Abolition Sunday Sermon Notes

These sermon notes provide a framework on which you can craft a sermon or presentation for Abolition Sunday. The Scripture readings are drawn from the Common Lectionary for June 9, 2013. See also the related Bible Study notes. Feel free to adapt this material to your own style and church context.

1 Kings 17:8-16 – Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

  • In the Old Testament reading we are introduced to Elijah. The prophet has just given the ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel a difficult prophesy—that God has decreed there will be no rains to nurture the land; not even any dew. The prophecy was not well-received—Elijah runs for his life and God finally directs him to the home of the “widow of Zarephath.”
  • Elijah didn’t just pick this widow and her family out of the blue—God directed him—God had a plan. Our God is a God of deep love.
  • When Elijah encounters the widow, she is doing what she has always done for her family in their hand-to-mouth existence. She is gathering sticks to cook their meal. But it is different this time—she knows this is her family’s last meal.
  • When we see her she is not lamenting, not complaining. She is not begging (maybe she has exhausted her begging possibilities); the widow seems resigned to her fate.
  • Elijah asks her for water and she immediately turns to go get it; it seems to be an automatic response.
  • Is her quick response because she is a woman and Elijah is a man—complying with the gender-defined role in her culture? Is the widow simply one of the “Martha” types—always serving, too seldom taking care of her own needs? Or does she simply have an extraordinary gift for hospitality, even to the point of taking care of someone else while preparing what will be her family’s last meal?
  • But when Elijah also asks her for food… it all comes pouring out—verse 12:

“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.”

  • Let’s step out of the story to address something this text indirectly calls to our attention.
  • This woman and her family are in deep poverty—poverty to the point of despair and even death. We know that, today, many, many women and children live in deep poverty...
  • …poverty to the point of despair and loss of hope; poverty often accompanied by illness and even death; poverty that can trap people in situations where they would do anything to help their family or themselves—where kids are pulled out of school and sent to work, with the promise that they will be sent back to school again someday…or where a parent might take up that offer of a friend of the family who promises jobs and income if they just trust them and let the children go with them to the city….
  • Dateline Cambodia: Fifteen-year-old Mao has been driven by a painful memory since she was young. “My family is extremely poor,” Mao explains. “When I was younger, my family did not have shelter to live in and we were staying in a temporary rest place without walls. My mother sells fruit such as bananas, mangos and flowers. Meanwhile, my father is an assistant chef. Both of them earn a small amount of money and it is just enough for food and other expenses of the family.”
  • Mao didn’t go to school for long. One day, she went to visit a friend. The friend’s mother asked the women and girls who were there if they wanted to make good money in the sex trade. After thinking about her family and their financial state for a while, Mao answered, “Yes, I will.”Family debt pressured her into the sex trade to earn money to pay for what her family owed.
  • [Optional: here you could show the story of Pharady, an 11-year-old Cambodian girl who works long days at a brick factory to help support her family.] [Or use the story of Jonaki,an 11-year-old from Bangladesh who worked in cigarette rolling at the age of 9.]
  • Situations like this are repeated millions of times around the world, yesterday, today, and right now as we gather here.
  • Back to our Old Testament story: Elijah tells the woman that there is a plan—that God is in this.
  • If the widow would just please do as Elijah says and fetch him some food, God will ensure her jar of meal and jug of oil will not empty before the rains come and new crops are ready.
  • The woman believes. And it comes to pass. It’s a miracle.

I Kings 17:17=24—the Epilogue

  • But the story does not end there. It never does. Life is full of ups and downs, highs and lows, times of seeing the miracles and times of seeing only darkness.
  • After a while, the widow’s son becomes very ill. So ill “there was no breath left in him” (verse 17).
  • If we step outside the story again,—we might think, “What did you expect?” The boy was already undernourished and weak—living hand to mouth—and then he only received plain bread for “many days” (The text does not say how many days exactly but the rain had to fall, crops had to grow and ripen and be harvested).
  • There are parallels today. A child who earns a few dollars at a time working in the sex trade like Mao [a few cents an hour working in a brick factory like Pharady/rolling “bidis” like Jonaki] is not eating enough and is not eating healthy. The work endangers her life. She is susceptible to many illnesses and even death.
  • This is today’s reality for millions of children. We can rescue children from difficult situations but unless they and their families can truly get back on their own two feet again and are able to meet their own health care, education and income needs, there is a risk of the children falling ill or going back into the dangerous work they came out of.
  • In our Old Testament story there is a miraculous cure. Elijah is now very connected to this family and moved by compassion to cry out to God on behalf of the family. The boy is saved.

[For thoughts on the relationship between Elijah and the widow, see the Adult Bible Study.]

