Pastor's
Weekly Sermon
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Pentecost 4C - 1 Kings 19:8-15
God’s Quiet Power
The Word of the Lord came to Elijah and The Lord asked Elijah,
“What are you doing here?”
Well, that’s easy enough to answer—He was running away!
OK, next question. Elijah, what are you running from?
Well, he’s on the lam, running away from Queen Jezebel.
Alright, and why, pray-tell, is he running from Queen Jezebel.
Well, she has sworn an oath to hunt him down and kill him!
Wow! She must really be angry at him! Why is she so angry?
Well, Because King Ahab tattle-tailed on him, and told her what he had done.
And what, may I ask could have made her so angry?
His troubles started on one mountain, Mount Carmel, when he pretty much eliminated the power of the Baal priesthood, making them look ridiculous before the power of Yahweh, the One True God. Elijah ordered all of Jezebel’s 450 hand-picked prophets be killed and so Ahab's foreign-born, pagan wife, Jezebel, basically ran Elijah out of town with her threats. She swears to have him killed by the end of the day. Elijah became a hunted man, and since he was only human, he did a very human thing: he ran.
Now the odd part of this story is that up until this point, Elijah has been a Rambo kind of prophet. He’s been bold, fierce and utterly fearless. He has been zealous for God. He has stood up to King Ahab and he has stood up to 450 palace prophets and defeated them, but this little lady strikes fear in his heart and he turns tail and runs. Elijah moves from the triumph at Mount Carmel to Jezebel's most wanted list. Apparently being zealous wasn’t enough!
He runs as far as he can. For forty days and forty nights he runs until he comes to another mountain—Mount Sinai. “Elijah, What are you doing HERE”, God asks? That’s what we want to know too. Where exactly is HERE? Where is this place he has run to? He ran as far from Jezebel as he could possibly get! He ran all the way to Beer-Sheba in the southern-most tip of the kingdom of Judah. Jezebel has no authority here so he hopes he is safe. This mountaintop was important because it is God’s mountain. It’s where God gave Moses the Law, and Scripture scholar, Lawrence Farris says that "Nothing unimportant happens on mountains in Scripture….Mountains are important places in scripture. They are where important encounters with God happen.
And so what has begun as a flight from a tyrant soon becomes a journey to God led by God." In other words, Elijah isn't just running from Jezebel; he's running from his vocation, from where God wants him to be, and from what God wants him to do. And so after 40 days and 40 nights, he arrives at the mountain of God.
.
But that’s not the only reason he is here. Elijah is weary--weary to the bone. He is burned out and weary to death. He has had enough of fighting the good fight, and this curse from Jezebel is the last straw. When he gets to Beer-Sheba, he lets his assistant go. He gives him his walking papers, his severance pay, and wishes him well. By letting his servant go, Elijah is in effect leaving the ministry. Plus, once he lets his servant go he continues south leaving the land of Israel and heading into the barren wilderness trekking towards Egypt. He is taking his leave of everything—leaving home, leaving the ministry and leaving the covenant people of God. One wonders if he wasn’t trying to get away from God too! The real tension in the plot of this story isn’t just that Elijah is running from Jezebel’s threats, the real story is whether Elijah will be defined by his fear of Jezebel or by his faithfulness to God." But where can one possibly run to, to get away from God?
He finally stops running, and ends holed-up deep in the cover of a cave. Yet even here—at the end of the earth—deeply hidden in a cave—even here God still finds him and gently asks him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
Elijah is instructed to go stand on the mountain for God is about to pass by.
A great wind and storm, an Earthquake, Fire all pass by! These are all the traditional mighty signs of God’s awesome presence. But Elijah could not feel God’s presence in any of those great, blustery, dramatic things.
Next then Elijah hears something more mighty than storm, something that shakes his soul more than an earthquake, something more powerful than the roar of a fire… something more profound, something deeper, something so awesome that it makes him cover his face and move out of the cave to stand on the mountain.
What Elijah ---what do you hear?
HE HEARD—SHEER SILENCE—(some call it “the still small voice.” ) SHEER… SILENCE. A Silence so deep and complete that it hushes every other sound in heaven and earth.
Have you ever experienced sheer, profound, silence— You can hear it in the quiet of the desert—no insects buzzing, no other human’s nearby. You can experience it on an evening in December when there is no wind and no leaves rustling in the trees. There’s no bird song or animal sound. It’s can be so quiet that your ears reach out for sound.
Even deeper and more awesome than that. It’s a sound that isn’t just heard—it is felt. Something in your bones can feel it. I felt that same sound of silence at the Alamo. It’s a sacred space were many men died in a decisive battle in San Antonio, Texas. The Alamo is a place so hushed that no one dares to speak in that solemn place.
It’s the sound of utter stillness I felt and heard when I entered the rustic Chapel at Grailville retreat center down near Cincinnati with a woman who was visiting from Bucharest. She lives in a country where religious devotion had been banned for many years and she was searching to grasp the Holy One. I walked with her and was caught up by an unbearable silence that gives you goose flesh!
