Sermon Tone Analysis

“Did you come to remind me of my sin?”

Belief that there is a connection between calamity and punishment for sin.

Agree or disagree.

When we suffer, we should consider whether or not it is a result of our own personal conduct.

Elijah’s prayer to the Lord seems to indicate he shared her belief that God is the one who brings tragedy.

He questions the justice of it.

It has been said that a parent should not outlive their child.

Perhaps the greatest grief experienced in connection with death is the death of a child regardless of the age of that child but especially when the child is still young.

We understand the sentiment behind the statement but the reality is that at times children do die before their parents.

This is much less common than the days before immunizations and the almost eradication of deadly childhood diseases such as In 1900, pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis, and enteritis with diarrhea were the three leading causes of death in the United States, Certainly, living conditions are much more safe now than even a hundred years ago in many countries.

But the sad fact is that in many countries childhood mortality is still high and even in our country we are still affected by the deaths of children due to SIDS, suffocation,disease, accident, or even criminal activity.

Although rarer than in the past, it is still a very difficult event.

Maybe even more difficult because it is not as common.

The infant mortality rate started a long slide from 165 per 1,000 in 1900 to 7 per 1,000 in 1997.

The health of older children also improved.

Diseases that had carried off thousands of children in 1900 were practically eliminated by 2000: diphtheria, and pertussis, measles.

The under-five mortality rate is the number of deaths of infants and children under five years old per 1000 live births.

The under-five mortality rate for the world is 40.8 deaths according to the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

5.6 million children under age five died in 2016, 15 000 every day.[1][2][3]

The infant mortality rate (IMR) figures are from the United Nations World Population Prospects report, by five years averages,[4] and the CIA World Factbook.[5]

The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births.

This rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country.

The infant mortality rate of the world is 49.4 according to the United Nations and 34.1[6] according to the CIA World Factbook.

The Bible certainly addresses this type of event in its record.

What examples are we given of the deaths of children?

Abel.

Absalom.

Widow’s son at Nain.

Widow’s son at Nain.

Children sacrificed to Molech.

Child in connection with Solomon.

Jesus.

The son of the woman at Zarephath.

Today we acknowledge the grief that is felt at the death of a child.

We also acknowledge that often in times of tragedy, people believe that there is a connection with personal loss and an act of God.

That the loss that we are experiencing is a result of our own sins.

This latter part is expressed by both the widow at Zarapheth and Elijah.

Backstory.

Connection: Because of the government sponsored idolatry, God would bring hardship by not allowing it to rain unless he allowed it.

The Old Testament will often connect bad weather and droughts with punishment from God and vice versa.

The brook dried up and Elijah went to Zarapheth at God’s command.

Then the tragedy of our lesson happened.

The boy became sick and finally stopped breathing.

An autopsy may have shown that he had caught a deadly disease and that he had succumbed from natural causes.

Perhaps we can cope with the death of someone if we understand the cause of death or can draw a connection between what they were doing and how they died.

Example: We may cope better if we know someone died as a result of their own risky behavior instead of being an innocent victim.

Note again the belief that this woman had which Elijah also expresses.

(NIV)

18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” 19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied.

He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.

20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?”

A careful reading of the Bible will find this sentiment often expressed — often as a warning.

The moral fool does not believe that his actions are judged or punished by God so he is a liberty to do whatever he wants.

The Bible warns against such folly teaching that we do have an omniscient God who is just in his judgments.

This is why Luther begins the explanation of the commandments with “We should fear and love God so that . . .

“

We also have to be on guard against taking advantage of God’s love and forgiveness.

We no longer live in terror or doubt that when tragedy happens we are getting what our sins deserve because we believe that God had punished our sins by the death of Jesus that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We don’t necessarily face tragedy with questioning God’s love or being overwhelmed by personal guilt.

But historically there are those who have reasoned thus: Well, if God forgives all sins, then it doesn’t really matter how I live because I will get off “Scott free”.

St. Paul points us to Jesus how died for us and rose again to live to God.

In our lesson today, we also learn of someone who died and rose again.

But not for the same reason.

He died as a result of a disease although the widow and Elijah assumed it was punishment for sin (probably not).

The Lord empowered Elijah to bring the child back to life to confirm the word of the Lord which Elijah spoke.

We know nothing about the rest of the young boy’s life but we can assume he did die again and we aren’t told he became anyone special.

Jesus was already someone special when he died and he rose again to affirm that he is the Christ, that our sins are forgiven, and now he lives controlling all things for the church.

So when we face tragic loss, rather than fear God’s anger or wallow in guilt, we can look to Jesus to give us help in our time of need.