May 30, 2010

 

Scripture:         1 Kings 18:20-39

 

Sermon:           “Whom Will You Choose?”

 

            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to 1 Kings, chapter 18 where we will read together verses 20 through 39.  You can find that easily on page 395 of the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures in the pew Bible.

            It’s nice to settle back into our normal life together, isn’t it?  We’ve had our big celebration.  175 years of ministry.  And I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world.  But, it’s nice to settle back into things.

            The bible tells us this morning a great story—Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  Elijah was one of the early prophets of the nation of Israel.  And Elijah served the Lord during the time when Israel’s king was a man named Ahab.  For a little perspective, Ahab lived over 800 years before the life of Jesus.

            This was a time when the kings of Israel and the kings of other nations would build alliances with one another by way of marrying the daughters of other foreign kings.  Solomon was said to have 700 wives.  Is that even possible?  But, the king of one nation would take for his wife the daughter of another king so that the two houses would be linked together in a political alliance.  And this king, Ahab, did the same thing.  He married a woman named Jezebel.  Jezebel was the daughter of Ehtbaal, King of the Sidonians—who we also know as the Phoenicians.

            Religiously speaking, this was troublesome.  Royalty from other nations were powerful connections to those powerful nations.  And queens like Jezebel were not so much subject to their husbands.  They would retain a great deal of power related to the other nation and could continue to live according to the customs and traditions they came from.  In other words, when the kings of Israel married the daughter of foreign kings, they were bringing into their houses the influences of these places, including their gods.

            The god that Jezebel continued to worship was known as Baal.  And since the Phoenicians were a very powerful nation, prosperous and dominating, it was easy for the people of Israel to be seduced into adding Baal to their own God, or even abandoning their God altogether to worship Baal.  Why not?  The queen could do it.  And look how prosperous her nation was.

            There were dwindling numbers of people in the days of Ahab that held fast to their own history and their own faith.  There were altars being erected all over the place for sacrifices to Baal.  Prophets of Baal were springing up in places of power and in the countryside.  That’s where this story comes in.  Elijah, God’s lone prophet in Israel, was told to have a showdown in front of all the people.  Just who was their God, anyway?  Let’s have a test.  This is the word of the Lord…

 

            So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel.  Elijah then came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”  The people did not answer a word.  Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty.  Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it.  Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.”  All the people answered, “Well spoken!”  Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.”  So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!”  But there was no voice, and no answer.  They limped about the altar that they had made.  At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud!  Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”…

            You know the translation of this story in the pew bible reads that Elijah said, “Maybe he is day-dreaming or relieving himself”!  Anyhow…

…Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them.  As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.

            Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him.  First he prepared the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”; with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord.  Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed.  Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood.  He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”  Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time.  Again he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time, so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water.

            At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding.  Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”  Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.  When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”

 

            Such a great story.  The people had been chasing after other gods.  They weren’t so impressed with their own God anymore.  They wanted something new and powerful and exciting and they chased after it.  But what they had chased after turned out to be no god at all.  No fire came from heaven on that day, not like they had expected.  Only the Lord, the God of Israel could set the offering ablaze.

            And Elijah did everything in his power to drench that bull with water.  One time they poured water on it.  A second time they poured more water on it.  A third time they poured water on it so that there was so much water in that place that it collected all around the ground and filled up a trench.

            Now, they all had faith.  The prophets of Baal were dancing around, carrying on, cutting themselves with swords.  They had faith.  But, nothing happened.

            Elijah had faith.  So much so that he soaked the altar to the point nobody could have lit a fire.  But, God’s fire burned so hot that even the pools of water were licked up by a heat so intense that it sizzled.

            Such a great story.

            Have you ever chased after something like that?  Chased after it, just knowing in your heart that it would lead to success, happiness, prosperity, health?  Chased after it and then have your hopes and dreams dashed in an instant, only to discover that what you’ve been chasing after all this time is nothing more than an empty promise?

            That’s something of where the people of Israel found themselves.  Look at how our neighbors prosper.  The Phoenicians.  Look at how great and mighty they are with their god.  If only we could be like that.  If only we had what they have.

            It’s a mirage.  A phantom.  It’s not real.  But, it sure seems to be making other people happy.

            Have you ever chased after something like that?

