Readings: Psalm 56 (NRSV, The Message); 1 Kings 17:8-16 (NRSV, The Message); 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (NRSV, The Message)
You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn
through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
each ache written in your book. Psalm 56:8 (The Message)
And she went right off and did it, did just as Elijah asked. And it turned out as he said—daily food for her and her family. The jar of meal didn’t run out and the bottle of oil didn’t become empty: God’s promise fulfilled to the letter, exactly as Elijah had delivered it! 1 Kings 17:15-16 (The Message)
Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him’… 2 Corinthians 2:6-9 (NRSV)
It is easy to see themes from yesterday’s lectionary passages echoed in today’s scripture. The story of Elijah and the widow is the story Jesus referenced as he was speaking at the synagogue in Nazareth.
The passage from Corinthians speaks to the wisdom of God. Paul describes it as secret. I don’t know how secret it is. It lays near the top of so much of the scripture passages we read. I think ignored might be a better term. Why can we not accept that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived” what God has prepared for us? What keeps us from emptying ourselves so that our oil jar never empties?


