“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.  [Luke 4:25-26 (NLT)]

Last Sunday’s sermon was noticing how God breaks out of any boundary we try to impose on him.  Solomon said that the Temple in Jerusalem was a place for those outside of Israel.  This week’s story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:1-16) shows God’s provisions beyond the borders of Israel.  This was so significant that Jesus noted it in a sermon at his home synagogue in Nazareth.  His inclusion was so radical that his hearers took him out of town to push him off a cliff. 

That is often the reaction that inclusion provokes from even the faithful church attenders.  But this is not a “them” problem (the people opposed to inclusion), but it is a “us” problem.  We fall into this trap too often.  We have our views of who God loves, and who is doing it the right way, and those who don’t do it the right way, we judge and even condemn. 

When we practice getting God out of the box, it calls us to have compassion on those who are demanding God get back in the box.  I see that only God can change their hearts and their attitudes.  We must have an inclusive attitude toward them too.  This calls for humility.  Only through humility can we throw away all the boxes we demand God to fit into and allow God to do the amazing work of grace in this world.

Pastor Greg