Sermon on Elijah at St. Aldate’s (1 Kings 17)
A mixture of the sermon notes and my thoughts
Elijah Fed by Ravens
1Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbea in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
The Prophetic in the old-fashioned sense. God gives his servants a foreknowledge of what he is going to do. “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7
2Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3“Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.4You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”
God’s way of dealing with his servants.
At one moment, enormous power, and exaltation to the courts of princes.
And then, “Hide in the Kerith Ravine.”
Without the hiding, they would burn out in the prince’s courts.
One might need to eschew visibility to find God.
The downward mobility that is often part of God’s call.
Downward mobility to prepare you for upward mobility.
The downward mobility that is often part of God’s call.
Downward mobility to prepare you for upward mobility.
Turning from visibility to the formative desert–AT and AFTER moments of high visibility.
If you are currently invisible, be comforted, be comfortable, rejoice, hide yourself in God.
If you are currently visible, make sure you hide yourself in God.
We are never invisible to God, and that is enough.
” A good man is never less alone, than when he is alone with God.”
In obscurity with God, life- and world changing encounters happen.
5So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
From visibility to hiddenness. From the courts of princes to being hidden.
The Prophetic comes at a cost. Neither dew nor rain for both Israel and Elijah himself.
Elijah was commanded by God to go the most barren and inhospitable place with no normal food supply to get food and water.
We talk so much about our needs, “the healing power of social support,” our needs for friendship, for community, and all these are valid needs.
And yet, what do we make of Elijah sent off to be alone in a desert place?
For sustained dialogue with God, the kind of sustained dialogue which leads to breakthrough and transformation of one’s life, one needs to be alone, one needs, perhaps, to be lonely, to have the sort of inner quietness within oneself in which one can hear God’s voice.
And so in our bleak seasons we’d do well to remember this prophet summoned to the wilderness, to a shortage of food and friendship, and approbation and attention.
And he was not the first person who discovered angels in the wilderness, in his case, ravens.
The Widow at Zarephath. Elijah challenges the woman close to death from inanition and starvation to first feed him. Come on, Elijah!!
She senses something of God in him, and does so (despite being a “pagan” woman).The law of the tides. When we give from our poverty of time, energy, resources, money, creativity, good ideas, God multiplies our resources.In fact, the best way to get more creativity, energy, time, resources is to generously give what you have.
Elijah is sent to the least of these in a foreign land. “That is the Gospel, That God CARES about the penniless, lonely, forsaken and poor,” and about YOU and me.
And here is my response to the sermon, written that afternoon as I was mulling over it.
Elijah
Now Elijah the Tishbite, said to Ahab,
“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives,
Whom I serve,
There will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years
Except at my word.” 1 Kings 17
The Lord exalts his prophets to the court of princes,
He tells him what is to happen,
Giving him power one cannot fathom.
Which can make him seem crazed.
And how does he equip his prophet
To deal with the electricity
Of the knowledge of what is to come,
The burden of being thought a fool
Which can belong to those who hear the word of God?
After seasons of great visibility,
He moves him to hiddenness.
Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah:
“Leave here, turn eastward
and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.
“The Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, Lord?
But I heard you call me to the court of the King
I thought that was my vocation.”
“You did.
I did.
It was.
But I now call you to something different.”
“But the Kerith Ravine is barren,
It has no food.
No one lives there.
I have heard men tell of the healing power of social support
I have read that it is not good for man to be alone.
I have heard that iron sharpens iron,
That you show each man a slightly
Different diamond-facet of your face,
So that in community, the jigsaw
Of your revelation of yourself is complete
‘Go alone to the Kerith Ravine.’
I might be lonely there.”
“You might, Elijah, you might.
But I will meet you there,
Teach you there,
Comfort you there.
Can I be heard amidst the pomp of Ahab’s court,
The adulation of the people of Israel
The laughter, warmth and happy
after-echoes of friendship?
When you talk all the time
When people talk to you all the time
When conversation echoes in your ears
And you leave head whirring with yeasty talk,
Can you still hear my voice,
My gentle whisper?
It is more difficult.
You might well be lonely.
But I who created you
And know the secret roots within you
Which neither you nor the world has guessed,
I will be your friend.
I will nourish you,
Teach you of the joy of my presence,
Fill you with laughter as I draw near,
Flow through you in waves of liquid love,
Make you drunk with the wine of my spirit.
I will teach you that though I am a giver
And love to give you the good things I have created
I am, in fact, enough.
And you will know that for sure
When all you have is me.
I am enough.
I am even practical.
You will drink from the brook,
And I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.
Providing for you though what your people reckon unclean.
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So Elijah went to the Kerith Ravine,
and the ravens brought him bread and meat
and he drank from the brook.
Some time later, the brook dried up
Because there had been no rain in the land.
“Lord, did I not hear you command me to drink from this brook,
And it is now dry.
Lord? Lord?”
“You did, Elijah,
I did.
And it is indeed now dry.
But, though you may not suspect me of it,
I am, in fact, intensely practical.
When necessary, I speak new words.
Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.
I have commanded a widow to supply you with food.
Yes, I know it is the centre of Baal worship.
But I will again provide for you through the least
Of those you reckon unclean
Blessing them and you
In the circle of blessing in which I delight. ”
“But I had heard you call me to be a hermit by the brook.
I have grown to rather like it here.
I thought that was my vocation.”
“You did.
I did.
It was.
But today is a new day,
And I come to you with a new word.
As I will keep coming as long as you live
Shaking you with new wisdom, new challenges,
And mercies new every morning.”
So Elijah went to Zarephath.