Blaiklock, an Emeritus Classics Prof.
of the University of Auckland wrote, “It was loneliness that
broke Elijah. No one prayed with him. He
was convinced that, after all he had done, suffered, and accomplished, there
was no one with him. He was alone,
abandoned, and for all his triumph, beaten.”
We come to church this morning -coffee
in hand- and perhaps feel the same way, either because we have not had our full
cup of coffee, or it is current life circumstance that no amount of coffee can
fix it.
I feel for Elijah. Remembered in
sacred text as the wile-ly miracle producing prophet, full of courage and
faithfulness, he dared to speak the truth and act with conviction. At his time his people were living two lives:
one foot in the religious rites of the covenant with God –as Hebrew people,
Israelites; and the other in the culture and festivals of the other god Ba’al.
They were trying to gain the will and favour of both parties… and this dual
allegiance was bringing them to ruin. All one had to do was open their eyes to see
King Ahaz being swept away by his confident Ba’al following wife Jezebel, to
whom he would acquiesce on all sorts of religious and political matters.
Ahaz blamed Elijah for the long term
drought that was over the land, as he was considered a trouble maker; Elijah
said it was Ahaz because he turned from the Lord and was corrupting the land.
Elijah had had enough – regular words
and prophetic vigour were not enough to speak to the heart of the King or the
priests – so he orchestrated a demonstration.
The prophets of Ba’al are instructed to build an altar and prepare a
sacrifice and order Ba’al (if the god really had power) to light the pyre. So they did, and danced, and prayed, and cut
themselves, and danced, and prayed, and thrashed around all day- and no fire
came to light their altar. Elijah (by
himself) had built an altar too –with prayers as he worked-; he prepared a
sacrifice, and dug a trench around the altar.
He asked for water to be poured over the whole works, flooding it, with
water filling the trench. He had more
water dumped on the pyre. And then a
third time – more water. Elijah prayed
to the Lord – and fire rained down to consume the offering, the wood, the
stone, the dust; it even licked up all the water in the trench.
Elijah’s God had won!
The prophets of Ba’al lost their lives
that day, which infuriated Jezebel – so Jezebel threaten Elijah’s life.
This morning’s reading of Elijah
follows this episode. Elijah has taken
off to the desert --- to hide and to quit.
Do you ever feel like running away,
hiding, or quitting?
What I appreciate about the story of
Elijah, is that we get a “bigger-than-life” figure (one surely full of God’s
spirit), in essence having a nervous breakdown. And the Bible records it – I’ll
be in a snarky humorous-ridden tale that has Elijah looking like a sop; sulking
under a broom tree, having overcome “evil” and yet feeling helpless, and wanting
to die.
Elijah’s spirit, however, is not
taking him to the desert to die – deep down his instincts take him to find
God. He goes into the desert toward the
Mountain of God, Mount Sinai – the old traditional holy place.
And it is here, at the point of
desperation, melt down, a final exhaustion at the end of an episode full of
adrenalin and anxiety – that Elijah is ministered to through a simple ministry
of kindliness and love – the angel or messenger from God, comes with a touch, a
cake, and water; and additional encouragement to get up and eat. This simple
act of God’s messenger brings healing to Elijah.
After regaining some strength God
speaks with Elijah and Elijah finds out that he is not the ONLY person
in Israel who has remained faithful to the covenant – there are others like
him.
And he also learns that this is not
the end of being courageous and faithful, there are bigger things yet to come.
In
an article from the, America: National Catholic Review, writer Valerie Schultz and Msgr. Robert
McNamara provide the “Top 10
Reasons to Stay Catholic.” After reading the whole article, the number 1
reason to stay, or the number one reason people do stay is:
“We are fed by the Eucharist,
the Body and Blood of Jesus. When all is said and done, no matter
how deeply the human face of the church may disappoint us, we believe
passionately in the power of the Eucharist that nourishes us each time we
receive it. Steeped in incarnate mystery, we know how to sustain ourselves in faith.”
Is
it “food” that compels you to come here on Sunday morning? To come, and with others acknowledge that we
often do feel alone in the world – rejected, depressed, anxious, helpless,
fighting through nervous breakdown-; and that during the week we try to live in
two worlds; that of being courageous and faithful, turned towards God, and the
other foot navigating the values and perils within our culture and society. On
Sundays we flee to a holy place, where others, through simple kindliness and
love will exhibit care; perhaps a touch --- and we come to share bread. The power of the bread is that it fills us
with a mystery bigger than ourselves and instills in us that we are not alone. The bread feeds us to set our hearts once
again to listen for God’s voice, for the Spirit’s nudging, in the deserts of
life – to get up and eat, so that we can be messengers of kindliness and love
particularly to the broken hearted, the nervous wrecks, and people like us who
need at times more than coffee to face the pains and struggles of any given
day.
This week I learned
about a courageous and faithful Lutheran whom I had never heard about. In light of Elijah’s story, I wonder if this
Lutheran felt alone and discouraged. His
story is like that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, minus having friends and support
from places outside of Germany. I wonder
if he even knew of Bonhoeffer – or if he felt he was the only prophet left.
Kaj (KYE)
Munk “was a Danish
Lutheran pastor and playwright. He was
an outspoken critic of the Nazis, who occupied Denmark during WWII. His plays frequently highlighted the eventual
victory of the Christian faith despite the church’s weak and ineffective
witness [against the perils of the time]. The Nazis feared Munk because his
sermons and articles helped to strengthen the Danish resistance movement. He
was executed by the Gestapo on January 5, 1944.” –Sundays and Seasons, Augs.Fortress
Courage
and faithfulness amidst the dual worlds in which we live. Is it possible to survive the nervous
break-down, the feeling of being alone, and the wanting to curl up under a
broom tree and sulk? Yes. It is. Elijah survives because a messenger offered
kindliness and love through words of encouragement, a touch, bread and water.
Perhaps this week you will be that messenger for someone curled up under a
broom tree. Or perhaps you will be the
one touched and assured that you are not alone.
But, knowing that there is life after
the desert – for after the desert, Elijah anoints two new kings, performs more
miracles, sees the end of Jezebel, and is swept up in a chariot of fire – is
this not an incentive and push to live into covenant, to be faithful to our
convictions; to speak out when justice is perversed, when government runs amok,
when the poor are forgotten, when values are trampled upon, when goodness is
overrun by conceit, vengeance, and apathy.
Can we as a community fed here on Sunday morning, get up tomorrow, drink
our coffees and go out with a voice (even if we feel alone) to tackle and
confront face to face the ills around us?
Knowing that, even if God prevails in a huge way – like fire coming from
the skies – we may feel exhausted afterward, depressed, and ready to quit. Yes.
We can. Because there is more food here. Lots more food. And there are many
messengers –including us at times- to bring kindliness and love to those in the
desert.
This morning, we close with a prayer
of Pr. Kaj Munk. Ingest these words into
your heart as food and sustenance - as a
call to action through courage and faithfulness- kindliness and love, for the
coming week:
O Holy
Spirit, wipe the tears away from my eyes so that I can see the Savior, see Him
so clearly that I can speak of Him to my people in these fateful times. Do your
great work in our hearts in this degraded age so that Jesus may be a light to
us. Then nothing can subdue us and our eyes are blessed. With the spring of joy
bubbling from the heart, each one in the church and those among our people who
have eyes with which to see, shall learn of the calm and noble Jesus, where to
say no and where to say yes, and how we are to live our lives and do our work
so that it may help our neighbor and our country. Amen
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