The King . . .

     Our story from Luke this week might seem out of place in our discussions of kingship and sovereignty over the last few weeks.  After all, Jesus is engaged in spiritual warfare in the story rather than instructing His people how to live economically, politically, and whatever other ways we might like to consider.  Yet the story speaks directly to one of the big problems of kingship.  It will, of course, take me a moment to get us to the point where we can see how the passage speaks to us at Advent in the 21^st Century, but God-willing and inspired, I shall!

     Why does this story come now in Luke’s narrative?  Those of us who have studied Luke’s Gospel understand that this is the fifth exorcism in his Gospel.  There are, however, some significant differences that make the story worthy of our consideration today.  (1) This is the first exorcism that occurs outside the boundaries of Israel.  To us, nearly all of us Gentiles, such an idea is barely worthy of notice.  To 1^st Century Palestine Jews hoping to encounter the Messiah, such a story would be unimaginable.  The Messiah was coming for God’s chosen people, Israel.  Anything that the Messiah would do would be for the benefit of Israel, or so they thought.  We all know that Jesus came first for the Jews, but then we also know that the Jews were meant to be a blessing to the world.  Jesus is simply fulfilling God’s plan for the Jews, right?  Exorcising demons is a theological and supernatural act.  Jesus, we might say, has come to free the Gentiles from the minions of the enemy as much as He has the Jews, His chosen people.

     (2)  This exorcism is the first multiple-possession in Scriptures.  In Roman terms, a legion meant somewhere north of 5000 soldiers, once one considered all the scouts, messengers, and auxiliary troops.  Is it possible that the demons who confront Jesus in this story were claiming to be more than 5000 strong?  It certainly is possible.  Given the time and the emphasis on the legions, I think it wrong to dismiss the idea.  What is important, though, is Jesus’ ability to deal with multiple demons as easily as He can with one, as in the other encounters.  Most of us would be terrified were a single demon to confront us.  Jesus is confronted by multiple, perhaps more than 5000, and is nonplussed.  In fact, in the power dynamics of this encounter, it is the demons who are terrified.  The demon-possessed man falls prostrate before Jesus.  The demons beg Jesus not to torment them.  The demons beg Jesus not to order them into the Abyss.

     It is a curious word, is it not, “order”?  Such is Jesus’ power over the demons that, were He to order them into the Abyss, they would have to obey His command.  Those of us who have seen movies or heard account of exorcisms understand that it is a battle for us to cast one out in Jesus’ Name.  But here, multiple demons beg Jesus not to order them, such is His command over them.

     (3)  This account of Jesus’ encounter with Legion is important because it dwells on the responses of those who hear or see or are affected by Jesus’ miracle.  The exorcised man is dressed, of sound mind, and sitting at the feet of Jesus at the end of the story.  In fact, the man asks Jesus for permission to follow Him and is denied!  Contrast that with the crazed, chain-breaking supernatural strength, and hanging out in the tombs at the beginning of the story.  The townsfolk have a different response, do they not?  They want Jesus to leave.  Clearly, they are afraid of His power, so they ask.  But they do not want Him in the village for any longer than is absolutely necessary!  Ah, we are all like Augustine, are we not?  “Lord save me, just not today!”

     (4)  The exorcism of Legion comes within the overarching story of Jesus demonstrating His power and authority over nature, the supernatural, disease, and even death.  We might say in modern language that Jesus is proving who He is.  Who else but God’s Anointed can calm the weather, cast out multiple demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead?  Who else, indeed!

     (5)  Finally, the story is unique because it is the only miracle in Luke in which other creatures besides humans are involved.  I know there has been a great deal written and taught about the presence of the pigs over the centuries.  Some have suggested that the pigs represent the apostate life of the people of Gerasene.  Since they were not Jews, however, it would be hard to consider them apostate.  Others have suggested that the pigs, grazing in the area of tombs, simply illustrate the uncleanliness of the human heart.  Perhaps that is part of it.  I think the more likely rason for their presence is that they demonstrate to us, in graphic detail, the chaos and destruction inflicted upon humanity by God’s enemy and his minions.  We in the modern western world scoff at the idea demons and their influence.  But Luke’s narrative serves as an important reminder that, although the demons are unseen, they are dangerous and life-taking.

     So, what does all this have to do with the idea of kingship?  How does this story fit in with God’s idea of His Anointed ruling for our benefit?  In many ways, the answers are obvious.  We live on this side in history of the Empty Tomb, so we know that Jesus is who He said He was.  He is the Son of God, the Messiah.  All authority belongs to Him.  That claim, of course, is not just salvific.  It is a claim that transcends politics, that transcends, economics, that transcends philosophy, that transcends individuality, and transcends even our sins which served to separate us from full communion with God.  We might like to think that God is happy when we give Him 90 minutes on a Sunday, as if we important people are doing Him a favor by giving up some of our time to worship Him, but is that all that our salvation is worth?  Were our lives really only worth 90 minutes of our time each week?  Of course not, our lives are everything to us, and that is precisely what we are expected to offer Him in thanksgiving for what He has done for us!

     We may not like to admit it, but each one of us is like the man possessed in Gerasene.  Most of us are slaves to our appetites and cravings.  Our addictions might even be socially acceptable like gluttony or alcoholism, but they are there.  They plague us.  What’s worse, misery likes company.  Often, so long as those appetites are acceptable, our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors, and even our family will try to console us with the statements “it’s not so bad” or “everybody does it.”  We know it is wrong, yet those around us will often try hard not to make us feel bad about those wrong things we are doing.  Think I am wrong?  What are society’s teachings about drugs or alcohol now?  What are society’s teaching on casual sex now?  What is society’s teaching on marriage and divorce?  What is society’s teaching about any law that we break?  Truth and moral uprightness have become a major casualty of the currents winds and passions of society.  If you have a sin that seems unacceptable today, just work the press and social media to demonstrate that you are normal.  And, here’s where we ought to feel most uncomfortable, how is the Church much different from the society it is called to serve or to invite?  Ouch is right.

     What happens in the story is indicative, I think, of society when the collective encounters the Risen Christ.  There are many lessons in this pericope, but watch the crowd.  The demoniac has been relegated to the tombs.  At times he has been chained there.  Society has shunted him off to the side, unable to help him.  Jesus comes along and cures the demoniac.  How should the community respond?  Presumably, since he lived in that area, he had family and friends.  Should not they be overjoyed at his cure?  Should they not give thanks that he seems of right mind, that he is clothed, and that is studying at the feet of a rabbi, in this case THE Rabbi?  This itinerant teacher just commanded a legion of demons to leave, and they did!  Talk about a cause for celebration!  Yet the crowds, the community, responds in fear.  When told of the story of the healing, the people of the surrounding country were seized with great fear.  They asked the Healer, the King, to leave.  Can you imagine?

