Kings of Summer: It's Not All About Us

July 14^th, 2013     “It’s Not All About Us”         Rev. Heather Jepsen

Sermon Series: Kings of Summer

2 Kings 2

          Today we continue in our sermon series “Kings of Summer”.  As many of you know I have challenged myself to preach strictly from the Old Testament this summer and we have been following the story of Elijah in 1^st and now 2^nd Kings.

          We began our study with Elijah’s call narrative and early miracles.  Called to speak against Ahab, King of Israel, and his wife Jezebel, who have been encouraging the worship of Baal; Elijah has been speaking for the voice of YHWH throughout Israel and beyond.  Elijah first brought word of a drought and three years later brought word of rain.  There was a showdown between YHWH and Baal, and Elijah called down fire from heaven to prove who the true God of Israel was.  After getting out of control, Elijah bottomed out and ran into the wilderness to hide.  God came near Elijah in a still small voice which gave him the courage to get back out into the world.  Elijah would need that courage as he was called to speak the truth to power, naming the sins of Ahab and Jezebel, who were responsible for the death of Naboth and the stealing of his vineyard.

          Where we pick up the story this morning, Ahab is dead and power in Israel is beginning to shift.  Elijah’s work is done and it is time for him to pass on his mantle of power to his chosen successor, Elisha.  You may remember a few weeks ago when we read of the call of Elisha in 1 Kings 19.  There, after returning from his encounter with God on Mount Horeb, Elijah passed Elisha working in a field and threw his mantle upon him.  Elisha immediately sensed the gravity of what had occurred and prepared to follow after Elijah.  Before he left his homeland, Elisha slaughtered his oxen and used the material from his plow to build a fire, feeding the meat to his family.  This drastic act symbolized Elisha’s break with his old life.  A dozen oxen and plow were a large financial commitment.  Elisha was clearing his slate, burning his bridges, and heading out to follow Elijah unencumbered.  Elisha was ready for the call of the prophet.

          One assumes that Elisha began to follow Elijah right away but we don’t hear specifically from him again until this scene.  The time has come for Elijah to be taken up and like heading to the airport to catch a plane, Elijah heads into the wilderness to meet the chariot of the Lord.  Three times he attempts to leave Elisha behind saying “Stay here; for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.” (And then Jericho, and then the Jordan.)  Three times Elisha declares that he will not leave the side of his master.  “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”  A company of prophets follow them, and they too encourage Elisha to stay behind.  “Don’t you know your master is leaving?” they ask over and over again.  “Yes,” Elisha replies, “I know, be quiet.”

          It is unclear why Elijah wants to leave Elisha behind.  Perhaps he is not yet willing to give up his power and authority, or perhaps he is trying to avoid the pain of saying goodbye.  Elijah has never seemed that enthusiastic about Elisha as his successor, so perhaps he is just trying to shrug the guy off.  No matter his reasoning, Elijah and the company of prophets are unsuccessful.  Elisha will not be deterred and he will stubbornly hang on until the bitter end.

          On their way, Elijah rolls up his mantle, strikes the surface of the Jordan and alá Moses the waters split.  Elijah and Elisha cross, leaving the company of prophets behind.  This will be the last sign of Elijah’s power.  After they cross, Elijah asks Elisha what he can do for him before he leaves.  Elisha asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit, referring to the practice of the first born son receiving the primary share of the inheritance.  Of course, the power of the prophet is not Elijah’s to give, so he says that if Elisha can see him leave, then maybe he can have it.

          Suddenly as they walk and talk, a chariot of fire and horses of fire descend upon them and Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind.  Commentators worry that modern believers will struggle with such a story but I find this no more strange than the other things we have read about this summer.  From children being brought back to life, to fire descending from the sky, to God passing by the mountain, we have seen numerous “supernatural” events in these stories.  The God of the Old Testament is a God who sends fiery horses and chariots as prophet transportation.  That makes sense to me!

          Elisha witnesses the event, calling out “Father, father!  The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”  Elijah disappears and Elisha tears his robe in symbolic grief, it is over.  Then Elisha turns and picks up Elijah’s old mantle which must have fallen from his shoulders in the great event.  Throwing it upon his own back Elisha heads back where he came from.

