I’ve just finished reading a book by Connie Lapallo, called Dark Enough to see the Stars in a
In the book, Lapallo recreates the tragic and difficult situations that the first settlers in
By October of 1609, approximately 600 people had arrived in
And now March of 1610 had come, and Joan Peirce had a decision to make.
Joan and her friend Temperance, two of the settlers, had barely managed to keep Joan’s little daughter Janey alive through the winter, and they were barely alive themselves.
And now Grace Fleetwood’s husband had starved to death, and the widow was alone and distraught. Joan and Temperance decided to take her to their cottage, in spite of the fact that their secret supply of acorn meal was running low, and when it was gone, they too would die, because they would have nothing else to eat.
One day, as Joan was dividing their meager soup into the four bowls, she felt resentment rise up inside. Grace was going to die anyway. Shouldn’t the small amount of soup allotted for the day be eaten by those who had at least a chance of surviving?
No one would know if Joan gave the dying woman less than her share.
In the face of this hopeless situation, what decision would Joan make? Would she divide the thin soup evenly, or give the dying woman less than the other three would get?
When I read this passage from the book, I found myself thinking about the hopeless and starving widow of Zarephath, another starving woman with a decision to make.
As she is gathering sticks to make a little fire, the prophet Elijah shows up and asks her for some water and then for bread.
Now this widow and her son are also in a starving time because of a three year drought. She’s getting ready to cook their last bit of meal and then the two of them will die because they won’t have anything else to eat.
At this point, the widow holds out absolutely no hope that she or her son will live.
She protests when Elijah asks for bread.
So Elijah says to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and cook your meal, but before you eat, bring me a little cake of it first, and after I eat, make something for yourself and your son.
For thus says the Lord God of
Scripture doesn’t tell us what goes through this widow’s mind as she considers Elijah’s request and thinks about whether or not she will share her last bit of bread.
Why have hope in such a hopeless situation?
And yet Scripture tells us that this poor widow of Zarephath, a Gentile, about to starve, decides to put her hope in this God of Israel that Elijah has told her about, a God great enough to keep meal in her jar and oil in her jug until the drought finally ends.
She decides to take a chance on this God and to act with hope by sharing what she has with Elijah.
In the New Testament, we meet a poor widow in the midst of the crowd at the temple in
This widow also decides to take a chance on God and to act with hope by sharing the last bit of money that she has.
She makes the hopeful decision to put her last two coins into the temple treasury. For this woman, the temple, the place where God dwells, is the closest place she can come to God. And God has charged the temple authorities to care for the widowed and the orphans, and even though these same authorities have become vain and self-centered, this widow has hope that they will heed God’s orders to care for her, a poor widow and for the other widows and orphans as well.
Jesus tells the disciples that this woman has given everything she has, everything she has to live on. We have no idea what happens to her afterward.
But we do know what happens to Jesus.
It’s Passover, and tensions are high in
Mark tells us that Jesus is distressed and agitated. He tells his disciples, “I am deeply grieved, even to death.”
And Jesus prays to God—“Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”
And now Jesus has a decision to make in his own hopeless situation.
The
But Jesus decides to finish his life as he began it—as a hopeful witness to God’s love and wisdom, as witness to the kingdom of God drawn near, by dying as he has lived, totally focused on God and God’s plan to restore creation to its original blessed goodness.
And the author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus , who hopes and trusts in God even when he knows that he will die, is now in heaven itself, appearing in the presence of God on our behalf. By sharing his very life for us, he brings us eternal salvation.
And what about Joan Peirce, starving to death in
Joan stands at the table with the four bowls in front of her. She puts a smaller portion into the dying woman’s bowl and turns to feed her, and then she stops, and thinks to herself–
“Wait! What was I doing? Here in this place under these vile conditions, we would have to make choices—were making choices—every day. Which path would we take? The selfish one turned us further into animals, and I had seen that effect on men’s minds. Bitterness and hoarding, hatred and anger. I had only to look at the woman on the bed and my choice was clear. I did not choose to die an animal, or survive the winter knowing I had been one. I could not put her out, nor give her less than we ourselves ate. I set the bowl down again and dished it out fairly, even as my eyes greedily hungered for what was in her bowl.”
In her hopeless situation, Joan made a choice for hope. She decided that even if she died, she would share what she had, and she would live as if she were in God’s kingdom, for in that kingdom, there is no room for bitterness and hoarding, hatred and anger. She placed her hope on a God of love who would be with her in life or in death, and shared her soup with the dying woman.
Now we Americans have decisions to make. We have become starving people—we are afraid of not having enough, or of losing what we have, and as a result, we have become selfish, angry and resentful, even bitter, and we find ourselves starving—starving for hope.
The Psalmist reminds us where to place our trust and hope in today’s psalm.
“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth,for there is no help in them.
When they breathe their last, they return to earth, and in that day their thoughts perish.
Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!whose hope is in the Lord, their God;
Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; who keeps his promise for ever.”
Joan Peirce, the widow of Zarephath, the poor widow with the two copper coins, and Jesus—all put their hope in God in hopeless situations and shared all that they had—an equal portion of soup, a handful of flour, two little coins, and in the case of Jesus, life itself.
And where we decide to put our hope, and what we are willing to share, will make a difference, for better or worse, not only for ourselves, and for those around us, but also for our nation and for all of creation.
Amen.
Resource: Dark Enough to see the Stars in a