What Are We Doing Here?
a sermon based on1 Kings 19:1-15a
by Rev. Randy Quinn

Before we read our lesson for today, I wonder if you'd turn to the very back of the pew Bibles and look at the time line.  If the pages were numbered, it would be page 272, about ten pages beyond the last chapter of Revelation.

I'd like to draw your attention to the year 1043 BCE.  That's when it says that Saul became King.  The time line then lists all the Kings of Israel, from Saul to David to Solomon.  Then there is a split, the result of a civil war, followed by a period when two Kingdoms exist side-by-side.  This lasts until 723 when Israel, the Northern Kingdom, is taken by the Assyrians.  (You'll also note that the Southern Kingdom, Judah, meets its demise around 586 when the Babylonians take them into captivity.)

As you can see, there was a long period in which the people lived in the promised land under the rule of a King.  Some 320 years in Israel and 430 years in Judah!

During those years, there were at least two other people who were significant and influential, the High Priest in Jerusalem, and the prophets, most of whom lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  These people often served as advisors to the King, sometimes encouraging them and sometimes chastising them.

Our text for this morning takes place during the reign of King Ahab.  The prophet who was serving as God's spokes­person was Elijah.  Ahab seems to be a King who had no mind of his own.  He was easily influenced by those around him, most notably, his wife, Jezebel.

And it's clear from the texts that Jezebel and Elijah rarely agreed on anything.  Jezebel thought the god Baal had a place in the Kingdom (1 Kgs 16:31), Elijah did not.  Jezebel thought the King could take anyone's possessions simply because he was King (1 Kgs 21), Elijah insisted that he live within the law of Moses which gave each person a right to their own possessions.

The conflict continued to grow throughout King Ahab's reign.

Our reading for today comes from the 19th chapter of 1 Kings.  In the previous chapter, Ahab asks Elijah to have a contest with the priests of Baal.  You may remember reading about their contest.

They each set up an offering.  They each put wood around the altar.  And they each called upon their gods to accept the offering, indicating their acceptance by igniting the fire.

Not surprising to Elijah -- nor to us -- the priests of Baal were not successful.

Elijah taunts them.  He tells them to shout louder, "perhaps he is asleep" (1 Kgs 18:27).  But there was no answer.

Then, to add drama, Elijah pours water all over his sacrifice.  Not once, not twice, but three times (1 Kgs 18:33-35).  Then he says a prayer and Yahweh comes down and consumes the sacrifice with a blaze of fire.

 

Ahab's response is to hand over the priests of Baal to Elijah and go home.

Our text today begins with Ahab reporting this scene to his wife, Jezebel:

                                                      Read 1 Kings 19:1-15a

Throughout the story, it looks as though the conflict is between Ahab and Elijah, though at times it seems to be between Baal and Yahweh.  But Elijah sees the conflict as an issue between Jezebel and himself.

That seems to be the best explanation of why Elijah's response to Jezebel's threat is to run and hide.  Jezebel has set out to have him killed, so Elijah runs away.

 

Elijah, who is able to confront Ahab, cannot confront Jezebel.  Elijah, who is able to confront the priests of Baal, but not Jezebel.  Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh, whose name means "Yahweh is God", runs away in fear when he comes face to face with Jezebel, whose name, by the way, means "Where is Baal?".

Elijah is so certain that he's going to die that he asks God to take his life (1 Kgs 19:4).

But God sees the situation differently.

Has that ever occurred to you?  Is it possible that God sees our circumstances from a different perspective than our own?

Absolutely.  Many of you can name a time when that has happened to you, personally.  Most of the rest of us know of a time when it has happened to someone else.

Three years ago, Ronda and I moved here.  As I have confessed to some of you in private, we were not exactly happy about the move.  We felt we had a good ministry, good friends, and a good life in Saint John.  We could not understand why we were being taken away from that.

But God could see things that we had no way of knowing.  We didn't know then what we know now about Melissa and the resources that are readily available to us here.  We didn't know then what we know now about you and this church and how you would meet our needs as a family.

God saw things from a different perspective than I had.

God confronted Elijah by asking him what he was doing there in the cave -- a cave that an angel had led him to, by the way -- a cave that could very well have been the same place from which Moses had seen the back side of God (Ex 33:21-23).  Elijah's response clearly indicates his fear of Jezebel who is seeking his life.

So God goes by the opening of the cave.  Elijah hears the wind and feels the earth tremble and sees the fire.  And in the still of the night, he knows that God has spoken.

The conflict had been between Jezebel and Yahweh­, not between Jezebel and Elijah.  Elijah was the servant of God, a God who yielded tremendous power.

Yet when God asks again why he is there, Elijah still says the he is running away from Jezebel.

I think I understand Elijah's response.  For two years, when people asked me what I was doing here, I responded by explaining that the Bishop had sent me.  Sure, it was a good place for Melissa, sure it was nice to be near my parents, but it isn't Saint John.

I saw it as an issue between the Bishop and myself.

It wasn't until much later that I realized that the correct answer to why I am here is that God has sent me to this place at this time.

When Elijah realizes that, he leaves the desert and goes back to face Jezebel (1 Kgs 21:23).  As a servant of God, he must go and do God's will.

As I have come to terms with God's call in my life, I too see how I must respond in faithfulness.

But the question remains to be answered by you.  Why are YOU here?

I don't know how all of you will answer that question.  I suspect that each of you will have your own answers to why you are here.  My guess is that at least some of you are here because this is where your friends are.  This is a place where you have cherished memories.  This is a place and a social setting that makes you feel good.

Others may be here to avoid the "Jezebel's" of the world who seem to seek us out to destroy us.  This becomes a place of haven, a place of rest, a place of safety.

And some of you don't know why you're here.

But God asks us the question, what are we doing here?

Like Elijah in the cave, God has visited us.  We have heard the wind, we have felt the earth tremble, we have witnessed the consuming fire, and we have experienced the stillness.  God has been here.

One Jesus asked the crowds why they had gone out into the wilderness to see and hear John the Baptist (Mt 11:7-18).  He helped them see that it wasn't to watch the wind rustling in the bushes, nor was it to see some people in fancy clothes.  They went to hear a prophet of God.  And the appropriate response is to allow the prophet's message to affect us, to allow God to change us.

When we allow it to happen, the presence of God stirs us to action.

It is a call to serve.

It is a call to preach.

It is a call to love.

It is a call to teach.

It is a call to pray.

It is a call to visit the sick.

It is a call that is as particular and unique as each one of us.

Let's all remember that we, like Elijah, are first of all servants of God, children of God.  And we have come here to meet God, to hear and respond to the call of God in our lives -- or we have come for the wrong reasons.

Go forth and serve God in all that you do.

Amen.