Please, Won’t You Be My Neighbor: A More Perfect Way

We began our series “Please, Won’t You Be My Neighbor” looking at the invitation to pause and wonder Mr. Rogers imbedded in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. He took the time to meet and know his neighbors, and so we began with a challenge to share a small token, a small baked good or fall flower or plant, with your neighbors, the people who live on either side of you, and your contact information. Then we remembered Mr. Roger’s mother’s encouragement whenever tragedy strikes – look to the helpers – and followed with a challenge to express gratitude to the helpers in our neighborhood, a policeman, the fire house, a teacher, a medical worker. And last Sunday we celebrated World Communion Sunday reflecting on the joy of pondering all the diversity of God’s creation and the uniqueness of you, and I encouraged you each night to pray, “Thank you, God, for me.” And then to be quiet and still and wonder what God is sifting out to remove from you, what God has knit into the fabric of your being, and where God is leading you.

The Scripture we read this morning takes place in a time that shares some similarities with our time – a time of uncertainty and fear, of concern about having enough. We are in the midst of a pandemic; they were in the midst of a famine.

The Southern Kingdom, Judah, was under the rule of Asa. I Kings tells us that Asa’s heart was wholly true to the Lord all his days. The Northern Kingdom, though, Israel, was under the rule of Ahab, who did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all that were before him. Ahab erected an altar and building for worshipping Ba’al. And he made a monument to the Canaanite goddess, Asherah. Elijah, the prophet, comes to Ahab and warns him that his worship of Ba’al and Asherah is misdirected and futile. It is God who controls the rain and the dew, and unless God says so, there will be neither. And then God tells Elijah to go and hide by the brook Cherith, it runs on the east side of the Jordan River, about half way between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.

I Kings 17 then captures 3 stories of Elijah in this time of drought that move from passive to fully engaged. When Elijah gets to the brook, the birds of the air bring him food twice a day. He is completely dependent upon God to send birds to bring his food. Then the brook dries up and God sends him to Zarephath, deep into the region that worshipped Ba’al, on the far northwestern coast of Northern Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. This is the story we read this morning of the widow who has just a handful of meal left and a couple of sticks and makes Elijah, a stranger, a cake of bread out of it before feeding her child or herself. Here, Elijah is completely dependent upon God to provide through this destitute and hungry widow. After accepting and complying with God’s nudge, the jar of meal and cruse of oil don’t empty, and they have food enough. But then the son becomes ill, and he is so ill that there is no breath left in him. This time, it is Elijah who acts as intermediary. He prays to God, and the child is restored, and Elijah carries him from upstairs down to his mother downstairs.

God’s work gets done – but it requires neighborhood. God invites us into a way of relating that is a more perfect way, the way that is God’s way, the way of the neighbor. Elijah was dependent on the birds of the air and when the brook dried up, he had to listen to God for where to go next. The widow must have been wealthy to own a house with an upper room, but she had expended all that she had in the midst of the draught. She could no longer be self-sufficient; she had no where she could go to get more to eat. And yet, she followed God’s way of hospitality, welcoming the stranger, giving what she had even when she didn’t know how or when she could get more, and God provided enough. Then, when her son becomes ill, it is the man she showed hospitality to who prays and is God’s intermediary for his healing. God works in the world through nature, through relationships, through us as neighbors.

When Fred Rogers was in high school, tensions ran high in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. It was 1946, and workers were beginning to join together in a labor movement. Management and labor were squaring off, and their children who went to school together were too. The principal asked Fred to write some editorials on how to get along with our neighbors. That night at dinner, Fred told with his parents that he had been thinking all day about what to write in the first one. His 11 year younger sister asked him to share what he was going to write with a puppet. So, he went and got a sock puppet, pulled it on and began in a puppet voice, ‘Every human being needs help at one time or another. Sometimes this help comes from a family member, but just as often it will come from a neighbor. As a neighbor, we all have something important to give our other neighbors. We may not even realize that we’re giving it, because our gift can be as simple as a smile or a wave of the hand. We don’t have to like everyone in this world. But we can learn to be ‘neighborly’ – respectful, courteous, and kind to one another.’

As an adult in one of his letters, Fred Rogers wrote, “All that matters is your motives. God will lead the way. You know that.” God will lead the way, the way that in I Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul calls the more perfect way, the way that never fails, the way of love.

The Farmington family has a strong history of loving and caring for our neighbors in need. For years, we have supported the Soup Kitchen at First Presbyterian by providing volunteers, clothing donations, health kits, and financial support. We have gone to the Yucatan Peninsula to build cisterns to provide clean water for indigenous people in small rural villages. We have hosted homeless guests at Room in the Inn throughout the winter months. We have packaged food for Rise Against Hunger to be distributed both where there have been natural disasters and at schools in developing countries so that children would have nutrition and education. Unlike the widow who shared with Elijah, we have known that there is enough. We have shared out of the abundance that God has provided.

In the midst of a global pandemic, we have not been able to safely be active in these ministries. The Service Committee has struggled with how to facilitate opportunities for the Farmington family to continue to actively engage in loving our neighbors in need. The children’s time this morning shared one way to love our neighbors – we will most likely have more homeless persons in the metro area this year due to loss of jobs as a result of the pandemic. Make a point to have some shelf-stable foods and bottles of water in your car to share with those in need…consider making Blessing Bags with other items that they will need. MIFA, the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association, has three COVID-conscious volunteer opportunities available to love our neighbors: to make cloth masks, to make weekly calls to check on up to 10 senior citizens, and to deliver Meals on Wheels curbside.

Our world continues to struggle with hunger, famine, and food deserts. Since 1945, each year there has been a day designated World Food Day. The 75th World Food Day happens to be this Friday, October the 16th. Many of the issues of the mid-40’s that led to the rise of the labor movement when Fred Rogers was in high school continue to cause farm workers and low wage earners to struggle today with food security. Even in the midst of a pandemic that keeps us from being able to package meals, what can we do? Choose healthy foods, to increase their demand and thus their profitability and availability. Choose diverse foods both because it is healthy to eat a variety of foods and good for the soil to produce a variety of crops. Choose local and seasonal foods, to support local farmers and reduce the need for transporting foods long distances. And make a plan for your meals and your snacks – buy what you need and not more. The average American family throws away 1/3 of the food they buy. Then, talk about what you are doing and why – raise awareness about healthy eating and buying habits.

I’ve always wondered how the flour and oil didn’t run out after the widow fed Elijah. Old Testament scholar, Terence Fretheim, points out that “interestingly, no dramatic moment is announced and no marvel is expressed at what happens.” I’ve always wondered at the reality that there is enough food for everyone in the world, and yet 850 million people don’t have enough nutrition to lead healthy, active lives. Perhaps it doesn’t require a dramatic moment, an international plan or governmental program, perhaps it requires some flour and oil shared with a stranger.

Even in a famine, even in a pandemic, God’s work gets done – but it requires neighborhood, one neighbor sharing with another neighbor, each of us living the more perfect way of love.