     Of course we can imagine!  The modern world responds in much the same way to the power and authority of God.  Ever been asked what you think God would think about a behavior, an activity, or an idea?  What happened when you shared that idea?  More likely than not, there was scoffing and marginalizing.  Ever stick your nose into someone else’s business uninvited with what you think is good biblical advice?  How did that go over?  Again and again we see the reminder from John 1 played out into the world.  He came into His own, yet His people did not know Him.  Humanity loves the darkness far more than the Light!

     It is a fearful thing to ponder the authority and power of Jesus.  If Jesus is who He says He is, He is the singular focal point of the cosmos.  He is the singular focal point of history.  He is the singular focal point of authority.  Of wisdom.  Of love.  If He is who He says He is, that means we are doing a lot of things wrong.  How many of us put Him first in our lives?  How many of us love our neighbors as ourselves?  How many of us live a life to encourage others into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ?  All the time?  And if we fail at the “important” big Two commandments, how many more times do we fail at the little things He teaches?  What happens when we fail kings?  It is no wonder many are terrified at His claim and power and authority.

     Of course, if Jesus is who He says He is, He is also the Good Shepherd.  He is the ruler who lays down His life for His sheep.  He has come to save, not condemn.  He came not to terrify, but to call.  But that saving act on His part requires an assent on ours.  We yield to His authority.  We call Him Lord.  We make a conscious decision to do our best to follow Him.  In baptismal language, we die to self so that we can live to glorify Him in our lives.  And so begins a King and subject relationship unlike any in the rest of the world.  His disciples make seemingly strange claims like “In serving Him is perfect freedom.”  But His disciples understand that He wants what is best for us.  And, unlike even good kings, who may try their best, Jesus knows what we need.  Best of all, nothing can separate us from Him, once we have chosen Him.

     Our King can send us to the edges of the world, into spiritual or physical battles, into common or uncommon ministries around us, and we can go confident that we will share in His glory for all eternity.  Such is His authority that even death itself, just like a horde of demons, must bow to His commands.  That authority, that power, just as the power and authority to cast aside a legion of demons, gives people pause.  That kind of power and that kind of authority is terrifying because it reminds us how strong the One wielding it is and how impotent we truly are.  And make no mistake.  One day, all will stand before Jesus.  Either they will have acknowledged Him as King and will be admitted into the kingdom He has prepared for us, or they will have refused “to bend the knee”and be cast out like the demons.  I do not think it much of a surprise that the villagers respond to the presence of Jesus much like that of the demons.  Both know His power and authority; neither are willing to yield.

     Brothers and sisters, we live in an age that thinks kings are all like George Martin’s humanity on Game of Thrones or even worse.  Part of our message, though, is that there are kings and then there is the King.  The King came to save, not condemn.  The King came to show us the path to the Father.  The King died and lived and ascended that you and I and all who call upon His name might also live forever.  More amazingly, the King came and worked healing in your life, my life, and the lives of all who gather to worship Him, that we might be made fit ambassadors for Him, heralds of His Gospel, and proclaimers of His release.  Put much shorter, you and I and all who claim Christ as Lord and King are like the demoniac of Gerasene, now finally free, in right mind, at the foot of the Teacher, and equipped to proclaim His transformative work in us to those whom we know and meet in our own lives!

Peace,

Brian†

Who rules our lives and our hearts?

     After a bit of jumping back and forth in chapters eighteen and seventeen these last three weeks, we get to jump ahead a bit into chapter 21 of 1 Kings this week.  If you have been gone or if you are new, you have missed some really good stories.  We have read of the Battle of the priests or gods, where Elijah does battle with 450 priests of Baal.  We have read of God raising the widow’s son to life, at the intercession of Elijah.  During those discussions, I have reminded us that Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, although they are titled like history books, are not history books in the way that we want or expect.  The books tell the story of the difficulty of finding a king after God’s own heart.  We might say they are a theological commentary on the monarchy.  Unfortunately, most of that commentary is negative.

     With the exceptions of Josiah and Hezekiah, each king does worse than his ancestors.  The further we get from David, the further from God each generation tends to drift.  It makes sense to us, right?  Many of us are the descendants of immigrants.  Some of us here at Advent are within the first couple generations of immigration.  How well do we retain the cultures of our origin?  How well do our children retain and respect the cultures of our origins.  Over time, much of what made us “us” is lost, and we become whatever we are.  As each king drifts further and further from God, it makes sense that their sons become less and less men who obey and teach God.  It is a tad ironic, is it not?  The king’s primary responsibility is to study the torah and teach it to the people.  As each succeeding generation rejects the torah, the further and further the royal family drifts, and the further the people of Israel drift, from God.

    How far have they drifted?  Chapter 21 ought to shock us, but we are 21^st Century Americans.  It is hard for us to grasp what Ahab is trying to do.  We might be shocked at Jezebel’s scheming and plotting, though maybe our politics insulates us against that.  What really ought to sock us, though, is the king’s effort to take the hereditary land from a faithful citizen of Israel.

     We have a few high Anglo-Catholics among us, but I don’t know that many of us would really be threatened by the loss of Communion.  I often think we are Protestant enough that most of us would shrug off ex-Communication and promptly head to another church.  NBD.  But really it is.  It is a cutting off, a declaration that the one ex-communicated is outside the covenant, outside the people of God, excluded from fellowship, no longer part of the Body of Christ.  If we understood communion and threat of ex-Communication well, we would better understand what is happening in this passage and the reason for the critique.

     Israel is outward sign of the spiritual and inward grace, to use our Prayer Book language, is possession of the Land.  How do they know God is in charge?  Because they are in their Land?  How do they know God cares for them?  Because God keeps the family in the Land?  If you can make that jump between real estate and communion, you can begin to understand the importance of the hereditary land claims of Israel.  That’s why the Exile was so tough.  Being dispossessed of their Land made them worry whether Yahweh had lost in the celestial battles or whether He had simply given up on them for their unrighteous behavior.  It gives us understanding about their inheritance practices and economic practices.

     We might look upon levirate marriage as barbaric or nuts, but the Jews looked upon it as keeping the family alive and in possession of the family inheritance.  If a family died out, clearly there was a problem, right?  Surely it signified God’s displeasure with that family, right?  You can imagine the discussions.  Plus, who gets the land?  If the land belonged to the Smith’s, should it transfer to their neighbors, the Jones’ or the Martin’s?  Can you imagine the fights over good pieces of land?  Economically, the people of Israel were forced to redistribute the wealth, to a limited degree, every seventh year.  If I was doing a bad job of running the farm or winery or business on my west forty, I could sell myself and my land to Hunter or Gregg or someone else as an indentured servant.  Whoever was buying me really was only buying my time—you and I would call it renting.  The next year of the Jubilee, which occurred every seven years, my land would revert to me, and I would be freed of my debt.  Perhaps you are beginning to understand why moving a field marker, a boundary line, was a subject of the torah.  It was not to be done.  Now, maybe, you understand why Naboth refused to part with his land.  Perhaps you get an idea as to how Israel should have heard this story.  It is not merely a theft of property; it is an attempt to cut a family off from its inheritance from God!

