Have you ever built a fort and hidden away? Or perhaps you just wanted to? As a young boy, I recall building forts. Lots of them. We would commandeer all the furniture that was available to us…pushing together chairs and sofas, cushions and ottomans. We would cover over our glorious construction with a huge blanket creating an impenetrable fort and simply hide away. Sometimes we were just enjoying the serenity of this solitary space that was ours; while, other times we were hiding away from the worries and fears that life presented ~ learning of my best friend’s coming move to another city, or dealing of the death of our family pet, or processing the end of my parent’s marriage. Have you ever built forts and hidden away in your life? They might be metaphorical or real-life. But, I think we all have built a few in our days and this morning’s text offers some wisdom in this human tendency to hide away and seek hope.
A little background to this morning’s text in 1st Kings is probably helpful. The lead up to Elijah’s refuge is nothing short of dramatic, violent, and bloody ~ certainly this is an ‘R’ rated passage. To those, who naively view scripture as a wholesome and untouched form of literature compared to the violence of modern day, we are reminded that scripture is filled with the stuff of real life: violence, depression, even the ponderings of suicide. Leading up to this morning’s text, Elijah has waged an epic battle. He violently upheld the honour of Yahweh…the God of the Hebrews against all the other gods. On Mount Carmel, Elijah, battled prophets loyal to Baal to prove Yahweh’s supremacy. The battle resulted in an inconceivable bloodbath. Elijah slew 450 prophets loyal to Baal (18:40) and likely 400 additional prophets loyal to Asherah (18:19). The previous chapter is horribly bloody scene that makes John Wick look G-rated. There was a backlash. Queen Jezebel, whom these prophets were loyal to, was enraged! She sets out to have vengeance and the text before us unfolds. Elijah’s life is in serious jeopardy. He ponders…What have I done? What was I thinking? Elijah runs off…he flees…he finds a fort / a cave … and hides away. He wants it to be over. He wants to die.
A few weeks ago, we celebrated our centenary of the birth of our denomination that occurred back on June 10th back in 1925. To be sure, a momentous celebration for us a community of faith: the brave founding of our denomination ~ which would create the largest Protestant denomination in our country. And we continue to think of some of the ‘hey-days’ that have transpired since ~ don’t we? Perhaps we remember ‘back in the day’, some of the power our national church held. We remember back in the day, when the Moderator of our church (along with other national faith leaders) was regularly consulted by the Prime Minister of Canada on policy decisions and our country’s course of action. We remember when policy statements made by our General Council were regularly picked up in the national press and discussed over many a dinner table. We remember the days when our Sunday Schools, and Youth Groups overflowed. When our Child/ youth / and adult choirs were all full to overflowing. We remember the days when the church was an institution that held the responsibility of awesome social power and significant influence. United Church historian, David Lochead, once wrote of the United Church’s power ~ not of being a murderous sword like that of Elijah ~ but rather he described our church’s power in the early days as being: “the social conscience of the nation”. However, since the post-WWII baby boom, we know that the church has been on a radical decline. One wonders why we are no longer in the forefront of society? Have we been been hiding away in the caves of society afraid of the attacks from the dominant culture in which we live. The mid-60’s (1967 to be exact) marked the turn from a time of consistent church growth to consistent church decline. Churches from that point forward closing, more than they were opening; Sunday schools were shrinking and (in some cases) non-existent; and every measure of denominational participation, loyalty, interest, and affiliation is on the decline. One wonders of the church today: are we hiding in a cave? Are we fearful of the dominant culture tracking us down with violent intent? Have we lost our way?
