1 Kings 19:1-18; Luke 8:26-39
June 20, 2010
I have to admit, I think Elijah is daunting. The stories about his life and work are extraordinary and surely, I tell myself, exaggerated if not entirely made up. He takes on the most powerful people of his day, challenging oppressive systems, endangering his life by speaking truth to power. And then there are things like defeating thousands of worshippers of the god Baal by himself in one moment up on a mountain top. He brings rain after years of drought just by saying the word. He raises people from the dead. In terms of trying to put myself in the biblical stories in order to learn how to be more faithful, I’m reluctant to place myself in Elijah’s shoes, to say the least.
Elijah was a prophet who lived over 800 years before Jesus. This was after the reigns of King David and King Solomon – in other words, after the glory days of the united kingdom. What had been one, grand Jewish nation was now two: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The books of First and Second Kings tell the “royal history” of these two nations. They trace the ups and downs of the kings all the way from the death of David in 962 to the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 587, when the people were driven into exile.
But these books are not just an historical account of things. They doesn’t even remotely pretend to be. These books are meant to be a commentary on history. The authors are evaluating all of the kings from a very particular perspective. All of the kings – and often the queens – are evaluated based on whether or not they embrace the principles of the Torah in their governing. Or put another way, they are evaluated based on their loyalty or disloyalty to Yahweh – the God who brought the people out of slavery in Egypt into their promised land.
Elijah is an agent of this evaluation during his life time. A large part of his job description is to condemn the current administration of Israel in the North – King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. They have not passed the test of Yahweh loyalty. They had chosen a way of life, a way of governing, that defied the covenant God made with God’s people. Last week, when Pat preached, you heard a prime example of this in the story of Naboth’s vineyard. We learned they valued power over others, taking what was not theirs for political and economic gain, ignoring the needs of the poor, and pillaging the land as if they could do whatever they wanted. And Elijah was the lucky messenger who not only told them they were doing things wrong, he predicted their demise because of how they were treating the people for whom they were responsible. He basically announced a Yahweh-led coup.
Our passage begins with a death threat because of this treasonous act of Elijah’s. Jezebel, the action oriented one of the royal couple, promises that she will have Elijah killed, and so he flees, heading south to get as far away from Ahab and Jezebel’s reach as he can. When he comes to the vast wilderness in Judah, the southern kingdom, he realizes the desperate situation in which he finds himself, and so he falls into a deep depression. He has no food, no water, no resolve left, and no one to lean on. He is so desperate that even though he had been fleeing the death threat from Jezebel, he prays to God that he might die.
Like I said, it all feels so dramatic. It feels otherworldly enough that we are tempted to think these are stories for different people in a different time. Prophets were only for the days of old. But what if we gave it a shot anyway? What if we tried to see ourselves as the Elijah’s of today? What would our lives look like? Let’s just try to imagine it for a few minutes here this morning.
We know Elijah demanded complete loyalty to Yahweh – to the ways of the Torah. This includes things like caring for the widow and orphan, welcoming the stranger, keeping Sabbath and eradicating poverty – things that were apparently as difficult then as they are now. If we’re honest with ourselves, our country, our world for that matter, would probably not get a good grade from Elijah based on how well we live out, or rather don’t live out, the principles of the Torah.
In his book, “Journey to the Common Good,” Walter Brueggemann lists some of the most salient points of the torah way of life – especially in terms of economics:
• Debts owed by the poor are to be canceled after seven years, so that there is no permanent underclass.
• No interest is to be charged on loans to members of the community
• No collateral is to be required on loans made to poor people.
• No injustice toward a resident alien or an orphan.
• The economy is to make regular provision for the needy and the marginalized:
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses – another great prophet – is speaking as God’s intermediary, laying out the commandments. He says, “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan and the widow. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”
If we were Elijah, what would God be calling us to say to our present world, our present administration, our present rulers, bankers and CEOs? Where are our un-stripped fields and un-harvested portions? Where are the grapes that we have not gleaned for profit so enough would be left for the poor? Where are the loans without interest? And exactly what person, bank, or nation cancels debt every seven years?
The gods of today that compete for loyalty with Yahweh are different than the gods of Elijah’s day. Today we can imagine it as capitalism, or individualism, nationalism, and on and on. And when we look at these gods and how thoroughly we bow down to them, the situation is really no less dramatic now then when Elijah took on the rulers of his day. To defeat these gods would take nothing less than a miracle, and to lead such a charge would require our entire lives.
