Elijah, Jezebel, and us

We can picture the 400 prophets of Baal gathering at its wind-swept crest 2,800 years ago, dancing and calling for the storm-god Baal to send lightning down upon their sacrifice... and nothing happening.

And then we remember Elijah's prayer to the Lord God,and lightning strikes his water-soaked altar and sacrifice.

What a victory!

But the celebration is short-lived, because Queen Jezebel vows revenge and puts out a contract on Elijah, and he flees for his life from Mt. Carmel in the north to BeerSheba in the south, at the edge of the desert, where he is fed by the ravens and then travels 40 days more to Mt Horeb, the mountain of God.

He thought he had done all that God wanted him to do and should have been rewarded for his faithfulness.

He was apparently shocked and frightened by the reaction of the queen and her minions.

He shouldn't have been surprised:

for one victory does not change the hearts and minds of everyone, least of all the person with the political power.

So it is a vocational crisis for Elijah;

what next should he be doing?

On that mountain all that one can see in any direction is jagged rock.

God seeks him out in his cave among the rocks in that remote place,

and in the sheer silence of that vast place, speaks:

“You thought you were done, Elijah, but you have just begun.

You thought you had used all of your skill, but I'm giving you much more to do than you ever imagined.

You thought you were alone, but I'm giving you a student/companion, Elisha, and also letting you know that there are 7,000 in Israel who don't go along with Jezebel.”

The tension in the story is between whether Elijah will be defined by his fear of Jezebel or by his faithfulness to God.

God's question to Elijah is in essence, “How can you fulfill my purpose if you are not where I need you to be?”

And do these same questions fit us?

We can point to years of work on behalf of the kingdom of God.

We've done this and that,...maybe not calling down lightning from heaven, but still there are lots of good things that we have accomplished.

Has fear frozen our hearts and minds at this point, as individuals, or as the gathered body of Christ in this place?

Not long ago I was talking with a person who has been facing some serious personal problems and who has been engaging in professional counseling.

This person said,

“The counseling has been helpful in many ways.

It has helped me to understand the problems and to organize my reactions to them.

But now there comes the time when I have to stop just talking about them and do something about them, and then things will change.

This person had worked through the “everybody hates me”

“the world owes me something” stages, and was now ready to look for what new gifts God was ready to send to him/her, and what new paths might be opening.

There's a chance that person's life may take on new vitality in the doing of those things.

Elijah was called back to action, to the fight into which God had enlisted him, not because he feels like it but because it is what needs to be done that he can do.

He had temporarily lost his vocational identity...but it was only temporary.

There was much to do!

Just as there is much for us as well.

We can't even predict what all of those things might be.

First we open our ears and hearts to the Word.

We stop and listen carefully.

If we aren't hearing anything, it might be because we are still worrying too much about ourselves and our rights and prerogatives and how the world is mistreating us, and the worry is covering the voice of God that speaks in the midst of silence.

When Elijah was deep in the cave and sulking, he heard nothing.

When he came to the mouth of the cave, to the vast wilderness presence of the Lord, with ears and heart ready to hear, then he was commissioned anew.

And we have many tools to help us discern the voice of the Lord: first of all...scripture study, and then also corporate prayer, individual meditation, holy communion, mutual conversation and consolation, confession and absolution, contemplation of icons, art, music, poetry, hymnody, the lives and writings of the saints....

Here's what we sang:

Stumbling and blind, we strive to do your will,

Trusting the word you surely will fulfill,

That all are yours, however far they roam,

That love shall triumph, and your kingdom come.

[LBW 376.2]

Will we be controlled by the Jezebels we fear, or enlivened by the Lord God who has still more for each of us to do?

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.