4^th Sunday after Pentecost - June 24, 2007

Kingswood UMC

Texts: I Kings 19:1-15a; Psalm 42

Some of you probably watched Fear Factor when it was still being shown on NBC ... or maybe you watch the reruns now. First aired in June of 2001, exactly three months before the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, Fear Factor hypes the fear that permeates our world because fear is big business. The entertainment and advertising industries have figured out that there is money in fear ... and with the shift to news as entertainment, there is a heightened focus on the terrifying things that happen in the world every time we turn on the 6:00 news.

But we don’t really need external encouragement to be afraid. There are plenty of things right within our own hearts that are frightening enough. Fear of illness and death, fear of the shame and pain of loss, fear of failing, fear of success, fear of being recognized for who we really are, fear of never being recognized or noticed, fear of losing control, fear of looking the fool, fear of being left alone, of being left out, excluded, forgotten, never given a chance. It doesn’t take much to fan the fear that is already within us. Even those who look strong and have exhibited great boldness and courage can succumb.

Maybe that is what happened to Elijah in our story today. A big, bold, in- your-face kind of guy ... Elijah was a maybe the Michael Moore of his generation, annoying and challenging the status quo. Elijah’s job was to bring the Word of God to the powers in charge ... and it frequently got him into trouble. You remember that when we first met him, he had declared a drought on the land as a demonstration of Yahweh God’s displeasure with the leadership of King Ahab and his Queen Jezebel. And then Elijah laid low for a while ... hanging out with a widow and her son ... while the drought did its work of creating instability in the royal palace and its constituency.

In the events that follow, in chapter 18 - that we don’t read in the lectionary, Elijah invites a show down with the royal house of Israel. He asks that the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Ashera, which frequent the palace and eat at Jezebel’s table, meet him at Mount Carmel where they will see who is the true God. In a dramatic demonstration, each side prepares a sacrifice and calls down the power of their God to set it aflame. Elijah taunts the prophets of Baal ... goading them, teasing them, mocking them when their prayers go unanswered. Then he ups the ante. He repairs the altar, and sets the sacrifice in the name of the Lord ... instructing that water be poured on the offering and the wood, four times ... filling the trench around it with water. He calls upon the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel to let it be known who is God. And the fire of the Lord falls ... consuming the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, the water.

All the people see it ... and fall on their faces in worship: The Lord indeed is God!! they proclaim. And then Elijah orders the prophets of Baal seized and killed. And the heavens grow black with clouds and wind and the rains come. Ahab rides off to tell Jezebel all that has happened ... and Elijah runs before him. But when Ahab reports to Jezebel that Elijah has killed all the prophets, she threatens his life and Elijah is afraid.

After all he’s been through, one wonders what frightened him at this point. Does he really think God is going to let Jezebel kill him? Probably not ... at least in his rational mind. But remember, he’s just won a major battle in the contest between Yahweh and the prophets of Baal ... and maybe he’d expected, or at least hoped, that Jezebel would just concede that he’s been right all along. How disappointing and frightening when you win ... make your point ... show the truth ... and the other side doesn’t get it, still doesn’t believe you ... and instead lashes back with raging threats against your very life. I’m guessing he was stunned !!!

And so he runs .... afraid and discouraged. I’m thinking he wasn’t so afraid of death ... after all, as he pouted under the broom tree where he took refuge, he himself asked God to take his life. But whenever, wherever, you encounter evil or darkness in the world — whatever your strength and courage and track record in facing it – it can knock you back into a fear that needs special care.

So one of the most powerful ways for the powers and principalities, the empires of the world, to manipulate is through creating a climate of fear. And as parents, teachers, maybe even pastors, we also sometimes revert to fear as a teaching method, or as a mode of keeping persons in line with our own way of thinking.

But fortunately, as strong as fear is and can be, it is vulnerable. It is vulnerable to faith, to love, to truth. Fear begins to shrink when we begin to notice it ... to look it in the face. It subsides when we attend to the real needs of ourselves and others.

