2020-08-10
Brooke Strong
This service was livestreamed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Sermon Text
Exhausted in Doing Good
A Prelude-
Today’s scripture lesson is the kind of story that a TV action drama might copy for a script. We have good guys and bad guys, a clueless king and an evil queen. We have threat and show down. We get some emotional insight through strong character development. And an ending. It features the prophet Elijah as he follows God’s directives to rid stand against the prophets of the idol Baal. You will need the back story for the scripture to be a complete lesson.
In I Kings 18 we find God sending Elijah to the wicked king, Ahab, who was married to the equally evil Jezebel. Ahab was supposed to be God’s King over Israel, but Jezebel persuaded him to lead the Jews from worshiping God, to worshiping the idol Baal, a god of nature. The sin was partially that worshiping Baal was worshiping the created, not the creator, thus breaking the first and second commandments, Thou shalt have no other gods before me and Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Elijah goes to call Ahab on this issue, and issue which caused God to send a three-year drought. Ahab sees Elijah and calls him the Troublemaker of Israel. They quarrel and Elijah tells Ahab to meet him on Mount Carmel where Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a contest at the altar on Mount Carmel to determine whose deity was genuinely in control of the Kingdom of Israel.
The contest challenge was to see which deity could light a sacrifice by fire when called upon to do so. The prophets of Baal shouted and prayed all morning and not a flicker of flame. Elijah taunts them, “Call a little louder—he is a god, after all. Maybe he’s off meditating somewhere or other, or maybe he’s gotten involved in a project, or maybe he’s on vacation. You don’t suppose he’s overslept, do you, and needs to be waked up?”
After the prophets of Baal had failed, Elijah had water poured upon his sacrifice to saturate the altar. He then prayed. Fire fell and consumed the sacrifice, wood, stones, soil and water, which prompted the Israelite witnesses to proclaim, "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!" In the account, Elijah also announced the end to a long three-year drought, which had previously been sent as divine punishment for Israel's idolatry. God had prevailed and Elijah must have felt grand in the victory.
Now today’s story begins immediately after these events.
1 Kings 19:1-18
19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then 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.” 3 Then 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.
4 But 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.” 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6 He 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. 7 The 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.” 8 He 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. 9 At 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?” 10 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 15 Then the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nim-shi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 17 Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Sermon
So, let’s review the action. Elijah is feeling pretty good. The victory is his. God is avenged and life makes sense. He’s accomplished everything he was supposed to.
Then the rubber meets the road. A messenger comes to him. “Hey there, Elijah. Ummm, Jezebel sends a message. She’s really mad, and she has vowed to kill you, at all costs. She is putting you in the cross hairs.”
What?! That was not how it was supposed to play out. This was the point where the nation was supposed to turn back to God and the wicked king, and his evil queen overthrown. How is this even possible?
We have all felt like this. We have all become immersed in feelings of being overwhelmed after doing something important or wonderful. Which makes me wonder if we can admit that we have all been disappointed by God? Elijah did everything right, and things still went wrong. You did everything right and it all still fell apart.
With the messenger’s message, Elijah ran away. He ran for 40 days.
40 seems to be an important number in the Bible. It appears as a designation 157 times. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights to flood the earth. The Israelites were slaves for forty decades. Moses' lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert. After which God selected him to lead his people out of slavery. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. And now we see Elijah running for forty days.
In the pseudo-science of Bible Numerology, which examines trends in numbers in the Bible and what they have in common, the number 40 is said to represent probation or the experience of being tried and tested in our faith. Many of the greatest heroes of faith have 40-day experiences. They include such familiar emotions as fear, loneliness, depression, isolation and hunger. It happens, and it prepares us for what God is doing. And God still had lots of plans for Elijah.
After the threat on his life, it is interesting to note the place to which Elijah runs. He heads back to Mt. Horeb–to Mt. Sinai. This is where it all started with Moses and the burning bush. This was the place where God first spoke to the Hebrew people. It’s like Elijah was thinking, when all else seemed lost, he needed to go back to where it all started, to get back to his roots, to his past.
Often when things get confusing, we want to go back to the past when things made more sense to us. We want to recapture traditions and “the good old days.” We want to go where we feel the presence of what had been important in our lives. So, we visit the graves of our parents or friends. We may drive by our old high school to recapture times when it all made better sense. We look at old pictures or home movies. We watch old movies or reread beloved books from our past. We talk to a friend or loved one about times that were shared. As we age, we reminisce stories of the past about people who have died. This is why Facebook offers random photos from your past so often. They want us to stay connected with where we were so we will not delete our accounts.
