Pentecost 11B
August 9, 2015
1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm 34
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bread from Heaven. Amen.
Be
honest with me: how many of you know the story of Elijah? I admit, I’m not too
familiar with him, besides the bit with the flaming chariot, so I did a little
research. To get the full effect of the story we heard from our Old Testament
reading, we need some backstory, so here it is: Elijah is a prophet, someone
who speaks God’s often tough message to God’s people. He was sent by God to
Israel to cleanse them of their worship of false idols – ba’als, those false
gods of fertility, agriculture, and other things that so often fascinated the
people of Israel. He swept through Israel enacting a spiritual revival,
slaughtering many of God’s more ardent enemies, cleansing and restoring
Solomon’s Temple and the worship of the one true God.
But
unfortunately, in doing so, Elijah upset some pretty powerful people, namely
King Ahab and his foreign wife, Jezebel. Jezebel’s religion was the very one
that Elijah was destroying in the name of the one true God of Israel, so she
was understandably not too happy with Elijah. In her feisty fury, she vowed to
hunt him down and have him killed within a day. Elijah was no fool – he took
off running! He ran well into the wilderness, where he finally collapsed under
a
We
might not be able to relate much to Elijah before this point. Not many of us
have spearheaded religious revivals, at least not that I’m aware of! Not many
of us have slaughtered God’s enemies, nor even had direct conversation with God
like Elijah did. The prophets led remarkable lives that are not always easy for
us to relate to now. But this part of
the story, what we hear today, we can relate to. Elijah is tired. He is
distraught. He has upset people. He’s been trying to do the work that God
called him to do, but it has not ended up well. He’s being hunted, for goodness
sake! This was not what he had in mind when he answered God’s call. He’s
frustrated, and feels he has failed. Elijah also feels the pain of isolation,
under that solitary broom tree. He feels depressed – he’s lost interest in
former activities, he’s thinking about death, he feels hopeless, burnt-out,
distressed, dismayed, and disillusioned.
Any
of those feelings sound families? I know I have felt a lot of those things.
I’ve talked to a lot of people lately who are going through a major loss,
whether the loss of a loved one or the anniversary of that loss, the loss of a
relationship, or of their health, or something else. All are cause for grief,
and grief is certainly something that can bring out many of those emotions
Elijah was probably feeling, and often when you least expect it. Even several
months or years later, grief could cause us to pray the same prayer Elijah
offers God: “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life.” I want to be with
my loved one. Or at least I want to have relief from dealing with
all this loss
and distress.
 |
| Elijah in the Desert Under a Broom Tree |
A
few years back, pastor friend of mine posted in his blog about a series of “cracks”
that he had had in his life. It began with three significant deaths in his
congregation, interspersed with several joyous events like weddings and
baptisms. Because of the backs and forths, he wasn’t able to grieve properly
for those he’d lost. So he stuffed his emotions. He was also taking swimming
lessons, which was causing him a lot of anxiety. Then he had a couple difficult
conversations with people close to him. All of this added up to him having a significant
breakdown. His depression flared up, and one Sunday, in front of his
congregation, he lost it.
Yes,
grief can do that. Emotional stress of any kind can do that. We may prefer to
hide our pain, because emotional distress is so personal, and easier to hide
than physical distress. It would be hard for me to hide a broken arm from you,
but with a broken heart, I can probably put on my happy face and keep that
brokenness from you if I wanted to… at least I could for a while. But at some
point we, like Elijah, go running into the wilderness, slump under a solitary
broom tree, and pray that God would make the pain, the distress, the confusion
and frustration, all just go away.
Thankfully,
this isn’t the end of the story. It’s not the end for Elijah, nor for my pastor
friend, nor for any of us. It’s not the end of today’s lesson, and it’s not the
end of the story of our faith.
Elijah,
after his desperate prayer, goes to sleep. After a while, he is awakened by the
touch of an angel, who offers him food. He eats and drinks, then goes back to
sleep and again is touched by the angel of the Lord and told, “Get up and eat,
otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”
What
a word of utterly practical, and also profoundly spiritual advice. Elijah’s
state and his prayer are so genuine, and so very human. He wants his life as he
knows it to end. He can’t do this anymore, God’s plan or not. He doesn’t pray
at that point, “God, help me get through this.” He doesn’t even want to get
through it! In God’s great compassion, God doesn’t just pat him on the shoulder
and say, “There, there, Elijah, it’ll be all right.” God also doesn’t say,
“Yeah, you’re right, life isn’t worth living anymore for you. I will take your
life.”
 |
| Elijah is fed by an angel |
God does give Elijah exactly what he needs:
the sympathetic touch of an angel, and a bit of food to eat to give him
strength, as if to say, “You’re right, you can’t go on like this, all alone and
without any food. But here, let me help you. Let me provide for you what you
need: companionship, and some bread to strengthen you. Because I still have
some plans for you, some work I need you to do. I’m not done with you yet.”
I
mentioned that God’s response was not only practical, but also profoundly
spiritual. “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you,”
the angel says to Elijah. A couple weeks ago we talked about how tending to our
needs is a part of God’s M.O. We saw this trait in the feeding of the 5000, and
with the Israelites being fed by manna in the wilderness. But, we also observed,
God isn’t only about providing for
our basic, physical needs here and now. Elijah did need that cake baked on hot
stones, and a jar of water. He was hungry – hungry in the same way the crowd
was who was fed by five loaves and two fishes. Hungry in the way people get
hungry. But Elijah’s hunger was also deeper than that. His hunger was one that
many of us have felt before – the hunger caused by loss, by heartache, or
doubt, by fatigue. The hunger caused by having just done something you felt God
had called you to do, only to find at the other end horrendous consequences.
The hunger of vulnerability.
And
to this, God tells us, with Elijah, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will
be too much for you.” I will feed your hunger, God says. God knows our need.
God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has felt that need, has known that hunger.
And in that same Jesus Christ, God feeds us, gives us the strength and the
companionship we need to complete our journey. …
A
prophet, after completing a spiritual revival, is a hunted man, and runs to the
wilderness, where he sits alone under a broom tree, and asks for God to take
his life. In response, God sends him an angel and some bread, and tells him to
eat so he has strength for the journey.
A
pastor, after suffering an emotional breakdown in front of his congregation,
finds a space to pray. Holding a candle, he faces the baptismal font and sees
the light of Christ reflect back at him. He leaves the sanctuary, ready to walk
a new path toward wholeness.
What
if those stories had stopped before their life-giving resolutions? Would we be
able to respond with Psalm 34 as we did today: “I will bless the Lord at all
times”? I would have trouble uttering
these words if the story ended in death under a broom tree, in failure before a
congregation, or in a dark tomb on Good Friday. But, dear friends, the story
doesn’t end there. God does feed us.
The tomb is empty! God does give us what we need. God does call us to life! God does give us so many reasons to “taste
and see that the Lord is good.” Happy are we who trust in God!
Let
us pray… Compassionate God, we sometimes
find ourselves, like Elijah, in despair, and wonder how we will go on. Help us
to seek the life you give, the hope you offer, the goodness you provide, so
that we will have strength for our journey. In the name of the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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