     Ahab, we are told, goes into a funk.  He goes to bed and faces the wall.  Jezebel walks in to see why he is pouting.  Ahab explains his situation.  Jezebel reminds him he is king and promises to take action on his behalf.  We are given the important details of her plot.  Naboth is lured to a dinner where two scoundrels testify that Naboth blasphemed both the king and the Lord.  Here, of course, because it is to their advantage, the king and queen use the testimony of the scoundrels to have poor Naboth stoned.  Ahab gets the plot of land.  And everything seems normal to Americans living in the 21^st Century, right?  We are used to the powerful getting their way at the expense, and sometimes death, of those less fortunate themselves.  We have prison companies that depend on institutionalized racism and social behavior of minorities to enrich themselves, don’t we?  Were any of us really surprised at the news about Flint, MI?  Are we ever surprised when the rich and powerful avoid justice?

     Thankfully, God cares a great deal about justice.  In fact, Scripture reveals to us that justice is one of the virtues to which He really pays attention.  We can rightfully say that God is love, that God is holy, that God is just, that God is light, that God is mercy, and so on.  God sends His prophet Elijah to the vineyard of Naboth to pronounce judgment on Elijah.  Think about this for a second before we consider the message for us.  Naboth is a nobody in the eyes of Ahab and Jezebel and all those who conspired to kill him.  Yet God knows Naboth.  More importantly, God knows what Ahab and Jezebel and the others have done.  He commands Elijah to go and give a death sentence to the king.  We have skipped over a bunch of the readings, but Ahab and Jezebel have plotted Elijah’s death on more than one occasion.  They despise his voice.  It gets so bad that Elijah goes into a snit over God’s unwillingness to punish them for their sins.  He whines that he is the only one who is faithful and demands to see God face to face.  In effect, Elijah wants to judge God.

     Elijah’s encounters with God, of course, change him.  Elijah walks through the mountain top experience of the battle of the gods and the slaying of 450 priests of Baal.  Elijah has the privilege of calling a dead son back to life.  Elijah even gets a personal theophany.  But, much of his work is not so glorious.  Much of his work is what you and I would call the daily grind of serving God.  He is ridiculed.  He is harangued.  He is threatened.  Worse, sometimes he is ignored.  But his walk with God has taught him much about God.  And now, in the face of certain death, he goes to the vineyard as commanded, trusting that God will redeem the situation.

     Lest you feel sorry for Ahab, and we should a bit because he was descended from David and should have known better, look at how God’s king greets the prophet of God.  “Have you found me, O my enemy?”  If you had any doubts that Ahab knew what he was doing, this should satisfy you.  If you worried that maybe he was being punished for the plot of Jezebel and plausibly deniably innocent, this should satisfy you.  Ahab thinks the prophet of God, the voice of God, is his enemy.

     Elijah’s judgment may not sound too harsh to our ears, so I will explain it a bit.  Dogs were not well loved in the ANE, but they were avoided by the Jews.  We have our Spots, and Fido, and Snoopy’s.  The ANE knew them mostly as wild animals, ranging in packs.  The big problem with dogs, of course, was their diet.  Dogs would eat anything, including dead animals.  Now I see it dawning in your expressions.  Yes, dogs were considered unclean.  If you petted Spot in Israel, you needed to be purified before you could worship again.  Now, listen to Elijah’s pronouncement one more time.  Ahab essentially tried to cut Naboth off from God.  Ahab tried to take Naboth’s inheritance from him, signifying his apartness from God.  God not only knows the intent of Ahab and Jezebel, but His punishment fits the crime.  If life is in the blood, as we like to think, Ahab and Jezebel are cut off from God for ever.  The punishment they devised in their scheming for Naboth is, instead, visited upon them.  All of Ahab’s male family members will be cut off. 

     This story, where the wealthy and powerful take advantage of the poor who are simply trying to live their lives, ought to be a strong counter-voice to the siren song of today.  The powerful ought not run roughshod over the weak.  The rich ought not scorn the poor.  The faithless ought to be careful in their dealings with the faithful.  Those lessons, though good, are not the primary lesson of 1 Kings, and they ought not be the primary lesson we take away from today.  Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles recognizes there is a problem.  Who will rule for God?  In the beginning of Samuel, the people do not have a king because God is their king.  But they nag God for a king.  Samuel reminds them that kings take their money, their daughters, and their sons for their own purposes, but the people refuse to listen.  So God gives them a king after their own heart: Saul.  Once Saul is cut off for his refusal to listen to God, David becomes king.  Now, for all his heart, David committed some terrible sins.  He even allowed the consequences of his sins to be visited upon the innocent that he ruled.  Unlike Saul, David repents of his sins.  When corrected by the prophet, David recognizes his sin, names it, and asks God to forgive him.  Those who follow in his footsteps, though, drift away from God.  Even though God swears this incredible covenant with David, his sons and grandsons and great-grandsons and so on continue to depart from him.  Josiah and Hezekiah stand out because they returned to the Lord in the midst of a family that forgot its roots, forgot God’s promises.

     We know, of course, that the Son of David who will rule for God will be Jesus.  We live on this side of the Cross and Empty Tomb, so we recognize that Jesus is the Prophet, the Priest, and the King of God.  Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles focus on that last rule.  Who will rule for God in a way that glorifies God?  Who will not make the mistakes of David?  Who will mete justice and mercy in a way that follows God’s heart?  Our Lord Christ.

     When we think of the different roles of Christ Jesus, particularly in America, I think there is an effort to de-politicize our Lord.  I know.  I know.  Democrats and Republicans both want to claim that He would be a member of their party.  But can you imagine the party elites, who struggled with a socialist and a television personality this election season, embracing the Son of God?  But rather than chuckling at them, let us look at our own thoughts and ideas.

     We might admit He was a good teacher.  We might like to think He tapped into God’s wisdom.  But how many of us treat Him as our King?  By that I mean how many of us believe that what He taught He meant?  Surely He did not mean we are to support widows and orphans?  When He said to pray for our enemies, He could not have meant ISIS, could He?  When He said to take a day off, He was only speaking to agrarians and not industrialized people, right?  To accept Christ as Lord is as much a political statement as a theological statement, as much a declaration of economic revolution as a declaration of salvation.  To accept that Christ is Lord is to accept the idea that He knows what is best for us, best for us economically, politically, salvifically, redemptively.  But do we put that understanding into practice in our lives?  More importantly, do we repent when we don’t?  Are we more like David, or are we more like Ahab and Saul?

     Do we run roughshod over the Naboth’s in our lives?  Some of us are business owners; many of us our supervisors of one degree or another.  How do we treat those over whom we have authority?  Do we pay our employees living wages?  Do we demand that they work unpaid hours to make up for our mistakes?  Do we demand that their jobs come first in their lives?  Do we rule as we would be ruled, with grace and mercy?

