Living in the Spirit
June 4, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 7:11-17

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. –Luke 7:11-17

Jesus was probably acutely aware of how very important it was that his widowed mother had sons who could support and care for her. His brothers’* very existence freed Jesus to go about his ministry. A widow losing her only son was not only one experiencing painful grief, but also one facing destitution.

My paternal grandmother was widowed in 1928 with the death of my grandfather, leaving her with a houseful of older children from both their previous marriages and three younger children of their own. The year of his death is important. The great financial crash happened the next year and in just a few more years this family was living in the throes of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma. My dad was ten when his father died. He dropped out of school after finishing the eighth grade to work the farm; what was left to work. I heard his stories about the dust and the failed crops but I don’t think I fully understood the situation until cleaning out my parent’s home, we found my grandmother’s purse. In it were several five dollar mortgages with differing dates from the bank where she had mortgaged cattle to get enough money to buy groceries. Social Security was created to assure that such devastation never occurred again. We have very short memories.

Jesus did what he could to help the grieving widow who had lost her son. We are called to do what we can to prevent poverty. What is the old saying of Benjamin Franklin’s: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

Prayer: Lord protect us from our own greed that cannot see the need to plan for the future, not just ours by all of your children’s futures. Amen.

*My musings about Jesus’ brothers caring for their mother does not mesh with the story of Jesus, from the cross, asking John to care for her. I have learned from my own genealogical explorations that weaving together the bits and pieces of one’s history does not always result in a satisfactory whole, but it does usually contain a kernel of truth. Perhaps Mary out lived all her sons just as John outlived all the other disciples.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.