June
9th, 2013 “Living on the Edge” Rev. Heather Jepsen
Sermon
Series: “Kings of Summer”
1
Kings 17 with Psalm 146
As a preacher, I like to challenge
myself during the summer months. This is
a time to experiment a bit, try something new and different, and attempt to
hold your interest here in worship week after week when the weather outside
beckons us so strongly away. This summer
I am giving myself a daunting task; preaching strictly from the Old
Testament. This summer sermon series is
called “Kings of Summer”; first of all because that sounds cool, and second
because all of our readings will come from 1st and 2nd
Kings.
Like modern believers, modern
preachers tend to avoid the Old Testament.
The stories are foreign, strange, and just old. We don’t get any of the easy to relate to
Jesus stuff and we often find confusing statements about God. I can’t tell you how many people have told me
they don’t like or don’t believe in the God of the Old Testament. Too mean, too judgmental, too harsh, too
cruel; “that’s not my God” they say, “I prefer the loving God of the New
Testament.”
Of course, we both know that these stories,
of the Old and New Testaments, are about the same God. They are just written by different people in
different times. It is my hope that by
making a concentrated effort to go where we don’t want to go, to study the Old
Testament together, we will have the opportunity to learn a bit more about this
Old Testament God and his people. And
perhaps we may also learn a little bit more about ourselves.
We begin today with the story of
Elijah. Elijah is a Tishbite from Gilead
and the Lord has called him to be a prophet.
This is the time of Kings. The
people of Israel wanted to be like the other nations around them so they asked
God to give them a king. First there was
Saul, next David and Solomon, and then the kingdom began to fall apart. The nation of Israel is split, and there were
now two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. A series of Kings move through both thrones,
most of them worse than the fellow who came before.
In the time of Elijah, Ahab sits on
the throne in the northern kingdom of Israel.
We read in 1 Kings 16 that Ahab takes Jezebel, the daughter of the Sidonian
king to be his wife. A worshipper of
Baal, she converts Ahab and the two begin to erect altars for Baal in Israel. The writer of 1 Kings tells us that “Ahab did
more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the
kings of Israel who were before him.” Not
a good guy.
Here our reading begins and Elijah
enters the scene. God sends him to Ahab
to proclaim that there will be a drought in the land. This is to show the power of the God of
Israel. Baal was considered the storm
god and was responsible for bringing water to the land. If the God of Israel can cause a drought,
then the God of Israel is stronger than Baal.
Elijah is then sent out into the
wilderness, probably hiding from Ahab who would likely kill him. Elijah is hanging out by a stream and is fed
by wild birds. Ravens, to be exact,
which are unclean animals in the ancient Jewish world view. But of course, the drought comes, and Elijah
is as susceptible to it as Ahab. Without
water he is forced to leave the wilderness and seek aide.
God leads Elijah to Zarephath in the
land of Sidon. This is outside the
boundaries of Israel and in the heart of the land of worship of Baal. This is Jezebel’s home turf. Elijah shows up and spots a widow outside
town. He asks her to bring him water and
food, and she says no, she has no food to give.
Only a small bit left for her and her son. Elijah tells her to do it anyway, God will
take care of the rest, and so she does.
A small meal for Elijah and magically there are provisions left for her
and her son as well. In fact, as long as
Elijah stays in her house, the oil and meal jar never empty.
But of course, this is not the only
hardship the family faces. The widow’s
son becomes ill and dies and she wonders “what have I done to deserve
this?” She accuses Elijah of bringing a
curse upon her but he takes the child upstairs and hopes to perform a
miracle. Elijah questions God, “why
would you do this?” he asks. Then he
pleads for the boy’s life and stretches himself out over the child’s body. The Lord hears and answers Elijah’s prayer
and life is returned to the child. Now
the woman is convinced, Elijah is a prophet of God and “the word of the Lord in
(his) mouth is true.”
Now you are probably thinking that
this is an interesting story, but wondering what exactly it has to do with your
life. Well, the purpose of this story
for the writer of 1st Kings is to show that Elijah is a true
prophet. The feeding by wild animals,
the miracle of the meal and oil, and the restoration of the child’s life are
all signs of a prophet. These events
confirm for the nation of Israel, and for Elijah himself, that God has called
and sent him on a mission.
These marks of the prophet are also a
way for us to see who God is. Who is the
God of the Old Testament? God is one who
will not tolerate worship of others.
Ahab is leading the people of Israel astray and God will not have
that. But rather than send a huge wave
of punishment or a vast army, God sends a messenger, a simple man, Elijah. And right now, Elijah is easy to ignore.
