The economic news at the moment is grim. House repossessions up 48% on last year; inflation up to 4.4%; food and energy prices rocketing – eggs up 33% in a year; house values falling; more and more people finding it difficult to borrow money and those who do borrow, borrow too much. The average household debt in the UK – excluding mortgages – is £9300. But average household debt amongst those who actually have unsecured loans is over £21,500. These are grim statistics and they all affect us to one degree or another.
It doesn’t take much to turn a difficult financial situation into an impossible one. It only takes unemployment, an unexpected illness, or the need to care for a relative, to turn a precarious existence into one of near destitution.
It might seem like an enormous leap to link our economic woes with tonight’s Old Testament reading. And yet Elisha was living in times not at all unlike our own. To see this all we need to do is dig a little deeper beneath the storyline. When we do it is possible to see in the way Elisha responded, a way forward for us and the church to respond to the challenges of our time.
One of the beauties of scripture is that it is comprised largely of stories. But like any story or joke we might share with one another, much is left un-said. Just as Dave Walker’s wonderful cartoons in the Church Times don’t need explaining to anyone who is familiar with church life, so scripture assumes vast quantities of shared cultural and religious knowledge, and our understanding of scripture is diminished if we ignore it.
In our Old Testament reading, we heard the story of three of Elisha’s miracles. In the first Elisha solves the impending indenture of the widow’s sons by a quite long-winded miracle that requires her active engagement (and that of her family and neighbours) as more and more oil is miraculously poured into empty jars.
In the second story Elisha miraculously enables a woman to conceive a child, and then – several years later - raises her son from the dead when he dies prematurely.
The significance of these stories can be missed unless we dig deeper into the culture and practice of the time. These aren’t only tales about miraculous happenings.
As we join each story, both women face a precarious future.
The first story is a blunt tale of economic hardship and exploitation. The debts inherited by the woman on the death of her husband meant that her two sons could have been taken into slavery until the debt had been repaid. This in turn would leave the widow vulnerable and destitute without the protection of either husband or sons to earn their livelihood and care for her. On the face of it, this seems a reasonable way to ensure the debt is repaid without the woman losing land or her freedom. But in the 8th century BC, this method of recovering debt was being used systematically to rob farmers of their land. Economic exploitation was as rife then as it is now.
Elisha’s miracle questions the legitimacy of the law, ensures the woman has enough to pay off the debt, and prevents the problem from recurring by ensuring that there is enough left over for the family to survive. The widow’s faith in Elisha and God is rewarded, and God is incredibly generous in the security and peace that the widow receives.
The second story is also about the precariousness of a woman in a patriarchal economic system. In the story, the woman’s husband is clearly alive but elderly. Should he die without a son, she would be destitute. The only option would be her brother-in-law to marry her - but the story doesn’t mention that she has one.
Again Elisha’s action questions the cultural practice of the day that treated women as second class, and instead creates new possibilities for the woman by giving her a son. When he dies prematurely, Elisha responds to the woman’s amazing faith and perseverance, and breathes new life into her son.
[Now if you were in church this morning you might see parallels between this story and the story of Jesus responding to the faith of the Canaanite woman whose daughter was sick. In both stories it is a woman’s strength and determination that leads to healing.]
Interestingly, hospitality plays an important part in both stories. In the first, the widow’s husband was part of the prophet’s circle and so the widow would have been a key part of the wider prophetic family, supporting and enabling the work of the prophets. In the second, the promise of a son is a direct response to the woman’s incredibly generous hospitality in lavishly furnishing a room for the passing prophet.
In both stories Elisha shows how hospitality, accompanied by faith and trust in God, can lead to the miraculous and unexpected.
But they also show that God’s sense of justice and mercy is broad enough to question the social, cultural, economic and religious practices of the day. Ultimately God is interested in individuals, not law or tradition.
The apostle Paul faithfully follows in this Old Testament tradition of protecting the vulnerable; but not before, of course, being completely transformed by his experience of meeting the risen Christ.
Having been brought up to give thanks to God each day that he was not born a slave, a woman or a Gentile, Paul delights in bringing slaves, women and Gentiles to faith in Christ. Importantly the conversion of Lydia, which was in our reading tonight, also involves the offering and receipt of hospitality.
All of us here have received and given hospitality within the context of the Christian community. We know it personally as the means by which we have found fellowship, companionship, a sense of purpose, even love. For that we are immensely grateful, to one another, to the church and to God.
What we are sometimes less willing to acknowledge perhaps, is that hospitality is the means by which God begins to usher in his kingdom, as the stories of Elisha demonstrate.
Hospitality should always be drawing us onward and outward in a spirit of optimistic mission, grounded in faith and trust in God.
Moving from a commitment to hospitality, to a commitment to justice is quite a leap. Yet that is the challenge we face as the church.
The economic injustices of our generation demand that the church speaks up in defence of those who are most vulnerable with the passion and clarity of Elisha and all the prophets. There is no other way by which to reveal the grace of God to those who suffer.
As the economics of our country worsen, let us pray that our faith may be nurtured and strengthened by the witness of the prophets, so that our vision of God, and his Kingdom, is reflected more clearly in the daily witness of our own lives.
Lord, help us to be your prophets in this generation. Amen.
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