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Proper 27, Year B, (Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time), November 11, 2018

First reading, 1 Kings 17:10-16

The Historical Situation: The Books 1 & 2 Kings as a whole are about the successors of David, the division of the land into two kingdoms (Israel in the north and Judah in the south), and the fortunes of the people linked to the religious fidelity or infidelity of their leaders. The drama consistently goes like this: God is good to the people and asks only their fidelity; the people and their leaders (kings, priests and the kings' house prophets) sin, usually by idolatry; God angrily punishes them, often through an enemy nation; the people suffer and ask forgiveness; God grants mercy and the cycle begins again. In this literary mix are chapters 17-22 of 1 Kings, a collection of stories about prophets. One of their purposes is to emphasize that the prophets were really more powerful than the kings of. The prophets, after all, speak God's word, and are more faithful to God than the kings are. The context of today's passage is this:

Elijah lived under the most unfaithful king Ahab (Ahab's queen was the foreigner Jezebel. It's from her that the name "Jezebel" acquired its modern connotations (on which see the famous Frankie Laine song of 1951 As Elijah had announced, God sent drought and famine upon the land of the sinful king. But God had promised relief and safety to Elijah himself.

Your Proclamation: First of all, know how to name the prophet and the name of the town. Click here, then click on the "E" and then on the word "Elijah", or on the "Z" and then the word "Zarephath."

The passage is more than a story, of course; it's a lesson about taking confidence from God's promise announced by the prophet. But you have to tell it like a story if the lesson is to come across. Some pointers:

• A stranger appears and begins making impolite demands. The widow begins to comply with the first demand. But when the stranger makes a second, Her indignation boils over: "As the Lord, your God, lives ..." This is an ancient way of saying, "Give me a break, you imperious jerk!" Let the congregation hear her outrage.
• You know the setting is a time of desperation (see above), but your listeners won't know that until you express the widow's despair in your own voice, heavy with resignation, at the words "when we have eaten it, we shall die."
• When Elijah predicts that the Lord will not let her starve, announce this with confidence, like you know you're saying something people have wanted to hear for a long time.

Second Reading, Hebrews 9:24-28

In today's passage, the institutions in question are sanctuary, sacrifice, and judgment. In the old covenant, a priest conducted an annual ritual sacrifice in the sanctuary of the Temple, slaughtering a lamb. In the readings and Lector's Notes from two weeks ago and from three weeks ago, we saw that Jesus himself replaces the whole class of ancient priests. In today's passage:

• The earthly sanctuary is made obsolete by the sanctuary that is heaven, where Jesus the priest intercedes for us directly before God.
• The repetitive annual sacrifices are likewise replaced by Jesus' once-for-all sacrifice at this, "the end of the ages."
• The old sacrifices were meant to forestall an unfavorable judgment by God. The new expectation is brighter: "salvation to those who eagerly await him."