          He too, strikes the waters of the Jordan, and it becomes clear that he has inherited the spirit of Elijah, he has become the next great prophet.  The waters split and he walks through to rejoin the company of the prophets waiting on the other side.  He tells them of Elijah’s departure and they don’t believe him.  They want to send out a search party just in case Elijah may have been dropped again somewhere out in the wilderness.  And so for three days they look high and low but to no avail, the great Elijah really is gone.

          Now that the company of prophets also believes that Elisha is the chosen one, he is ready to begin his ministry.  His first miracle is to clean out the water in a local well.  The water had been making people sick and by throwing salt in the well, Elisha is able to make the water potable again.  His second miracle is a bit stranger.  In another one of those “wait a minute, what?” sections of the Bible, Elisha curses a group of young boys who have teased him and two she-bears maul forty-two youngsters to death.  Wait a minute – what? 

          The main point of this reading today is clearly the transfer of leadership.  Elijah has been the prophet, but now he is done and a different prophet with a different skill set is needed.  That is the easy sermon to preach on this text, especially if you skip that part about the bear, which the lectionary would have you do.  But that’s the easy way out; chariots of fire are a lot easier to talk about than death by bear.  So, in the spirit of this sermon series, in the spirit of embracing these difficult Old Testament stories, let’s talk about death by bear.

          Elisha is traveling from Jericho to Bethel and runs into a group of rowdy youngsters.  As he passes by they taunt him and mock him, “Go away, baldhead!” or “Go up, baldy”.  It’s hard to translate the insult but it sounds like Elisha might have been follicley challenged.  The text is clear, he turns around and curses the lot of them in the name of the Lord, and they die. 

          As you can imagine, throughout the ages commentators have attempted to explain away this scene.  From claiming this was an attack on his prophetic office, to speculating the youth were trying to keep him from going to the sanctuary in Bethel, to assuming that to taunt the prophet was an attack on God himself, all sorts of reasons have been given to explain Elisha’s act.  Unfortunately none of them are convincing.  Basically some kids tease Elisha about his appearance, he gets mad and curses them, and they die a painful and frightening death.

          As modern readers we can’t help but be offended by this story.  Elisha’s act is way out of proportion.  That’s all there is to it, just another prophet killing people with the power of God.  And of course, this is not the first time it happens.  We all remember Elijah ordering the Israelites to take the 450 prophets of Baal down to the creek to be killed.  We read last week about the glory of the gruesome deaths of Ahab and Jezebel.  And in the chapter immediately preceding this one, Elijah is approached by messengers from the new king of Israel, and he calls down “The fire of God” from heaven to consume the captain of the army and his fifty men.  Not only that, he does it again to the next group of 51, all because he doesn’t like the message they are bringing from the king.  Now that doesn’t seem right either. 

          Once again in this sermon series, we come face to face with this God of the Old Testament that we don’t like.  From the gory deaths of Jezebel and Ahab, to the mass murder of rival prophets, to fires that kill messengers and men, to bears that maul small children; the acts of the prophet done in God’s name are violent and rude and offensive and just plain awful. 

How are we to understand these stories?  How are we to understand the God of the Old Testament?  I am beginning to think that the problem might be that we are reading it wrong.  Maybe we are coming from the wrong place when we want to make an ethical judgment on what is essentially a theological story.

What I am saying is this; as modern believers we are approaching the text looking for it to tell us something about ourselves.  That is the modern position.  “What does this have to do with me and my life?  Tell me something about me.”  That is how most of my sermons go.  And these difficult stories don’t do that.  They don’t have an ethical point.  They are not written to tell you something about you, they are not written to tell you how to live your life, and they are not written to set an example. 