     Do we ignore God’s voice in our lives?  Do we think that God has command over us for sixty to ninety minutes on Sunday’s but that we know what is best for us in the workplace the other six days of the week?  Are we quicker to consult friends or Dear Abby or Reddit when we have a problem than we are to seek Him and His guidance in prayer?  Do we forgive others when they sin against us, or do we hold a grudge?  I see the squirming.  Maybe I should stop before I hit too close to home.

     Brothers and sisters, who is Lord of your life?  Who is the king seated upon your heart?  Is it a figure the world admires, or is it the God-Man who died for you and who empowers you to do incredible work in His name?  As you each know, Jesus was the solution to our problem.  Who would rule us as God would have us ruled?  To whom could we turn in trust, knowing that His King wanted only what was best for us?  Who would make it possible for us to bridge that chasm that existed between us and God because of our sin?  Why, given what we know about what He did for each one of us, are we slow to give Him the reigns to our life?  Why are we still so stubborn and unwilling to grant Him the authority He so magnificently earned?  Why don’t we trust the One who made sure we did not suffer the fate threatened to Naboth and earned by Ahab and Jezebel?

     Perhaps, sitting here today, you have thought of those places where you do not trust God’s authority in your life.  Perhaps, while listening to me blather on, you have heard the Holy Spirit speaking to you of matters close to your heart, of those places where you think you are in charge.  Why not trust Him even in those difficult spots?  Why not ask Him to help your own unbelief, that you might surrender your life to His Will, His promises, and His eternal hope!  This King Jesus, after all, is as just as He is merciful; as loving as He is uncompromising; as powerful as He is humble.  He, and only He, is fit to be King for God and in our lives.  It is that King to whom we should be pointing all people, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our subordinates, and even those we do not see or would rather wish we did not have to be near.

Peace,

Brian†

A note on Orlando . . .

     How can we help?  What can we do?  What should we say?  These are just a few of the questions surrounding the shooting at the club in Orlando this past weekend.  As we gathered for worship, the details of the shooting were still very fuzzy when our Chalice Bearers added the shooting to our Prayers of the People.  Predictably, in the immediate aftermath and especially in an election year, people are wrestling for control of the narrative.  Some have tried to make the story all about gun control; others have tried to make the story all about homophobia; others have tried to make the story all about the Islamic threat to our country and our values; others have tried to blame law enforcement for a dereliction of duty; still others have waded into the discussion with the unhelpful wisdom that this was God’s continuing judgment on our nation.  Perhaps you have even read a few more tag lines in your Facebook and Twitter feeds.  Forty-nine lives were snuffed out; fifty-three individuals suffered injuries during the shooting; families are grieving; so does our Lord.

     Now, less than thirty-six hours from the horrific event of early Sunday morning, we are learning that the situation is far more complex than pundits would want.  Yes, the shooter was a Muslim; but he does not seem to have gone to Mosque very often.  Yes, he targeted a bar frequented by the Orlando GLBTQI community, but, according to reports, he seems to have frequented the bar for over three years.  Some patrons knew him by name.  Some knew that he had “good days” and “bad days” and to stay away from him on those good days.  He was married and had a child.  He seems to have caused enough concern in the minds of others that he was reported as a threat to the welfare and safety of others.  He was interviewed and investigated by the FBI.  He had the funds a legal right to purchase an expensive weapon, but it seems to have been a Sig Sauer MCX rather than the reported AR-15.  One witness describes his laughter while shooting as “not human” and “maniacal”.  If we have discovered so much about the conflicting backstory of these events in less than two full days, imagine what we will know by this time next week?  Next month?  Still, forty-nine lives were snuffed out; fifty-three individuals suffered injuries during the shooting; families are grieving; so does our Lord.

     In their efforts to take control of the narrative, opposing sides are using the forty-nine and fifty-three for their own purposes.  And there begins our first response in Nashville.  Pray for the forty-nine individuals whose lives were cut short.  Pray for the fifty-three individuals whose easiest injuries from which to recover will be the bullet wounds.  The survivor guilt and screams of others, and the picture of the dead seared into their minds, will be far more challenging and will linger far longer than the physical scars.  Pray for the one, the shooter, the perpetrator of evil.  Pray for the loved ones of all those involved.  Pray for the first responders, who waded into danger to save lives.  Pray for the surgeons and nurses in the emergency room, whose expertise ensured that the number of deaths was not higher.  Pray for the mental health professionals and pastors who will come along later to help all affected deal with the aftermath.  Pray for those who would use the deaths of forty-nine individuals and the wounds of fifty-three more for political points, one-upsmanship, and any other silly games.  Pray that whatever failures in the system that may have contributed to this senseless tragedy come to light, that future events might be prevented.  And pray that our brothers and sisters who are involved in any associated ministry are empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak God’s mourning and God’s redemptive power into such evil.  Pray especially for our brother and sister Episcopalians in the diocese of Central Florida.  They will be the primary witnesses to God’s mourning heart and His redemptive power in their community as their lives return to the new normal following a collective trauma.  Forty-nine lives were snuffed out; fifty-three individuals suffered injuries during the shooting; families are grieving; so does our Lord—that is their new normal.

     If we are doing our jobs as disciples of our Lord Christ, people at work and in our social circles will no doubt look to us and ask us for answers.  Do not be surprised.  Do not be afraid.  Do not expect to have all the answers.  Darkness tried hard to eclipse the light; it is only natural that people will be drawn to His light living in you!  You may not know the right answers to all the questions, but you do know the One who does.  Pray.  He will give you the words of comfort and hope.  Forty-nine lives were snuffed out; fifty-three individuals suffered injuries during the shooting; families are grieving; so is our Lord.

     I would encourage all Adventers to resist the temptation to wade into the discussions the pundits would like us to have.  Those discussions seek only to divide and to scare and to narrate a story for the benefit of an election.  They do not seek to mourn the loss of life; they do not seek to acknowledge or to mourn the pain suffered by those who survived; they do not seek to bring healing; and they certainly do not speak to the power of God to defeat all evil.  It was precisely for events such as these and for the individuals in Orlando that He came down, died, and was raised again.  You and I are called to speak to the Truth of God, to His Gospel, to His glorious brilliance, and to the Hope He gives each of us, no matter our circumstances and no matter how dark the evil.

     In time, I am sure our brothers and sisters in Central Florida will give us more ways to help.  For now, pray, answer the questions of those who engage you, and remember that forty-nine lives were snuffed out; fifty-three individuals suffered injuries; families are grieving; and so is our Lord.

Peace,

Brian†

Heralds of life, salvation, and hope in a world full of death and hopelessness . . .

