Sunday, June 22, 2025
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© The Rev. Dr. James Campbell
I Kings 19:1-15a
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus…”
“Hello darkness, my old friend.” That phrase, taken from the 1960s classic, “The Sound of Silence” has an uncomfortable familiarity for anyone who has ever suffered from depression or chronic pain or addiction or loneliness. Maybe you know what that darkness is like. And so did a man named Elijah.
The reading we heard today is the end of a much longer story. You see, Elijah wanted to prove that the God of Israel was the one true God. And so, he publicly challenged the priests of Baal, the god of the Canaanites, to a duel of sorts. An altar was erected and the Canaanite priests went first. They called on Baal to send fire from heaven to consume the animal sacrifices. But no matter how loudly they called; no matter how desperate their attempts, their god was silent.
Then it was Elijah’s turn. And Elijah was a bit of a show-off. And so, he ordered that all that raw meat be drenched with water, again and again, to make any fire more of a challenge. Then he called upon the name of the Lord – but just once. And fire from heaven descended from the sky and devoured everything in sight. That display of power so emboldened Elijah that he took a sword and slaughtered all the prophets of Baal. What a bloody, awful mess that must have been.
This infuriated the Canaanite queen, Jezebel, who was no one to be messed with! Jezebel had lost major face. Her god had been humiliated. Her priests had been butchered. And so she made a royal oath, that she would do to Elijah exactly what he had done to her priests - and all within 24 hours.
And so, Elijah ran like the dickens! He ran all the way to Beer-Sheba in the Negev desert, about one hundred miles to the south – propelled by fear and adrenaline.
When he finally stopped, he was beyond exhausted. When he finally stopped, he was frightened and alone and deeply depressed. And if you have ever been really deeply depressed, you will understand what Elijah did next. He prayed to die, saying: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life…” And then he lay down under a broom tree and waited for his prayer to be answered.
But instead of dying, Elijah fell asleep. And if you have ever been really depressed; then you know how sweet the escape of sleep is. You may not feel rested afterwards, but at least you have temporarily escaped your misery.
But the nap didn’t last long, because a pesky angel of the Lord tapped Elijah on the shoulder and said: “Get up and eat.” And by some miracle, fresh bread and water had appeared. So Elijah sat up, ate and drank. And then he fell back to sleep again. But the angels of the Lord are persistent. They never take no for an answer. And the angel woke Elijah up again. And wonder of wonders, there was more bread and more water. “Eat this, too” the angel said, “you’re going to need it, because you’re going on a journey.”
So, Elijah traveled to Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai, the dwelling place of God. And there on the mountain Elijah found a cave to hide in. “Maybe I will finally be safe here,” he thought. But before he could really settle down, the voice of the Lord came to him, asking: “What are you doing here?” “What am I doing here?” Elijah bellowed back at the sky. “Because of you, Lord, I am a wanted man. I thought I was doing your will. But now there is a bounty on my head. And I am all alone in this world.”
To which God replied: “Go to mouth of the cave, for I am about to pass by.”
Suddenly, a violent wind began to blow. It was so strong that it broke the stones into pieces. “Aha! This must be the Lord,” Elijah thought. “For the Lord is mighty enough to break stones.” But the Lord was not in the wind.
Then there was an earthquake. “Well, this must be the Lord,” Elijah said. “For the Lord is Sovereign of the earth and makes it quake whenever he pleases.” But the Lord was not in that either.
Then there was a fire, and Elijah knew that God sometimes appeared as fire. Hadn’t God sent down fire to consume the sacrifices in that contest that had gotten him into all of this trouble? But the Lord wasn’t in the fire either.
Elijah was looking for God in all the wrong place. And that actually says something about Elijah. Violent wind, terrifying earthquake, consuming fire – this is how we want our God to be revealed against our enemies. We want a God who is like us, and beats his chest and raises her voice and rattles the saber and calls a team of lawyers. That’s how we define power. That’s how we practice power. But God, we are told, was not in any of those displays. God was not in any of it. And that seems an especially important and timely thing for us to ponder as so many loud, violent people claim to be speaking for God. But God is not in any of it.
After all of these fearful and noisy natural occurrences, there followed what the Hebrew language calls the “qol damamah daqqah” – translated in the King James Version of the Bible as a “still, small voice.” As much as I love that turn of phrase, it’s better translated as “the sound of sheer silence.”
Profound silence will get our attention when nothing else will. Profound silence will make us look insider when we would rather be distracted. So after the wind and earthquake and fire, when it was suddenly and absolutely silent, Elijah came to the mouth of the cave to see what on earth was going on. And that is when God spoke: “Elijah, what are you doing here?” But this time when God asked, something had shifted in Elijah, and he was ready to listen. And God said: “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus…”
This story, despite all the pyrotechnics, is a very human story. It’s the story of anyone, anywhere who has ever been overwhelmed or underwhelmed; anyone searching for meaning or purpose; anyone who has ever been afraid or made a life-altering mistake; anyone running from loneliness, illness, poverty, fear, depression, or anxiety; anyone wondering where God is in the midst of all of this human pain. This is our story.
And there is great hope in that. Because this is not just a story about pain or confusion or loss. This is a story about angels, those messengers who suddenly appear in our lives when we most need them. And this is the story of our daily bread in the middle of the most hostile places. And this is the story of a God who loves each of us so much that he will never stop asking: “What are you doing here?” until we move on to something better.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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