I think we need to be reminded that the collected writings that appear in 1^st and 2^nd Kings were collected together in the form we find today around 550 BCE.  Gathered during the time of exile, the books were a reminder to the people of Israel of their history and their God.  They are in essence, theological texts, reminding the Israelites who God is, rather than wisdom texts like Proverbs which would remind the Israelites how to act.  These texts are thousands of years old and there is no way the authors ever imagined people in our day and age would gather together to read them.  The purpose of these narratives was to tell the ancient Israelites about God, not to tell us about us.

          The modern believer is essentially reading the Bible to find out about themselves.  How should they act?  Who is God calling them to be?  My answer as a preacher for today’s lesson is “It’s not all about us.”  When we read of the passing of power from Elijah to Elisha we can discern that God works through multiple people and multiple generations.  It’s not all about us.  Even the story of the kids teasing Elisha reminds us to consider the feelings of others.  It’s not polite to tease.  It’s not all about us.

          But the main theme here is a theological one.  Elijah and Elisha function as characters that show the power of God to the reader and to the nation of Israel.  We can’t look to these stories for examples of how to live; they are horrible moral and ethical examples because they were never written to function that way.  Rather we can look to these stories to understand who the God of the Old Testament is, and the God of the Old Testament is a sovereign God who has the power to bring life or death into any situation at God’s will.  We should find hope that the God we have come to know, even the scary God of the Old Testament, more often than not desires to bring life to all people; especially those living on the margins.  It may not be about us, but we are part of the greater story, we are part of that great curve toward justice. 

          This has been a difficult set of readings but I think it has been good for us.  Through studying these narratives we have come to know a lot about God and a lot about ourselves.  The God of the Old Testament is a God who has the power of life and the power of death.  The God of the Old Testament is jealous, and will not tolerate the worship of idols.  The God of the Old Testament is just, and will always be working on behalf of the little guy.

          As the followers of God, we are called to worship God alone, to look out for the rights of others in our world, and to speak the truth to power when called upon to do so.  We should also be reminded when reading the Bible that it is not all about us.  It’s about the great curve of God’s great love story, and while we are part of the story, we are certainly not the main character.

          As you know, I will be taking a few weeks off after this Sunday and you will get a break from this series.  That is probably a good thing.  After going to such strange and uncomfortable places I think we all deserve a break.  When I return to the pulpit on August 11^th I will have one final sermon to add to this series.  Until then, we would do well to remember that it’s not all about us.  And as you enjoy your summer, stay safe.  And for heaven’s sake, if you see any bald prophets don’t tease ‘em.  Amen. 

           

Kings of Summer: Truth to Power

July 7^th, 2013         “Truth to Power”        Rev. Heather Jepsen

Sermon Series: Kings of Summer

1 Kings 21

          Today we continue our sermon series “Kings of Summer” where I challenge myself to preach strictly from the Old Testament texts of 1 and 2 Kings and where together we boldly go where we have hesitated to go before, into a direct encounter with the God of the Old Testament.

          In worship this summer we have been following the story of Elijah.  We began with the story of his call and his early miracles in the land of Sidon with the widow of Zarephath.  We have witnessed his challenge of the prophets of Baal with a showdown of the gods, victory in the form of fire from heaven, and eventually the coming rains to end the drought.  We have seen Elijah get out of control, slaughtering the 450 prophets of Baal and then spiraling down into a suicidal depression.  And we have witnessed God move past Mount Horeb, not in the fire or earthquake but in the still small voice that is present in our hearts.  Finally, God dusts Elijah off, pats his rump, and sends him on his way to anoint Elisha as his eventual successor.  Today we meet Elijah again, as he is called to speak the truth to power.

          Today’s story takes place in the land of Jezreel where Ahab has his winter palace.  A fellow named Naboth owns a vineyard next door and after years of looking out the window at it, Ahab decides that he really wants to have the place for his own vegetable garden.  Ahab makes Naboth a fair offer, “Sell me your vineyard or trade it to me for another piece of land.”  Naboth declines the offer, saying “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.” 

          There is a lot going on here behind the scenes.  First of all, there is a lot of symbolism in the vegetable garden/ vineyard language.  The term vegetable garden is used in only one other place in the Old Testament and there it is used in a derogatory way to describe the land of Egypt.  By contrast, the use of the vineyard term is prolific in the ancient texts to describe not only the Promised Land but also the relationship between the nation of Israel and the Lord God.  Vineyards in the Bible are a sign of God’s blessing.

