Grace Lutheran Church

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+ In Nomine Jesu +

The Rev. Evan Gaertner
10^th Sunday after Pentecost                                                               "Surviving the Rollercoaster of Life"
August 13, 2006                                                                                                                          1 Kings 19:1-8

How do you survive and indeed thrive when life seems like such a wicked Roller Coaster of twists and turns?

In 1 Kings, we find Elijah revealed as a prophet of the Lord. Elijah stepped onto this ride when he was called by the Lord. In chapter 17, he takes his big first twist in the saying to the King, "As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word." This is a statement of authority to Ahab. The phrase, "before whom I stand," is a technical term that serves to describe a person who stands in service to a king. So we have Elijah reminding Ahab that the king that is to be served was the God of Israel. Ahab might be able to control travel and commerce and order secondary searches on those traveling, but it was the God of Israel who was going to control the rain.

After announcing this twist, the Lord directed Elijah to go to a brook and to sit there. While he sat there the ravens brought food for Elijah. While Elijah watched the brook, the water dried up because there was no rain in the land.

During the third year in the drought the Lord directed Elijah to go back to Ahab and he would send rain upon the earth. Now this twist and turn was going to be a wild ride.

At this point I want to explain to you the evil of Ahab. Ahab did not think it enough to walk in the sins of his fathers, he married Jezebel the daughter of one of Israel's traditional enemies. While Ahab was a strong military leader driving Israel to victory in battle, Ahab was personally morally a weak person. Jezebel's evil influence led Ahab to silence the worship of the Lord God and promote the worship of Baal, a false God that the Israelites were repeatedly warned against worshipping. Jezebel ordered all the prophets of the Lord, servants of worship, to be cut off. But Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them in caves and fed them with bread and water.

Obadiah met Elijah as Elijah was returning to show himself to Ahab. Elijah told Obadiah, "Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'"

But Obadiah was afraid to tell Ahab any news about Elijah. Obadiah was afraid because Ahab had sent servants into every nation and kingdom to find Elijah to kill him. Obadiah warned Elijah of the dangers of Jezebel, reminding him how she had killed the prophets of the Lord. But Elijah promised that even as the Lord lives that very same day he would show himself to Ahab.

Elijah going to Ahab was more frightening than getting on the most scary Roller Coaster ride you can imagine. But pulled by the Lord there was no other direction for Elijah to go. In line for this ride there was no getting out of life and watching someone else take the ride that the Lord had called him to.

Ahab greeted Elijah said, "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?"

Elijah countered, "I have not troubled Israel, it is you and your father's house that has abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now send and gather all of Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table."

Elijah faced up to the evil of his land. He trusted the power of the Lord God of Israel to bring him victory. He asked the prophets of Baal and Asherah to call upon their gods to bring fire upon a sacrifice placed on an altar. They spent all morning calling upon the name of Baal to answer them in their need. From heaven the only response to the cries of these false prophets was silence.

Elijah mocked them saying their god must be asleep or busy going to the bathroom. The false prophets cried even louder and cut themselves with swords and lances to let the blood flow as a sacrifice of worship. But nothing happened!

It was then Elijah's turn. He repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. He built it up with twelve stones, a stone for each one of the twelve sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come. With the stones, he built the altar in the name of the Lord. He put the wood in order. He put the bull, the animal for the sacrifice, on the altar. Then he did something astounding. He asked the altar, the wood and everything around it to be flooded with water. He had it soaked a second time and a third time.

When Elijah called upon the Lord, the fire of the Lord fell upon the altar and consumed the burnt offering. The crowd that had been gathered by Ahab fell down on their knees and said, "The Lord, he is God, the Lord he is God."

Elijah then exploited the crowd and ordered them to seize the false prophets and Elijah slaughtered them.

Ahab ran to Jezebel to tell her everything that Elijah did. But if Elijah planned on Jezebel becoming afraid and falling down and worshipping the one true Lord he was unfortunately mistaken. When Jezebel heard of the events at Mt. Carmel she was not filled with awe but threatened Elijah's life.

After calling a drought upon the land, being fed by the ravens, providing a widow and her son with food during the drought with an amazing refilling jar of flour, and calling the fire of the Lord upon the sacrifice; now Elijah was suddenly filled with fear. He ran away from Jezebel afraid of her. Elijah lost confidence in the purposes of the Lord because Jezebel was not frightened.

Elijah could not defeat the violent and wicked ways of Jezebel and this world by covering his hands with the blood of the prophets. Finding himself powerless against Jezebel, Elijah wanted to give up. On the Roller Coaster of living Elijah was not handling the twists and turns that well. Sure he seemed to do great at first, but the going up and down and all around caught up to him. When he saw that he could not answer the violence of Jezebel with his own violence he gave up and wanted to die. He was depressed and filled with feelings of failure.

I want to tell you that it is fortunate for us that this violence of Elijah was not the answer to her evil. When Elijah killed the false prophets of Baal and Asherah he could not force Jezebel to repent. The Lord does not scare us into salvation. Jesus did not defeat Satan and the powers of this world by responding to the violence and evil of Satan with a heavy stick and pummel him into submission.

The Lord God redeems you and me by sending his son as a sacrifice. The violence of sin is not for us to defeat with our hands covered in blood. Our savior defeats sin and death by covering his own hands in the blood of our guilt.

Jesus told Pilate, "If my kingdom was of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." Jesus did not hit Satan with the heavy stick, but carried the cross.

As Elijah slept an angel touched him. The Lord is always more ready to give than we are to ask. He is merciful and forgiving and gives us those things which we in no way deserve.  That angel told Elijah to get up and eat. He looked and the Lord had provided bread and water. He laid down again and a second time an angel of the Lord came down and told him, "Get up and eat, you have a big trip coming up and you are too weak for it."

Our success in building the kingdom of God is never going to come through responding to the kingdoms of this world with violence and hatred. It was not the answer for Elijah. It is not the answer for you and me. If your faith is built on the failure of your enemies you will find yourself defeated and without a savior.

Jesus came to usher you out of death and failure. It was God who picked Elijah up from under the broom tree where he where he wanted to die, fed him, gave him something to drink. It was God who brought Elijah to a cave where God revealed himself not in the wind, earthquake, or fire. It was in the sound of the soft whisper that the Lord revealed his purposes for Elijah.

When you hear Jesus upon the cross, you may at times imagine he spoke with a booming powerful voice that echoed throughout Jerusalem. But I think it much more plausible that after being beaten and hung up to die it was the still small whisper of the Lord that sliced through the work of devil. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Jesus finished the work that Elijah could not. Jesus destroyed the power of sin, death, and the devil. We do not work to wrestle the power of this world away from Satan. We do not pull away power from governments and authorities so that we can put ourselves into a position to lord it over others. Because our lives have been changed by God’s grace, we live our lives in love toward our brothers and sisters, as beloved children. We speak the truth in love. We say only what is useful for building up. We are kind and tenderhearted, loving one another as Christ has loved us, putting away malice and anger and wrath and slander. So live as you are called. Called by grace we live by grace.

Soli Deo Gloria

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