I Kings 19:1-7, 8-15

This reading is one that is very familiar to most of us, and I know that I have already written a number of sermons based on it. The truth is that I just like this passage, and whenever it comes up in the three year Lectionary cycle I tend to choose it. (Just so you know, I’m not preaching the same sermon over and over! At least, not on purpose! But I am using the same text) … which also happens to be the text of my very first public sermon. I delivered it at the Mantua UMC, my home church, many years ago. Sometime in the late 70’s. I kept that hand written sermon for a long time. It was good for a number of laughs. See, when you are in seminary, you tend to know everything and you want to let everybody else know that you know. 

Anyway, one thing that I think I may have gotten right in that old sermon is that unlike most of the messages that I’ve heard and preached on this passage since then, in that first one I didn’t focus on the end of this story.  Now in that case, I don’t think it was as much wisdom as it was that I simply ran out of time! But I decided this week that I was going to look more closely at the beginning of the story, and having done that, it was like looking at a beautifully cut diamond from a different perspective. Everything shifted, and the whole passage looked a little different. 

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me first remind you of the context of this passage, since we didn’t read the whole story today… 

Previous to the part we just read in 1 Kings 19, we see the Prophet Elijah taking on the false prophets of a local deity named Baal in a huge contest on Mt. Carmel. It was a face off, and the odds were pretty bad – it was 450 false prophets with the full authority of King Ahab against Elijah… and God.

They didn’t have a chance! The contest was to prove who was the real God – so both sides were to build altars with a sacrifice on them. 

“We’ll all pray, and we’ll see which god answers us”, Elijah said.  The Baal prophets said, “Good idea”, and they went first. They set up their altar and their sacrifice and then began to shout, and chant, and dance themselves into a frenzy right on the altar itself; and they did lots of other things that the enemy often convinces people to do to try and get his attention, like ‘cutting themselves’. They kept this up for a long time, to the point where they completely destroyed the altar, but to no avail. 

All the while, Elijah was shouting out his ‘encouragement’ to them. Well, actually, he was taunting them.  From the Message: “Call a little louder—he is a god, after all. Maybe he's off meditating somewhere or other, or maybe he's gotten involved in a project, or maybe he's on vacation. You don't suppose he's overslept, do you, and needs to be waked up?”  

About noon Elijah had seen enough and took center stage. Showing a flair for the dramatic as well as his utter confidence in God, Elijah rebuilds the altar with 12 stones, each representing a tribe of Israel. He cuts up an oxen and lays it on the altar, over top of the firewood. He instructs the servants to dig a trench around the base of the altar, and then to douse his sacrifice with buckets of water. And to do it again. And a third time. The water soaked the altar and filled the trench. 

Then, with a simple prayer asking God to show himself to all the people who were gathered around watching, Elijah stood back as fire reigned down from heaven and not only consumed the entire sacrifice, and the wet wood underneath it, but also the stones of the altar, and the water in the trench around it. The people of Israel, having seen this, fell on their faces in awe declaring “The Lord the true God! The Lord is the true God!” 

Now, remember that this was a different age, one with different values and different understandings of life and justice than we have today. Justice in that day was immediate and severe. The penalty for false prophecy in the Old Testament was death. So Elijah ordered the people to grab those false prophets, and to take them down to the Kidron Brook, where they were killed. All 450 of them. 

Well, King Ahab was there, he saw the whole thing, and accepted it. He actually joined in the party afterward, and ate and drank with everyone else. But when word got back to the Queen (Jezebel) she became quite upset. You see, these Baal prophets were her personal attendants, they worked for her. And in her anger she screamed out a curse on Elijah: “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 

Now, this is where the whole passage takes a sudden and unexpected turn, so let’s think about it a bit. Elijah had just had the best day he would ever have in ministry. I mean, trust me, you don’t get a lot of days like that! He not only won, he stomped ‘em! It was incredible! King Ahab acquiesced to this new situation, Queen Jezebel’s power base was a little shaken right now, and the events of the day had proven where the real power was. The people were in the streets declaring that Yahweh was the true God, and besides that, a very long drought was about to end! A pretty good day! 

In other words, this threat from Jezebel, while not exactly an idle threat, certainly didn’t have any teeth to it. But Elijah’s reaction was just over the top. He is shaken down to his soul, and he runs away to Beersheba, a town in far southern Judah. He leaves his servant there, and then goes by himself a day’s journey even further into the wilderness – he runs as far away as he can – where he sits down under a broom tree, and prays that he might die. 