          The other background theme here is the understanding of land in ancient Israel.  All of the Promised Land is regarded as an inheritance given by the Lord to the people.  Ahab’s offer is fair, but the vineyard is Naboth’s ancestral inheritance.  Israelite law stipulates that ancestral estates must remain within the family or clan.  So, it is more than mere sentiment that causes Naboth to turn down the offer, he is religiously obligated to keep the land in his family.  To sell the land to Ahab would be an affront to both his family and his faith.

          Naturally, Ahab is depressed at this news.   Though he has led the people astray, Ahab is still the king of Israel and is bound by the laws of Israel.  The fact that he wants Naboth’s land, does not give him the right to take it, even if he is the king.  Ahab’s wife Jezebel though comes from a different tradition.  She neither understands nor accepts the religious laws of Israel.  She is a worshipper of Baal and so abides by a different set of religious laws.  She is also a Sidonian princess so she abides by a different set of rules for the noble class.

          Jezebel does not understand why Ahab is so put out by Naboth’s denial of his request.  “Aren’t you the king of Israel?” she asks.  As Ahab pouts and sulks, Jezebel decides to take action.  Like many a wife before her and since Jezebel’s answer to Ahab’s mood is a familiar one, “Fine . . . I’ll take care of it!”  Using Ahab’s authority, Jezebel orchestrates the murder of Naboth in order to secure the vineyard for Ahab.

          Now I am not defending Jezebel’s actions here but I think it is important to look at things from her perspective.  If any woman in the Bible gets a bad rap, it’s Jezebel.  For some reason her actions in the books of Kings are associated with sexuality which in my opinion is just bizarre.  The real threat that Jezebel represents to the writer of 1 and 2 Kings is that of gender and power.  Jezebel is queen and has a different understanding of the role of power in the empire.  Claudia Camp writes in The Women’s Bible Commentary  that

“As a Phoenician princess, Jezebel was accustomed to royal prerogative and unused to the democratic impulse in Israelite culture that regarded land as a gift given to each Israelite family by Yahweh, rather than at the behest of the king.  Thus her brutal response to Naboth’s refusal to sell his vineyard may be understood from her point of view as an appropriate royal response to insubordination, in contrast to Ahab’s unconscionable weakness as a leader.”

After the unjust death of Naboth, Ahab is sent by Jezebel out to view the vineyard that is now his, and who should meet him there but our friend, the prophet Elijah.  Ahab seems less than pleased to see Elijah standing on his new plot of land.  “Have you found me, O my enemy?” he asks him.  Elijah then launches into a God ordained tirade against the king and queen.  Because Ahab and Jezebel have perverted justice, killed an innocent man, and taken land that was not theirs to take, God will punish them severely.  Elijah declares that disaster will come upon the house of Ahab, including graphic descriptions of the deaths of Ahab, Jezebel, and their children.  In a surprising move, Ahab repents his actions, fasting in sackcloth and ashes.  Though God is touched by Ahab’s humbleness, God will not spare him the humiliating death that has been promised.

          Of all of this summer’s stories of the Old Testament God, I think this morning’s reading is the most difficult.  Here we come face to face with that God we don’t like; the Old Testament God of violence and judgment.  The violent deaths that Elijah prophesies do come to pass for Ahab and Jezebel.  In one of those stories that makes me wonder why we tell children to read the bible, we find out in the next chapter that Ahab, while hiding in a chariot, is wounded in battle when an arrow manages to pierce him between two plates in his armor.  As the battle rages on in the heat of the day, Ahab bleeds out into the chariot.  As the dead king is brought into Samaria, we read that “They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken.”