     Let’s get it out of the way quick.  Last week, I praised the editors of the lectionary for keeping a challenging reading in our cycle, albeit one that we only read when Easter comes early in the calendar.  This week, we have to wonder what they were thinking.  This week, we read part of chapter 17 of 1 Kings, which comes before the chapter 18 section we read last week.  This week’s reading is important, too, for it sets the scene of judgment in our reading last week.  Elijah is God’s prophet.  When he commands that Israel choose whom they will follow and then the death of the priests of Baal, he is the spokesman for God!  Put simply, Elijah reminds us of the choice that God says we each need to make, and he reminds us of the consequences of our choice.

     This week’s story, though, is more than establishing Elijah’s bonafides for last week’s story.  The story should speak to us about how you and I engage in the world around us as God’s representatives or heralds.  Where are we called to speak?  What are we called to say or do?  How do we know we are having any impact?

     The prophet of God has a big problem.  The king and his wife are refusing to follow the commands of God and to listen to God’s prophet.  King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are so inimical to God that they are tearing down the altars to God in the high places and erecting altars to the worthless Baals, and they want to kill the prophet sent by God to correct them, chasten them, and judge them. 

     In one sense, of course, it is not a new problem.  Few of us have read the books of Kings.  Those who have read the books notice quickly that, although there is some significant history contained in the pages of the two books, the relation of history is not the primary focus of the author of the books.  Instead, the primary focus is a theological commentary on the rulers of Israel.  In post-Incarnation terms, we might say that the author is very concerned with God’s anointed king.  Who will it be?  Each son, with a couple notable exceptions, does “evil in the sight of the Lord more than those who came before him.”  Those of us who come to the books of Kings expecting a press release supporting the sons of David and their rule should be stunned at the commentary of these pages.  God is pointing out the failures and evil behavior of those who were anointed in His name.  It’s a strange way to govern, and it is a stranger way to convince people that David’s line is the line chosen of God.

     Even stranger to our eyes and ears, the author is not too concerned with matters that often interest historians.  Insofar as the actions and decisions and thoughts of the king are aligned or conflict with God, they are shared with us.  But a lot of the “day to day” stuff of the various kings is ignored, presumed to be covered extensively in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel, which has been lost to history.

     Where are we in our story?  God has just instructed Elijah to proclaim a drought.  If you will recall, God had taught Israel that He controlled the rains.  When they kept the covenant, He blessed them and sent the rain.  When they failed to keep the covenant, He cursed them and withheld the rain.  Here we are, then, just after the pronouncement of a drought of years’ duration.  We know from last week that it lasts more than three years.  Ahab and Jezebel are not going to like this pronouncement of Elijah.  Given their efforts later in the story, it is fair to assume that they would just as soon kill the prophet.

     God sends Elijah to a wadi east of Jerusalem, where God will provide for Elijah.  Not surprising to us who understand God’s abundance, God not only gives Elijah water but also bread and meat via ravens, who bring the supplies to Elijah each day.  Eventually the wadi dries up and God sends Elijah on a journey.  He is to travel to Zaraphath, which is in Sidon, where a widow has been commanded to provide for Elijah.  It is a strange command, no doubt, to Elijah.  This would be like God telling us to head up to Clarksville, where He will provide for us living in Nashville.  It’s a long journey.  What’s worse, it’s outside Israel, which means it is outside the covenant people.  We who come after Jesus in history understand the surprise Elijah must have felt, but we also recognize that God intended for the seed of Abraham to bless all the nations.  In that context, the command is not as surprising.  But think in these terms, the prophet of God must be tended in lands outside the people of God.  It is not a good commentary on Israel.

     Elijah heads north as he is commanded.  Upon his arrival at the village, he sees a widow gathering sticks.  He calls to her and asks for water.  The widow goes to obey the man, which should seem stranger to our ears than it does.  He is a foreigner, an Israelite.  He is not of her people.  More importantly, she is near starvation.  As we will learn, she is about to prepare her last meal and lay down to die.  As I have shared with you all numerous times these last eighteen months, widows had tenuous existences in the ANE, to say the least.  It was a difficult world to begin with, but if there was no father, husband, or son to provide, widows were usually reduced to begging or prostituting themselves to survive.  Still, despite the circumstances, she goes to get the jar of water.

     Elijah, of course, knows that this is the widow commanded by God.  What he has asked of her is difficult.  She has no tie to Elijah; she does not yet know him to be the prophet of Yahweh.  Yet she goes to get the water.  So he asks for the morsel of bread in her hand.  It is then that we receive more of her background story.  She is a widow, she has one son, and they are nigh to starving to death.  In fact, she says that she has given up.  She was gathering sticks to bake the last of her meal and oil into bread for her and her son to eat as a last meal.

     Elijah tells her not to be afraid, to bake him and then them some cake.  God has decreed that her jars of oil and meal will not run out until He sends rain on the earth again.  The widow does as she is instructed, and the Lord keeps His promise.  Even though there was barely enough for a couple morsels for a last meal when Elijah first encounters the widow, the meal and oil last for many days with her cooking for all three of them!

     Then, we are told, the son becomes ill and dies.  Again, we cannot begin to imagine the weight of this death on this woman.  As a widow, it is likely that she was hoping to just hold on until her son grew old enough to take over the family farm or business and begin to support her.  Now, that hope has been taken from her.  With the son dead, there is no one to care for her in the future.  It is no wonder she is angry and hopeless.  What’s worse, she assumes that the death of her son is a punishment from the man of God.  “You have come to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my sin!”  Interestingly, this woman who was a few verses earlier preparing a last meal before laying down to die with her son is now really mad he is dead.  More on that in a moment.

     I often tell you all that I have the pastoral sensibilities of a slug.  Those who have engaged in serious conversations with me can testify to the sometimes truth of that statement.  I have been known to spiritually punch people in nose as less than opportune times.  I may have to start saying that I have the pastoral sensibilities of Elijah.  It sounds better than a slug to our ears, but notice his pastoral care.  He says nothing to her.  Nothing.  He simply takes the body of the son upstairs.

     It is there, out of her sight, that he begins to argue and intercess before God.  “O Lord my God, have You brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying?”  It seems cruel to Elijah, like God has cut the widow off at the knees.  God has given her hope in the form of sustenance, but then He has taken away her one real hope, her living son.  Elijah lays the body of the boy on the bed, stretches himself upon the boy, and asks God three times to let the child’s life come into his body again.

     The Lord, of course, listens to Elijah’s intercession.  The boy is revived. And Elijah leads him back down to his mother for a reunion the joy of which we can only faintly imagine.  It is there, upon the encounter with her revived son that the widow confesses that Elijah is the prophet of the Lord, and that the word of the Lord in Elijah’s mouth is truth.

     It is a great story.  It is paired with our story in Luke today because of some obvious commonalities and a couple significant differences.  Why, though, should we read it?  Why should the story stand apart from the story we read last week, which comes after this story?

     In many ways, the world is no different today than it was two and a half millennia ago.  Oh, sure, the technology has made us way more productive, but human nature is human nature.  Like then, today any idiot can be a harbinger of death.  Nothing prevents anyone from researching on the internet how to build a bomb and thereby becoming terror to companies or towns or maybe countries.  Less than nothing prevents a herald of death from walking into a gun show, purchasing an automatic weapon (or a weapon that is automaticked easily), and terrorizing a school, a business, a community, or a region. 