One of important things to lift up is the dynamic that occurs while Elijah was in the cave. What happens is a deep reminder of the way of God’s nature. God’s way, at it’s essence, is NOT power over. God’s way is NOT violence towards the threat. God’s way is found in the gentle sound of sheer silence. Let’s look at how God arrives for Elijah. In the text, there are four elements that are presented as places where Elijah looks for God to arrive. The first three are the traditional theophanies ~ places where Elijah would understandably look for God’s presence. God would be found in power and might. And as we explore them, they might resonate for us still as places we continue to seek the holy. Elijah looks for God in the great storm…yet God is not there. Elijah looks for God in the great earthquake…yet God is not there. Elijah looks for God in the burning fire…yet God is not there. God is not in the storm or in the earthquake or in the fire. And, just like it did to Elijah, this surprises us as well. How many of us look for God in the form of a powerful warrior that will squash the bad guys; we look for a God who will triumph over the powers of evil by arriving with an even greater power and might. Truth be told, we want our God to be more powerful and commanding than all the other (‘small g’) gods. This was why it was so surprising to the crowds to have Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. The Roman Legions arrived on the back of war horses and the Jewish Messiah arrives on a colt ~ something must be wrong with this picture, we protest! How could God be humble, gentle, and quiet? We have been taught to look for God in ways of power, dominance and control, yet we are reminded in the 1st Kings text that this is not the way of God. What follows the storm, the earthquake, and the fire is something so very odd…something so very surprising…what follows is the sound of sheer silence. And in that sheer silence, they become aware that God is there. To that arrival, Elijah covers his face knowing that he was in God’s presence. That sheer silence created space to realize that the grace, the compassionate care, the Way of God was there.
I wonder what this text teaches us about discovering God as a church. Perhaps, this text reminds us that our role as Christ’s body alive in the world ~ the church ~ was never to be the dominant, powerful force that we once were (or thought we were). Perhaps it was never our role! Perhaps the role of the church today, more than ever, is to remember and rediscover who we were at our genesis. And in these times of deep, quiet listening, perhaps we might recover who we are called to be as an institution. The church, in its earliest form, was a group that hid away from the dominant culture in order to live out the radical Way of Christ. They were fearful for their very lives; fearful for their existence. And what the church did was to present an alternative way of being in community ~ Jesus’ Way. It wasn’t dominance…it was compassionate care: where the last was first, where voice of the powerless was heard, where the mouths of the hungry were filled, where hope was dispersed to all. The early church’s function was the creation of true family ~ kin ~ where we saw in all others a ‘kinship’ by virtue of our being Children of God. We were kin through the depth of God’s love.
I truly believe that sometimes we need these divine moments of sheer silence to be reminded of the true nature of God. This is especially important because the world continues to fight for our loyalty. The wonderful writer Anne Lamott views this as akin to being stuck in “a maze” that the world has constructed for us. In her 2007 book Grace (eventually): Thoughts on Faith, she writes: “When I was a child, I thought grown-ups and teachers knew the truth…It took years for me to discover that the first step in finding out the truth was to begin unlearning almost everything adults had taught me…Their main pitch was that achievement equaled happiness, when all you had to do was to study rock stars, or movie stars, or our parents, to see what they were mostly miserable. They were all running around in mazes like everyone else”.
The beautiful, good news in this passage is that in these ‘cave-moments’ of sheer silence, when we have hidden away and barricaded ourselves for fear…the good news is that this is precisely when God will meet us! To be clear, God will not be found in powerful earthquakes or raging fires or blowing windstorms. But God will be found when we take the quiet time to discover God’s true presence. For Elijah two areas of provision occurred in this time of discernment. To his hunger and thirst for God, he received food and water…and not just ANY food and water. Elijah receives a cake baked on hot coals. Interestingly, a rarely used word, the same word for the “coals” that were found in Isaiah’s call when the Seraphim flew over to Isaiah with the burning coal and touched his lips that he might speak the words as one of God’s prophets. I wonder if the most beautiful part of this passage is the assurance to know that…in those silent moments…in those hidden away moments…God will provide…God will be found…You are not alone!
We are reaching the end of our reflection time, and I did want to touch on the Psalms. For what they point us to is that wonderful rhythm of hope amidst our fear that we see in them. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” begins the 42nd Psalm. When we come to God panting with thirst, hidden away in fear, God is there. God is there in the silence. God is present in food and water. God is there bringing hope and light and truth. God is there is the sheer silence…Are we listening?
Amen.