Dear Friends,
Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural address in 1933 was anchored by the now-famous line, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” That simple statement served to inspire, motivate, and empower the nation during the depths of the depression, and some of us think of it as America’s unofficial slogan. While this stirring statement has continued to rouse us to action against many threats in the decades since then, we often see fear as an enemy so great that we feel powerless to overcome it. Our sense of fear, sadly, can generate more than helplessness, especially when it is wrapped in our feelings of failure – failure of ourselves and of our faith.
Today and this coming Sunday, our lectionary directs us to explore fear shown by two significant, faithful followers of God – the prophet Elijah and the disciple Peter – and how God interacts with them at their times of fear. I pray that these scriptures will offer guidance and hope to us today, as we try to live in and through these very fearful times.
Before we read from I Kings, I invite you to join with one another across locations and time in this prayer for illumination:
Gracious God, we listen for you in wind, earthquake, and fire. Unexpectedly, you speak in the sound of silence. We pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will silence in us all the storms, doubts, and fears that overwhelm us, so that we may hear what you have to say. Open our ears and hearts to hear your still small voice, your thin and quiet, yet compelling and commanding voice. We ask this in the name of Christ. Amen.
The books of Kings (I and II) are parts of the section of the Bible that were first categorized as the Histories by the fourth-century bishop, Athanasius. These books, from Joshua to Esther, cannot be considered historical in the same way that we read history in our time, but they continue the story of God’s interaction with the Israelites. They end with the Wisdom books, which begin with Job and end with the Song of Solomon.
Unlike many other prophets whose words were too hard for the people to swallow, Elijah has been well received as a prophet by many in Israel. But the people’s faithfulness was clearly beginning to erode. Struggling with their faith in the God of Abraham, many among the people of Israel had actively abandoned their covenant with God and were worshipping Baal instead.
The ruling king at that time was Ahab, the most sinful of Israel’s kings in a long line of corrupt kings. Ahab “did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.” (16:30) He violated religious and civil law by marrying Jezebel, a foreign woman, who presumably introduced the worship of Baal into the court and community. It was Ahab who first led the people to serve Baal. He even built an altar to Baal in Samaria. (16:31-33)
However, even with his extravagant altar, Ahab was clearly no match for Elijah, whose prophesies and deeds came from the true God of Abraham, not from the idols Ahab and the people had turned to. Elijah’s response to the iniquity that had arisen in Israel was to directly encounter the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and kill them all. (I Kings 18)
Chapter 19 begins with the massive fallout from Elijah’s act. “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 [the now dead prophets of Baal] by this time tomorrow.’ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life.” (19:1-3)
Elijah had now become a hunted man. He fled to Beer-sheba in the southern kingdom of Judah for protection. But his fear pushed him further. Leaving his servant in the city, and desperate and afraid, he traveled alone into the wilderness and prayed for death. After the boldness of his act in destroying Ahab’s gods and altar, the tables seemed to have turned on him with Jezebel’s threat. He felt his life had lost purpose and meaning; he felt abandoned by the people and by God. He “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.’” (19:4)
Exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, he fell asleep under the broom tree, only to be suddenly awakened by an angel who gave him food and water several times to fortify him before sending him on a journey of forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. We know Horeb by another name, Mt. Sinai, the mountain where God encountered Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments. It is at this point that our reading begins.
“He [the word of the Lord] 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, . . . 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.” (19:11-12)
Standing in the same place where Moses had stood when he received the ten commandments, Elijah anticipated the same dramatic presence of God that Moses had received. But it was in silence, sheer silence, that God communicated with Elijah. God encountered Elijah not as Elijah expected but as God knew Elijah needed.
God does that with us as well. We must not limit God with our expectations; we must be open to God as God comes to us, just as Elijah opened himself to hear God’s voice in the silence after the noise and chaos of the wind, earthquake, and fire, and after his moment of despair under the broom tree.
Elijah confessed his fear – twice, with the exact same words. In his eyes, because Israel had failed God, so, too, had he. But God did not become disgusted with Elijah, nor did God deny Elijah’s fears or his need to express them. Instead, as we see in verses 15 through 18, God gave Elijah his instructions. He empowered him to strengthen the remnant of 7,000 faithful believers. He worked with Elijah to overcome his fears in the pursuit of his prophetic vocation and his faith. God kept Elijah on course.
Likewise, God keeps us on course. God does not give up on us, although we might feel, even insist, that it would be easier for God and for us if God did so. God wants us to recognize and acknowledge our fears, even if we confess those fears, those doubts and anxieties, only to God and none other. We are safe in God’s hands and secure under God’s direction and promise; from our confession deep in our souls comes our renewal and strength.
“Fear is not the antithesis of faith and truth; nor does it indicate a lack of trust in God,” suggests Chanequa Walker-Barnes, a pastoral care professor and licensed clinical psychologist. In a recent article, she goes on to say that “indeed, God created us with fear to keep us safe.”
Many of us fear this virus that we cannot see, a virus whose deadly effects have altered our understanding of what is normal. In response to the virus, we are called to isolate ourselves. In such isolation, it is natural to despair and think of ourselves as being alone and abandoned. But we are not. Just as God pointed out to Elijah, who thought that he was alone even when there were still 7,000 faithful Israelites, we are called to remember and recognize that we are not alone.
We are part of a constant, reliable community of faith here in Scottsville, and we are also part of a global community of people who share our struggle against coronavirus and all its complicating realities. As comforting and real as those communities are, we are also part of a much greater community: God is with us. Though we may be isolated, we are far from alone. Even when we fall into despair under our own broom tree, the angel of the Lord gives us sustenance and points us in the direction where we will find our comforting and supportive God.
Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher of the early and middle twentieth century, has written, “It is cynicism and fear that freeze life; it is faith that thaws it out, releases it, sets it free.” May we accept God’s free and freeing gift of life even in the midst of very real threat and deep anxiety. May we live in the fullness that God intends for all the children of God.
Pray with me and our community of faith this day:
God of power and love, you are with us in every circumstance of this life. We thank you for your steadfast faithfulness. We thank you for your prophets and for your gift of peace, which comes to us even in times of chaos and fear, trouble and doubt. We thank you for your powerful Word that coaxes us even when we are hiding and afraid. We put our trust in you, because we know that you save us.
We ask for your power and love to guide us in the face of the overwhelming chaos of this global pandemic. Allow us to see and travel the path you lead us to, to renewed physical, mental, and spiritual health.
We ask this, and all things, in the name of Christ Jesus. Amen.