Proper 14 2014

Proper 14, 2014

In our Old Testament reading today, we find the prophet Elijah in hiding for fear of his life. If we go back a little way in the First Book of Kings we read that he had upset Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of King Ahab, the king of Israel.

Apparently, Elijah had challenged the prophets of Jezebel’s gods, Baal and Asherah (something like 850 of them), in front of all of Israel, to offer bulls in sacrifice to their gods. They were told to prepare the sacrifice, and then call on their gods to consume the sacrifice, and in spite of a lot of raving and cutting themselves—nothing happened…

So, Elijah, prepared his own bull for sacrifice, and ordered 4 jars of water to be poured on the sacrifice and the wood—he told them to do it 3 times, in fact. And after praying that God would be revealed to the people, fire came down and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, and even the water.  Pretty cool, really—and it apparently impressed the people of Israel so much that they returned to their worship of God.

However, they also took all 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah to the valley Kishon and killed them according to Elijah’s orders… So, obviously this precipitated a strain in the relationship between Jezebel and Elijah; a relationship which was already pretty tenuous, to put it mildly.

  

In fact, once Jezebel had heard what happened with the prophets of Baal and Asherah, she swore an oath to do the same to Elijah. She had already put to death a number of other prophets of God, long before Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal and Asherah, so she could be taken at her word, hence Elijah going into hiding.

Elijah at one point even asked God to let him die, because he was so tired of being on the run; but God had other plans.

Where our reading picks up, then, is when Elijah believes himself to be alone. Obviously this isn’t a matter of piety or an over-active sense of religiosity. After all from what he’s just experienced, he had no proof that he wasn’t alone, that Jezebel hadn’t put to death all of the faithful people of God. So, in this case we can be certain that his feeling of being alone was not simply isolationism or self-imposed alienation—that’s Holden Caulfield, not Elijah.

Anyway, as Elijah remained in hiding, waiting for who knows what, God asked, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” Elijah responded by saying that Jezebel had killed everyone and that he’s the only one left remaining faithful to God, and he feared for his life… God then tells him to go out and stand on the mountain and wait.

  

Suddenly we read there is this tremendous show of power—something that would even impress J.J. Abrams. We’re told that “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; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.”

It says that when Elijah “heard” this silence, he covered his head and face to the holy Presence of God. God explains to Elijah that there is still a remnant of faithful people, and eventually all things will be made right again.

I suppose, given our religious freedoms in this country, it might be a bit of a stretch to say that we can sometimes feel a bit lonely in our lives of faith. But in a life of faith that seeks to be active, faithful and integrated; we can begin to feel a bit on our own. This is especially true if we try to live our lives in a way that doesn’t play the games that the world tries to get us to play.

Now, I’m not talking about an outward kind of piety, or limiting ourselves to any of the garbage that’s marketed as “Christian alternatives.” That’s all superficial nonsense, and really only works if you believe that the sacred and the secular are irreconcilable…

  

But that doesn’t seem to be the way God sees things, otherwise the redemption that Jesus came to offer us would be pointless…

Anyway, back to my point; it can be difficult, and even a little lonely when we choose to live as people of integrity and faithfulness. We live in a culture that encourages us to always press the advantage; to prize power over compassion; to prefer intolerance to mercy.

 However, some would claim that we’re a nation under God—the same God who says that only three things are required of us: “to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly before our God…” things that I’m not sure I could identify as American values.

Yet, to be fair, it is tough to choose to show compassion to others—especially if they’re difficult people. It’s hard to hope, and pray, and stand for peace—especially in a world and a culture that seems drunk on violence. It’s also really difficult to pray for our enemies; to forgive those who’ve done us harm; to bless those who want to see our ruin…and yet, Jesus tells us to do it anyway. And he tells us this, not because he was dreaming of an impossible utopian world—but because he knows we’re capable of doing it. But, again, none of it is the popular way of doing things, and yet, we know intuitively that it’s the right way of doing things. Because, deep inside, we really do want to be people of integrity, it just isn’t easy or automatic.

  

For Elijah, of course, living a life of integrity to his call as a prophet of God meant death. For us, it may mean that we don’t achieve things as quickly in life. It may mean that we stand alone in some situations when we choose to identify with people or things that our conscious calls us to…and while it’s not the same as death, it is all the same not an easy thing. Yet, like Elijah, we’re not given a pass on a life of faith simply because it’s hard—in fact, more often we’re called to live our lives of faith more fiercely.

Likewise, following the example of Elijah, we have to discern the Presence of God in the silence. That’s not necessarily a reference to contemplative prayer practices—although those are certainly helpful in training us to better discern the Presence of God—what I mean is that we have to learn to understand that God is not necessarily present in the loud, clamorous things. In fact, we’re more often likely to recognize the Presence of God when those kinds of distractions are put aside, and our minds and hearts can be attentive to God.

So, when we make the difficult choices that reflect a life marked by faith, we can trust that we’re resonating with the Spirit of God and living lives that have had a brush with the divine. But again, we have to be willing to have our eyes and hearts opened to discern and respond to God’s Presence.

  

So, where does all of this leave us? Well, not alone—which is great news. Because, while it is much more than simply a remnant of faithful people with us; we do have the Body of Christ, the Church to join us in living lives faithful to God. What’s more, we join one another in the mystical bonds of Christ’s death and resurrection through our baptism. And in our baptism, we’re called not only to new life, but a way of life that reflects the core of the Gospel’s teachings.

And although our call to faithful lives in Christ may not have the imperative that Elijah’s prophetic call had; we do all the same have the call to be faithful witnesses to the work of salvation begun in Christ Jesus, and to take our share in its continued work. And that is a call that will never allow us to hide away and will never leave us alone.