Many people who know about such things have analyzed this passage from a psychological perspective. They’ve pointed out how Elijah was experiencing a kind of post-traumatic depression – i.e., after this big event, he simply crashed.  He was spent; his emotional and spiritual reservoir was empty.  Most of us can relate to this, at least a little bit, I think. Think about a big holiday, or a major change in your life. You spend so much energy building up to it, that when you get past it, we feel a bit let down. Empty. “What’s next?”  There is some of that going on here in Elijah’s life, for sure. 

But it is extreme; Elijah isn’t just a little bit down, he wants to die. He’s giving up. He falls asleep under the shade of this scraggly broom tree. Later, an angel wakes him up and gives him some food and some water. Elijah takes it, and goes back to sleep. The angel wakes him again, gives him more food and water, and says, “It’s time to start walking.”  Then, for many days, he travels to Mt. Sinai, where he crawls into a cave.  (Mt. Sinai, you remember, was the place where God had given Moses the Law.) 

And here’s where we read the better-known part of this story, the part about God’s appearance to Elijah. Let’s read that portion once again: 

“Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave…

I took the time to go through the lead up to this part of the reading this evening/ morning, so that we would remember that this last section isn’t some ‘stand alone’ vignette. It isn’t a parable, or an illustration; it is actually something that happened to Elijah in a context. And while it is a great passage, and it is certainly possible to find meaning in these verses on their own (i.e., that God is not always found where we might expect) I think that there is something more here for us if we think about it in the context of the previous few days of Elijah’s life. 

That’s what I meant when I mentioned turning a beautifully cut diamond in front of your eyes; a change in perspective is often dramatic. What occurred to me when I looked at Elijah’s meeting with God on Mount Sinai in the bigger context of his life at that point, was rather obvious: Elijah was there, he was on Mount Sinai because God led him there. God fed him, woke him up, called him, and led him to this place at this time. And God did that because Elijah was having a ministry meltdown! 

This was all about his ministry. This was about getting tired of serving God. Getting worn out. Feeling that he had lost the battle, that since he was standing for God alone, why go on? What was the point? This mountain top vision was given to someone who was struggling in his ministry. He wanted to quit. He was done – he was so done that he wanted to die! 

Elijah may have won a great battle, but then he freaks out over one toothless person who spoke against him out of her anger. How often do we still find people getting tremendously annoyed, or hurt, or depressed over careless words from others in the church, or the community – so annoyed, so angry, sometimes that people will leave a church – and really, not because of what somebody else did or said. It is more so the timing of it, hitting that last nerve, the ‘final straw’ so to speak. Because they’re tired, they’re worn out. Their emotions are raw. And people react – overreact –  out of weariness, out of frustration, out of self-doubt. 

It still happens… and I think that’s where Elijah was. And after a couple of days, after gently ministering to him in some very basic areas (rest, food, water), God leads Elijah to this cave on Mt. Sinai to complete the restoration of his soul. So look here, God is still ministering to Elijah in his moment – this extended period – of weakness. God has a message to give to Elijah on this mountain specifically focused on what he was feeling about his ministry. So God shows him a great windstorm… and a terrible earthquake… and what’s next? A fire! 

And what does it say after each of these frightening events? It says, “But God was not in the wind”, and God was not in the earthquake, and God was not in the fire.  Now, when, in the past month or so might Elijah remember having seen…fire?  Well, of course – God had the sent fire that consumed the sacrifice back on that other mountain, on Mt. Carmel!  Is this a co-incidence? Do you think there might be a connection? 

I do…but what is the message?

I have to admit the obvious: I’m approaching this passage as a pastor, as a full-time worker in the Kingdom of God. But I realize that I’m sharing this message with people whose call to ministry is just as important, just as valid as mine. You may not be full-time, ministry may not be your ‘vocation’, but if you are a believer, you are called and gifted and you’ve been sent out, nonetheless.  And in the particular ministry that God has given you – whether it’s serving on a church committee, or setting up housing for IHN, or being a prayer intercessor, or a musician, or a Sunday School teacher, a mission trip leader or participant, working with your own children or being a good neighbor, or whatever – we all are susceptible to Elijah moments – of getting to a point where we want to throw up our hands and say, “Enough! I’m done! Get me out of here!” 

We are all susceptible to those moments when people change right before our very eyes – and instead of seeing valuable souls that Christ died for, instead of seeing Jesus in people we are in daily contact with – we start seeing these annoying, braying donkeys, sucking what little life is left out of us...

(Not that I’ve ever thought that!) 

