So these three things – a birthday, a question about a tombstone and a 10 year old movie – provided the backdrop as I thought about the story of Elijah and his encounter with the widow of Zarephath.  It’s where we start as today we begin a sermon series on the prophet Elijah – a prophet in Israel in the 9th century B.C.  Over these four weekends of June, we’ll discover how this Old Testament prophet can give guidance and direction to us. Elijah is the most famous prophet not to have a book of the Bible named after him.  We find out most of what we know of Elijah from a couple of chapters in the latter part of 1 Kings and the early part of 2 Kings although he does receive mention in a few other places. 

Elijah raised the dead, brought fire from the sky, ascended into heaven accompanied by chariots and, along with Moses, appeared with Jesus to the disciples in the New Testament transfiguration story.  In Judaism, Elijah’s name is invoked in the ritual that marks the end of the Sabbath as well as during Passover.  The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints believes that Elijah returned in 1836 to Joseph Smith and the Baha’i faith believes that he returned in Iran in 1844.  Any other prophet with such a resume has a book of their own – but not Elijah.[2]

The quick history leading us to today is this – there is an evil king, Ahab; a false god named Baal (B-a-a-l, not b-a-l-l); and a terrible misunderstanding about just who exactly is in charge of things. Ahab rules over Israel, the northern kingdom (Judah was the southern kingdom), and earlier in 1 Kings we learned that Ahab "did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.” (1 Kings 16:30) – there’s a recommendation!  He's married to a foreign woman, Jezebel (where we get the pejorative term of calling someone a Jezebel), from Sidon, who has brought along her people's god, Baal, and just to make matters worse, she persuades hubby Ahab to set up shrines where this Baal might be worshipped. This is a huge mistake on Ahab's part, and he should have known better since there was this little commandment about having false gods before the one true God.

Enter the prophet Elijah, who says his God – our God - is better than Ahab’s god.  To illustrate whose God is in charge here, he tells Ahab that there will be no rain for a very long time, "except by my word" – even though Ahab and Jezebel are worshipping the so-called god of rain, storm, and fertility. Clearly, Ahab is threatened and angry so God gets Elijah out of town for awhile, looking after him along the way by sending him ravens to bring him food, and providing water for him to drink in the midst of this developing drought.

The time comes when even these provisions are not enough, and God sends Elijah to – of all places – Sidon, the very place where Jezebel came from. God tells Elijah that a widow there – in the village of Zarephath – will care for him.  It is interesting that this prophet, this prophet being led by God, this prophet being led by God that had just had conversations with the king of the country, was now at the mercy of a widow, likely a worshipper of Baal herself – a widow with a son – and both dying of starvation.  God puts us in interesting places sometimes.  Sometimes we can relate to being Elijah and sometimes we can better relate to the widow. 

As he asks her for water and food, she replies, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” (1 Kings 17:12).  She is down to her very last bit of food – it is rock bottom – the situation cannot be any more dire.  At the very lowest – Elijah says something that we hear a lot in scripture – “do not be afraid.”  “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son.”  If she does this, he promises what God has promised him – that there will be enough until the rains come again. 

She is confronted with a decision – one that must be made quickly.  Should she make the last cake out of the last bit of meal and the last bit of oil so that she and her son can have a final meal before death?  Or does she risk that this man – this self-proclaimed man of God – just might be right?  Does she give up or does she step out in faith with hope that there might be a future?  Or in her sharing, can she at least help this one man?  In the depths in which she finds herself, her one act of making a cake for this man, she could not have realized that she would change her future – or that of her son – or that of her community – or even that of people even today, some 3,000 years later, as we learn from her. 

