Elijah: Earth, Wind, and FIRE
(the service didn’t get recorded this week. sorry. But here’s a bonus special message from Marthame)
Tiffany Kromer (Tiffany’s sermons and other reflections are also available on her blog)
A few years ago, Tim and I visited my parents’ home in Kailua, Hawaii on the island of Oahu…my dad was stationed there at an Air Force base at the time and Tim and I were excited about exploring the whole island. On one of our last days there, we thought it would be a good idea to hike to the northernmost tip of the island. The path was a rocky beach, with a lot of volcano rocks to climb over. It was also a endangered bird preserve with tons of large birds hovering over our heads. We started out in the middle of the afternoon, thinking that we’d be back way before sundown. We got to the northern tip of the island and sat there for a little bit, admiring the expanse of the Pacific Ocean and the sea lion we found sun-bathing on the beach. As we started our way back to the car, we started to hurry because we saw the sun starting to lower. As we walked and climbed our way back, we started running out of water in our water bottles and became a bit panicked once we realized how long it was going to take to get back to the car. Would we make it back before the sun went down? So, being the great wilderness explorers we were, I pulled out my cell phone and called my dad in a panic, telling him that we completely underestimated how long this trail was and that we might get stuck in the dark without light to find our way back. So being the great dad he is, he starts out on the 45 minute drive to the northern part of the island where he would rescue us from our misguided adventure. Thinking back on it, there really wasn’t much that my dad could do for us, but just knowing that we weren’t alone in this wilderness experience gave us strength to keep going. Turns out, just as my dad pulled up next to our car, we arrived at our car, grateful but a bit embarrassed that my dad had to drive all that way to get us.
Elijah didn’t have the luxury of a cell phone he could pull out to call a friend for help when he was in trouble. He couldn’t call a suicide hotline number or an ambulance. He was stuck in the wilderness he chose to go into. He was running, running from everything in his life, running from his job, his responsibilities, even God. He was afraid, afraid for his life. Ironically, in running for his life, he prays to God for his life to end. He is exhausted and discouraged and overwhelmed.
I love that this story is in the Bible. It shows how profoundly human this great prophet is. I mean, the passage before this story is completely different. It shows Elijah as victorious – as saving the day! Theoretically, Elijah should be anything but discouraged. He should be pumped and ready for anything life throws his way. But Elijah is far from that. He’s ready to die. He’s ready to give up. He’s a human being who is just fed up and overwhelmed and exhausted. And, Jezebel wants to kill him, and even though Elijah has handled far worse than Jezebel, he decides to run away instead. It’s just too much for him to handle.
Have you ever felt like this? Life throws everything at you all at once and you find yourself exhausted and overwhelmed and all you can do is throw up your arms and go to sleep. Maybe if you sleep long enough and hard enough you’ll wake up and it will all be a dream and you can wake up to a life a bit more manageable.
However, Elijah forgot about something very important. He could run away from Jezebel, but he could never run away from God. God is with him always, always providing for him, always loving him. Notice that in this story we don’t see God chastising Elijah for running away. Instead, we see God taking care of Elijah, weaning him back to strength. Elijah’s battery is on empty and God is recharging him for the work ahead. I picture God here as a nurse taking care of a sick child, listening patiently, making sure the child takes their medicine and gets enough sleep. Elijah tells God what’s wrong and God is there with him, taking care of him.
Once Elijah is strong enough, God calls him to the mountaintop. And the purpose of this mountaintop experience is not to chastise Elijah. It is to show Elijah that God is even in the small, unexpected things. Sure, it’s easy to see God’s power in earthquakes and wind and fire, but in a whisper—in the silence? Yes, God is most powerful in the small things, the things you’d never expect God to work through.
This mountaintop experience served as a reality check to Elijah. When he stood at attention before God on that mountain, he centered his life in God once again. That’s the only way he could hear God’s whisper, when he’s out of the cave he was hiding and on top of the mountain with his focus entirely on God.
I think this is a great metaphor for prayer. In our lives, there is a ton of loud noise and situations vying for our attention. Silence is a luxury that will only come when we purposely seek it out. And, it is in the silence that we hear God most clearly. And silence isn’t just a lack of noise, it’s also silencing our mind and body so that we can focus on only God. And, yes, that is so hard to do. That’s why prayer is called a spiritual practice. Prayer is a lifelong practice where we practice silencing the noise in our minds and bodies and centering ourselves in God.