Like Elijah, we want to go back to Mt. Horeb.
Elijah gets there and God asks him an interesting question. “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah cries out, “I’ve done everything right. I’ve stood up for you, and nothing has gotten better. I’m the only one left. Jezebel wants my head, and all is lost.”
“Hmmm…” God says. “Step out here from that cave and let me show you something.”
I can just imagine Elijah getting excited at this point. God is going to do something on this mountain, just like he did to Moses. This is just what I need right now.
A huge wind comes along. Boom, crash! Elijah thinks, “this is it!” But God was not in the wind.
An earthquake shakes everything. Elijah is ready. He was open to God’s revelation. But God was not in the earthquake.
A fire burns all around. Elijah thinks, surely God is here. God is in this violent and destructive heat. But God was not in the fire.
Then there was sheer silence. Nothing. I wonder how long that lasted. I would think a fairly long time. Then God asks the question again.
“What are you doing here, Elijah? Why here? This is where I showed up for Moses and that is how I appeared in that moment, but that was in the past. I don’t live in the past. I live in the Promise of now, and I have work for you to do. Why are you here? Go back. You are not alone. I have a new king for you to anoint. There is a successor named Elisha for you to pass the baton. And there are 7,000 people who are faithful to me. Get off Mt. Horeb and go back to the now, where I live.”
In these uncertain days of Corona virus, racial tensions, global economics concerns, environmental issues, school open or close, and all the rest, I wonder where you are on this journey right now. Depression is growing, especially among younger people. There are too many videos of people fighting about masks. I talk to friends who are feeling monotonous boredom. Moms and dads are exhausted trying to keep younger children happy and learning at home. We miss our friends. We miss going out to eat. We miss our desk at work. We miss church in our beautiful sanctuary.
We will find ourselves in each of these circumstances multiple times throughout our lives. Maybe, like Moses, you are experiencing your Mt. Horeb for the first time and God is doing amazing things in your life right now. That’s always a remarkable time in our faith journeys. But I would guess that more of you are in a wrestling match with God. You have been faithful, and you are disappointed, and you are experiencing your 40 days.
It makes us wonder, “When does God show up?” And I stand here telling you, God is in all of it. God is here, and here, and here.
I read these verses over and over these past two weeks, and many things spoke to me from this biblical passage. But for our purposes today, I boiled down the many lessons into three things I’ve noticed from the story of Elijah. Three takeaways that can speak to where we all are right now – today.
First, God wants us refreshed. God wants us to remember to take care of ourselves even when we are experiencing trials and challenges. Eat well, and sleep and do that regularly so you are ready and healthy. It is more than being on tap to serve God. We also have to be in good condition for no other reason than that is what God hopes for us. So take care of yourself as you navigate these strange days,
Second, you can’t go back. You can’t return to Mt Sinai. You can remember and honor the past, but you can’t go back. There is nothing more to say about this, as disappointing as it might feel. You already lived that time, and please cherish those memories. But we are all here in this now.
Third, God lives in the Promise of renewing all thing. God works in new ways for every generation. The Bible tells us that God’s mercy is new every morning. Our job is to trust in God’s faithfulness and be willing to listen to the whisper of God.
God is doing a new thing in our times. God is present and God is also always looking ahead. God is concerned and involved in our lives as well as in our church life together. God is always moving forward.
Which is why I would again invite you to the Convergence event on Sunday, August 16. Again, the title is: "Creative Churches: A Virtual Tour of Churches Changing Their Communities" with Rev. Rev. Cameron Trimble, the CEO of Convergence. Convergence is the consultants Church Council has hired to help with Federated's Visionary Action Plan.
My friends, the world is changing, and God is moving in fresh and wonderful ways as the Holy Spirit empowers and guides us to love and embrace each other. May we be encouraged that God still speaks, as our denomination so proudly declares. God is speaking even in the silence, and God has an exciting future for us.
And finally, I want to clarify something for those of you who have said 2020 can’t possibly get worse. A little girl was praying when she first learned of the Coronavirus in March. She told God that she hoped this year did not get any worse. Then her school shut down, her summer camp was cancelled, her room became totally boring, and she completely watched every child show on Netflix. Thinking back on her prayer, she went back to her bedroom and knelt to pray.
“Dear God, when I said that I hoped 2020 wouldn’t get worse, it was a prayer – not a challenge. Just wanted to straighten that out, God.” Amen