          Jezebel’s death is an equally bloody and perhaps more familiar story.  In second Kings we read that as Jehu, the divinely anointed usurper to the throne of Israel rides into town Jezebel prepares to meet him “painting her eyes, and adorning her head.”  Basically she is dressing like a queen in order to hold on to any power or authority she still has among the people.  As she looks out the window to taunt Jehu, he calls out to her servant eunuchs, who betray her and push her out of her own window.  In another R rated Bible scene we read that “they threw her down; some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, which trampled on her.  When they went to bury her they found no more than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.  “This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.”

          What bloody disgusting stories these are, and this is supposed to be the will of God.  Ugh!  Even though we can understand that Ahab and Jezebel were bad people, these are some pretty brutal deaths, and frankly I am not OK with it.  As those who have used violence to get their way, Ahab and Jezebel die violent deaths.  I suppose there is justice in it but I don’t like these stories and I have a feeling that many of you share my opinion here.

          And what is even more troubling than the glorified violence of these narratives is the fact that more often than not, we find ourselves on the side of the bad guys in these stories.  Like the people of Israel, we have turned a blind eye to the injustice in the world around us.  If we haven’t picked up the stones ourselves, we have at least watched the murder of Naboth and we have said nothing.  We have not been strong enough to speak the truth to power like Elijah does, rather we have silently stood by and watched the atrocities of abuse of power and social injustice continue in our world.  Like the people of Israel, we stand guilty of the stoning of Naboth.

          I am talking here about the current political situation.  I am talking about a congress that cares so much more about money and personal gain than the people that elected them that they can’t get anything done.  I am talking about more laws to loosen gun restrictions after Sandy Hook than laws to restrict access to weapons.  I am talking about repealing the rights of voters.  I am talking about cutting programs for the most needy in our communities, from hungry kids to hungry seniors.  I am talking about lack of access to good affordable healthcare.  I am talking about big business that pushes out the local mom and pops.  I am talking about Monsanto and Round Up and genetically modified food that may or may not be making us sick.  I am talking about fracking and mining and drilling which ruins the environment all to the tune of making more money.  I am talking about kids separated from parents just because they happened to have been born on the wrong side of a line.  I am talking about never ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan where the killing of innocent bystanders is just an unfortunate cost to war.  I am talking about the erosion of our right to privacy.  I am talking about a war on terror or a war on drugs that has no beginning and no end and yet is always a reason to be killing someone, or spying on someone, or putting someone in jail. 

I am talking about all the Jezebels and Ahabs of our world who see what they want and take it, because they can, because they are powerful enough, and because we are too weak to say anything about it.  We are too weak to speak the truth to power.  When it comes to injustice in our world, the church has been a failure in their silence.  The church has been a failure in their silence!

          We don’t like these Old Testament texts because they are bloody and awful and difficult, and most of all because they remind us of ourselves.  They remind us of the ways we have seen injustice play out, of the many Naboth’s we have seen killed, of the many vineyards we have seen plowed under, and we have done nothing.  And so we stand condemned, guilty by association.

          Now, I believe that it is my job as a preacher to find a glimmer of hope in this text for us and to do that this week I am looking back to the last sermon.  I am remembering Elijah burnt out and sad sitting on Mount Horeb.  I am remembering God telling him to get back out into the world.  The same can be true for us today.

          Yes, we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Yes, we have been complacent when faced with the atrocities of our day.  Yes, we have failed to speak the truth to power in our world.  Thankfully, we have a God who hears and answers our prayers for justice.  And though we may not long for the bloody deaths of those who abuse power, we do long for change in our world.  As the people of God, we can call for that change.  We can tell the truth about what we see happening in our world.  We can do our best to make a difference for good.  And eventually we can gird up our loins, and speak the truth to power, as we as a church are called to do.

          Who is the God of the Old Testament?  He is a jealous, brutal God, who works on behalf of the little guy and who seeks justice in the world.  The God of the Old Testament is a God who calls us, as God’s followers, to speak the truth to power.

It is my prayer for us today that we will not be like the people of Israel.  We will not silently watch the murder of Naboth and the stealing of his land and just let it happen.  No, it is my prayer that we will be like Elijah.  That we will be bold enough to speak the truth to power.  It is my prayer that this church would encourage honest open conversations about war and guns and healthcare and the rights of all people in our world.  There is still time for us to amend our ways.  There is still time for us to speak the truth to power.  May God give us the courage to do so.  Amen.