     Heck, it is even easier if one simply wants to use words to incite fear and hopelessness.  Our election is proof of that, isn’t it?  Democratic shills would have us believe that the country could never survive a Trump presidency, even as Republican shills would have us believe the same about a Hillary presidency.  What’s even more ironic is that we have a billionaire and multimillionaire each claiming to represent the middle class.  Over the last decade, surveys tell us that much of the middle class has lost hope in the American dream, that the middle class has shrunk significantly these last ten years or so, and our two major party candidates claim to be one of us.  You all are chuckling at the thought, and we in Brentwood and Nashville are blessed by American standards!  We are among the most fortunate communities this last decade, and we hear the hallow ring of their assertion that they get us, that they know our fears, our worries, and our pains!  Think of how those words ring in other communities such as Detroit or Flint?  Ferguson?  Antioch?

     And dare we start on the Church?  I am sure I pay more attention to the words coming from pulpits than many of you, but I cannot help but think of the warts on the Bride of Christ.  We have men and women proclaiming the dates of the Second Coming, pretending to know the mind of God in that matter even though Scripture says no one knows but the Father.  When the date comes and goes, and Jesus does not come again, He and the Bride are mocked and distrusted a bit more.  We have men and women from the pulpits echoing the voices of the political shills, claiming that God’s anointing is on one or the other candidates, and that voting for the “other” candidate is to cross the will of God and to risk hell.  Seriously?  Can you imagine what God must really think of our candidates?  Somehow, I don’t think He would align Himself as a Democrat or as a Republican?  He might have one or two good things to say about the Parties, but I daresay there would be far more criticisms.  As we reminded ourselves last week, we have leaders proclaiming that all religions lead to God, that there is no real distinction between those who worship the Baals and those who worship the Lord.  We have leaders who prey on the sheep rather than tend the sheep.  We have leaders who teach that the Bible cannot be trusted.  We have leaders who teach that our circumstances dictate the live for which our Lord has for us, that if we are suffering He must be punishing us.  I and you could no doubt go on.

     Yet, you and I are called to be heralds of the Gospel.  We are called, just as Elijah was in his day, to be proclaimers of God’s love for us.  To do that, we must first be honest with ourselves, that we are sinners in need of redemption, and that we have found that redemption in the Lord Christ, as God foretold and promised.  That honesty with ourselves, that humility, ought to drive us to share with others the saving work God has done in our lives and the lives of others.  But that humility prevents us from lording our salvation over others.  We recognize at our deepest core that we are not special, that we do not deserve the grace and mercy offered us.  And that recognition produces thanksgiving and joy.  Sharing His offer of salvation should not be a chore.  It should be a privilege, a wonder, an opportunity.  More importantly, that humility and joy prepares us to be heralds of abundant life in Christ, even in the midst of the worst that the world has to offer.

     No doubt, as I was speaking of the heralds of death, you thought of a situation which grabbed your attention.  Maybe it was Sandy Hook in light of automatic weapons?  Maybe it was Ferguson or the AME church in Charleston in light of racial violence?  Maybe it was Flint in light of a government poisoning the very people it is called to serve?  No doubt at least one grabbed your imagination.  Perhaps you wondered where God was in that mess in a situation or you wondered if He was.  And if you and me, Christians by choice, wonder, imagine how the rest of the world feels.  Yet each of those tragic situations, each of those stories, also has stories of redemption in their midst.  At Sandy Hook we now have heard of stories of teachers protecting their children by hiding them from the killer, laying down their life for their students confident that He would give it back to them.  At the AME Church in Charleston, we have heard amazing testimonies of forgiveness and hope and even of a recognition of martyrdom of a people whose ancestors in that town less than 150 years ago were mere property – slaves!  Even in Flint, there are stories trickling out, no pun intended, of churches providing water for people in the neighborhoods to drink.  Hmmm.  Life giving water, where have I heard that before?

     Look back at our story today.  Place yourself in the life of the widow.  She of all people had no reason to hope.  Her husband was dead.  Her father was dead.  If she had brothers, they were dead or had abandoned her--the result being the same.  Now nature seemed to have conspired against her with a drought.  It is no wonder that she welcomed death.  It is no wonder that she intended to eat a final meal and lay down to die with her son.

     Into that hopeless scene is sent the man of God.  Elijah goes to her in her foreign land and foreign circumstances.  He promises God’s provision.  After a few days, what happens?  She gets a little feisty.  She who was content to lay down and die a few verses earlier now begins to argue with the man of God, and by proxy God.  Still, as good as the story of provision and hope is, is it not enough in her circumstances.  God, through Elijah, must teach her that He is the Lord of life!  Our message of hope in hopelessness and provision in the midst of privation are good, but they pale compared to the Gospel of life from death!  God’s revival of her son naturally teachers her who He is.  The circumstances we face in life He did not intend.  All this is marred by sin; none of it is as our Lord intended.  We, like Elijah, are empowered and entrusted to be heralds of that life in the midst of death!  We are called, commissioned, and commanded to proclaim to others that God does not want to condemn them, but that He wants to bless them, restore them, and provide for them in His Son our Lord!

     Our specific circumstances may differ from the widow, but we are as empowered to proclaim life in the midst of death as the great Elijah.  How so?  Do not our intercessors ask God to redeem the situations of those who ask us to intercede?  Widows may receive pensions and social security in our neck of the woods, but we know people who face death from cancer, from heart disease, from accidents, and others causes.  Do we just pity them, or do we not ask the Lord to intervene and heal and bring life where there is death?  And where that miracle does not occur, do we not ask of Him for eyes to see and ears to hear how the sufferings serve His redemptive purposes?

     Each of you gathered here this morning has a unique story of redemption and salvation.  It is the same God, but is the same story of redemption!  When we were yet enemies He died that we might live and live eternally!  It is a glorious story, a magnificent story, a Gospel.  And He has entrusted you to be His herald in the face of death, disease, and privation.  All He asks, all He commands is that you share the story of His redemption in your life, that others might turn and be saved!

     Those doubters or seekers among us today might still be wondering and struggling with the judgment of chapter 18.  How do we know Jesus is the means by which we are reconciled to God?  If the Cross and Resurrection and Ascension and coming of the Spirit are not enough to convince you, look at our story from Luke today.  Notice the striking difference between Elijah in his story and Jesus in Luke’s.  Elijah wrestles with God, struggles with God, contends with God over the seeming calamity that has befallen the widow.  Three times he intercedes before the son is revived.  God raises the son at the request of Elijah; the son does not arise because of Elijah’s request. 

     Jesus, in the story from Luke, simply commands the son of the widow of Nain to rise, and the dead son obeys.  There is no intercession, no lengthy prayer, no intonations suggesting this is anything other than the Lord of Life commanding the dead to rise.  Only God can do that.  Just as only God invites His disciples to share in that power and that glory for eternity!

