4 Pentecost (Proper 7-C)
Scripture Lessons: (1 Kings 19:1-15a Galatians 3:23-29 Luke 8:26-39)
As I read the news and listen to people in different congregations every week, I keep hearing fear and discouragement. People fear loosing jobs, fear what will happen to the economy and their retirement savings, fear what will happen with the oil spill, fear what might happen to their health and their families. Congregations both small and large have fears about what the future will hold for them. Often fear drags people into an attitude of constant discouragement.
What might God want to say to us when we become fearful and discouraged? God gives us some helpful guidance in today’s first reading.
Elijah had many legitimate reasons to be afraid and discouraged. The queen had just sent a message to Elijah saying, “I’m going to have you killed in the next twenty-four hours.” Of course Elijah was afraid, so he immediately ran for his life to escape from the death threat. After a couple of days of running, he came to a wilderness place and collapsed under the shade of a tree. Then Elijah began to talk with God. “I give up God. I’ve had enough of this. Just let me die.” Elijah’s prayer of discouragement reminds us that God welcomes all our prayers, even when we tell him our deepest and darkest feelings about our lives, about our church, about our nation and world.
After his prayer of discouragement, Elijah fell asleep. Eventually, God sent an angel to wake Elijah up so he could be nourished by the food and water God provided. What a wonderful reminder: when we are afraid, exhausted, and tempted to give up, God will always send angels to nourish us, to encourage us, to sustain us. Then Elijah fell asleep again. He really was exhausted. Eventually, God sent an angel to wake him up again and nourish him. This time the angel said, “You will need this nourishment for the journey ahead of you.”
God did not let Elijah stay in his discouragement. God called him to act, to get up and move, to follow God’s guidance. God guided Elijah on a forty-day journey, retracing of the steps the people of Israel had taken back through the wilderness they had wandered in for forty years, back to Mt. Horeb, also known as Mt Sinai, where Moses had heard God speak to the burning bush. This was the same mountain God called Moses to climb, and during his forty days there, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.
God guided Elijah to return to the holy place of God’s original call. When you and I get afraid, when we are exhausted and discouraged, God often calls us to return to our spiritual roots, return to our deep sense of God’s purpose for our lives. We return to ask: “God, What is your invitation to me in my current situation?” In this case, it was God who asked the question, not Elijah. God asked, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” God might ask us the same question this morning, “What are you doing here, really?”
Elijah told God how hard he had worked for God over the years and how the formerly religious population had stopped following God’s ways, and were now pursing self-centered greed and pleasure. Now the majority were harassing people who tried to follow God’s way. “In fact, they are trying to kill me,” Elijah said, “I’m the only one left who is trying to follow you.” Elijah was having a pity party. He was whining to God and exaggerating how bad things were.
Notice God did not argue with Elijah. God simply said, “Go out of the cave and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Elijah did not need explanations. Elijah needed to have his perspective changed, because Elijah looked at things as if he was the center of the universe and everything revolved around him and his life. So God invited Elijah to get up from his pity party and be aware of how great and how present God was. You and I often need to hear God invite us to let go of our self-centered view of our lives so we can see that God is the center of the universe. We find our true perspective by letting God show us how great God is and how small our concerns are by comparison.
God sent powerful, hurricane force winds so strong that they split the rocks of the mountain in pieces but God was not in that display of power. God sent an earthquake, shaking and destroying things on the mountain. But God was not in the earthquake. Then there was a blazing hot fire, but God was not in the fire. Elijah did not hear God speak to him in the dramatic, powerful, earth-shaking events. He saw the raw power of God and continued to be afraid, continued to hide in the cave.
Then Elijah heard God speak in a “gentle and quiet whisper”, in a “still small voice”, the “sound of sheer silence”. Sometimes our lives have to be shaken up before we can be aware of God’s gentle, quiet presence with us. Our minds can be so filled with noise, anxiety, rushing to get the next thing done, that we forget how great and powerful God actually is. We forget that God is gently, quietly with us, whispering guidance to us constantly, telling us we can trust God, we don’t need to be afraid.
After the powerful shaking events and the gentle whisper, God again asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?” Amazingly, Elijah repeated the same whining response to God. You’d think that after seeing the dramatic display of God’s power shaking the mountain, after hearing God’s gentle whisper, that Elijah would have a different perspective. But, Elijah was still stuck in his pity party, wallowing in how hard and unfair his life was. Sometimes, no matter how hard God works to help us be aware of his powerful, loving presence guiding our lives, you and I stay stuck in our self-focused, pity party attitude.
But God did not give up on Elijah. God gave Elijah an assignment. “Go, do what I tell you - return to Damascus.” In the verses that follow, God told Elijah to anoint two people to be new kings and to anoint Elisha to be a prophet in Elijah place. Then God said, “And by the way, Elijah, you are not alone. There are still 7,000 faithful followers of God in Israel.”
Then Elijah did what God told him to do. And the next chapter of the history of Israel was dramatically changed, because Elijah followed through and did what God guided him to do.
When you and I find ourselves being anxious and fearful, when we are discouraged and exhausted and don’t have much hope for the future…God invites us to return to this story of Elijah. Do you see the practical guidance God give us through this story?
First, like Elijah, we can bring all our fears, all our discouragement to God and say exactly what we feel, even if we exaggerate our situation, even if we are wallowing in a self-pity party. God wants us to open our hearts to him. Second, we need to know that God always sends angels to nourish us in our difficult times. The problem is, we may be asleep, we may be distracted, we may be too busy to recognize the angels and the nourishment God sends us. There is a spiritual practice that can help us be aware of the angels, the daily nourishment God keeps sending to us. At the end of each day, it is very helpful to sit in silence with God, take a deep breath and ask: “God, help me to be aware of the way you sent help to me today.” Then we can ask, “What am I most thankful for today?” This little practice can help us be aware, every day, of God’s angels, God’s nourishment sent to strengthen and encourage us.
Another important spiritual practice from Elijah is to remember all the ways God has worked for good in our lives and in the lives of his people down through history. We remember that God is the center of the universe, not our little concerns. One spiritual practice that helps us be aware of the greatness of God is the habit of reading from the Bible every day, in our homes. The Bible, especially the Psalms, remind us of the greatness of God in the middle of the challenges people have faced in every generation.
Elijah also reminds us that we need to take time to listen to God’s whisper in silence. Prayer is not just taking to God. Prayer is also listening to God. Often I write a prayer in the morning, telling God what I want from him that day. Then I pause and ask, “What do you want from me today, Lord?” Then I listen to hear what God’s Spirit might whisper to me in the silence. One of the most important spiritual practices for your personal life and for your future as a congregation is your daily prayer and your prayer when you are together. As you make time to listen to God more deeply, God will guide you in ways you can’t begin to imagine.
Finally, for Elijah, prayer led to action. Every day, we need to act on what we know God wants us to do that day. Like Elijah, all of us can get stuck in pity parties. But as we act on what God says to us, God can bring a new beginning, a new chapter of life through us.
Let’s close our eyes and be still in God’s presence for a moment. Be aware of God’s love for you right now.
What changes might God be inviting you to make in your life this week from this story of Elijah? Is there a different way God might be inviting you to pray, including sharing your fears with God, taking time in silence to listen to God and to Scripture each day? What action might God be inviting you to take this week so you can follow the guidance of God in your life?