Since I am about to leave on vacation I thought I would share with you the following story about a church whose pastor was away and one Sunday they were listening to a visiting minister who was waxing eloquently during the offertory prayer. "Dear Lord," the minister began, with arms extended upward and a rapturous look on his face. "Without you, we are but dust. . ." The minister would have continued except that from the fourth pew came the voice of an inquisitive little girl asking her mother, "Mom, what is butt dust?"

Do you remember the story of Lilith from a few weeks ago? Do you remember the term midrash and what it means? Midrash is:

Today's scripture reading from the Gospel of Luke is a midrash on I Kings 17.

(Jesus' healings were most likely historical events, but they get told and retold in a way that is not overly concerned with the facts but rather with the meaning and the connection with their religious tradition.)

One example of how midrash works is the familiar story of Moses and the way he came to represent the iconic religious figure of the Spiritual leader and hero who led the people out of slavery in Egypt toward the Promised Land. After Moses died, Joshua led the people into the Promised Land. So Jewish writers told a story about how Joshua parted the waters of the Jordan River in much the same way that Moses had parted the waters of the Red Sea. This was a midrashic attempt to affirm that the very same Divine presence and power that the people had witnessed in Moses was also present in Joshua. Interestingly enough, both Elijah and Elisha would later be said to have parted the waters of the Jordan and to have walked across the river on dry land. Later, when the gospel writers told about Jesus' baptism, he too parts the water, not of the river but of the heavens. This is midrash combined with a little "one-up-man-ship!"

The important thing is to note that midrash impacts the way the story gets told in order to carry the religious symbols and meanings of the past into the present.

Now when we examine Luke's gospel we notice that Luke was much more concerned than Mark or Matthew were to portray Jesus as the new and improved Elijah. Our lectionary text for today was written with Elijah in mind, particularly the story about Elijah restoring to life the dead son of a widow.

In I King 17 there is a drought in the land and the prophet Elijah is told by God to go to Zaraphath where a widow will feed him. Elijah goes to the town, meets the widow, asks her for water and food, of which she has only a little left. She is told that if she gives him the food and water he is requesting she will have food and water until the drought is over. The widow obeys and miraculously her pantry never becomes empty and everyone gets to eat.

Notice the connections between the Elijah story and the story about Jesus in Luke 7:

So Luke is telling a story about Jesus not just to say that Jesus was a healer, but to affirm Jesus' continuity with the figure of Elijah to say that the reality of the God the people knew and revered in Elijah was also present in Jesus. This is midrash. It doesn't mean that Jesus didn't heal a person who was thought to be dead. I have no problem conceiving of that as a historical event, but the way the story is crafted is meant to convey a theological message more than a literal, factual account.

Let's turn to a modern day account of someone who was brought back from the brink of death and restored to life. There is no midrash here, no Moses or Elijah figure to bring the past into the present. Just an insightful journey from the brink of death back into life.

In 1944 Carl Jung broke his foot and shortly thereafter suffered a heart attack. He eventually recovered but not after a long and difficult recovery during which he came very close to dying. During this time he experienced deliriums and visions that he would later describe in great detail. But after his illness finally passed and he had regained his health, he experienced a very productive, creative time. Jung writes,

Jung's acceptance of the conditions of existence and his unconditional "yes" to life, born out of his near-death experience, led him to an affirmation of his own destiny. How ironic that his acceptance of his own powerlessness over the situation he found himself in led to the rediscovery of his own creative power and the recognition of that within himself that endures.

Whether it be Jesus or Elijah, God or Allah, there is something at work in life that restores within us the energy, the identity, the perspective by which we, too, may discover that which endures. We too, are invited back from the brink of death to daily rediscover within the givens of our existence an unconditional "yes" to life, and the power to affirm our own identity and destiny. Thanks be to God.

Soon afterwards [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he neared the city gate, just then a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, who was herself a widow. And a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

When Jesus saw her, his heart went out to her and he said to her, "Don't cry." and he went up and touched the bier. The bearers paused, and he said, "Young man, I tell you, get up."

And the dead man sat up and began to speak; then Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Awe gripped them all; and they gave God the glory saying, "A great prophet has been raised up among us!" and "God has visited God's people!"

And this story about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding area.