Kings of Summer: Bottoming Out

June 30^th, 2013        “Bottoming Out”      Rev. Heather Jepsen

Sermon Series: “Kings of Summer”

1 Kings 19

          As many of you know, this summer I have challenged myself to preach strictly from the Old Testament.  This sermon series, “Kings of Summer” is helping us to examine texts that we are less familiar with, as well as study more closely the God of the Old Testament who makes many of us uncomfortable.

          Over the past few weeks we have come to know the prophet Elijah.  A Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead, Elijah has been called by the Lord to speak against Ahab, king of Israel.  Ahab and his wife Jezebel have been encouraging the worship of Baal, a great offense to the jealous God YHWH.  After three years of drought in which Elijah hid outside the bounds of the country, he returned to announce to Ahab that YHWH would finally bring the rains.  Following his announcement, Elijah engineers a contest between YWHW and Baal.  YWHW wins and Elijah has all 450 of the prophets of Baal killed.

          Our reading picks up here, after rain has finally come upon the land.  Jezebel hears of Elijah’s slaughter of her prophets and so she sends a messenger his way with a threat, “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.”  Hers is an understandable position and why Elijah seems surprised to be threatened after engineering a mass murder I will never know.

          Elijah seems to come to his senses after his brash show of confidence and “zeal” for the Lord and realizes his life is in real danger.  He is afraid, and runs to hide in the far corners of the land.  He heads to Beer-sheba, the very edge of the southern kingdom of Judah and about as far away from Jezebel as he can get.  Elijah leaves his servant behind in town, wanders out into the desert, and falls asleep under a bush.  He has decided to die.  “It is enough,” he declares, but I prefer the translation “too much.”  “Too much, God!  I’ve had enough, kill me now.”

          Elijah appears to have had a sudden change of heart.  No longer the confident messenger, taunting the rival prophets of Baal and calling down fire from heaven, now Elijah is nothing more than weak and suicidal.  Perhaps he is feeling guilty for slaughtering the prophets of Baal, it’s not like God told him specifically to do that, it appears more like he got carried away in the moment.  Or perhaps he is doubting his ability to do any more for God; any servant of the Lord knows the true threat that burnout can be.  Whatever it is, Elijah declares that he is done, and he is ready to die.

          Lucky for him, that is not the will of the Lord.  Elijah falls asleep and is awakened by the touch of an angel.  Food and drink are made available to him but he soon lies down again.  A second time the angel awakens him and feeds him, encouraging him to work up his strength as he still has a long journey ahead of him. 

          Elijah gets up and for forty days and nights he travels through the wilderness to Mount Horeb, once known as Mount Sinai.  Upon arriving there he takes shelter in a cave.  It is not long before the word of the Lord comes to him.  “What are you doing here Elijah?” God asks.  Elijah then breaks out his list of complaints, “I’ve been zealous for the Lord,” he says, “but no one listens to me and I am tired of doing it by myself.”  A careful reader of 1 Kings can’t help but wonder what Elijah is talking about.  The people have been listening - did they not fall on their faces at Mount Carmel?  And he is not the only one, for Obadiah has hidden 150 prophets of the Lord in a cave.  Elijah seems to have a case of the “woe is me”s.

          God decides to lift Elijah’s spirits by passing by.  In one of the more memorable portions of the Old Testament, Elijah listens and waits for the presence of the Lord.  There is a violent wind, a great earthquake, and a rush of fire but God is not in any of these events.  Elijah waits on and finally he senses the presence of God in the “sound of sheer silence” or the “still small voice” depending on how you want to translate the Hebrew.  Sensing the presence of all that is holy, Elijah covers his face.

          After the show, God asks the same question, “What are doing here, Elijah?”  And surprisingly Elijah gives the same “woe is me” response.  “Fine”, God seems to say, “I will anoint a prophet in your place” and Elijah moves on from there to mark Elisha as the one who would follow him.