Remember, Elijah slams himself down under a broom tree and goes to sleep, exhausted and in despair. He’s had a couple of days of exhausting work, and the adrenalin rush is wearing off. What a let down, and now the disappointment that it doesn’t seem to have made an impact. But an angel comes, delivering a casserole from the hospitality committee. Get up and eat! he is told. Like mothers of all generations have counseled, "Eat something. You’ll feel better." Or maybe it is that a friend stops by, and offers the most basic bread and water of conversation. Or perhaps one of the kids comes up and offers a great big hug. One of the first steps back from the despair of the broom tree, is taking care of the basics. Rest, even sleep, food and connection.

Those of you who have braved a counselor’s office know that one of the first questions asked as you sit in the midst of your own journey or crisis of despair is the question about these most basic things. Are you eating on a regular basis? How are you sleeping? What kind of exercise are you doing? And what kind of support system do you have? Are there angels in your life ... friends, family, a church with whom you are connected? Without these basics, even a minor crisis can be too much.

Once the concern about basic physical and emotional needs has been addressed, it is possible to examine the more theological or spiritual questions ... the question of what meaning this fear has ... or what meaning you are making of life events that is increasing your fear. The word of God came to Elijah and asked, What are you doing here? We hear that Elijah has traveled 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb - the mount of God, the same place, called Mt. Sinai, where Moses encountered God during the journey toward the promised land. Getting out of the fray ... distancing ... is often required to give us perspective, new vision ... and to go into the deeper questions. But it is the question here that makes the difference.

What are you doing here? How did you get into this position of terror and fear? What is the fear like? How is it affecting your ability to think? To assess reality? To make decisions? To access your resources? What is it that you are doing here? And how is that working for you?

The nerve!!! How dare this angel ... or word of God, or counselor, or pastor, or friend ... challenge me to look at the fear.

Elijah answers with his martyr’s speech ... the one he’s been rehearsing since he fled Jezebel. I have been very zealous for the Lord, but they have forsaken the cause ... I alone am left. But God doesn’t buy it. There is no argument, though one can almost imagine a sigh.

Then this word of the Lord said to him, get up and get out of here ... go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. There comes a moment ... and usually it isn’t the result of someone arguing us out of our pain ... but it comes, when we are finally silenced and need to move into a different position. We get up out from under the broom tree, or step out of the cave where we’ve been hiding, and we begin to pay attention to where God is acting in our world. Elijah steps out of his cave and encounters a great wind ... tearing apart the mountains and rocks, rumbling the very foundations of the earth. But it turns out, God wasn’t in the wind. Then came an earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire. But it turns out God wasn’t in any of these great natural phenomena. It turns out that God chooses to be revealed in what the NRSV terms the sound of sheer silence. A more accurate rendering is probably the sound of a soft whisper.

It is the speech of God itself that is the revelation of God ... God is not silent, but always speaking to us ... and often it is a whisper in our hearts that invites us to answer to what we are doing and then, to go back, to return to the wilderness of our lives. It is the speech of God ... in the stories of scripture, in the actions of the sacraments, in Christ, through the Spirit, in moments of grace and gratitude and in the work for justice ... that dispels the fear and sets us free. And so, Elijah sets out, and as instructed, begins recruiting folk to serve with him in the work God has given him to do.

What are you doing here? Not, why do you come to church? or not come, as the case may be? But what is the meaning of your life, of your fear, of your faith, of your hope? What sustains you? Where do you go when you are afraid? Do you move to despair ... ready to give up? Or to anger ... eager to blame and lash back? What helps you move from fear to faith and on back into ministry?

I invite you to pay attention to these questions in your life .... letting God direct your reflections so that encountered by the sound of the soft whisper of God’s voice, you may turn and face the fears that bind you and be freed.

And so we pray and sing together ....

Lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth,

from despair to hope, from fear to trust;

lead us from hate to love, from war to peace;

Let peace fill our hearts, let peace fill our world, let peace fill our universe.