Get Up and Eat: Aug. 12, 2018

1 King 19:4-8                                                           
Year B, Pentecost 12                                                  

 

            We all like to be right.  And let’s face it, it’s kind of awesome when you get proven right in front of a bunch of people who have disagreed with you. The prophet Elijah had that moment in a big way. In our reading for today, he is fleeing for his life.  Just the day before, he had a show down with 450 prophets of Baal (who was a pagan god).  They had a little wager.  They would each create an altar and place a sacrifice on the altar.  Then they would each call on their god to send fire.  This would determine who was the real god, the god of Baal or the God of Israel.  Elijah even decided to show off a little by first dousing the altar and surrounding area with water. He wanted to make sure they saw how powerful God was. 

By the time the altar was prepared, a large crowd had formed. The scene was set. The prophets of Baal and Elijah each called on their god.  Elijah said, “Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” A mighty fire descended burning not only the sacrifice but the altar and the soil as well.  Meanwhile, the sacrifice to Baal remained untouched. It was quite a triumph.  There, before King Ahab, a crowd of people who were waffling between the LORD and Baal as well as 450 false prophets, Elijah proved who the true God was.

Therefore it is slightly shocking to see where he is in our reading for today. He is sitting under a bush begging God to end his life.  It is too much for him.  What happened? We all know that a lot can happen in 24 hours.  A lot can happen in 24 minutes.  When King Ahab told Queen Jezebel that Elijah had not only proven their god a fake, but also killed 450 prophets of Baal, she was understandably upset. She sent word to Elijah that his fate would be the same as her prophets and it would happen in the next 24 hours.  This terrified Elijah.  He ran as far as he could.  He escaped the territory of Ahab and Jezebel.  He was safe for the moment under that bush.  But despite his safety, he was miserable. 

It seems odd given what happened the day before.  Obviously, having your life threatened would be disconcerting.  I would run and become desperate. But this is Elijah we are talking about. He is a prophet especially chosen by God--the God.  Just the day before Elijah had proven what his God could accomplish.  His God could rain down fire and all he had to do was call upon God.  Therefore, why would Elijah be so threatened by a human?

Elijah was definitely afraid.  The text tells us he was afraid and ran for his life.  But it seems as though there was something more going on.  It was more than fear. He was discouraged, which does not make sense given his recent victory.  The more I read the chapter that preceded our reading for today, the more I realized that there is an undercurrent in the story.  One of the people who Elijah was trying to convince (or convert) was King Ahab.  He was there for this whole dramatic show down.  After the water, fire and death--Elijah told King Ahab to go and eat.  It had been a long day and he wanted the king to get some food.  He then went to the top of mountain to check the weather. He was looking for rain so he could tell King Ahab to leave before the rain. 

Despite all the conflict, Elijah was intent on caring for King Ahab.  I imagine he hoped that through the display of power and then the way he cared for him, he figured maybe….just maybe King Ahab’s heart would be touched. Remember the prayer he used before the fire came down. He asked that people’s hearts be turned.  And it worked, after the fire descended, all the people who had gathered bowed and confessed their belief in the LORD God.  But not King Ahab.  What King Ahab did was go and tell his wife (who was not a fan of Elijah) all that happened.  As a result, Elijah was running for his life.  

There is no doubt of the reason for Elijah’s rapid departure.  He was scared and knew he had to get away.  But wanting die….that seems like an overreaction.  I wonder if what was really bothering him was his perceived failure to win over King Ahab.  Remember, King Ahab was present for the entire display of power.  Everyone else was convinced by the words and actions of Elijah.  Elijah took particular care of King Ahab. He had a relationship with him.  And yet….it did not accomplish anything.  All Elijah’s hard work and he could not turn the heart of the person whose heart was most important to him.  

Consider the times when you have been discouraged, frustrated and wanting to give up.  How many times have those circumstances involved another person, someone you cared about?  How many times have you seen a friend or family member refuse to respond to love and forgiveness?  No matter how hard you tried, the friend still did not respond.  It seems to me that this was the final straw for Elijah.  Sure, he was a great prophet, but he was also a human being who cared for people and wanted to know that what he was doing made a difference. Who among us cannot identify with that?

Thankfully, that moment---asking God that he would take his life is not the end of the story.  In our reading for today, an angel came to him and said, “Get up and eat.”  Food immediately appeared and he ate it.  He then went back to sleep.  Either he was tired or the miraculous appearance of the food was simply not enough.  The angel came again.  This time the angel said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” The angel was acknowledging what Elijah had said when he first sat down under the bush.  He said: “It is enough now…” In other words---this is too much.  I can’t do this anymore.  The angel is agreeing-- you can’t do this unless you accept this gift from God and follow God’s instructions.  

Elijah was reminded that he needed support and couldn’t do this on his own.  That was all well and good, but Elijah had to actually accept the gift and follow God’s instructions.  He did.  The food gave him the strength to begin yet another long journey.  This did not mean that things got easier for Elijah.  But he received the sustenance he needed. 

After the big show down, but before he was warned that Jezebel was planning on killing him...I bet he was feeling pretty good about himself.  He was thinking: “Sure God was there, but   I was the one who lay the ground work.   God came because of my prayer.  I really am a great prophet.  I can change people’s hearts.”  

While that is a great feeling-it can’t last.  Because inevitably when we are trying to do the work of God, we will fail.  As long as we put it all on our own shoulders, those failures will feel like the end of the world.  But if we can accept that all the victories are God’s victories, it might not be as hard when we cannot change the hearts of others--when we can’t accomplish what we want to accomplish.  While it is frustrating, we must remember that only God can change hearts.  As Christians we are called to love people with all our might.  On our best days, we do.  Then we leave the rest to God.  We leave the hearts of others in the capable hands of God.    We can’t know what is happening in the hearts of others.  We can control what is happening in ours.  God is telling each of us: Get up and eat and then continue on your journey.

