Trinity 5
1
Kg 19:11-21
7/5/15
Perhaps you have wondered at some
point how I choose the text that I will preach on each Sunday. Now obviously there are only three options
available as they are found in the lectionary – the readings assigned for each
Sunday in the church year. But still, there are
three choices – so how do I choose?
During the first half of the church
year – the time when we have all the major seasons and feasts – there is a
general orientation toward the Gospel lesson.
We focus on the word and deeds of Jesus.
Normally the Old Testament lesson has some kind of connection with the
Gospel lesson, and so this is often the second choice. During the second half
of the church year that we are in right now – the Trinity season – the emphasis
is more generally on the teaching of Scripture, and so the epistle lesson
becomes a good option.
But taking those factors into
consideration, what determines the choice of the text? Sometimes it is the theological content –
that there is just great stuff in there for preaching. But quite often a more pragmatic criterion
helps make the decision. If a good
introduction for a sermon occurs to me, I am likely to go with that text.
I maintain - and I know many pastors
would agree with me – that the most difficult part of writing a sermon is the
introduction. You must begin the sermon
from a dead stop. You have to get it
going in a way that begins to engage the congregation so that they are at least
somewhat interested in what you are going to say. The introduction also has to relate to the
text in some way. There has to be something about it that is going to tie in to
the text and what the sermon will say. And you have to this over and over again. I am guaranteed to preach just about seventy
sermons a year. The pastor is constantly
facing the question: How am I going to get this sermon going?
But things worked out a little
differently on Tuesday of this past week when I sat down and looked at the
assigned texts. On this occasion one of
them was the obvious choice, not because an introduction occurred to me or
because the theological content was something on which I wanted to preach. Instead it was the obvious choice because it
speaks so directly to what we are experiencing right now.
In the Old Testament lesson this
morning, dramatic events have occurred in the northern kingdom of Israel and
the prophet Elijah feels alone. He feels
like the earth has shifted under his feet and that he is the only one remaining
who wants to be faithful to Yahweh. In
fact he says twice in his encounter with God, “I have been very jealous for the
LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant,
thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I
only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Elijah was a prophet in the northern
kingdom of Israel during the ninth century B.C.
It was a time when things were good – at least economically. The southern kingdom of Judah, the northern
kingdom of Israel and the port city state of Tyre had a thriving commercial
relationship going. In order to cement
this relationship, Ahab the king of Israel was married to Jezebel, the daughter
of the king of Tyre.
The problem was that Jezebel was a
committed follower of the false god Baal.
She promoted the worship of this god vigorously in Israel and opposed
the worship of Yahweh. Finally, there
was a shown down on Mt. Carmel as Yahweh sent down fire from heaven to burn up
a sacrifice, while the prophets of Baal weren’t able to make anything happen.
After Yahweh’s victory, Elijah
ordered that the prophets of Baal who were misleading the people were to be
killed. Queen Jezebel was angry about this.
And she had the power to do something about it. She sent a message to Elijah after she heard
about the death of the prophets of Baal saying: “So may the gods do to me and
more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time
tomorrow.”
Elijah knew that Jezebel wasn’t
messing around. And so he fled for his life.
Eventually he came to Mt. Horeb – which is also called Mt. Sinai. He
came to the very mountain where Yahweh had entered into his covenant with
Israel – the same covenant that Israel was now violating.
Twice God asks him, “What are you
doing here, Elijah?” Twice Elijah
replies: “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the
people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and
killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek
my life, to take it away.”
Unless you have been living in a
cave during the last week and a half, it is impossible not to hear in these
words the lament of Christians in our nation who believe what God’s word says
about sexuality and marriage. The
Supreme Court decided that same sex marriage – marriage between homosexuals –
is a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United State. The implications of this are going to
reverberate for years. Armed with this
decision, a new phase in the suppression of the Church and the truth of God’s
word in our nation has begun. How far
and how fast this will extend, only God knows. But it’s not going to be good.
Yet more disturbing than the
implications for the future is the terrible sense that we are alone. It seems
as if Facebook has become one big rainbow.
