Sunday 9th August 2009

We have already spent time in reflection on John 6…  so this morning, an opportunity to consider 1 Kings 19.

1 Kings 17 onwards details the confrontation between Ezekiel and Jezebel… there is more to one of the bad girls of the Old Testament than popular myth would have us believe.  In our passage this morning, Ahab has told his queen that Elijah has killed all her prophets, and Jezebel’s threat sends a terrified Elijah fleeing for his life.  He might have championed God’s cause to good effect yesterday… but today, he runs away as fast as he can.  Beer-sheba is 130 miles south of Jezreel, on the border of the Negev wilderness.  Empty and despairing, Elijah wants to give up, but another messenger or ‘angel’ appears.  ‘Angels’ in the OT are usually members of the ‘heavenly host’ sent to deliver a message, but note that the same word is used for Jezebel’s messenger in v.2.  Here, ‘angel’ is a strictly neutral term.  Previously, Elijah has been fed by ravens - 17.6 – but now he is fed by this mysterious messenger from God.

This is a passage which echoes how the Israelites were sustained on their Exodus journey.  The parallel with Moses becomes clear when Elijah’s destination is revealed in v.8: it is the holy mountain which the northerners called ‘Horeb’ and the southerners ‘Sinai’.  The journey will take ‘forty days’ - another symbolic figure rich in association with Moses and standing for trial or testing throughout the scriptures…think about Jesus’ own times in the wilderness or the time which Noah spent on the ark.  This is a carefully written passage, clearly intended to be read as part of a greater whole - in itself a necessary reminder to those who select proof texts at random.  Our OT reading this morning concludes with one of the best-known encounters in the OT… despite the grandeur of the landscape, the awe-inspiring nature of the mountain, the communicator-God chooses whisper rather than whirlwind, stillness rather than storm.

The passage documents something of an emotional roller-coaster for Elijah.  When he hears of Jezebel’s intentions, ‘fear’ is his first response in v.3; it is tempting to assume that his prayer for death a verse later is the outcome of this fear, but I think that it has more to do with a sense of failure rather than terror per se.  ‘I am no better than my ancestors’, laments Elijah… and it is this which shapes his thoughts.  Interestingly, having pondered death, he promptly falls asleep under the broom tree… not an obvious thing to do, until we reflect on the fact that emotional and physical exhaustion probably combine at this point, and sleep is probably the body’s way of best dealing with this.

I believe in the God who does not wish us, allow us to dwell unduly on our perceived failures.  Mistakes - whether real or imagined - should not be crippling, however mixed up or messed up we unwittingly allow ourselves to become.  Now, I allow that this is a theology which ultimately needs to be tested against the backdrop of books such as Job - so be it - but the gospel massage is one of transformation and liberation.  Time and again, Jesus preached ready release… and we are not always as adept at communicating this as we can be or should be.  I know that his teaching on forgiveness brought him hassle from some religious leaders, but this was because he was offering something that was new and life-changing.  I do take heart, however, from the fact that Elijah was not allowed to dwell on his thoughts of death… and sleep was offered by way of respite, recuperation, a means of restoring a bit of balance into a fevered life.

Nourishment for the journey is also a significant feature of this passage:  twice, Elijah is told, ‘Go and eat’…vv.5 and 7… a request with which he complies. V.8 tells us that, ‘he went (on) in the strength of that food’.  Renewed and renewing continuously - and it is helpful to make mention of John 6 at this point, with its reminder that spiritual food is equally as important as physical food.  In a way, it is the word ‘reminder’ that I would convey to you this morning: sometimes, we are so busy, so preoccupied that we neglect nourishment of whatever sort - and we see all too often that others neglect it also.  Yes, we do have a responsibility towards ourselves if we are to be effective in Christian service, but I am more concerned today we adopt readily the OT mantle of angel or messenger, and gently but insistently point out to others when they are running on empty and the need to be filled anew is not simply desirable, but necessary.  If, genuinely, churches are to be communities of care, then we cannot allow a minority of people to take on too much; it is not enough to breathe a sigh of relief when another’s offer creates in us a feeling that we have been spared; there are times when it is better than something is not done, than that other individuals should be burdened in ever more crippling ways.

One of the commonest ‘illnesses’ affecting churches in the UK at the moment is the desire of small churches to run as though they are big churches.  The dynamics of the ‘small’ are completely different to the dynamics of the big; there should be a feeling of liberation, of flexibility within the modest-sized congregation… but more often than not, there is a sense of tiredness which comes from trying to emulate the structures of the large and numerically successful.  Maybe our saying, ‘You shouldn’t do that…’ on several occasions can be a way of bringing release - and therefore kindling new energies - within a church the size of Carrs Lane.  The structures of the future should not be, cannot be a carbon copy of the past.

A final point… from the latter verses of this passage.  Twice – in vv.9 and 13 - God asks Elijah, ‘What are you doing here?’  An unnecessary question, we might think, since the journey has been at God’s prompting; indeed, Elijah appears to feel the same, saying, ‘You called me’, to God.  Sometimes such questions need to be asked, however, obvious though they might appear… Why?  It is important that we learn to reflect on, and to articulate our response to the kind of questions which God asks of us.  In a way, the point of the passage is not that the voice of God comes as a gentle whisper, but that the voice of God comes in a way that is unexpected for the situation.  Sometimes we expect a gentle voice and the very walls rattle - and sometimes subtle breath is detected in the eye of the storm.  Learning to articulate clear responses to God is a way of ensuring that we are listening to his voice at all times.  Constancy of purpose requires consistency of openness.