Today we heard two stories - one of them a story about Elijah and the other a story about Jesus. In many ways our faith is composed of stories. We learn our history from the stories told to us. Our moral framework - our understanding of right and wrong - comes to us through story. We pass the faith on to others through story - the ones we tell in words, and the ones we tell in action.

They say that things are remembered better when they are told in more than one way. Today’s readings are a good example of this. Elijah is one of the most important prophets to the Hebrew people. The story we heard today helps us to understand how important Elijah is. One of the ways that importance is established in the bible stories is by ascribing miracles to them. If you think about the many different stories about people in the bible - there are many of them who perform miracles. Today it is Elijah’s turn. He visits the widow of Zarephath and convinces her to use her last bit of food to feed him. The promise is that her flour and oil will never run out, and in an incredible show of faith she takes Elijah (and God) at their word. So, as I said that story helps to establish Elijah as an important figure in the Jewish faith and ours as followers of the Judeo-Christian tradition. If we had read a bit further in the story of the encounter between Elijah and the widow we would have read that the miracle of an unending supply of flour and oil was not the end of Elijah’s miraculous actions. The widow’s son became sick and died. Elijah took the boy, prayed to God, lay next to him three times and the boy’s breath was returned to him. The effect is that the widow clearly sees Elijah as God’s messenger - a prophet. Of course, the effect is not limited to the widow - people reading this story through the ages would also see the outcome of this story as evidence that Elijah had God-given healing powers and that he therefore deserved to be heard.

Fast forward a few centuries and we have a story from the life of Jesus. He too is confronted by the death of a young man, also the son of a widow. In a clear parallel to the Elijah story, Jesus touches the coffin in which the boy is laid and the boy’s life is restored. There are two remarkable things to note about this story. First of all, it was ritually forbidden to touch the body of a dead person. Jesus is not swayed by this religious taboo. The second thing to notice is that with Elijah being such an important figure to people of the Jewish faith, the parallel between this story of Jesus and the one where Elijah meets the widow of Zarephath would not be missed. This establishes Jesus on an equal basis with Elijah - a fact that would be most noticeable to people of the Jewish faith. The risk is therefore twofold - risking ritual uncleanliness and risking the claim of equality with an eminent prophet. Like any risk, the hazards and benefits are stark - presumably some people of the Jewish faith on hearing the story might be convinced to give consideration to the story and example of Jesus, while others would see this as an affront - a direct challenge by inviting comparison with such an important person in the story of the Jewish faith.

So, for the people who were present at the incident described in the gospel passage, demonstration would have invited comparison. Jesus acted just like the well known story of Elijah described it, inviting those in attendance and all those reading the story later to make the connection.

So, using that example. I would like to enlist your support to help tell another story. The story of Elijah and the story of the healing of the young man at Nain is part of our story, but there is also a more recent story associated with this day. Eighty-two years ago today, on June 10, 1925 people gathered in the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto to celebrate the formation of The United Church of Canada.

I have a page here with some photographs of the first General Council and the gathering that celebrated the birth of The United Church of Canada.

But to help tell the story of how we got to this big gathering of people in an arena which was once the home of a winning Stanley Cup team called the Toronto Arenas, which a couple of years later became the Toronto Maple Leafs, I need some engineers. The only skills you need is the ability to do some sand sculptures. Do I have any volunteers?

Build two scenes - a town/city scene with an intersection and two big buildings, and a town scene where there is only one building.

Describe the importance of working together. Making good use of resources.