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1Ahab
told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the
prophets with the sword.
2Then
Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to
me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one
of them by this time tomorrow.”
3Then
he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba,
which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
4But
he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and
sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die:
“It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my
ancestors.”
5Then
he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel
touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.”
6He
looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a
jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.
7The
angel of the Lord came
a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the
journey will be too much for you.”
8He
got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food
forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
9At
that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the
word of the Lord came
to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
One week ago today I
sat where Elijah sat, at the base of Mount Horeb, the mountain of
God, and watched the light of day illuminate the mountain inch by
inch. I listened for God’s whisper at a lodging place that put me
in mind of the motor lodges that we use to stay at when I was a boy
travelling with my Aunt Peg and Uncle Bill. It even had a motor
lodge kind of name, Morganland, and a giant swimming pool. I
sat by the pool side watching the wonder of daybreak and thought
about my friend Elijah.
Today we continue the
story of Elijah, the prophet of God, who is truly a superhero in the
Old Testament. He appeared out of nowhere in I Kings 17 to confront
the idolatry of the king, queen, and the nation of Israel by telling
them that it would not rain until he said so. That prompted a
drought of 3 ½ years. In that time of scarcity Elijah discovered
that God provides. That was Act One of this powerful play told in
the scriptures. Laurinda preached about Act Two last week as we
discovered that God answers. The prophets of Baal prayed for hours
and got no response from their false god. But in a prayer that took
only 17 seconds the Lord God who made heaven and earth acted. Fire
came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice that Elijah had
prepared. Then it started to rain. Everything was going Elijah’s
way. Even King Ahab was amazed and ran home to tell his wife of the
incredible events on Mount Carmel. She was not nearly as
impressed. She swore that she would wipe Elijah out just as he had
tried to wipe out her national religion, and she would do it
swiftly. This is Act Three. In this act we find Elijah shifting so
quickly from being on the top of the world to being at the end of
his rope.
It is an act with three scenes.
Come to the mountain of God and listen for the whisper.
Scene One: We bring Fear to the Mountain
of God
Elijah was scared.
Verse three of this morning’s passage indicated that he was afraid
and fled for his life. He went all the way from Mount Carmel in
northern Israel to Beer-sheba in southern Israel and wandered beyond
that in the lonely place called the Negev Desert. It is a desolate
place that extends all the way to the Dead Sea. Mount Carmel
overlooks one of the most fertile places on earth, the Jezreel
Valley, which has been the envy of many farmers and kings for
thousands of years. On the other hand, the Negev Valley and its
neighbor, the Sinai wilderness, are two of the harshest places on
earth. I was in the Negev on Friday and our driver told me it was
44 degrees. I quickly did the calculations that it was somewhere
between 110 and 111 degrees outside. What a contrast between the
fertile valley that Elijah left and the barren wilderness to which
he fled. He found a lone broom tree out there and sat under it
exhausted by the events that took him from the top of the world to
the end of his rope. And he was afraid.
On the way to Israel
and Egypt a couple of weeks ago I read a book that was distributed
at Annual Conference at the beginning of this month. The book is
entitled, Change the World, by Michael Slaughter. Reverend
Slaughter is the lead pastor of an impressive church that exploded
in growth a hundred years after it was established in Tipp City,
Ohio. In his book he wrote, “Fear and anxiety can neutralize your
opportunity to finish the unique role that you’ve been created to
fulfill.” He seemed to be speaking right to the Elijah situation.
Elijah’s fear had paralyzed him from doing what God had created him
to do – change the world.
The first thing that
I noticed in my trip to Israel this month was the walls that had
been erected to contain and control the Palestinian population. I
wish I could tell you that I received a revelation from God as to
the solution to the situation in the Middle East, but what I really
received was a clearer picture of the problem. Muslims inside the
walls cannot go to the holy place to pray on Friday for fear
that they could assemble an attack. Christians outside the walls of
Bethlehem cannot go to the Church of the Nativity because of fear
that protests will escalate once again at this historic place of
worship. Jews cannot travel freely in their land of Israel for
fear that an angry mob would take out frustrations of oppression
on them. Everyone seems to be afraid and walls are being erected to
address the fears.
As I looked at those
hideous walls that are topped with barbed wire, the Lord seemed to
whisper to me that everyone builds walls when they are afraid.
Sometimes we do it by finding our own lone broom tree to hide under
and cry out to God that no one understands. Sometimes we do it by
talking about those people and the atrocious things that they
do. You don’t have to go to Bethlehem to find walls erected, you
only have to look inside.
Come to the mountain of God and listen
for the whisper.
Scene Two: We bring Futility to the
Mountain of God
Elijah fell asleep
under that tree and was awakened by an angel of the Lord, who told
him to get up and eat some bread that had just been freshly baked on
hot stones. I had some of this bread that continues to be made by
the Bedouins of the desert the same way that it was made back then.
Elijah went back to sleep and was awakened again, given a second
helping of the delicious bread and the all important commodity of
water and sent out to the desert. It took him 40 days to travel the
200 miles from the Negeb of Israel to Mount Sinai in present day
Egypt, even on foot that is terrible time, leading me to believe
that he was doing a little wandering in the wilderness. When he got
to the mountain of God he was asked one haunting question, “What are
you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah didn’t
respond, “Are you kidding me? I was asleep by a broom tree and some
angel woke me up twice and fed me twice and told me to go in the
strength of that food and led me here.” No, he knew what the voice
meant and he must have thought a lot about the question himself in
those forty days, because there is not even the slightest
hesitation.
