Last week, you received the annual packages highlighting our Joyful Giving program. Today, we continue to reflect on generosity as the force that enables us to light and heat this space, serve communion and coffee, hear the music, make friends, help our neighbors, and, in doing so, impact the world in ways we may not fully see or understand. Today’s OT and Gospel readings remind us that God accomplishes “infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” through our own compassion and willingness to give.

The story of Elijah and the widow in Zarephath stirred memories for me. As a child, I spent countless hours in my family’s library, its floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with treasures that offered early lessons in empathy. In connection with the drought described in the 1 Kings 17, I recall reading The Grapes of Wrath at the same age as my daughter is currently enjoying tales about dragons (S., please stick with the dragons for now!). I was, indeed, too young for the themes of this book, but I do not regret its impact on me. How were my parents able to add the works by foreign authors to our collection? Mainly, they were the ones that exposed the presumed failures of capitalism. However, I grew up with a more nuanced view of our own regime, shaped by the stories of repressions and collectivization endured by my great-grandparents. Still, it wasn’t until much later in life that I understood the stark contrast between the Dust Bowl, where natural drought deepened economic despair, and the entirely politically driven famines in my birthplace during the same era (e.g., the Holodomor in 1932–1933, and Russian Famine in 1921–1922), rooted in the revolution of 1917, civil wars, and enforced collectivization, and only minimally in the weather.

The losses from these tragedies and those in at least 10 other famines that took place all over the world in the last century are unfathomable. To make sense of suffering, nations examined their histories, and re-wrote it to assign blame. For example, as a child, I learned far more about the 900-day Siege of Leningrad by the German army than about these politically driven famines because the foreign enemy was so much easier to identify. What understanding of their own tragedies did ancient Israelites reveal in compiling and redacting their ancient texts? Well, they attributed the wars and famines to God’s judgment on their leaders, who failed to follow His decrees. But does God really cause droughts and suffering— in 9th-century Israel, 1930s North America, or today? Or does the drought in the Bible and contemporary literature stand as a symbol of the absence of human compassion, even as it also describes a historical event? It seems to me that withholding kindness and help dries up our world faster than the absence of rain…

The widow of Zarephath’s story does mirror the Dust Bowl’s harsh realities, but Biblical texts are more concise, and often understated. Novels like The Grapes of Wrath and the more contemporary Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds allow for a much deeper engagement and empathy. Nonetheless, we know enough about suffering to fill in the details of the biblical narratives. Can you imagine how extraordinary was the woman’s choice to share her last meal—and what’s harder, that of her child? The novels about the Dust Bowl poignantly evoke similar moments, portraying acts of sharing the last bits of food, and kindness, that upheld human dignity even amidst despair.

And how would you feel about asking for help from someone who clearly has little? Perhaps, Elijah’s encounter was as much a lesson for him as it was for the widow. The hesitation to ask people to give is something I had to confront in my ministry. Eventually, I’ve learned that asking – and receiving! – are the ways to dignify and empower others. Today’s gospel illustrates this through Jesus’ affirmation of another widow’s choice. He refrained from following up his praise of her sacrifice by wondering, “ and how will she be able to survive now, since she has given her last coin?”, as it might be natural for us to do.

However, neither of these stories ends where we stopped reading. Their conclusions challenge the perception of futility that may cause us to hesitate to support what seems like a losing cause. But in truth, all causes eventually change form – only compassion endures. So, immediately after commenting on the widow’s offering, Jesus predicts the temple’s destruction. Indeed, within 40 years, the temple to which so many gave of their last resources lay in ruins, and many Jews faced displacement and heavy taxes to fund the Temple of Jupiter in Rome. Yet, even in this tragedy, faith endured, and the diaspora transformed temple-based worship into community-centered practices that went on to sustain their faith for centuries. Similarly, the first widow, despite her miraculous flour and oil, still faced her son’s death, as so many of us endure one tragedy after another. Elijah’s act of bringing him back to life represents the power of compassion to give new life that transcends the laws of the material world.

I’ll conclude by saying that past the initial act of creation, God is rarely said to create “out of nothing.” The unending flour and oil, the child’s lunch that fed thousands, the pleas that brought deceased loved ones back to the grieving – these are all works of the human hands and hearts, through which the power of God flows into the world. Our generosity affirms the dignity of everyone who walks through these doors, and transforms giving and receiving into holy, miraculous acts. In giving to the church, other charities, and individual people, we don’t only maintain buildings and programs, but participate in God’s ongoing creation, where the ripples of our sacrificial giving reach much farther than we can imagine.

Questions to Consider

1. How does your faith influence the way you think about giving to the
   church, or to others in need?
2. Have you ever experienced a time when generosity, despite limited
   resources, led to unexpected blessings?
3. How easy do you find it to ask for help or receive gifts? Would it
   help to keep in mind that, in doing so, you are upholding the dignity
   of the giver?