If we are going to try and be modern day Elijah’s, luckily there are a few things we can learn from this story. First: Yes, it’s hard. You are not imagining it. Elijah had had magnificent successes in his life, but with Jezebel’s death threat he felt like a failure. The powerful were still powerful, still in charge and still doing everything they could to hold on to that power. They seemed to be winning even after Elijah had done everything God had asked of him. Speaking truth to power; living life differently than most; fighting the gods of our times: To take these things on can certainly leave us feeling alone, parched, worn out, despairing, and even if we have a victory here and there, it always feels like there’s so much more to do. Not to mention, Elijah teaches us that sometimes this work puts you at great odds with other people. It is hard.
But the second thing we learn from Elijah is that God brings life and resources even in the driest places. Elijah had given up, but God hadn’t. Elijah went into the wilderness, a place in the bible that signifies being cut off from all things – people, food, and all other basic necessities of life. But God doesn’t let him despair. Elijah was given food and water and rest. Elijah had what he needed to come back from the brink – even in the wilderness.
The next thing we learn is that even though we might say we want to be modern day prophets, it can be extremely hard for God to get our attention in order to give us our marching orders. We’re busy, we’re afraid of what God might say, we’re tired, we’re hiding, or any number of other things. So, like Elijah, we need the “sheer silence”, as our passage says. Not just quiet moments, but the stunning, stop you in your tracks silence. This silence is what brought Elijah out of his cave. Not the tornado, the earthquake, or blazing fire, but the sheer, holy, scary silence. This is the kind of silence when you hear things you might not want to – including God calling you back into the world, back to the life of a prophet. This silence comes when you realize that God can’t be found in all the noise and clatter out there, so we need to just stop. We need to let the silence wash over us, and then, like Elijah, we are ready to step out of our lives to the edge of the mountain to hear what God has to say. Also, by the way, not easy.
But fortunately, the last thing we learn is that we’re not alone. We might think we are. We might complain like Elijah did, “I alone am left”. But God tells Elijah at the end of our passage, as Elijah is sent back out into the dangerous world, “there are 7,000 faithful waiting for you”. Seven is a great number in the bible. It signifies wholeness, perfection, completeness. In other words, in each other we have all that we need.
It’s hard to imagine ourselves as modern day Elijah’s. It’s daunting. As one author says, “the effectiveness of Yahweh is carried by people like Elijah who refuse compromise and who appear to others as genuine fanatics. Elijah is not terribly winsome or attractive. It is a stance that is faithful, but it is not pretty.”
So maybe we are justified in not striving to be like a prophet who lived 2800 years ago. But even if we can’t quite relate to Elijah, we claim to be followers of Jesus. And the truth is, his life is just as daunting – something we see clearly in Luke’s story of Jesus casting out the demons from a man who had lived as an outcast, a freak, his whole life. In our constant attempts to make Jesus less daunting and less fanatical, we read this as just another story where he does something kind for someone. He helps out this possessed man so that he can be healed and become a part of the community again.
But, it’s not just that Jesus cast out the demons from this poor man and then sent him on his way. Notice the name he gives the demons and what he does with them. A legion the designation for one of Rome’s armies. He equate these armies with demons, then sends them off a cliff to their demise. Jesus is taking on the Ahabs of his day. I don’t think Jesus ever actually sent armies into the sea to drown. But the message of this story was clear. Rome was like a demon possessing the people and leaving them poor, destitute, and naked, just as the demons had done to the man in Geresene, and Yahweh did not approve. Like Elijah, Jesus got to be the lucky messenger, and it finally cost him his life. Following Jesus is daunting too.
Because the stories of Elijah and Jesus are filled with fantastical events – miracles, demons, angels, earthquakes, God’s voice – we can easily distance ourselves from their lives. In doing so, we distance ourselves from the idea that prophets are as needed today as they have been since the beginning of human kind. Maybe we’re not all called to be Elijah’s. I do actually think – like Paul says in Ephesians – that some are called to be teachers, some healers, some evangelists and only some prophets. We all have different gifts and all are needed to build up the body of Christ. But, some of you are Elijah-like. Some of you are called to be prophets. I don’t know exactly who (although I have some ideas if you’re interested ). But because we might generally shy away from the idea, it’s good for all of us to at least ask ourselves the question. It’s good for all of us to let our lives be interrupted by the sound of “sheer silence”. It’s good for all of us to ask ourselves where prophets are needed today and if we might be the ones called by God to suit up.
Yes it’s hard. But remember, God will tend to you along the way, and you have the 7,000 faithful surrounding you all the time. Prophets were needed then, prophets are needed now. Who among us are the prophets? Amen.
