For me, Labor Day weekend has always been bittersweet. As a child it was our very last vacation to the lake (Mom made sure we still went to church), which meant that summer was almost over, and once we got back, we’d be starting school … again. Now that I’m much older, I have to say that I’m always happy when summer is almost over, because the richness of fall coming soon. The air becomes cool and crisp. The smells of burning leaves (can you do that here?) wood smoke, ad fried apples, rouse my senses. The leaves change colors and later fall to the ground, and there’s something about walking on fallen leaves that let’s me be a little boy again. A trip to the pumpkin farm is coming soon. Labor Day weekend means that gas prices will drop a bit more … and folks will start coming back to church. You know, we live in a fast paced society. All this technology was supposed to make life easier. But I think it’s made it more hectic. If anything, life here in North America is extremely LOUD!!!!! We need vacation now more than ever. We need time to check out of the daily routine of our lives that is often quite hectic. So what do many of us do? We schedule a trip that requires seeing fifteen days worth of attractions in seven times. We become so busy on our vacations that when we get back from them and people ask us how the trip went we inevitably say, “It was great … . But I’m exhausted.”
Have you ever done something really unpleasant, really bad, and really, really regretful? You know you can’t get it out of your mind. You can’t sleep, you can’t eat. There is so much remorse. It’s like this huge weight that just hangs onto your shoulders. It’s so heavy you slouch over and you can’t even look anybody in the eyes because if they do, you know they’ll see that dark, hollow cavern of despair. You hope no one finds out what you’ve done; so like a thief in the early morning hours, fear invades you. And then you get caught. That’s when you need a vacation … It bothers me that Elijah killed so many people. I don’t think God asked him to do that. Sometimes I get a little nervous about texts like these. I get nervous because it is in the Bible that a prophet killed people, and I just hope that folks don’t get the idea that since it’s in the Bible and the famous prophet Elijah killed people, it’s okay to do likewise.
Anyway, that’s what happened to Elijah, he was busy doing God’s work fighting against Ahab’s wife Jezebel. She followed her god Baal, a false god. Baal would be the god of …
Then Elijah hears from a messenger of Jezebel that she wanted him dead. It’s curious that she sent a messenger as opposed to an assassin1.
Elijah, upon hearing the death threat, and being utterly exausted after doing God’s work is having a “Rab day.” It’s just too much for him to handle on his own. He can’t continue like this, he feels completely alone and quite frankly he wants to die.
And an angel of God feeds him and sends him to Mount Horeb, also known as the Mountain of Sinai, the place where Moses met God, for forty days and forty nights. On the Mountain there was a mighty windstorm so fast, so furious that it broke the rocks and blew them here and there. But God was not in the windstorm. Then there was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake.Then there was a firestorm, but God wasn’t in the firestorm. Then there was sheer silence and God was in the Silence.
We live in a country that wants BIG. We live in a country that wants FAST. We live in a country that wants NOW. We want BIG and FAST miracles NOW. This story of Elijah is about a miracle and the miracle was, that he knew God in the silence. Meeting Christ in those still, quiet times is a miracle. We don’t have to wait for the earthquake, or the firestorm, or the windstorm … . God’s not in that … . God is in the stillness after the storm … and to realize that … . That’s the miracle. Going on vacation is that still, quiet time. It’s taking the time to be still and know that God is present. It’s going to a place in the wild, silence where Grace and Peace, where glory meets the unsophisticated and weak, where mercy meets humiliation, where strength finds small and helpless, where enchantment meets mundane. It is where your friendship with God will be restored, and the beauty of Christ will meet YOU2. The sheer silence where we hold “too much” in our hands, in our minds, in our souls … and we give it to God. As you take Holy Communion remember that an angel of the Lord prepared a meal of bread and water … that bread was very holy … it was prepared on hot stones, or coals. The only other time the word “hot stones or coals” is used is in Isaiah when the seraph placed the coals on the Isaiah’s lips, making his speech holy. Imagine the water was holy too, as it was in clay jars, molded by God.
You and I have the opportunity to eat a very special meal that was prepared by Christ Jesus. As you partake in Holy communion today.. may you meet Christ at the table before you meet him, ponder on this question, what would your response be if Jesus asked you, “do you know me?” After you eat, remember this. God told Elijah to go on his way he would not be left alone. There were others like him who still loved God. So to you, “Go and follow the way of Christ, and know that you will never be alone. There are others like you who are working to build the reign of God. AMEN 1This point was brought out in the NIB commentary. While the author stated it was not anything to really discuss, I think it is interesting to note that Elijah hears a word from God that is caring, reassuring, loving and good. While the “word” he gets from Jezebel (who was an ambassador to Baal), is one of death, fear and anger. Just something to think about… 2 Listen to this song. I think it really presents the flavor of what I’m trying to say here much better than I could ever imagine. Go to www.futureofforestry.com click the play button at the very top and select the song, All I WANT. I found out about these guys on one of my favorite websites, Relevant Magazine. www.relevantmagazine.com |