Readings for today: 1 Kings 17-18, John 1
Elijah is one of my favorites. A powerful prophet in Israel. A man with the courage to stand up to kings and queens. A man of conviction who stakes his life on God. A man who has the faith to perform miracles. A man who literally lives not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. But what makes Elijah truly great is his humility. He knows he is not the hero of this story. He knows he is not the center of attention. He knows his job is to point people beyond himself to the God he serves. The God who desires to make Himself known. The God who reveals Himself to those who love Him and fear Him.
Elijah is such a man. He’s a man who loves and fears God. Why else would he leave his home and family and community to obey when God tells him to live by a brook and be fed by ravens? Why else would he leave Israel to go to Sidon and live with a Gentile widow on the brink of starvation in a town called Zarephath? Why else would he have the faith to challenge the widow to trust the Lord for her food and for the life of her son? Why else would he leave Sidon and return to Israel to confront Ahab and Jezebel? Why else would he call for a public demonstration of divine power on the top of Mount Carmel in front of all Israel? Why else would he mock and taunt the prophets of Baal as they cried out to their god? “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” (1 Kings 18:27) Why else would he leave no doubt by drenching his own sacrifice with water three times before calling out to God? Elijah is truly a man of deep and abiding and courageous faith.
The temptation, of course, is to assume Elijah was graced with special powers. It’s tempting to assume Elijah had some kind of special access to God not available to regular men and women. It’s tempting to think we could never live like Elijah. Believe like Elijah. Do the things Elijah did or say the things Elijah said. But nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve met men and women just like Elijah. No one knows their names. They will never go viral on social media. They will never be interviewed on cable news. They are men and women of deep faith just like Elijah who go to unnamed villages all over the Horn of Africa. Places that don’t show up on any map. God uses them to perform miracles of healing and resurrection and exorcism. They pray for rain and the rain comes. They pray for an end to pestilence and it ends. Their crops and herds flourish as God blesses them with His divine favor. Like Elijah before them, they call the people they serve to faith. They call them to place their trust in Jesus Christ rather than the pagan or tribal gods they worshipped before. It’s truly amazing.
And it begs the question…what about us? What does it look like to have the faith of Elijah in our lives? Here in America? In a place like Douglas County? Where we are blessed with so much and therefore are tempted to trust God with so little? First and foremost, I think it requires us to build space in our lives for quiet reflection. To sit in silence before the Lord and allow the noise of our lives to die down so we can hear from Him. I think it means creating unhurried space in our lives where we are not rushed. God is not on a clock. We aren’t expecting God to move according to our schedule. Second, I think it means cultivating a courageous spirit of obedience. Bravely walking in His ways in the midst of an increasingly hostile world. Faithfully clinging to the wisdom of God which will appear as foolishness to those around us. Much like John the Baptist - who is Elijah reborn according to Scripture - we too must be willing to “zig” when the world says “zag.” We must be willing to stick to the narrow path while the rest of the world chooses the six-lane highway. We must be willing to hold fast to our convictions in world where such convictions are now considered old-fashioned, out of date, even dangerous and oppressive. Ultimately, like Elijah. Like John the Baptist. Like so many saints who have gone before us. We must be willing to be a “lone voice crying in the wilderness…prepare the way of the Lord!”
Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 19-20, John 2