I remember hearing this sound when a dear friend sent me pictures of the ultrasound her doctor had taken of her unborn baby girl in her womb—I saw the ghostly face of her UNBORN child—a sight that moves heaven and earth more than any earthquake!
I heard that sound after my mother’s funeral when we took her to the cemetery to lay her to rest—up at the silent mausoleum you are overwhelmed by the silence that fills the space between life and death. It’s a stillness so deep that you just want to run back outside to the comforting world of noise.
I know what Elijah heard, I know what the sound of sheer silence is… it is the sound of the power of Life and Death. It is the sound of the power held only by God. It is the sound that holds the universe. It is the very presence of God. And Elijah was blessed that God presented himself to him in such a powerful way. We are also blessed to stand in the powerful silent presence every once in a while in our lives.
There are many noises in our lives…sometimes so fierce they makes us tremble.—Thunder, lightning, wars, rumors of wars. We have the tremendous winds of hurricanes, terrorists breathing threats of violence, the blasts of Gunshots ringing out where they shouldn’t be heard—in schools, in churches, in niteclubs. We have the noise of pundits, the racket of political rhetoric—the clamor of our own fears, the commotion of scandal, and controversy. And sometimes we just have the noise and storms of the dramas and events that take place in our own families and lives.
Sometimes our lives are shaken by the earthquake drama of death, the storms of grief, and the weariness of sorrow. We all have times like this. But God is not in the swirling storms of life—God is in the still sound of the power of life and death that is beyond the storms. God is the power that undergirds our lives even when we are in chaos or when we are weary. Last week I was remembering my father and mother. Before my mother died she told me to have faith in that power. Her faith was so strong that it is a foundation for my own faith. She was not afraid. She told us to have faith –that all would be well because everything was in God’s hands and in God’s timing.
God is still speaking –in whispers, in silence, in stillness. Like the rest signs in a piece of sheet music, God can be heard and felt in the pauses in our noisy lives. It is the sound of Shalom—the sound of Sabbath—the pause that refreshes and renews us and gives us strength to continue the journey. This is why it is so important to pause on Sunday morning to be in the presence of the still speaking God—so that we will be renewed and refreshed for our journey thru life. There is still much truth and light to break forth from God’s holy word.
God is still speaking. Let us listen in reverence, be encouraged and give thanks. Amen.
Pentecost 4C - 1 Kings 19:8-15
God’s Quiet Power
The Word of the Lord came to Elijah and The Lord asked Elijah,
“What are you doing here?”
Well, that’s easy enough to answer—He was running away!
OK, next question. Elijah, what are you running from?
Well, he’s on the lam, running away from Queen Jezebel.
Alright, and why, pray-tell, is he running from Queen Jezebel.
Well, she has sworn an oath to hunt him down and kill him!
Wow! She must really be angry at him! Why is she so angry?
Well, Because King Ahab tattle-tailed on him, and told her what he had done.
And what, may I ask could have made her so angry?
His troubles started on one mountain, Mount Carmel, when he pretty much eliminated the power of the Baal priesthood, making them look ridiculous before the power of Yahweh, the One True God. Elijah ordered all of Jezebel’s 450 hand-picked prophets be killed and so Ahab's foreign-born, pagan wife, Jezebel, basically ran Elijah out of town with her threats. She swears to have him killed by the end of the day. Elijah became a hunted man, and since he was only human, he did a very human thing: he ran.
Now the odd part of this story is that up until this point, Elijah has been a Rambo kind of prophet. He’s been bold, fierce and utterly fearless. He has been zealous for God. He has stood up to King Ahab and he has stood up to 450 palace prophets and defeated them, but this little lady strikes fear in his heart and he turns tail and runs. Elijah moves from the triumph at Mount Carmel to Jezebel's most wanted list. Apparently being zealous wasn’t enough!
He runs as far as he can. For forty days and forty nights he runs until he comes to another mountain—Mount Sinai. “Elijah, What are you doing HERE”, God asks? That’s what we want to know too. Where exactly is HERE? Where is this place he has run to? He ran as far from Jezebel as he could possibly get! He ran all the way to Beer-Sheba in the southern-most tip of the kingdom of Judah. Jezebel has no authority here so he hopes he is safe. This mountaintop was important because it is God’s mountain. It’s where God gave Moses the Law, and Scripture scholar, Lawrence Farris says that "Nothing unimportant happens on mountains in Scripture….Mountains are important places in scripture. They are where important encounters with God happen.
And so what has begun as a flight from a tyrant soon becomes a journey to God led by God." In other words, Elijah isn't just running from Jezebel; he's running from his vocation, from where God wants him to be, and from what God wants him to do. And so after 40 days and 40 nights, he arrives at the mountain of God.
.