The media, entertainment industry and big business couldn’t celebrate
same sex marriage enough. Even the White
House – the people’s house - was bathed in rainbow colors.
We want to ask, “How did this
happen?” Yet the truth is, you aren’t
going to like the answer. You see, we
did it. Or at least, we were part of
it. Same sex marriage is nothing more
than the outcome of a new view of sex and marriage. Contraception and the Sexual Revolution
separated sex from babies. Marriage
became fundamentally a matter of personal happiness instead of producing and
raising children.
Who’s to blame? We are. Because we
have gone along with it. Have you had
sex outside of marriage? We did it. Have you lived with someone outside of
marriage? We did it. Have you looked at
pornography? We did it. Have you listened
to music that glorifies sex apart from marriage? We did it. Have you divorced for reasons that
are not biblical? We did it. Have you
separated sex from procreation, determining the number of children you have in
order to fit your definition of what a comfortable life is? We did it.
We certainly weren’t alone. But you
can’t do these things and then act surprised and upset that it has led to this
outcome. To be fair, sometimes we didn’t
understand how all of this was related – I certainly didn’t. But that doesn’t
change the fact that the Law confronts us on it now.
So what are we to do? The first
thing is to repent. We need to confess
all of the ways that we have abandoned God’s will for sex, marriage and
family. We need to confess all the ways
that we have made ourselves god as we
focused on our pleasure, our version of happiness, our desired lifestyle.
And that brings us back to our text.
Elijah is the persecuted prophet. He is
alone. He has fled for his life. God comes to him, not in the might of a wind
that tears rocks apart; not in an earthquake; not in fire. Instead in a low whisper – in a voice – he
comes to Elijah and assures him that Yahweh is still in charge. And he sends Elijah off with things to do.
But don’t be mistaken. It helped in that time, but it did not make everything all better. Instead, Israel and Judah continued in
unfaithfulness. They kept persecuting
and rejecting the prophets. The writer of 2 Kings summarized it this way: “Yet
the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, ‘Turn
from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance
with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my
servants the prophets.’ But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their
fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God.” The end result was God’s judgment and exile.
The prophets were called to speak a
word from God that people didn’t want to hear.
Like the prophet Jeremiah in the sixth century B.C., they were called to
face persecution and suffer. And this is
important because God had promised through Moses: “The LORD your God will raise
up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him
you shall listen.”
God did raise up this prophet like
Moses. He did it when he sent his Son
into the world in the incarnation. Jesus
Christ came not like a wind the shatters stones, or an earthquake, or
fire. He came as a low whisper – voice
that said God was acting to deal with sin.
Yet the paradox of God’s action was that his might could be
rejected. His salvation could be persecuted. In fact it was by being persecuted – by being nailed to cross – that his salvation
was accomplished.
Jesus died on the cross bearing all
of your failures. And then on the third
day he rose from the dead as he won the victory over sin’s progeny –
death. On that first Easter he said to
the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ
should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” The suffering and death of Jesus had looked
like it was failure. But it was not. It
was God working salvation in his way.
That truth holds in our day as well.
God is still in charge. He is still bringing salvation in his way. And guess what? It looks a lot like Jesus. In the
proclamation of his word and the administration of his sacraments God’s reign
is present bringing forgiveness and victory over death. Yet it does not appear powerful. It is easy for people to reject. It is easy for people to persecute. It is something that is persecuted.
But because of the resurrection and
ascension of Jesus Christ we know the reality.
We know how things really are. We know Jesus’ victory. We know that just as
the persecution of Jesus Christ was always leading towards God’s intended goal,
so also the persecution of his people is doing the same. For you see, it is the risen Lord who is at work forgiving and sustaining his people. And this work leads to the goal of his return
in glory on the Last Day. It leads to
resurrection and eternal life when all things will perfectly reflect God’s
will.
We do not know what the years to
come will bring for Christ’s Church – for those who are faithful to what God’s
word says. But we do know what we need
to do. We need to teach our children
about the inherent connection and goodness of sex, marriage and babies. We need to allow this to guide our own lives
as well. And we need to trust that the crucified and risen Lord gives us
forgiveness and will sustain us in his truth until he brings the final victory
and vindication on the Last Day.
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