And if you’ve ever been there, God may have something to say to you, from this mountaintop, just as he did to Elijah… 

I think the key is in the fire.  When it says that “God wasn’t in the wind, or the earthquake” it doesn’t mean that God wasn’t there. Or that God wasn’t part of that. Of course, God is everywhere, God sent those things, so in a literal sense, God was in fact, there, he was in the wind, and in the earthquake.  And the same with the fire – God sent it, God led Elijah to that place to see this, the fire wasn’t an accident – so what does it mean that God ‘wasn’t in the fire?’ 

Here’s something to think about… what if God was telling Elijah something about ministry? About serving him? Could it be that the message was something like this: “Elijah, understand this: you can’t live, spiritually speaking, off of the big moments of ministry”.  And if so, maybe he’s saying the same thing to us as well. As God leads us in his service – as a church, all in this together – there will be moments of great joy and victory. We have and will experienced times of success, there will be occasions when we know that God is truly using us… and there will be other times when we won’t be able to see any movement at all.

There will be times when we feel like we’re not making a difference, even feeling that we’re losing the battle and the war. Let’s be honest, that’s how it works in ministry. [That’s one reason why we need to be careful about comparing one ministry with another. “Oh, look at that church – they’re doing such great things, and we’re so far behind. We’re nothing here.” Or, “Look at them – they don’t know what they’re doing at all! Too bad they’re not like us!”] Ministry, by definition, is a long haul walk with God, going where he says to go, waiting when he says, “Wait”, serving when we don’t always see the point of what we’ve been called to do; celebrating the victories when they come and staying the course when they don’t. 

But here’s the thing: our strength for ministry is not found in ministry. Successes can be motivating, and encouraging, but spiritually, we can’t “feed” off of the successes for very long … they are not for us, they are for God, for the Kingdom. If we try to do that, if we try to feed off of the successes, we’ll end up empty and malnourished, and maybe even depressed, and wanting to quit. 

God was not in the fire.  Not in the sense of being there to nurture Elijah’s heart and spirit – God wasn’t in the fire on Mt. Sinai, and he wasn’t - in that sense-  in the fire on Mt. Carmel, either. 

Elijah needed to find some other way to strengthen his spirit, to nurture his soul. And, surprise, what he needed most deeply wasn’t going to be found in doing, it was found in being. Now, hear me: You know that I believe that we need to ‘give’, we need to ‘do’ (look at our mission statement!) What I’m saying here is that to be able to do and to give, we need first to ‘be’. “Be still” says the Lord in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Psalm 27:14 – “Wait on the Lord, be strong, take courage, and wait.” 

After the fire was a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 

In Galatians 6: 9 – 10 we read this:  “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.” 

Friends, in order to do this, we have to balance times of doing with time alone, quiet time, listening time with God. We need to balance the crowds with solitude, the noise with stillness, the activity with waiting. We can’t live off of the successes – they are God’s, not ours. Our strength, like that of Jesus himself, is found in those quiet moments of waiting on God’s filling – those times of meditation and prayer that we, by discipline, build into our lives. 

Elijah’s intuitive response to his inner crisis was correct – this thought, that ‘I need to get away’. He did need that, he needed quiet, he needed time alone with God – not to die, however, but to live!  And so do we.  Summer, winter, spring and fall… where does God have the opportunity to speak to you? When do you give him that time? 

I know a lot of us will be taking some vacation this summer. That’s great, I hope you can all get away for awhile. But don’t mistake a vacation for a time of spiritual renewal. They’re not the same thing! Just like vacations are best when a little thought and planning goes into them; in the same way, we can’t leave the growth of our spirits to chance. Take advantage of some of that time away from the phone, the office, the demands of life and “be still before God.”  Take an early morning prayer walk, sit on a beach with your Bible. Read, and leave space between the lines for God to ‘inhabit’ his word in your heart.  Listen. Listen!

And not just on vacation – make it part of your life: Sing praise songs and hymns as you drive to work, or wake, or to end your day… these things to a believer are as critical as exercise and good food to our physical health. Allow the Spirit to nourish and encourage you. Allow the Spirit to ‘restore your soul.” God does not force himself on anyone, God comes at our invitation. So, invite him. 

And remember public worship is one of the most powerful ways that God reveals himself to the church.  The golf course, or the beach, or even the mountains can be places to meet with God; but there is something singular, something special, that happens when believers meet together to worship God, and to encourage one another in our journey. That’s why Hebrews 10:25 it encourages us, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” 

Let’s learn from Elijah’s lesson so that we don’t have to experience Elijah’s pain.

Be still, and know that I am God.