A communion Sunday… I always like sermon preparation on a communion week. I enjoy seeing how a text relates to the table. Communion keeps me focused on the gospel I am supposed to preach each week. I enjoy the fact that it is in the meal of the Lord’s Supper that God speaks most profoundly to the hungry souls of needy people. It takes the pressure off of me a bit.
Looking at Elijah this week was challenging. This familiar passage (1 Kings 19:1-18) of Elijah running from Jezebel- from the top of the promised land (Israel) all the way through the bottom (Beersheba in Judah) and into the wilderness to Horeb or Sinai, where God met with Moses, is the passage that has us encounter the irony of the still small voice of The Almighty.
Of course the context of this week was that it was July 4th weekend. I Have been reading a biography of John Adams and the role he played in the establishment of America’s independence. This informed the way I asked questions of this text. What does where we are as a nation today and where Israel was in Elijah’s day have in common? The pervasive godlessness of Israel under the leadership of Ahab and Jezebel, and Elijah’s lament over that does strike a chord with many Christians in America today. Many faithful people in our nation lament where we are and where we are going.
Elijah ran and found a cave. Christians do the same. Elijah wanted God to make the situation right by his righteous judgment of the godless. But God wasn’t in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. He whispered, telling Elijah to go back and do the things a prophet is supposed to do in the place he was called to do it. Fear tells us to retreat. Faith tells us to engage. It was through Elijah’s small acts of faithfulness that God worked out his justice and redemption. Where has God called us to small acts of faithfulness?
Pastor Scott
To Listen to the Sermon, click here
Looking at Elijah this week was challenging. This familiar passage (1 Kings 19:1-18) of Elijah running from Jezebel- from the top of the promised land (Israel) all the way through the bottom (Beersheba in Judah) and into the wilderness to Horeb or Sinai, where God met with Moses, is the passage that has us encounter the irony of the still small voice of The Almighty.
Of course the context of this week was that it was July 4th weekend. I Have been reading a biography of John Adams and the role he played in the establishment of America’s independence. This informed the way I asked questions of this text. What does where we are as a nation today and where Israel was in Elijah’s day have in common? The pervasive godlessness of Israel under the leadership of Ahab and Jezebel, and Elijah’s lament over that does strike a chord with many Christians in America today. Many faithful people in our nation lament where we are and where we are going.
Elijah ran and found a cave. Christians do the same. Elijah wanted God to make the situation right by his righteous judgment of the godless. But God wasn’t in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. He whispered, telling Elijah to go back and do the things a prophet is supposed to do in the place he was called to do it. Fear tells us to retreat. Faith tells us to engage. It was through Elijah’s small acts of faithfulness that God worked out his justice and redemption. Where has God called us to small acts of faithfulness?
Pastor Scott
To Listen to the Sermon, click here
Scott, I listened to “Elijah: A Day in the Life” this morning. Elijah ran away when things got tough. You reminded us that persecution is a part of faithfulness and that we are called to be in culture, not out of it. My daily devotional today was Acts 20 and 21. Paul told the church at Ephesus that he was going to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, even though he knew things were going to be tough, and he would be imprisoned. But he said what mattered most was that he wanted to finish what God had started. When he got to Tyre, the disciples there told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Paul said, “Why are you making a scene and making it even harder for me? The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether to arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience.” Acts 21:13. I’m struck by how often in prayer, I ask God to make life easier, in all kinds of circumstances, whether for myself or for others. Instead, I need to pray for faithfulness and for obedience.
ReplyDeleteShirley
One of the great witnesses to the gospel by the first century church was how the persecuted endured faithfully.
ReplyDeleteAnd how ironic that Elijah, a man who ran for fear of death, was a man who never died. Chariots of fire indeed!
S.C.