2025 06 22 Proper 7C
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a and Psalm 42 and 43 -
Galatians 3:23-29 - Luke 8:26-39
Do you like adventure? I hope so, because the Christian life is incredibly adventurous. The stories that are told in our readings today would easily make for great movie themes. But does it seem sometimes that we are just a spectator? We are called to be part of the great adventure. We might not have to confront a tyrannical Queen, or deal with a Demon possessed man, but we ARE called to be a willing participant, and to play an active part, in our own adventure.
In our own adventure we are constantly being called to
deliberately choose, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The point of having these other adventures
recorded in the scriptures is so that we can learn from them and navigate our
own adventures with success.
Elijah is one of the greatest prophets. We know from our song, that he declared the
word of the Lord. Although he was a
famous prophet from our perspective, he lived in a time when the Israelites,
God’s chosen people were predominantly worshipping Baal. He interacted rather famously with the King
of Israel, Ahab and his wife Jezabel, who lived in the 7th century
BC. Jezebel is the character behind that name becoming
associated with harlotry, because of her manipulative influence over the King.
Our reading picks up part of the story just after Elijah had
asked the people to chose which god they would serve, and he had the priests/prophets
of Baal make a sacrifice and wait for Baal to send down fire from heaven. Baal didn’t answer. Then, after soaking in ample water his own
sacrifice to the Lord God almighty, God did answer by sending fire from heaven
and then Elijah ordered that the priests of Baal be killed. Jezebel was furious and threatened Elijah who
fled into the wilderness.
After a days’ journey travelling by himself Elijah sat under
a broom tree and he was done! This is
the irony of success. This magnificent
miracle had just happened. God showed up
so dramatically, but suddenly, Elijah felt very human and fallible. He had witnessed the glory of God and, as all
do in the presence of God, felt acutely the weight of his own sinfulness and
the enormity of his ministry. Elijah was
a great and honourable prophet, but in the presence of God, we all realize how limited
we are. Jezebel was chasing Elijah and
threatening him. There was no repentance
in that woman or the King. Even though
God clearly showed his greatness, these people refused to repent.
If we can put ourselves in Elijah’s shoes, he was passionate
about serving God. He had experienced God, and he knew Him and his goodness,
but no one was listening. Not completely
true, but it felt like no one was listening and it seemed like no
matter how greatly God proved himself, there was no resulting change.
Have you even been there?
Working hard to achieve what seems to be something good, you know you
have truth and wisdom on your side, but all that effort only results in you being
targeted and pulled down. What do we
learn from this? Well, if we stop our
story here, we learn to just go with the flow and don’t try to do anything that
is different from what is popular. Is
this where most Christians are at today? But Elijah’s story doesn’t end there….
I must confess that this is one of my favourite stories in
the Bible. Elijah is worn out and
despondent. He travels with his servant,
but leaves him in a town of Judah (in other words a place of relative safety
from the King of Israel) and then goes on alone, finally crying out for God to
take his life, and he falls asleep. He
is woken by an Angel of the Lord and encouraged to eat. He awakens to find bread and water. He falls asleep again and the scene is
repeated and this time he travels to Mt. Horeb. There is no admonition to stop
complaining. In fact, the Angel provides
sustenance and acknowledges Elijah’s weariness and inability to go on… The
journey is too great for you, is what he says, but indicating that Elijah will
be refreshed by the food and drink. – you know that saying about never being
given more than you can handle? Well
even the Angel acknowledges that the journey is too great, BUT HE provides the
sustenance necessary.
Some interesting elements are here in this passage. Let me quote from a Hebrew commentary; “…
in this verse this angel is identified as the Angel of the Lord; malach
Yehoveh . ……it is there in the original Hebrew. In any case, here
Elijah encounters not an ordinary angel, but some manifestation of God Himself.
Recall that it was the Angel of the Lord that appeared to Moses in the burning
bush on Mt. Sinai and claimed to be the Great I am. And so not surprisingly,
this Angel of the Lord influenced Elijah to trek to Mt. Sinai, or as it says
here, Horeb (Horeb and Mt. Sinai are interchangeable terms).” (https://www.torahclass.com/lessons/old-testament/1-kings/lesson-31-ch19/)
After being refreshed Elijah journeys for 40 days to Mt.
Horeb, also known as Mt. Sinai. In other
words, the mountain where the law was given to Moses. Do you recall Moses’ story of being in a cave
on Mt. Horeb? Exodus33:21-23 tells us; “Then the LORD said, “There is a place near
me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a
cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I
will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Elijah is spending time in that same cleft or cave and the
word of the LORD comes to him, asks him what he is doing there and informing
him that he should go out and stand on the mountain because the LORD was about
to pass by. There was a strong wind, an
earthquake and a fire and then a sheer silence.
At this Elijah put a mantle over his head as a sign of reverence and
also protection from seeing God’s face.
What do we learn from all of this? God controls the elements, but the elements
are not God. We learn that God cares for
us and understands when we are worn out and despondent and he himself will
supply refreshment. We also learn that
God continues to call people. Elijah may
have expected the people to turn to God, but they didn’t. Elijah declared the word of the LORD, but
they didn’t repent. Was he a failure? He
felt it.
Jesus cast demons out of the man in our Gospel story. He set the man free but what response did
Jesus get from the people? Cheers and
welcome? No, they were afraid and so they
asked him to leave. Imagine this is you.
Just when you’ve dramatically seen this one man set free and you are feeling
like this is a good thing and surely people will see it that way, suddenly they
ask you to leave. Sometimes our good
works, which we are specifically called by God to do, will appear on a
superficial, but visible level, to be a failure. Don’t give up, keep doing what God has called
us to do.
The Angel of the LORD, a manifestation of God, provided
sustenance with bread and water. Sound
like anyone else we know? Jesus said, “I
am the bread of life.” Jesus also said
that anyone who drinks from the water that he gives will never thirst. Elijah was not the only prophet of the LORD
left, but he felt alone. We need to be
sustained by God, encouraged and held up by each other and we
need to know that when we are doing what God calls us to do, we are never a
failure. God is doing something
eternal. We may not see the victory, but
know victory is there when we are faithful and do what he calls us to do
regardless.
We are loved by and precious to God. We are considered by God as being clothed in
Christ, meaning that Christ’s goodness and righteousness is seen when God looks
at us. We cannot ever, therefore, be
failures. Regardless of how it feels or
looks. God has set us free in equality, and
he loves to call the least likely. ALL
OF US ARE CALLED into an adventure that God has planned– No exception. He invites us all into the adventure. Today, we gather to support each other and be
nourished by God so that the journey -which IS too great for us in our own
strength, is able to be achieved. Rest
in his presence today and tomorrow, go in the power of the Spirit to accomplish
things that God has prepared for us.
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