Loading...Elijah is a prophet who is faithful to God.
Yet, he sure does seem to annoy everyone else!
If we go back into First Kings a couple of chapters from where our text is today (the middle of 1 Kings 19), we can see just how Elijah got to this place with this message from God.
First of all, there’s a drought in the land.
God tells Elijah to go to King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and tell them that it’s all their fault that there is a drought because they are not faithful to Yahweh God (rather, they worship Baal, the Canaanite god) and they’re leading the Israelites astray.
Ahab and Jezebel are not pleased, but Elijah says that he can prove it. “Let’s have a ‘Battle of the Altars’ – you and your prophets build an altar to Baal and I’ll build one to God (Yahweh). We’ll each pray for our god to rain down fire on the altar to prove that our god IS. Elijah and Yahweh clearly win the battle.
Elijah reacts by killing all of the “false prophets” and Queen Jezebel calls for the death of Elijah.
Elijah gets scared and runs away. He hides in a dry riverbed (a wadi). But God comes to him in the wadi and tells him to go up to the holy mountain.
At the holy mountain there is a great wind, but God is not in the wind; there is an earthquake, but God is not in the earthquake; there is fire, but God is not in the fire. Then there is the sound of sheer silence; God is present here. And, God speaks to Elijah.
The message is our assigned text for this day – the one about going back to the place where Elijah’s life was in danger and then make things worse by anointing a new king (Hazael) for one part of the kingdom and another king (Jehu) for another part of the kingdom. There will be a bloody battle, but a remnant of Israel will remain. By the way, Elijah, you will also anoint your successor; you will not be the prophet of God anymore. Anoint Elisha as the next prophet.
(You can read all of this story in 1 Kings, chapters 18 and 19.)
Before we get started talking about Elisha, let’s give Elijah his due:
He’s a prophet, but he’s also human.
He does some spectacular things in God’s name –
he feeds 100 people miraculously,
a jar of oil and a jar of grain last for days in the midst of a drought,
he raises a widow’s son from the dead,
and, as noted above, he proves that Yahwah IS God with the altar –
yet Elijah has his own doubts and lack of confidence.
He loses focus and he runs away when he feels threatened.
Following God faithfully is not easy.
Challenges push us off the path;
someone says something discouraging;
we get angry and our nose gets out of joint;
a program or outreach activity that we’ve worked on falls flat...
and it seems easier to just ... stop, or, like Elijah, hide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve been with lots of churches as their interim pastor.
After some time getting to know a community a little bit,
I will suggest a ministry idea:
-- inviting the neighbors in apartment building across the street to worship or events (Eeek! Evangelism!);
-- restarting VBS, but maybe this time with a different schedule, or collaboratively;
-- or, maybe some sort of intergenerational learning opportunity.
“Oh no, Pastor, we tried that and it didn’t work.”
“We’ve never done it that way before.”
“We’re all so busy! There’s no one left to volunteer for anything else.”
This reminds me of the day that Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him.
He was going to Jerusalem.
He’d set his face toward Jerusalem –
not just the city, but what he was going to do there.
Jesus had a purpose and nothing was going to deter him.
But, in order to get to Jerusalem, they needed to go through the region of Samaria. I won’t go into all the details now, but Jews and Samaritans did NOT get along even though they were family. There’d been a long time argument and, not unlike the Hatfields and McCoys, they just couldn’t not argue.
The Samaritans in the towns and villages that the disciples went to rejected the disciples. They weren’t welcomed; they were kicked out of town.
So James and John asked Jesus: “Shall we rain down fire upon these Samaritans?”
NO!
Nothing is going to deter Jesus from his purpose. Definitely not destroying people and a community!
Jesus is all about focus, priority, and sacrifice.
The three little interactions that follow the rejection by the Samaritans tell us that following Jesus also takes focus, priority, and sacrifice. By us, the followers.
• There is no security, at least not in a worldly sense: “foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head.”
• You must reorder your priorities: it’s not that family is unimportant, but sharing the good news of grace, welcome, and the hope of God is more important.
• Focus, focus, focus: Put your hand to the plow, but don’t look aside or you’ll find your row is crooked. Kind of like when you are driving your car, if you look aside, dollars to donuts your car will also drift off to where you’re looking! As followers we must stay focused on God’s work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Folowing Jesus is not easy.
It’s not a “one and done” proposition (you make the decision once and then you’re in, never having to think about it again);
it is not something you get to finally when everything else is finished;
it is not what you give up as soon as there is some resistance of push-back.
(And by following Jesus, I’m not talking about church attendance, per se. Being part of the community in worship, learning, and service is integral to a life of following Jesus, but it’s not the whole. Following Jesus is an every day way of life.)
Following Jesus takes your whole life:
• priorities are reordered -- You are God-centered; everything flows from God’s love for the world and for you;
• sense of security – this comes now from God’s claim on you not from money, power, status, house, car, etc.;
• focus – recognizing and sharing God’s grace and hope for the world in every decision, every interaction, every deed, every word.
Now, I don’t know about y’all,
but I cannot do that.
I cannot do that all of the time, everyday.
Yes, I’d like to! My goal is to be that way.
But, uh, no. Whoops.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
I find myself a lot like Elijah –
sometimes really getting into a groove!
And other times failing spectacularly.
(“Run away! Run away! Hide in a place where no one can find me!”)
I feel for Elijah then when he’s told that he gets to anoint his successor Elisha who will actually see through the things that Elijah announces. I suspect he was both glad to be relieved of this duty, and also disappointed to not be around to see what happened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
God’s work in the world
to reconcile brokenness,
bring healing and wholeness,
love and welcome everyone,
and give hope and life to those who feel lost and lifeless
goes on in and through you and I
despite dropping the ball, turning away, getting sidetracked,
or “not keeping your hand on the plow.”
God’s love for the world includes Elijah, the disciples, you and I
as well as the folks we’re trying to connect with
even when we lose focus, get our priorities mixed up, or get distracted,
because God does not give up,
because God’s grace is persistent,
because God so loves the world.
And no matter what happens,
we live in this good news! Amen