OPC will always be so special to me because it was the first church I was called to in ministry. When I first started ministry with you at OPC, I knew it was the right place because of the overwhelming joy I felt in everything I did in ministry. Every day, I came home filled up with good things and confident in God’s call for me to be in ministry here. But, pretty soon things got really busy and that feeling of joy was not enough to sustain me. I became exhausted and overwhelmed, even over the tiniest things. Through talking with my mentors, I realized that in order to take care of others, I had to take care of myself and, in fact, that was part of my calling as well. Prayer and taking a Sabbath day became non-negotiable practices in my life that filled me back up when my battery was completely empty. And, when I practice prayer and Sabbath consistently and well—that is when I hear God whispering to me in the small things in ways I never expected.
The thing I think I’ve found most rewarding about prayer and taking time to rest, is that once I am filled back up, suddenly my life is not centered around me anymore—it is centered around God and where God is calling me to go and how to be God’s hands and feet.
And that’s where we find Elijah after his mountaintop experience. God asks him, “So Elijah what are you doing here in the wilderness, so far away from home?” And Elijah answers honestly, “I’ve been working my heart out for God, because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed your places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”
Yet, in the midst of Elijah’s honest discouragement, God does not let Elijah to go back to his cave and wallow in his loneliness and frustration. Instead, God calls Elijah out of the wilderness—to go back to the scary world he just left and to do ministry. God’s care for Elijah now turns to confidence in Elijah’s call to prophetic ministry. Elijah has rested, filled himself up with nourishment from God, and centered himself in God—although he is scared and still frustrated, he’s ready to go back into ministry. And God will be with him throughout the whole journey. And there will come a time when Elijah will need to retreat and rest and nourish and center himself in God’s presence again. And after regaining his strength, he will go out again. This sacred rhythm is what God teaches Elijah in the wilderness, so that he never gets to the point where he’d rather die than do what he’s called to do.
So, what does Elijah’s journey into the wilderness and back teach you today? Are you running on empty? How can you establish a rhythm in your life where you work hard, but you also find times to recharge your battery and center yourself in God through prayer and Sabbath rest.
And what does Elijah’s journey into the wilderness and back teach Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church? This is an important time in the life of this community of faith. There is a lot of transition, a lot of important decisions to be made, a lot of ministry to do. Even though all this can be exciting, it is easy to get overwhelmed and even frustrated with it all. Because of fear of the unknown, it is easy to turn inward and only focus on the existing members here. But I want to challenge you to resist that temptation.
Yes, the unknown is scary, but remember that God is with you, caring for you and loving you now and the entire journey ahead. Center yourselves in God, pray pray pray pray and pray some more. And then go out and do what God has called you to do—to share the good news of Jesus Christ! You are Christ’s disciples equipped and called for the transformation of the world! Don’t give up, because God will never give up on you. And if you ever feel like you want to give up, rely on that tried and true sacred rhythm of working hard—but rest and pray and center yourself in God as well. OPC is a hard working church, with many thriving and powerful ministries in our community. But there is a time to work hard and there is a time to rest in the presence of God. I pray that you do both, for the sake of your own survival. And as you center yourselves in God through prayer, listen for God whispering to you in the most unexpected places about the most unexpected things. God is doing a new, exciting thing here at Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church. Can we silence our own ideas and opinions and frustrations to hear God whispering truth and love us?
I am honored to have been one of your pastors. It has been an amazing three years in my life and the life of this church. I have seen new growth and energy in the life of this church. I’ve had the privilege of getting to know many of you and partner in ministry with you. You have the most amazing young people and children. Because of the nurture and love they get from this church, I know that God is preparing them for a future that is very bright. You have nurtured and taught me so much about myself as a minister. Through you, God has whispered clearly to me that I am called to be ordained. Knowing God’s call for my life, I too must go out into the unknown. And yes, the unknown is scary, but I know that God has gone before me to prepare a place for me and Tim and that God is always with us and taking care of us. God is doing the same for OPC. God is with you now and in your future, preparing and taking care of you every step of the way. My prayers are with you always and know that I will always look back with gratitude upon our time together in ministry. So now, as we say our goodbyes, let us also look toward the future with joy and anticipation for the new thing that God is doing! AMEN