Hearts Broken Open: Pentecost

Year B, Pentecost                                        Acts 2:1-11, Romans 8:22-27                 

May 20, 2018 

            There are some weeks--and I know that we have all experienced them, where we just feel a little beaten down by life. It may be one huge serious thing, it may be 1000 small things that build around us until we feel suffocated… It could be anything.  It could be everything.  It might be something personal, or something more global.  For instance, this has been a difficult week in terms of the news.  In the beginning of the week, we were bombarded with reports from Gaza. It is a land that seems to know no peace, a land that every major religion prays for, a land where our Lord and Savior lived, died and was resurrected. A land where over 2000 were injured in one day this past week.  In our nation, our week ended with yet another school shooting.  This time, 10 students were killed by a 17 year old boy.  The carnage never seems to end in our schools.

While our week ended with the royal wedding and the uplifting and encouraging sermon by our presiding bishop, I still found myself struggling to find the good in the good news. It was especially challenging, because this week is Pentecost.  It’s the day we mark the coming of the Holy Spirit and to some extent, the birth of the church. We wear red.  We talk about fire and light.  We eat cake.  It’s supposed to be about joy, right???

            And yet, the biblical description of Pentecost is a little more complicated than the birthday of our Christian Church.  The fire we talk about in the Pentecost story is not created by birthday candles.  The fire in the Pentecost story is tongues of fire over people’s heads. When I hear about tongues of fire resting on people’s heads, I often wonder why people did not duck.  Would that not be the most natural reaction to fierce winds and tongues of fire descending on your head? The first thing I would do would be to dive for cover.  Had they not yet heard of stop, drop and roll? 

All the paintings that depict the story of Pentecost have the people looking serene.  Some look almost bored, like there was nothing strange about flames hovering over their heads.  A couple of the paintings depict people looking a little surprised, even scared, but that is certainly the exception.  And there is not one that I could find where people are actually ducking.  If someone could find me one, I would be most appreciative.

            I cannot help but wonder what gave those people in the Pentecost story the presence of mind to stand still, to know that there was nothing to fear. Perhaps the Holy Spirit had some sort of calming effect. If the Holy Spirit could give them all the ability to speak in other languages, surely the Holy Spirit could also provide some sort of natural sedative…like lavender infused wind. However, for some reason I have an easier time imaging every person speaking in different languages than people being calm when tongues of fire were resting on their heads. 

            The thing is, they had every reason to be afraid.  The scary truth is that the Holy Spirit brings change and transformation.  Those are anxiety provoking things. No amount of calming lavender will take that away. The only time the Holy Spirit is not terrifying is when we let the flames just hover over our heads (like in the paintings) rather than break into our hearts.

But the intention of the Spirit is never simply to hover.  In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he wrote, “And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit…”  Earlier in Romans, Paul wrote: “…hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” 

            That all sounds great, and it is very lovely imagery…but what does it mean?  The text almost makes it sound like we are just passive recipients.  God searches our heart.  God’s love is poured into our hearts.  It almost seems like we don’t have to do any work…we just sit around and wait for the dancing flames.  Actually, there is something we can do—or rather something we can’t do.  We can’t duck.  We can’t run for cover.  We can’t hide behind something that is safe and secure, like the brick walls of a church, or willful ignorance that may shield us from pain, or fear that keeps us from taking risks. 

When it comes to the Holy Spirit, nothing is safe from its violent winds or tongues of fire.  It does not discriminate in what it chooses to transform. That makes it sound as though it is unstoppable.  However, this is not the case. There is one thing that can stop the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, and that is our hard and uncompromising hearts. In order for God to search our heart….in order for God’s love to be poured into our hearts, we have to open our hearts.

People always talk about broken hearts like they are a bad thing. It’s true, they are painful, but they are necessary.  I do not know about you, but when I have weeks like this, weeks when the small things or the very big things threaten to tear me down, I have a tendency to bury the pain.  Sometimes I want to ignore the bad or thought provoking news and watch reality TV or read fashion magazines.  Sometimes I do.  But then there are weeks when I can’t, because I have to preach to you all.  So here is what I did this week.  I read the news. I cried. I cried a lot and watched Bishop Curry’s sermon about love and then I cried some more.

And then I prayed that the Holy Spirit would touch all your hearts when my words were not enough.  I even prayed that your hearts would break a little.  I believe that we have two options when our hearts break—when we face pain and fear.  We can sew them back up tight, maybe even encase them in a hard shell.  Or we can just piece them back together, leaving the heart cracked, but much more open than before.  Because if we leave those cracks, those tiny imperfections, we leave more space for God’s love to break through.

Those people at Pentecost…they had every reason to be afraid.  But it was not the flames or the wind that should have scared them.  It was what would come after, that should have scared them the most.  When the wind died down, the flames disappeared, and the great crowd dissipated, their lives were forever changed.  I don’t think the Holy Spirit provided them with the presence of mind to stay calm.  I believe the Holy Spirit gave them something far greater, courage and hope to stand still and open their hearts to something new and different.  My prayer for all of you is that when the wind comes and the flame burns just a little too hot, that you will find the courage to stand still…to lean into the wind and the flame, knowing that God may let you fall, may even let you get burned a little, but will make sure that whatever hardship you might face will bring you closer to the person who God created you to be.