Luke 7:11-17 and Psalm 146—God’s Compassion, our Compassion

  • In our Gospel reading, we see again the theme of a widowed (read “poor”) mother and her child (an only son) who has taken ill and has actually died. The funeral procession is exiting the city gate as Jesus is enters. Jesus felt compassion for the widow.
  • Jesus comforts the widow, and tells her not to cry. The implication is: “I have a plan here. Trust me. I am the God of deep love.” Jesus touches the simple carrier the boy is laid on and says, “Rise.”
  • What does this story have to do with us? What does it have to do with Mao [Pharody/Jonaki]?
  • We are made in God’s image. God’s Spirit is in us. We have the same “deep love” compassion that Jesus has for those who suffer injustice.
  • Listen to how the Psalmist sings of God’s character, this Spirit of “deep love” we have inside us:

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lordsets the prisoners free;
the Lordopens the eyes of the blind.
The Lordlifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lordloves the righteous.
The Lordwatches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. (Psalm 146:5-9, NRSV)

  • This is how God has made us. Like God, like Jesus, like Elijah, like the widows in our stories, we respond to deep suffering with compassion and a desire to make it right. At least we want to. Sometimes we are uncertain how to respond. Or if our response will make a difference.

The Good News

  • Here’s the Good News: We can respond. We can do something to change the situation of vulnerable and suffering mothers and their children.
  • We act out of that deep compassion and love and the kind of desire for justice that we see in our Scripture readings today, the “deep love” God has implanted in our souls, not out of guilt or pity.
  • Today, after service [right now, during the service] you can sign a petition asking our government to do more to ensure harmful child labour is not part of the goods and services we consume.
  • We can also lift up in prayer the children affected by child slavery.
  • And we can add to those prayers by giving tangible, financial support to vulnerable children. Support that comes alongside families and communities to address the underlying causes of evils such as child slavery and to help children and families get firmly on their own feet.
  • Dateline Cambodia: Mao, the young girl from Cambodia was relatively fortunate. After a short time in the sex trade, her final client happened to be a foreigner being investigated and tracked by the Cambodian police. The investigation eventually led to Mao’s escape from the abuse and to an opportunity to rebuild her life.
  • World Vision provides counseling, health and education support and vocational training to Mao and young women like her. They learn new ways to earn a living. Where possible, and in the girls’ best interests, World Vision works to support re-integration of girls with their families.
  • [If using the Pharady video: World Vision Cambodia works with poor families like Pharody’s to help them have alternatives to child labour. World Vision also works with the broader community to promote and protect child rights and to ensure all children have access to health and education.] [See Jonaki’s story for how she and her family were helped.]

Conclusion

  • Two hundred years ago, a small group of Christian men and women took on an issue of great injustice. They were dogged in their determination and they continued their fight until they changed the course of history.
  • They were the “abolitionists” – people like William Wilberforce and John Wesley in England, and Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass (former slaves turned activists) in North America.
  • These activists broke the power of slavery in their day. They changed the course of history. It was a miracle.
  • History changed but – as in the case of the widow and her family, and in our own lives –life is made of ups and downs. History is a series of advances and setbacks. We need to keep up the struggle.
  • Now it is our turn to take up the torch.
  • May the God of Elijah, the God of the widows, the God of Mao [of Pharady; of Jonaki], the God whose Spirit is in each one of us, guide us and bless our actions. Amen.

If you have questions or comments on these sermon notes, please contact Doug Blackburn.

Advocacy Campaigns Team, World Vision Canada

; 905 565 6200 ext. 3375

For more information see:

  • Youth Bible Study at churches.worldvision.ca/abolition
  • World Vision’s Help Wanted Campaign to End Child Slavery

Prayers you may wish to use or adapt:

God’s deep love…

We thank you God for the deep love you have for people and creation, the deep love you have for Mao {Pharody/Jonaki] and for all children caught at the wrong end of a distorted economic system that makes them slaves for other people’s gain.

In that same deep love, we pray forfront-line workers who support children caught in child slavery. We pray for businesses, government leaders, and parents—that they might make decisions that support life in all its fullness for all children.

We also thank you God for your deep love for us here. And we ask that, in that love, you help us learn how we can respond to the plight of vulnerable children and be instruments of the life you desire.

Now it is our turn…

Gracious God, life is made of ups and downs, advances and setbacks, times of seeing the miracles and times of seeing only darkness. Help us see the situation of child slavery todayin the way you see it. Help us to be attuned to your compassion and deep desire for justice for these boys and girls.

God, may we know your calling in this situation in the way that the abolitionists 200 years ago knew what they needed to do. Help us to pick up that torch and stand up for justice today.

We know you are in these situations and that these are opportunities for us to be in solidarity with what you are already doing in people’s lives. Please bless our efforts to affect real and lasting change; to bring about your kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.

Praying with the Psalmist… (can be read responsively)

God, you have shown us your nature and your desires. You have made us in your image. Help us now to live out your desires for children who are caught in child slavery today. With the Psalmist, we recall your nature and pray that we might reflect this nature in our actions:

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

1churches.worldvision.ca/abolition