Intro: We are hearing today an excerpt from the story of the prophet Elijah
- Elijah was a wandering desert prophet in the northern Kingdom of Israel
- He lived in a time of widespread famine and drought; theme of hunger and thirst runs through his story
- But in his wandering, he had encounters where he can help others, and be helped by others.
- But he had been fed by ravens, by a starving woman in Zarephath, and in this story, he is fed by angels.
- But in today’s story, Elijah is not just wandering;
- he is running away from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who were encouraging people to worship the Canaanite fertility gods
- Elijah’s mission was to defend the power of Yahweh God
- And in his zeal, he had killed a bunch of Canaanite prophets
- So, now Queen Jezebel was plotting to kill him in revenge and he had to flee into the desert.
- But in today’s story, Elijah is not just wandering;
Scripture Readings: I Kings 19:1-16
King Ahab told his wife Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had put all the prophets of Baal to death. 2 She sent a message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don’t do the same thing to you that you did to the prophets.” 3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life; he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah.
Leaving the servant there, 4 Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die. “It’s too much, Lord,” he prayed. “Take away my life; I might as well be dead!”
5 He lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Wake up and eat.” 6 He looked around and saw a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 The Lord’s angel returned and woke him up a second time, saying, “Get up and eat, or the trip will be too much for you.” 8 Elijah got up, ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to walk forty days to Sinai, the holy mountain. 9 There he went into a cave to spend the night.
Suddenly the Lord spoke to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
10 He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me!”
11 “Go out and stand before me on top of the mountain,” the Lord said to him. Then the Lord passed by and sent a furious wind that split the hills and shattered the rocks—but the Lord was not in the wind. The wind stopped blowing, and then there was an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake there was a fire—but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the soft whisper of a voice.
13 When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
14 He answered, “Lord God Almighty, I have always served you—you alone. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed all your prophets. I am the only one left—and they are trying to kill me.”
15 The Lord said, “Return to the wilderness near Damascus, then enter the city and anoint Hazael as king of Syria; 16 anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.
Sermon
- I’ve just come back from traveling in Scotland with my husband.
- It was a wonderful trip; kind of a lark;
- We wanted to get away from work together, see some places we’d never seen
- But other than that, I didn’t really know why we were going.
- One of the scary highlights of our trip was driving on the roads, which was Charles’ job
- Not only staying on the left side of the road
- And steering from the right side of the vehicle
- But the single-track roads all over rural Scotland
- Wide enough for one car so you’re always pulling over to make room
- And so many blind curves on the mountainous roads in the Highlands and islands!
- I navigated while Charles drove; white knuckles all the way,
- But we had to learn to trust each other and work as a team!
- Over the 8 days, we got better and better at that.
- On the way home, I wondered: maybe that was the most important thing we needed to learn on this trip: how to work as a team, something we don’t do much in our everyday life.
Anyone here been doing any traveling lately? Where?
Do you ever get surprised by what you learn on a trip, about yourself or the world, or God?
- Why do people wander, go on trips?
- For curiosity: to see what’s over that hill, the need for novelty
- To learn and gain new insights
- Some wander like prophets on pilgrimage, seeking a divine voice;
- finding spiritual energy in the wilderness,
- And sometimes people travel because they’re running from something
- This is how this story is going for Elijah
- As he runs, he falls exhausted under a tree and begs God to take his life.
- He is completely spent, and wishes to die.
- He gets a little melodramatic here;
- In fact, there were other prophets hiding in caves around the region like him, waiting for the king and queen to die;
- And there were other leaders waiting in the wings to save his country from these terrible leaders.
- He may have known all that, but despair had blinded him:
- Elijah then finds himself at the mouth of a cave listening to
- a “furious wind”, an earthquake and a fire.
- Natural phenomena that remind him how small and powerless he was
- And only after that, a silence that told him God was close by.
- And finally, Yahweh God speaks and gives him direction for his next step
- his journey changes in character and direction
- He’s going back to his home country
- He is no longer running from danger
- Now he’s on a journey toward something: he has a new mission
- And once he’s back in Israel, he is to anoint two new leaders for Syria and Israel
- And he is told to anoint Elisha, his own apprentice, as the prophet who will succeed him;
- He’s paving the way for the end of his ministry and the beginning of a new era.
- And once he’s back in Israel, he is to anoint two new leaders for Syria and Israel
- As it turns out, Elijah’s journey is not just an escape;
- it was a time of self-examination, spiritual renewal, course correction.
- those two kings mentioned both went on to slay their own dragons
- and Elisha was anointed as Elijah’s successor, who went on to do his own miracles
- So going back to Israel for Elijah was just as important as leaving.
- He had to leave to find his way
- And he had to go back to finish the work he had begun.
- Elijah is one of only two people in the bible who never actually dies! (Enoch in Genesis 5 is the other one)
- Maybe because of his steadfast faithfulness, God just sends a chariot to scoop him up and carry him directly into heaven!
- Elijah’s story is all of our stories; he’s an archetype,
- not just as a desert prophet,
- but like anyone who’s ever embarked on a spiritual journey or entered a dark cave in their life
- He embodies our inclination to run away from the things that scare us
- Or to withdraw from the world in despair
- He shows us why it’s important to wander in the wilderness
- To go out seeking those who are lost and bring them compassionate aid
- Or to become vulnerable and accept help from strangers or trust God to take care of you.
- He embodies the need to leave behind the familiar and wander in foreign lands to learn about yourself or God.
- To go not with certainty, but with wonder and openness and a little fear
- AND he teaches us to go back home when it’s over.
- Going back home is not a retreat or a failure.
- The prodigal son, the patriarch Jacob, even Jesus’ disciples had to go back home to Galilee in order to fully understand what the pilgrimage was about.
- Can you think of a time when your travel became some kind of spiritual pilgrimage?
- Maybe you were going to see people you loved, or meet strangers? Or to be utterly alone? Or to encounter nature?
- Or another person who changed you?
- Or a part of yourself you needed to confront?
- What happened?
- I read yesterday about an American doctor who went on a medical mission to Gaza to work in one of the last hospitals still functioning there. He thought he was going to save lives. But when he got there, he realized there were no supplies, and the need was so great, there was very little he could do to save lives.
- Finally, he realized he had not come so much to be a physician, but to be a witness, and he started sending close up stories and photos from inside the hospital, to let people know how dire the situation is there day to day.
- He didn’t know what his pilgrimage was for until he got there.
- Wherever God leads you this summer, whether you go there to escape trouble, or you’re drawn away for spiritual rest, or need new direction, don’t be afraid to go.
- Don’t just go to escape something that scares you
- Try to find what it is that’s calling you forward
- Get out of your comfort zone;
- even if it’s just to a new neighborhood or meeting new people,
- or to accept the help and company of strangers.
- Be ready and open to learning, being comforted and challenged by a spiritual quest, wherever God sends you.
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