Who is the God of the Old
Testament? God is one who sends folks
out into the wilderness. Elijah is sent
to a creek to wait and hide. He is cared
for, but meagerly. Bread and meat from
ravens, and whatever water runs in the stream.
The God of the Old Testament is one
who sees no boundaries. Elijah is sent
outside the bounds of Israel to wait and to be cared for. He is sent outside of Israel to perform him
miracles. Even Jesus of Nazareth remarks
that when there were plenty of widows suffering through the drought in Israel,
Elijah is sent to Sidon and Zarephath.
Who is the God of the Old
Testament? God is one who cares for the
weak. The widow has nothing and is
prepared to die. I think that’s why she
was willing to give her last meal to Elijah.
She was already scraping bottom and had nothing to lose. She was prepared to die anyway, and so it was
worth the gamble that Elijah was who he said he was.
The God of the Old Testament is also one
who hears and answers prayers. God hears
the prayers of Elijah and brings life back to the child. God shows mercy, though the woman had to
experience the death of her child in the process.
What I find in this story today; is
that the God of the Old Testament is a God who meets us when we are living on
the edge. In following the call to be a
prophet, Elijah is living on the edge. His
life is in danger for speaking against Ahab.
Elijah is literally pushed to the edge of existence as he is sent into
the wilderness with little comfort and meager food. No special treatment, the water runs dry for
him just like everybody else.
The widow of Zarephath is also living
on the edge. She has lost her spouse,
the father of her child, and she has lost her source of income. She has nothing and is preparing herself to
die. When she meets Elijah and gives him
her last cake, she is gifted with the miracle of the unending meal and oil. But we need to remind ourselves, it’s not a
lot. It’s just enough to keep the
household alive. God is with them, but
they aren’t eating steak and potatoes.
No, they are still just eating little meal cakes, like most folks around
them. God gives them just enough to keep
them living on the edge.
The child dies, and is brought
back. The mother is on the edge of
sanity with her grief. And Elijah is
pushed to the edge of his faith, “Why would you let this happen God?” No easy answers in that part of the story.
The God of the Old Testament is a God
who meets people who are living on the edge.
And God doesn’t necessarily pluck them off the edge. Instead, God seems to grant the faithful just
enough to keep them going, just enough to keep them alive.
In our reading from the Psalms, we
find that God is the one who looks out for those whom the world would rather
forget. God looks out for those living
on the edge. The kings of this earth do
not care for people, but the God of Israel does. This God gives justice for the oppressed,
food for the hungry, sets prisoners free, opens eyes of the blind, lifts up
those bowed down, watches over strangers, and upholds orphans and widows. This God gives those living on the edge just
enough hope to keep going.
I think in our American culture, we
have a hard time with just enough. We
want God to give us more than enough.
That’s why preachers like Joel Osteen are so popular. We want to hear that God will bless us with
wealth beyond our imaginations. We want
to live in opulent comfort. We want to
get as far away from the edge as possible.
Unfortunately we don’t find that God in these stories. We find a God who keeps and cares for us, but
not in really extravagant ways. We find
a God who meets us and lives with us on the edge.
Today we gather at the communion
table. This is a place for people who
are on the edge to gather. This is a
place to meet God on the edge and to receive just enough.
Some of us in this worshipping
community are on the edge financially, we are struggling to pay the bills this
month, and worried that the money won’t stretch far enough. We are afraid that if our kids get ill, there
will not be enough money for the doctor bills and the medication, and there
will not be an Elijah to save the day.
Some of us here are living on the
edge in other ways. We are unhappy in
our marriage, but we just keep moving forward.
We are struggling with great guilt, but we keep burying the past. We are harboring grief, and cannot raise our
heads to meet the sun. We are barely
making it, in jobs that are driving us insane.
I would imagine that most of us here, if not all of us, are living on
the edge in some way, shape, or form.
The God of the Old Testament, our
God, is a God who lives on the edge with us.
God meets us at the Wadi Cherith and gives us just enough water for
another day, God meets us in our hunger and gives us just enough oil and meal
for tomorrow, God meets us in extreme crises and brings new life. God came all the way to the edge when God
came to Golgotha, the edge of Jerusalem, and Jesus died alone on a cross.
We gather at this table to meet
God. We gather at this table to be
fed. Like the meal and oil, the bread
and juice here do not run dry. There is
just enough to feed all of us this morning.
There is just enough to sustain us for another day. The challenge for us in our modern American
culture is to realize that just enough is the right amount for us. We don’t need to stockpile this, rather,
there is enough here for each of us today.
And what is here, this juice and
bread, this body and blood, this table on the edge, what is here will feed you
in body and soul. What is here is just
enough for you to know that God is with you; living on the edge. Amen.
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