point the drought has been going on for about 3 1/2 years and she is at the end of her resources.

Notice  that she isn’t saying no to Elijah, she is just pointing out the reality that there isn’t enough for herself, her son and Elijah. 

1 Kings 17:12 NIV “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

 She has literally nothing,  she is a nobody and yet….God will use her for great things.

 

Notice also that this woman is a pagan living in a land where they worship false gods.  She is not a Hebrew, she is not a believer, but we do see a little glimmer of faith in her.  Look at the beginning of verse 12,  when she says, “As surely as the LORD your God lives”

She acknowledges that there is a God. That is the beginning of faith.  Hebrews 1:6 says;And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Then an amazing thing happened look at verses 13-15

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ”  She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

What happened there? Did you see that leap? She goes from a teeny tiny faith to enormously huge faith, in the blink of an eye. Amazing!

Elijah asks for the impossible. He asks to be fed first, which will pretty much take all she has. You see that in verse 13. 

1 Kings 17:13 NIV Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

He wants her to make the cake, bring it to him and then go back and make the other cakes. She cannot divide what is left to make sure she and her son get some. She must give away what she has first. By all logic and sense she is choosing death for herself and her son. But God, he defies our logic – we see our faith as holding on, when God sees our faith as letting go. 

Now Elijah encourages her – in essence he speaks the Word of God to her, the powerful Word of God, “Don’t be afraid.” 

1 Kings 17:14 NIV For this is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ”

This woman who is not even named does something that doesn’t make sense, it defies logic, it runs contrary to everything she may have ever done in her life, and she turns to walk to her house…and she has something that she didn’t have just a little bit ago, she had real faith. I mean who in this room could do this? Who here could give up all they had, knowing that it would directly lead to their death, and their child’s death. 

It is one thing to say you believe but quite another thing to take action on that belief.

God doesn’t ask this widow, this mother, to build some great church or be a missionary and travel to other lands. He doesn’t ask her to give up her house, or testify to crowds of people – He asks her for a small piece of bread. Granted, it was all she had, but it wasn’t something that was beyond her everyday life. Faith isn’t about huge projects, it is about everyday life. God uses ordinary, everyday, even somewhat boring, ways to build our faith. 

This woman lets go and the blessings come raining down. It is like the five loaves and two fish that fed five thousand men. The flour and the oil don’t run out. The handful, the limited inventory, the one thing that was between her and death – she let it go. But there’s more to this woman, this mother’s story of faith. 

1 Kings 17:17 NIV Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.

For this single mother, what good is an endless jar of flour, if her son cannot share in the blessing? So of course she is angry  In verse 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

She has seen a daily miracle, of unending flour, but the death of her son is just too much.

In verse 19 though we see Elijah step into action. 

1 Kings 17:19 NIV “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.

If you are a mother you know that Elijah did not take the boy without his mother giving him up, without letting go. I see that like that moment where she turns to go make the cakes of bread, that moment where she let go instead of holding on – right here she does it again. Again she finds herself in weakness and she doesn’t hold on – what does she do? She let’s go.

 

Elijah takes him up and lays him on his bed, stretching himself out three times: “O LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”, “O LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”, “O LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

1 Kings 17:19‭-‬21 NIV “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord , “ Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord , “ Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

 

You know the outcome. God hears his cry, God answers his prayer, the son lives. 

1 Kings 17:22‭-‬23 NIV The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

 

Talk about a mother’s day present. This woman had a leap of faith when the flour and oil wouldn’t run out, but this time it is different. You know that she had to believe before – but this is unprecedented.

Verse 24, Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

This single mother starts off as a woman who has a tiny sparkle of faith, a faith that is only enough to see her through one more meal and that is pretty much all she has. But you know what, that is enough. It is enough for God to change her world in a split second.

Stop waiting for the details. Stop holding on to what you have. Stop holding on to that thing you have been holding on to – and let go, and leave the rest to God.   Rebecca reminded me last week of something Charles Stanley said "obey God and leave the consequences to Him. 

O most loving Father, you want us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but losing you, and to cast all our anxiety on you because you care for us.  Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have shown us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Sermon Audio