But that’s not the only reason he is here. Elijah is weary--weary to the bone. He is burned out and weary to death. He has had enough of fighting the good fight, and this curse from Jezebel is the last straw. When he gets to Beer-Sheba, he lets his assistant go. He gives him his walking papers, his severance pay, and wishes him well. By letting his servant go, Elijah is in effect leaving the ministry. Plus, once he lets his servant go he continues south leaving the land of Israel and heading into the barren wilderness trekking towards Egypt. He is taking his leave of everything—leaving home, leaving the ministry and leaving the covenant people of God. One wonders if he wasn’t trying to get away from God too! The real tension in the plot of this story isn’t just that Elijah is running from Jezebel’s threats, the real story is whether Elijah will be defined by his fear of Jezebel or by his faithfulness to God." But where can one possibly run to, to get away from God?
He finally stops running, and ends holed-up deep in the cover of a cave. Yet even here—at the end of the earth—deeply hidden in a cave—even here God still finds him and gently asks him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
Elijah is instructed to go stand on the mountain for God is about to pass by.
A great wind and storm, an Earthquake, Fire all pass by! These are all the traditional mighty signs of God’s awesome presence. But Elijah could not feel God’s presence in any of those great, blustery, dramatic things.
Next then Elijah hears something more mighty than storm, something that shakes his soul more than an earthquake, something more powerful than the roar of a fire… something more profound, something deeper, something so awesome that it makes him cover his face and move out of the cave to stand on the mountain.
What Elijah ---what do you hear?
HE HEARD—SHEER SILENCE—(some call it “the still small voice.” ) SHEER… SILENCE. A Silence so deep and complete that it hushes every other sound in heaven and earth.
Have you ever experienced sheer, profound, silence— You can hear it in the quiet of the desert—no insects buzzing, no other human’s nearby. You can experience it on an evening in December when there is no wind and no leaves rustling in the trees. There’s no bird song or animal sound. It’s can be so quiet that your ears reach out for sound.
Even deeper and more awesome than that. It’s a sound that isn’t just heard—it is felt. Something in your bones can feel it. I felt that same sound of silence at the Alamo. It’s a sacred space were many men died in a decisive battle in San Antonio, Texas. The Alamo is a place so hushed that no one dares to speak in that solemn place.
It’s the sound of utter stillness I felt and heard when I entered the rustic Chapel at Grailville retreat center down near Cincinnati with a woman who was visiting from Bucharest. She lives in a country where religious devotion had been banned for many years and she was searching to grasp the Holy One. I walked with her and was caught up by an unbearable silence that gives you goose flesh!
I remember hearing this sound when a dear friend sent me pictures of the ultrasound her doctor had taken of her unborn baby girl in her womb—I saw the ghostly face of her UNBORN child—a sight that moves heaven and earth more than any earthquake!
I heard that sound after my mother’s funeral when we took her to the cemetery to lay her to rest—up at the silent mausoleum you are overwhelmed by the silence that fills the space between life and death. It’s a stillness so deep that you just want to run back outside to the comforting world of noise.
I know what Elijah heard, I know what the sound of sheer silence is… it is the sound of the power of Life and Death. It is the sound of the power held only by God. It is the sound that holds the universe. It is the very presence of God. And Elijah was blessed that God presented himself to him in such a powerful way. We are also blessed to stand in the powerful silent presence every once in a while in our lives.
There are many noises in our lives…sometimes so fierce they makes us tremble.—Thunder, lightning, wars, rumors of wars. We have the tremendous winds of hurricanes, terrorists breathing threats of violence, the blasts of Gunshots ringing out where they shouldn’t be heard—in schools, in churches, in niteclubs. We have the noise of pundits, the racket of political rhetoric—the clamor of our own fears, the commotion of scandal, and controversy. And sometimes we just have the noise and storms of the dramas and events that take place in our own families and lives.
Sometimes our lives are shaken by the earthquake drama of death, the storms of grief, and the weariness of sorrow. We all have times like this. But God is not in the swirling storms of life—God is in the still sound of the power of life and death that is beyond the storms. God is the power that undergirds our lives even when we are in chaos or when we are weary. Last week I was remembering my father and mother. Before my mother died she told me to have faith in that power. Her faith was so strong that it is a foundation for my own faith. She was not afraid. She told us to have faith –that all would be well because everything was in God’s hands and in God’s timing.
God is still speaking –in whispers, in silence, in stillness. Like the rest signs in a piece of sheet music, God can be heard and felt in the pauses in our noisy lives. It is the sound of Shalom—the sound of Sabbath—the pause that refreshes and renews us and gives us strength to continue the journey. This is why it is so important to pause on Sunday morning to be in the presence of the still speaking God—so that we will be renewed and refreshed for our journey thru life. There is still much truth and light to break forth from God’s holy word.
God is still speaking. Let us listen in reverence, be encouraged and give thanks. Amen.
Proudly powered by Weebly