In ancient Judea there were in every generation three people who together held all the real power in Israel. The first of the three was the king. The king could enforce the laws of the land and could make new ones if he wanted to. He lived in a beautiful palace, ate the best food, wore the best clothes, had the most power and could marry whomever he wanted – and do it as many times as he pleased. The second person with power was the Chief priest of the temple in Jerusalem. This was the one who alone was able to enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the Day of the Atonement. The Chief Priest could enforce the laws of the temple, lived in a beautiful palace, ate the best food, wore the best clothes, had a lot of power and could marry – but only a virgin from his own tribe, the tribe of Levi. The third person with power was the Prophet of God. Prophets held no civil or religious power. They could enforce no laws, lived wherever they could, usually ate the worst food, wore the worst clothes and had no earthly power whatsoever. All that they had was the call of God: Go and speak. In a society where kings held ultimate power, prophets could appear in the throne room unannounced and unbidden. Instead of bowing to the king, they stood and delivered the message of God to any king who began to think that being king made them above God. In an age when participation in temple worship was considered almost the same as being certain of your salvation, prophets would march into the temple and call the priests to task when they failed to hold to the truths and the laws they were bound to uphold. Being king was a pretty good deal – being the chief priest was not a bad deal either. They were the envy of all their subordinates. But being a prophet – no one would ever choose to be a prophet – no one would ever choose to go against civil and religious authorities – no one would choose to bring the voice of God to a society that cared more about comfort and good times and taking the easy way than about following the commands of God. No one would choose to be a prophet. False prophets were stoned to death – probably there were a few genuine ones who were, too. Prophets lived with no luxuries. They were thrown into pits. They wandered in the desert. They were put in prison – and sometimes they were murdered just for delivering the message God told them. This is what Elijah is running away from as we look at this morning’s scripture. --------------------- The background of this story is that sad times have come to Judah. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel have encouraged the worship of Baal and many of the prophets of God have been killed. Others of them are hiding in caves in the wilderness. To make matters worse, there has been a drought in Israel for three years. But now God is about to end the drought and tells Elijah to go to the king. Elijah goes to the king and challenges the priests of Baal - 450 of them - to show whose god really is god in Israel by being the one who brings rain. They meet at Mt. Carmel where each group prepares an altar and a bull to offer on it - but they do not light a fire of the altar. Instead, each group will tries to call down fire from their god to burn up the offering on the altar and if the offering is accepted, fire will come down and consume the offering. The challenge is that the consuming fire will serve as a sign that the end of the drought is near. ----------------------- First, all the prophets of Baal prepare their altar and their offering and call on the name of their god to bring down fire. From morning to evening 450 priests dance and cry out and beg for Baal to act. They cut themselves with knives until their blood gushes over them - the noise and spectacle of the event must have been overwhelming - and of course nothing happens. At one point during the day, Elijah even taunts the priests of Baal telling them to cry out louder because perhaps their god has wandered away, has fallen asleep or is in the bathroom (so the Hebrew says). But of course nothing happens. Next Elijah prepares an altar. He takes twelve stones - one for each tribe of Israel, places some wood on the stones, lays the bull out on the wood and then digs a trench around the altar. Next he has water poured over all of it until everything is drenched and even the trench fills with water. In stark contrast to 450 priests of Baal dancing and crying out and cutting themselves, Elijah stands alone at the altar of God and prays in a voice load enough for all to hear, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding.” – Suddenly, the fire of the Lord comes down and consumes the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust and even licks up the water from the trench. Everyone is amazed. But Jezebel the queen – true to her own god - sends a messenger to tell Elijah that he she intends to have him killed by this time tomorrow. And so the stage is set for the real story in today’s scripture message. ------------------------------------- In the past few weeks, and even in the story that just precedes this one in scripture, we have seen that God has used Elijah in miraculous ways. God has protected Elijah from harm and provided for him in times of trouble. If there was ever a person, a prophet whom we would expect to stand his ground on the power of God, it would be Elijah. But that is not what happens. Instead of standing his ground and trusting that the living God who has shown such power today will be able to save him from the revenge of an evil queen, Elijah becomes afraid and runs for his life - and he runs pretty far, too. Jezebel is queen in Judah, but Elijah doesn’t just leave Judah, he goes to Beersheba - the farthest end of Israel - and then goes even farther - into the desert and there he asks the Lord to just let him die, “O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” And so in the space of a few hours, Elijah falls from the top of a religious mountain experience to the bottom of a valley of lost hope. --------------------------- There are many times when any of us can become so overwhelmed with the reality of our current circumstances that we will run as fast and as far away as we can - just to get away from here - from the hubbub - the people and the circumstances and the surroundings that have caused us so much stress. That there are times when things seem so bad, we just can’t imagine things ever getting better. In this morning’s scripture portion, we see that even the greatest prophet in the history of Israel, one who has experienced God’s providence and power in great and mighty ways, still has moments of darkness. He complains. He is suicidal. He has no appetite and needs to be told to eat. He blames others for his situation. He feels alone. A psychologist will tell you that Elijah is exhibiting are all classic signs of clinical depression. This should be a strong warning to those of us who judge our Christianity in terms of our emotions – who walk not by faith, but by sight – who believe that the quality of our Christian walk is measured in the only the positive emotions and pleasant circumstances we experience. Even Elijah felt the millstone of burnout around his neck. At this point, we might expect a strong rebuke from the messenger of the Lord. It would go something like this. “Elijah, what are you doing here? Didn’t you see everything God did back there? Didn’t you see that the Lord Jehovah really is God in Israel? Did you not think that a Great and Holy God could finish what had been started?” That is what we might expect, but that is not what Elijah got - but there is no rebuke – no sign of disapproval. What Elijah finds is understanding, care and acceptance – allowances for human weakness and provisions for the journey. Elijah is accepted as he is and is merely called back to his ministry. Elijah discovers that there is more to God than wind and earthquake and fire. Elijah finds the presence of God in the sound of sheer silence, the still small voice, the quiet peaceful listening, the peace of the calm after the storm when we can quiet our hearts, quit running away and seek the face of God. We will find God not only in the great and miraculous, not only in the moments of the heights of emotional experience, but in those moments when we think all is lost and we feel utterly alone. God is here and now in this place and in this time. Ours is a God who does not wait for us at the end of the journey – ours is a God who journeys along with us. When we cry out for help, our God is already with us and has already prepared an answer to our cry. The Lord says to Elijah, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.” God sends Elijah back to the world he has left behind to anoint the next kings of Israel and Judah and to place his mantle on Elisha, the prophet who will succeed him – and who will receive a double portion from the Lord. ------------------------------------------ Like Elijah, we live in a society that has, for the most part, turned from the worship of the true god to the worship of idols. In many ways, today's idols are more dangerous than those faced by Elijah. The idols of today are the pride and selfishness that come from the worship of things and people, the worship of money, big houses, fine cars, big screen TV's – and a worship that ignores the plight of the poor and lonely. We are concerned with the worship of people, politicians, movie stars and sports figures and we neglect those in our families and our community who are lost and alone. It is in this time and this place that we need to look to the prophets among us – listen to their words and pay heed to their example. We are that prophet. We are the men of God – the women of God – who must in these days be the examples of the kind of faith that we find in the life of Elijah. It is easy for us to become as discouraged as Elijah when we see the so clearly the workings of a mighty God, who is none the less ignored and perhaps even hated by all who surround us. We too can come to believe that we are the only ones left, that all is lost, that God may as well take us now because we are no better than our ancestors. It is easy for us to forget God's power and to run away from the cares of this world to try to reacquaint ourselves with our maker alone -- in the wilderness – away from it all. The only problem with this is that we leave behind those with whom we most need to share our light. God’s voice is sometimes present in unspectacular events and ordinary people, When we get to the end of our journey in this world, we will discover that our Christian lives are not measured by the number of times we have called down fire from heaven. The quality of our Christian walk will not be calculated based on the number of mountaintops we have climbed, nor even by the amount of time we have spent in the wilderness. It will be measured by the journey of faith that we have traveled – the small everyday spiritual exercises – the time in prayer – the time spent sharing the faith – the time spent in works of Christian charity. --------------------------- This then is our calling – to trust in God in every circumstance. To be jealous for the Lord on the journey of faith. To be listening for sound of sheer silence – and then to take that message back to those we meet in the way. God has prepared the journey and has made provision not only for our weaknesses, but for our spiritual and physical nourishment as well. Amen.