Elijah moved into the
heart of the matter in verse ten. All he was doing seemed to be
futile. After such a rousing victory on Mount Carmel where he
seemed to have obliterated idolatry, he was quickly reminded by the
queen that she would appoint new priests to her cult and oh yes, by
the way, she would kill him. But it was not she who is mentioned in
Elijah’s speech, it was they, all the others. The very
people that he tried to rescue will turn on him and seek to take his
life. Life was futile, meaningless. I read several commentaries on
this passage and all the scholars seem to be in agreement about one
thing – Elijah was a burned out prophet at this point in his
ministry. One commentator wrote, “Elijah is a burned out prophet,
broken, and disappointed.” Another commentator stated, “Elijah
expressed the greatest despair. He had not seen the expected
salutary fruit of his zeal for the Lord.”
The sense of futility is one of the greatest enemies of the people
of God. It is easy to think about throwing in the towel when the
results are not what you have hoped for or worked for. When
apartheid seems to be dismantled in South Africa and wall comes down
in Berlin, hope emerges, but then the atrocities of Darfur occur and
walls are erected in other parts of the world. Before you allow the
sense of futility to overtake you and immobilize you, come to
the mountain of God and listen for the whisper, “What are
you doing here?”
Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church heard this whisper in 2005 and
decided to do something about the horrible aftermath of hate in
Darfur. Slaughter said that the church realized that indifference
is no longer an option. They have invested over 4 million dollars
in that area of the Sudan digging wells building schools, providing
for the women and children, and agricultural developments. Many
families are giving more to Darfur every Christmas than they are to
their families through a campaign entitled, “Christmas Isn’t Your
Birthday.”
It is easy to get
caught up with a sense of futility, but I heard an interesting story
from our guide in Israel. Wisam is from Beth Zaor a suburb of
Bethlehem where the Shepherd’s Field is located. He took us by his
hometown and showed us the stone fences that have stood for
centuries. He pointed out that rain and wind would have toppled
these fences long ago except for a daily ritual of the farmers.
While they are out in their fields they pick up tiny stones every
day. Then they take those stones and put them in the gaps of the
fences, doing something each day to improve the stability of their
world. Our guide turned toward the group on the bus and asked us to
consider what our daily stones are. I found a lot of stones at the
base of Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai, but before
considering those stones I had to hear Elijah. Fear and a sense of
futility are not sins and should not be denied if they are being
felt. I am glad that Elijah gave voice to his feelings, I also like
what John Wayne is reported to have said, “Courage is being scared
to death and saddling up anyway.” Our scripture reading this
morning ended with the first question, “What are you doing here,
Elijah?” There is much more to the story. This leads us to the
next scene.
Scene Three: We take Faith from the
Mountain of God
Elijah is told to
stand on the mountain and prepare for the Lord to pass by. There
was a strong wind followed by a violent earthquake followed by a
raging fire. After each of these familiar methods of divine
revelation, we learn that the Lord was not found. Then there was
this sheer silence, a gentle whisper, or as David Wiseman translates
the phrase, “a thin, subdued sound.” Again the question came, “What
are you doing here, Elijah?” Again the answer of a lonely,
battered, misunderstood and unheeded prophet is offered to the Lord
as the only thing that he has left at the end of his rope. Then the
whisper assures and recommissions. He is not expected to do it
all. He is only to do what God has told him to do. Mother Teresa
once said, “We must become holy, not because we want to be holy, but
because Christ wants to live his life fully in us.” Elijah’s job
was to obey God and let God work through him. He was told to anoint
a couple of kings and a young man, named Elisha, to be his
successor. Then something amazing happens to the prophet at the end
of his rope. He comes alive again. It is a sense of purpose, not
pyrotechnics, that speaks to the prophet. Slaughter wrote in his
book, “Understanding your life purpose is discovering why you are
alive and knowing the contribution that you want to leave behind.”
One week ago today I
sat where Elijah sat, at the base of Mount Horeb, the mountain of
God and watched the light of day illuminate the mountain inch by
inch. I sat by the pool side watching the wonder of daybreak,
thought about my friend Elijah, and wrote something entitled,
“Whisper”:
The pace has been
fast
The sights have been stunning
Fast – keep moving
Stunning – stand still
Go
Take off your shoes.
Whisper.
There is so much to
do here
There is more that I want to see
Fast – keep moving
Stunning – stand still
Look over there
Stay right here
Whisper.
What are you doing
here, Elijah?
Why have you come so far?
Fast – keep moving
Stunning – stand still
I have done so much, Lord
I need to rest
Whisper.
Life can be so full
of events, places, sights, sounds
The soul can become so malnourished
Fast – keep moving
Stunning – stand still
Go. Do. Look. Listen. Touch.
Stop. Do nothing. Close your
eyes. Let the Spirit breathe.
Whisper.
I am guessing that
you have been where Elijah was. You don’t have to travel to Israel
and Egypt to understand fear or the sense of futility. You don’t
have to leave College Station to come to the mountain of God
and listen for the whisper, “What are you doing here?” May
God grant each of us who have been at the end of our rope faith to
do what God wants us to do – to discover our life purpose and live
it. Amen.
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