Most people that step out in this way don’t have the slightest notion about the impact that they will have.  Stephen Hayner, President of Columbia Theological Seminary, puts it like this, “History often turns on very small hinges.  Most of us never know the effect of seemingly small incidents on peoples' lives or even history.  A word of praise, for example--or of ridicule--spoken casually at a critical moment by a teacher or mentor can sometimes mark a person for the whole of their life.  Our actions are like ripples on a pond caused by the toss of a pebble.  When we trace back those moments that change the course of things, we must often look beyond the "great events" to the ordinary happenings which might look completely insignificant.”[3]  

Perhaps you’ve heard of the story of Olivia Gardner – it’s been on the Today Show and I have been reading about her in a book called Letters to a Bullied Girl.[4]  Olivia was a northern California teenager who was severely taunted and cyber-bullied by her classmates for more than two years even after moving from school to school. There was even an “Olivia Hater’s Club” on the Internet and lunch ladies in the school cafeteria would protect her behind the lunch counter. News of her bullying spread, eventually reaching two teenage girls from a neighboring town, sisters Emily and Sarah Buder.

The girls were so moved by Olivia's story that they initiated a letter-writing campaign to help lift her spirits. It was a gesture of solidarity that consisted of a few letters – but a few became many and many became hundreds and it set off an overwhelming chain reaction of support, encouragement, and love.  One life lifted from rock bottom by two teenagers just looking to help.  One life changed which became three which became hundreds which became thousands.[5] 

I did a little unscientific polling this week.  I asked lots of people with whom I came in contact this question.  “Who was it that had the most positive influence on your life?”  Not one person told me the most positive influence was the president or a senator – no one mentioned a famous sports figure – no one said that someone acting as the CEO of a company changed their life.  To a person, the answer went something like this – it was a teacher who said an encouraging word to me about my abilities – my pastor thought I had gifts for ministry and told me – my elderly aunt would send me a card with a note every birthday (and send me $2) – the man at church who always had peppermints in his pocket – my grandfather just by the way he lived his life.  There was not a famous person among them.  There names were everyday names like Jim and Evelyn and Joanne and Uncle Ralph. 

Every day as Elijah and the widow and her son ate their little cakes of bread, they were reminded that God could be trusted--for another day.  And every day their faith grew. There would come a day when Elijah would need all of these lessons because life wasn't going to get any easier for him.  Stay tuned.  The lessons of trust may look small but so much may ride on learning these lessons.  The ripples move out from the tiny pebble of faith cast into the water of history. The story is riddled with those tiny steps of trust and faith--people being faithful.  God is sovereign and God is faithful too. Trust grows with the small steps of faith of all of us ordinary people--small steps toward Jesus rather than away from him--small steps of faithful obedience when we are attentive to the opportunities and God's call around us.  There is no act of faithfulness which is too small to be unusable in the hand of God.

So what then is MALTMAD?  Some 40 plus years ago, my father-in-law, a Church of the Brethren pastor, was invited to return to a previous congregation to preach a week-long revival.  His topic for the week focused on how these small acts could turn into something bigger – something unimagined at the time.  The title of his sermon series was a challenge for every one in attendance – Make A Life That Makes A Difference – shortened to a more memorable MALTMAD.  The youth group had t-shirts printed to remind them and one week’s worth of sermons took on a life of their own.

And my answer for what would be on my tombstone?  When the circle came around to me I simply said – “he made a difference – a positive one.”  As the introductions came around the table to me it dawned on me that each of us makes a difference.  The choice we have, the choices that people have had through the ages, from the widow at Zarephath to us, is whether the difference we make will be for the better or for the worse – helpful or hurtful. 

There are amazing stories in the Bible, about prophets like Elijah, and about Jesus himself. Every story of compassion is an amazing story, because we humans have a natural tendency to look out for number one. We especially think we shouldn’t have to think too much about people who are beyond our own circle, not our own kind, not our own people. But the widow of Zarephath, Elijah, my grandfather, Evelyn, Jim, Joanne, Uncle Ralph, the names that have impacted you--all have been tutors in our journey in learning to trust and to be attentive to what God may be calling me to do on a daily basis.  The rest of the story belongs to God.  It always does.  And who knows how God might use the daily steps of faith in any of our lives and use them to do far beyond all we could ask or imagine?

Nelson Mandela said it like this, “You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us…And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”[6]

So you see, it is a choice – every moment of every day. History turns on very small hinges when it is in the hands of God. Go – make a life that makes a difference – for the better.