Peace,

Brian†

On idols and limping and limping along . . .

     I spend enough time hammering the lectionary editors for excising periscopes of the “difficult” passages and dumbing down our readings that I feel I must praise them on days like today.  I only glanced at the old BCP lectionary, but it looked to me like our editors added this reading in to the RCL.  That is significant because it is one of those cool stories of the Old Testament that few people know.  I have thought for years that the story of Elijah could be done, a la Charlton Heston in the “Ten Commandments,” with this being an incredible scene.  When people come into my office and complain that the Bible is boring, this is one of my “go to” passages” to remind us that God can tell a story as well as Marvel or Star Wars.  The difference is, of course, this story happens in our universe, in our history.  And, yes, it is a difficult story. . .

     Those unfamiliar with the story might well have been shocked by the length and detail.  Let me tell you what: you should read the next few verses if you really want a shock to your system.  A couple things are happening in the passage which we tend to miss as modern post-Christian Americans.  Ahab and Jezebel are king and queen over Israel.  Most of us could not tell a single story about Ahab, but we know all Jezebels are bad, don’t we?  They are bad because she was beyond bad.  The king’s primary responsibility was to study the torah and teach the people how to live like the holy, righteous people God wanted them to be.  The kings were to pattern their lives, and the lives of their family, after the way that God instructed.  Only the prophet could correct the king.  If the king misread or mistaught or misbehaved, the prophet would be able to call him out on the behavior.  Otherwise, the king was unchallenged in his authority.

     This descendant of David, Ahab, now sits on David’s throne.  Even though his primary responsibility is supposed to be to lead Israel in the right worship of God, he has listened to his wife and set up altars to Baal, while allowing altars erected to God to decay and, in some cases, to be toppled by those who worship idols.  Not surprisingly, this has caused Israel confusion.  Elijah begins in the pericope today asking Israel to choose.  Are you servants of the Lord or servants of Baal?  Baal, at first, was any number of what you and I might call nature gods.  The Canaanites had a number of baals that they worshipped as gods.  By this time, though, Baal is more closely associated as the god of the storm.  That is important because there is a drought.  In fact, Israel is experiencing a three-plus year drought that was prophesied before it happened.

     Those of you who have been to Israel have remarked how brown and stony things are there.  You are not alone to notice that.  In fact, water is a valued resource in Israel.  We have lakes and reservoirs and so, likely do not understand their worries about water.  Plus, we are not an agrarian society.  California may need to worry about water, but we can ignore such issues in central Tennessee.  Israel was more like California in their attitude toward water.  Except, Israel had a promised spigot.  The Lord had promised them that so long as they kept His covenant He would send the rains.  If they chased after false gods, though, He promised to withhold the rain.  Often in the OT, droughts are more of a theological commentary than a meteorological observation.  A drought plaguing Israel meant that Israel had forsaken God.  As our story begins, they are in the midst of a three-plus year drought.  You get an idea how faithful Israel has been to the Lord.

     In answer to Israel’s limping, Elijah proposes a battle of the gods.  He suggests that the priests of Baal, which number about 450, and he build an altar, sacrifice a bull, and ask their god to consume the flesh of the bull to prove, once and for all, who is god.  The people seem to cheer for it, and the priests seem excited by the prospect!  Can you imagine the CGI effects, were this a movie?

     The priests of Baal go first.  They build their altar, prepared their sacrifice, and then called to Baal.  Not surprisingly, there is no answer.  The priests continue to do more elaborate things to gain the attention of Baal.  They call loudly, they sing, they dance.  Still no answer.  Eventually, they begin to cut themselves with spears and swords, offering blood to attract the notice of their god.  This spectacle goes on for several hours, from dawn until perhaps the middle of the afternoon, with an added description.  The whole time the priest of Baal are calling, dancing, cutting, and futilely trying to gain the attention of their god, Elijah is mocking them and their god.  Maybe he is meditating.  Maybe he is asleep.  Maybe he is in the bathroom.  Still no answer from Baal.  Exhausted and disappointed, the priests of Baal give up and allow Elijah his turn.

     Elijah invites the people of Israel to come closer.  He prepares the altar to God that had been thrown down by the priests of Baal with Jezebel’s encouragement and Ahab’s assent.  He takes twelves stones, calling to mind the story of Jacob, and rebuilt built the altar.  Then he dug a deep trench around the altar, placed wood on the altar, and sacrificed and butchered the bull, placing the pieces on the altar.  Then, curiously, he asks the people to fill four jars with water and drench the wood and burnt offering.  He has them do this three times.  Did I mention there was a drought?  The wood was well prepared to burst into flame, but Elijah is soaking it with water, so much so that the trench is filled with water.  There is to be no accusation of subterfuge.  No priest of Baal will be able to claim that a spark from Elijah caused this fire.

     Then Elijah offers a simple prayer.  There is no dancing, no singing, no cutting, and no exhaustion.  He asks the Lord to answer him so that Israel will know that He is God.  Fire falls from heaven and consumes the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even the water!  Talk about an amazing scene!  Unsurprisingly, Israel is impressed and falls to their faces saying, “the Lord indeed is God!  Israel is so moved that, when they ask Elijah what they should do, they kill all the priests of Baal at his command without a second thought.  I told you, it is a disturbing story to our sanitized ears.  But it is a story which God caused to be written and collected for us.  Why?  What lessons are there for a community gathered in His name in central Tennessee?

     It seems to me that there are two really important lessons to which we should pay attention this time through the lectionary.  I understand there are other lessons, but two stood out to me in prayer this week.

     (1)  Our idols are worthless.  In fact, the idols that we worship are worse than worthless.  They demand more and more from us, while delivering less and less to or for us.  Eventually, they require blood and often the blood of our children.  Sound shocking?  Consider for a moment our worship of mammon.  A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I was a stockbroker.  If 48 year-old me were to ask 32 year-old me what I was doing, I would no doubt have told him that I was working on climbing the corporate ladder and trying to make money to provide my family with the things I thought they needed and wanted.  Those of you who have worked as corporate lawyers, accountants, middle management in big companies, and maybe even small business owners likely know this story and the motivations.  I used to leave for work at 6:36am every day.  If I left at 6:37am, I swear my commute grew by at least an hour!  And this was Des Moines, not Nashville.  So, before most of the kids were up, I would shower and head out.  I would get to work between 7-7:15am, eat breakfast as I did my paperwork, read a research report or whatever, and then hit the phones at 8am.  My day would end at about 6pm, when I would head for home.  If there were no wrecks, I often made it home at 6:30pm.  What was my goal?  Taking care of my family.  How much time did I get to spend with my kids?  45 minutes?  An hour?  They were younger than Joshua in those days, so they went to bed at a reasonable hour.  More often than not, they ate supper without me.  What kind of family was I really building?  Had we continued on that trajectory, would they have known me?  Would they have understood I had sacrificed for them, or would they instead believe that I had sacrificed them?  What would have been the response of my wife?