            I was seven, maybe eight years old.  I remember that it was the summer when my whole world was going to change.  A new roller coaster was opening at this amusement park near my house.  Now, roller coasters a long time ago, you know, they were made out of wood and they had big hills and banged and clanked along at terrifying speeds.  It was only the summer before when I had braved my first ride on such a thing.  And I couldn’t wait to go again.

            Well, for months there were television ads about this new ride that was going to be the greatest thing ever.  Made out of steel and fast, you know.  This ride they called the Mind Bender.  The Mind Bender.  And get this:  the Mind Bender had three loops on it where you would turn completely upside down and then back again.

            It was all anyone could ever talk about—at least in my school.  I guess there was a recession at the time and folks were talking about long gas lines.  I’m sure other things were going on in the world.  But, not for me.  We fantasized and daydreamed and made plans for the summer when we would all strap ourselves into this thing for the ride of our lives.

            It seemed to go on forever, like waiting for Christmas to arrive.  Weeks went by.  School finally got out for the summer.  And then I begged and pleaded with my parents to take me to Six Flags.  My friends and I, we were all going to get on that roller coaster.

            Well, the day arrived.  Finally, my parents gave in and agreed to take some of us over to the park.  There were going to be fireworks and everything that night.  But, we didn’t care a lick about any of that.  We got into the park and started running all the way to where the line for this new Mind Bender started.  And what a line it was.  It snaked around and around.  There were signs along the way telling us we had two more hours.  90 more minutes.  An hour.  30 minutes.

            And then we could actually see the entrance to the ride itself.  And there were these gruesome letters in a sign overhead that read Mind Bender.  We had finally made it.  And we could see all of the people getting off the ride with these terrified looks on their faces and smiles plastered to them as they talked about how awesome it was and that they were going to go back to the end of the line and do it again.

            Do you know that when we finally got to that sign overhead there was another sign just below it?  Some cartoon character made out of wood holding up a ruler in one hand.  The other hand held up a sign that read “You Must Be 42” Tall to Ride Mind Bender.”  I could have been standing on a stack of phone books on the very tips of my toes and not been 42 inches tall.  On top of that there was some teenage kid standing there in a uniform as if he was going enforce that rule no matter what.  All of that waiting.  All of that longing.  All of that dreaming.  And I just had to turn around and walk away.

            Now, what if that was a metaphor for your life?

            I knew a man once that started cutting himself open right in front of me, just like the prophets of Baal.  He didn’t use a sword or a lance or any kind of sharp object.  There wasn’t any blood.  He just used his own words to show me what it was like on the inside.

            He said, “Here I am alone in this old house with all of this stuff I’ve collected over the years, and what does any of it really mean?  Tell me that, Preacher.  What does any of it mean?  There was a time when it made my heart race to make the next big commission, and buy the next big car, and impress the newest woman in town.  And what does any of it mean now?  What does it mean now that I haven’t called my own son in over a decade and haven’t even held my own grandchildren?”

            I guess that he always believed there would be some kind of fire coming down from heaven for all of the ways he chased after other gods.  But, he had pushed away the things that really mattered.

            It’s easy to look around and get the idea that somebody else has it all figured out.  They must be happy.  If I could just have what they have, do what they do, I’d have more of that happiness I’ve been longing for.  Is that what chasing after Baal was like?  Folks setting up these great expectations for fulfillment, happiness, success.

            In the life of faith, you know, we get disappointed, too.  We get disillusioned because things don’t go exactly as we thought or as we planned.  Look at Jesus’ disciples.  After he was crucified, they had this sense that they’d been chasing after nothing more than an empty promise.  On the road to Emmaus, one of them said, “But, we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21)

            We thought he was the one.

            Even when we give our lives to following God, it doesn’t always look as if we’ve done the right thing, made the right choice, invested ourselves in the truth.  We long to see the evidence of this God who will reign down fire from heaven and make sense of everything.

            Do you want to see it?  Do you long to see it?  What if it looks strangely like a cross?  What if it looks like utter defeat?  Will you still choose it?  Will you choose this God?  Can you dare to invest your life in it, trusting that there is, really, fire from heaven waiting to pour down and make itself known?

            It’s no coincidence, I think, that the first disciples, the ones who experienced this same grinding feeling of defeat described what happened in their lives next as a holy fire from heaven.  One of them wrote that “suddenly from heaven there came a sound like a rush of a violent wind, and filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them and rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”  (Acts 2:2-3)

            Do you want to see it?  Look within you.  God’s fire has come down from heaven.  Will you choose to chase after that God?

 

 

 

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)