The inspiration you seek is already
within you. Be silent and listen (Rumi)
Flight Insurance
June
23/13 Year C - 5th after
Pentecost - I Kings 19
Coming back
to church after being on maternity leave for a year has been wonderful, thank you
for kindness as I merge back in. It has been great to see you all again and to catch
up a little bit,I look forward to re-connecting with more of you. I am excited to
know where God is calling us to now in the ministry of Pike Bay and Lions Head United
Churches. Part of what I did to prepare for my return was to re-engage my ministry
brain – try to get it out of baby brain by making some goals about what I hope to
do over the next little while. I have
been reading a wonderful book on
preaching, called Preaching that Matters – it is written not by a preacher as
most preaching books are - instead it is
written by a member of the laity - Lori Carrell, who is a professor of
communication at the University of Wisconsin.
She has spent many years studying the effects of sermons on it listeners and has discovered a
few things in the process – the most important thing that she feels that she has
discovered is what people expect when
they come to church. Do you know what
it is? – the number one expectation people
have when they come to church? ---------They expect to be transformed – they
expect to be met by God and be spiritually transformed in this hour and they
are expecting the sermon to do that.
Although
she is American and has pulled her statistics from the US she surveyed hundreds
of preachers and thousands of lay people over course of a few years. I think her results are as relevant for us up
north as well. We come to church because
there is something that we do here that is different than any other activity we
participate in during the week. Our number one reason for being here is not to
be entertained or informed or to be taught some interesting facts about the
bible, and we are not only here for fellowship and food and catching up with
our neighbours – although all these things are important, they are not the
number one reason why we are here this morning – we are here wanting God to get
in and change our life. And not only
that, we expect that something new and wonderful and God given can
happen to us in this short period of
time so that when we focus our attention on the words in the sermon and open
ourselves up to the holy spirit in our midst we anticipate that transformation.
Spiritual
transformation – a pretty large expectation, a bit intimidating from my point of view –none the less - I get the truth of it because I have been just
like you – I have sitting in the pew for the last year expecting something as I worshiped – and you know what - sometimes I received what I expected –
sometimes I left worship being transformed, being lifted, being re-connected,
being reminded that I am child of God and God is not done with me yet. Spiritual Transformation is what we are
seeking, this type of transformation is what Elijah is seeking as well –he just
doesn’t know it yet. Elijah in this part
of his story is so discouraged and distraught he is on the point of giving up,
he is so despairing he plunks himself under the broom tree and says – God take
me now – cause I am done– but God doesn’t – because God is not done with him yet . It is time for another transformation.
I think
that all of us at some time or other in our lives gets to this place this place
where we need another transformation - where everything feels like it is not worth it
and no matter what you do or where you go everything feels dry, despondent,
dreary. That’s the place where we meet
Elijah this morning. It is a bit of a contradiction – actually because he has just come from a high place – remember
the story from the first of June – on top of Mount Carmel – having it out with
the 450 priests of Baal – pitting God against them – the alter, the bull, the
trench and the 12 buckets of water to which God sends fire – fire to consume
not only the bull, not only the wood but also the stones alter as well – and
all was turned to ash. And God is the
winner in the great God against the gods contest and therefore Elijah won as well– and he also
got rid of his enemies – the 450 priests
of Baal where slaughtered that day also – we will kind of gloss over the that
atrocity – and focus instead of Elijah’s state of mind as he comes from this
place of victory and runs smack into the understanding that the queen of Israel
– Jezebel is not a happy woman because her priests have been destroyed and so
she vows that she will get Elijah – make him pay - and do to him what he has
done to her priests.
So, Elijah
is running for his life as he goes out into the desert. And he is afraid– he is afraid for his existence
and he is exhausted, and he is down, way down – down to the point where all he
wants to do is end it all – he has no more ability to continue,no more energy
for life and parks himself under neath that broom tree to await his
demise. Unfortunately for him - God is not
done with him yet and sends him an angel with some food, and water to sustain
him, twice, and it is enough sustenance to take him on a forty day and forty
night trek across the wilderness to mount Horab. 40 days and 40 nights is biblical language
for ‘the time it takes for something to shift – 40 days in an ark for the land
to appear, 40 years in the desert to find the promise land and later for Jesus
40 days to prepare and move into intense ministry. Forty days and nights Elijah crosses to the
mountain – where he goes and holes up in a cave to await – wait for whatever is
next.