     And that is just one idol!  There are countless others that take from us the very things we think we are working to build or maintain!  Why do many people turn to alcohol or drugs or sex?  To escape whatever pain is in their life.  To forget.  When we enslave ourselves to these, what happens?  More pain.  Sometimes death.  To feel the same escape costs more and more in terms of drugs or alcohol, right?  Even the sex has to get more and more “out there” to have the same effect on us.  The result of increased use often results in families and friends withdrawing from our lives.  Sometimes, we run afoul of the law and have to face the costs of fines or incarceration.  Livers fail.  STD’s cause their own health issues.  If we continue our slavish existence, what happens?  We die.  Another idol takes more and more and gives less and less and demands blood.  No doubt you can think of other idols in your lives.

     But what of other gods and other religions.  They all lead to the same place in the end, don’t they?  They are not so bad, right?  Are they not?  We live in a world and a country that values religious pluralism.  We live in a country that has enshrined in its foundational documents the idea that the state will not take sides in religious debates.  It is therefore natural, I think, that we squirm a bit when we read a story like this, where the followers of an idol are utterly destroyed.  But look at the servants of idols around us.

     We live in a world where people who serve a god and claim a tie to our spiritual ancestor Abraham think it ok to kill us, who think their path to heaven is paved by the killing of others to prove their faithfulness to their god.  We live in a world where people who claim our faith practice abominable acts “in the name of God.”  Heck we live in a world where the buying and selling of human beings is sanctioned by religion in some places, where the sacrifice of albino children is considered powerful magic in some cultures, where widows should be burned rather than cared for or esteemed, where the worthless ought to be put out of their misery “for their own good.”  Tell me again how these false gods are equal to the Lord!

     As uncomfortable as it may make us, as much as we might like to squirm at the thought, God judges idolaters.  The story that we read today is just a hint, a bare shadow of the judgement that will face the world when He returns.  Those of us who follow Christ understand that He paid the price for our sins.  Those of us who follow Christ understand that He died the death we deserved.  Those of us who follow Christ marvel at the love and mercy which caused God to reconcile us to Him, when we limping along in the world like Israel.  We recognize that God judged us for our own idolatry in Christ.  We are, what, nine weeks out from Passion Week.  We are only weeks removed from that week when we remind ourselves that we caused His death.  That we joined our voices with the crowds shouting “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”  We are weeks removed from the horror of Good Friday, yet how quickly we forget.  And forgetting that horror, we lose much of the joy that we should realize at His forgiveness and mercy.  We call it a Eucharist, a thanksgiving, but how many of us drag ourselves to church rather than look forward to this reminder and celebration?

     (2) The second lesson relates to the end of that first lesson.  You and I and all Christians should be motivated by love and thanksgiving and with an incredible sense of urgency to proclaim His Gospel to those around us.  Look back at the beginning of the passage.  When Elijah demands that Israel choose between Baal and the Lord, they did not answer him a word.  We tend to forget that no answer or no decision is really a decision.  Perhaps it is because we are Episcopalian and we value Augustine too much.  After all, Augustine famously prayed “Lord save me, just not today” from the partying, prostitutes, and other fun parts of a wealthy life in Antiquity.  Eventually, he chose God and became an early Church father.  So what’s the rush?  The rush is the number of people who said “not today” or “I will wait until later” and who never made the decision to serve the Lord before their death.

      One of the questions that should haunt us or motivate us is the question of whether we love someone enough to care about their eternal destination.  So often, we pull back from that last bit of urgency for fear that people will think us crazy or one of “those” people.  People promote God’s love and forget His justice.  People promote God’s mercy and forget His righteousness.  People speak winsomely of God’s patience and forget His wrath.  We speak often in the Church that all His revealed attributes kissed on the Cross of Christ, and rightly so.  But we sometimes forget in the Church that we must claim Him as Lord.  The words we mouth at baptism are not empty words.  They are not simply formulaic either.  We die to ourselves and ask Him to empower us to live as He would have us live.  More significantly, though, our decisions to follow Him or reject Him have an eternal consequence.  How often are we content, though, to limp along, keeping silent in the face of those decisions in the lives of those around us?  How often are we content to let those whom we profess to love risk dying outside the covenant?  How often are we content, like Israel, not to make choices or encourage others to make a choice of whom or what to serve?

     Today’s sermon has been a bit heavy.  One of the advantages of strolling as I preach is that I get to see your faces and shoulders.  I get to see the eyes, the windows of the soul.  Good preachers afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.  I think today I did a bit too much afflicting, perhaps with good reason.  One comment I have heard repeatedly about my sermons on the Old Testament has been my knack to find the Gospel in it.  I tell people it is not so much a knack but simply uncovering what is there.  If Jesus is the Messiah, then the OT is all about Him, just as He said, even difficult passages such as today’s reading in 1 Kings 18.  Where is Jesus in today’s story?

     We have already spoken about Him in one sense.  In some ways, the story speaks to the judgment that all humanity will one day face.  On that Day of the Lord, we will face the consequence of our choices.  Will we have claimed Jesus as Lord, or will we have rejected Him in favor of some idol?  Those of us who claim Him as Lord will well remember the torture, the humiliation, the scourging, and the death that He bore for each one of us.  Even were we once numbered among those priests of Baal, teaching those beneath us about the sacrifices necessary to make it as lawyers, doctors, brokers, accountants, politicians, or whatever else, His death ransoms us!  The punishment we deserve, He bore to the grave, that we might live for Him and with Him for all eternity.  That, my friends is His promise and pledge to each one of us.

     What if we were limpers like Israel, incapable for far too long of choosing?  What if we are limpers even today?  Still the offer is there.  Throughout His teaching, Jesus reminds us that He came to save the world, not to condemn it.  He wants us to choose Him.  Whether we choose Him early in life, in the middle of our life, or just before death, our reward and promise is the same: life for Him and eternity with Him.

     But before we can experience the blessings and mercy and grace of God, an appropriate sacrifice for our sins must be made.  Notice in the story that the fire falls from heaven and consumes the bull, the wood, the altar, and the water.  The fire that fell that day was not the consuming fire that destroyed the Baal priests or even their altar.  The fire did not harm even those in Israel who only hours before could make no answer, who could only limp along.  No, it was a fire that signified to the people of God that their sacrifice had been accepted.  You and I and the world around us have been given a like sign.  Yes, He died, but now He is risen!  Better still, He is ascended!  He stands before the altar advocating for us, making intercession for us, empowering us through the Holy Spirit to accomplish His will for us!  Like Israel, we have been given that wonderful sign and that more amazing access to God!  The big question is what will we do with that offer?  Will we accept it and share it as He commands?  Or will we instead hoard it or ignore it, risking the souls of those around us?

Peace,

Brian†