          Now, I am not sure what you think of this story but I can tell you that I am really beginning to like this sermon series, this challenge to myself, and this story about Elijah.  What I find so striking in these readings is how very human Elijah is.  First he begins his journey in hiding.  He performs miracles for the widow of Zarephath but he seems just as surprised by his power as she is, “Look! Your son is alive”. 

          He is sent to bring a message of the end of the drought, but then seems really bothered by Ahab’s statement that Elijah is the one causing trouble for Israel.  It seems that the showdown between gods was all Elijah’s idea and he becomes really puffed up with pride from the display.  Between mocking the prophets of Baal, to calling down fire from heaven, to orchestrating a mass murder, Elijah not only seems full of himself, he seems out of control.  The power of the prophet has gone to his head.

          It’s no wonder that we find him crashing back to the ground here in 1 Kings 19.  It is such a human response.  We are all capable of getting drunk with power and then pushing things one step too far.  Most of us have been in over our heads at least once in our lives.  Elijah is in too deep, he has gone too far, and now the bleep hits the fan.  Jezebel is ready to kill him and God may or may not come to his aide.

          From extreme highs to extreme lows Elijah bottoms out in depression.  He runs away and hides, ready to give up and throw in the towel.  It’s over, he’s done.  And if not for God, this is where the story would end; Elijah limps off into the sunset to drink away the rest of his life, a poor depressed mess.

          But this isn’t a story about Elijah.  It is a story about God, the God of the Old Testament.  After Elijah’s great show and after his great sin, God meets Elijah here, in his depression, in his loneliness, in his shame, and in his grief.  Elijah has bottomed out and here at bottom, he meets God.

          And God says, “What the heck is your problem man.  What are you doing here?”  And kicks him in the rear to send him back out into the world.  But first, God makes a point of showing Elijah that it’s not all about flash-bang faith.  It’s not all about fire from heaven and bringing people back to life and great shows of power.  No, it’s about quiet things, like breath, and listening, and being still.  God is not in the wind or earth or fire.  God is in your mind and heart and the sound of silence as the breath moves in and out of your lungs.  God is with you when no one else is.  God is with you when you have bottomed out. 

          As modern believers I think we can all relate to the ups and downs of Elijah’s story.  No, we haven’t raised people from the dead or called down fire, but we have been high and we have been low.  We have felt the sheer power and presence of God moving through our veins, and we have also felt totally alone and ready to die.  Who among us has not wanted to give up at some point in their lives?  Like Elijah we have all cried out, “It’s too much Lord, I quit!”

          God meets us in those low points, when we are feeling sorry for ourselves, and God sends us back out into the world.  I am reminded here of my role as a parent.  Parents of young ones know, and others here will remember that little kids are full of emotional extremes.  One minute they are laughing and having fun, and the next they are crying like it is the end of the world.  They fall off their bike and they are ready to quit.  And what does a good parent do?  A good parent listens to and acknowledges their complaint, dries their tears, dusts them off, pats their rump, and sends them back out into the world.  This is exactly what God does for Elijah.  And this is exactly what God does for us.

           Who is the God of the Old Testament?  The God of the Old Testament is one who dusts us off, pats our rumps, and sends us on our way.  Sure, life is tough, we will have high times and we will have low, and God will be with us every step of the way.  But when we are at our lowest, when things are their worst, and we sit in silence alone, then we are in the true presence of God.  When we are ready to give up, God meets us, lifts us up, and sends us back out.  Life will never be perfect, and it is as much our own fault as it is the world around us, but God will always be with us.  God will always meet us in the sheer silence, in the still small voice, and encourage us to go back out into the world, encourage us to face another day.

          The God of the Old Testament is a God who meets us when we are living on the edge and gives us just enough to keep going.  We don’t need to hedge our bets in this crazy world, because when everything quiets down, it is in the silence that we will meet the true power, the true God.  And when we are at our worst, when we are bottoming out, the God of the Old Testament, listens to our complaints, dries our tears, dusts us off, and then kicks our rumps to get back out there.  From the days of ancient Israel to the days of modern America, life is tough, but God is with us.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.