Each and
every one of us has undergone, will undergo,or
is presently living times in times such as these. Times off challenge, times of despair, times
of sadness – it could be because of the end of marriage, or a health crisis
–yours or your loved one, or the death of a loved one, or a financial crisis, or
our children are struggling, or the loss of a dream, or even for no obvious
reason at all - each and everyone of us will spend some time in the desert in
our lifetime. – but we are people of God, and part of what we do here in this
church each week is remind us that we are people of God and that means
something – especially in our desert times – that God is with us – we are not
alone.
Ten years
ago I was in similar place to Elijah –not that I had a queen trying to get me
killed – still, I was at one of the lowest points in my life to date. My fifteen year marriage was ending –and I
was lost and confused and alone and afraid, scared for my life as I did not
know how to live on my own – I had moved from
my parents home to my husbands home.
Now all of a sudden I was living alone and making all the decisions not
only for myself but also for my three teenage sons . The separation of my husband and my self was
causing a separation in the congregation I was serving and so it became
apparent after a couple of months that I
needed to leave my job, my home, and move – fear – and I felt that I needed to
move quickly so that I could get my boys enrolled in their new schools as early
in September as possilble – more fear. I
accepted an appointment in Tara and they agreed to let me move into the manse
three weeks early – I obtained permission from Blind River to waive the 90 days
and from the time that I knew I needed to leave until the time I arrived on
this side of Lake Huron –and disembarked from the ferry in Tobermory less than a month had passed. I was running, running for my life scared
out of my mind unsure of everything that I knew and I was on my own. But I was fed while on the run – I had a
prayer in my head – that kept repeating while I reminded myself to breath – We
are not alone, we live in God’s world – the first line of the United Church
creed – and butterflies fed me too
- everyday during that summer and fall I
would see at least one butterfly and I would remember the prayer and I would remember to breathe “I am not
alone” and something about that was
enough, enough to move into the next day.
Enough to make it to the mountain - It is time for another transformation.
Elijah has
arrived at the mountain and waits there for the Lord. There is certain amount of mystery around
what happens next for Elijah – there is wind – hurricane forces winds enough
move rocks on the mountain – and there is earth shaking and rock splitting in
an earthquake – and there is fire – fire to consume – It seems to me thought –
that it is next moment that has all the power - for Elijah is about to experience the extraodinary,
Elijah is about to experience the silence – a silence so profound that God gets
in. – the shear silence – God – nothing – no wind,
no rain, no heat, no sound – there is
God!
It is, I think, hard for us to understand
just how quiet shear silence is.
We who live lives filled with noise, where silence is rare and shear
silence is rarer still – but imagine if you will for a moment that all the machines
are shut down and the power bars too so the hum gone, and the kids are quieted and
asleep, and it is the middle of the night, and there is no wind or rain and the
wave on the shore are not lapping – and the crickets and the owls have gone to
sleep – it is that time inbetween – after the last night creature has gone to
sleep but before the early morning birds begin their wake up calls – there in
that moment between night and day – there is the silence that Elijah heard– the
divine silence – where the presence of God is palpable, where the presence of
God is in our very breath – breathing in the sacred, breathing out the divine -
its in our very core- sheer silence – shear God!
And there
in that moment – in that breathe where Elijah and God encounter each other –
that is the moment of transformation and Elijah is never the same again. For that is what happens to us when we
encounter the divine, we are transformed and never are the same again. Oh, we may look the same, we may have the
same face, carry the same afflictions, live in the same community and do the
same job – but we are changed on the inside because no one – I repeat – no one
can met God and not be transformed.
Be assured that wherever we run to – whenever we choose
to run – however far we run – God will
find us – not only find us, will be with us as we run – and when we stop and
finally listen, we will have the opportunity to transform – to be changed –
Elijah was changed – transformed into a different prophet who left his fear
behind and went out to anoint new kings and to face the queen he was afraid of,
the queen who was trying to have him silenced and killed– And Elijah now has the
ability to name the abuse of power that he witnessed from Ahab and Jezebel. I became a transformed after my time in the
desert and encounter with God in the silence into a adult woman able to handle
my own problems and deal with my life relying on myself. This
is our flight insurance – our flight assurance – that God goes with us into our
deserts and God meets us in our despair and God then sends us out as
transformed people to serve in a new way – or to live into a new reality or
just to be a bit more experienced and confident in our ability to handle the
tough times.
Like
Elijah, we too belong to God and like Elijah, God is not done with us yet. God
wants to transform us - and it is God
that will help us make those changes and give us the gifts we need, the strengths,
resources and our church community to go from this place to live in the world
as a newly transformed person. God meets
us in the silence – listen.
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