THE WAY: PART VI
Quite some time ago now, we began a sermon series based upon John 14:6. There Jesus says to his disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” From that simple statement theologian Eugene Peterson derived the following theory: “The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life.” While countless battles have been fought over the Jesus truth, very seldom do we invest much energy in discerning the Jesus way. That is precisely what we are attempting to do in this series of sermons. The question thus becomes: What is the Jesus way…and how do we go about following it?
As we noted initially, the Jesus truth – in and of itself – is not enough to bring about the Jesus life. Jesus calls us to follow the Jesus way as well. Then we noted that the Jesus way is not a list of rules and regulations. The Jesus way cannot be codified, or simplified, or summarized. The Jesus way is meant to be lived. When we examined the life of Abraham, we discovered that the Jesus way involves testing and sacrifice. God has a unique way of sifting people when he wants to use them to accomplish great things for his kingdom. When we examined the life of Moses, we discovered that God has a unique purpose for our lives. What’s more, that purpose is subject to change from time to time, and we have a responsibility to continue to seek out God’s purpose for our lives in spite of whatever changes may take place. And finally, when we examined the life of David, we discovered that living a godly life in spite of all our imperfections is part and parcel to walking the Jesus way. Sometimes we find that we have to throw ourselves upon the mercy of God…and sincerely strive to do better in the future.
Today we come to Part VI in our sermon series on The Way. In our journey through the Old Testament we have examined the lives of Abraham, Moses and David. Today we’re going to be examining the life of the prophet Elijah. Thus, if I were to come up with a subtitle for the sermon today, it might be called, “The Way of Elijah,” or “The Way of Making Choices.” In any case, I invite you to come along with me as we seek to discern the Jesus Way.
A few days ago, I was taking the dog out to Woodcock Dam for a walk. I was driving, and the dog was sticking his head out the window in the back. We were stopped at one of Meadville’s infamous four-way stop signs when a man and a woman who looked to be in their early forties happened by. The man said, “Why do you have to be such a pretty boy?” I looked at him and said, “I hope you’re talking to my dog!” While the woman doubled over laughing, the man turned red-in-the-face and sulked away. Hey, you never know in this day and age. We live in a brand new kind of culture where it seems as if anything goes.
Speaking of culture, Gary Eberle is the author of a book called The Geography of Nowhere. In it he claims that our postmodern American culture is attempting to do what no other culture in history has ever attempted to do. We are attempting to live our lives…without a moral and spiritual center. To illustrate, he compares the modern commercial strip – much like what we might find on Peach Street in Erie – with a medieval city. He postulates the theory that where a civilization places its economic and emotional resources is a reflection of its spiritual values. While medieval cities placed churches with their towering steeples in the center of town, with everything else built out around it, our economic and emotional resources go to build fast food franchises with glittering neon lights and shopping malls with easy highway access. Pertaining to that, Eberle writes:
In the middle ages, people spent vast amounts of time and money to pilgrimage to shrines or the Holy Land. Today the object of travel is more likely to be the mall or Disney World. In a spiritual society, people hope to see the face of God. In a post-modern one, they opt for Mickey Mouse.
Do we lack a spiritual center? Has culture infiltrated our relationship with God? A sociologist by the name of Christian Smith thinks it has. He recently studied the religious beliefs of more than 3000 U.S. teenagers and re-interviewed them when they were in their early twenties. The goal was to examine how they were faring as young adults in terms of their religiosity. The results were not overly encouraging. Smith has devised a concept to describe their belief system. He calls it Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism bears little resemblance to the historic teachings of the Christian faith. Instead, it reflects a version of a God who is more like Santa Claus than the God of the Bible. They see a God who fixes things, who rewards good behavior with a happy afterlife, and who roots for your favorite sports team. Ah, perhaps culture has infiltrated our faith in God. It seems to have colored it in some rather distressing ways.
Culture had managed to color the faith of the Hebrew people in Elijah’s day as well. The prophet Elijah lived about 100 years after the death of King David. The kingdom David united had split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah shortly after the death of David’s successor, Solomon. The city of Jerusalem – the religious center of the Jewish faith – was located in the southern kingdom of Judah. Thus, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel felt compelled to create a religious center that would rival the sanctity of Jerusalem. A king by the name of Omri built just such a city and called his creation Samaria. Yet as the country grew stronger economically and politically, it became much weaker spiritually…perhaps not the last time that a better standard of living would be accompanied by a worse way of life.
The northern kingdom of Israel did not necessarily repudiate the worship of God Almighty, but they did somewhat accommodate it to the faith of the culture. It’s a little thing we call syncretism. It has to do with merging different faith traditions. The god of the culture that gained a toehold in Samaria was a Canaanite deity by the name of Baal. He had a consort by the name of Asherah. Now, Baal was the god of rain. The theory was that it rained when Baal and Asherah came together. Thus, the way the people invoked Baal to send rain upon the land was for them to come together with a temple prostitute. I’ll let you figure out how that worked for yourselves. Now believe it or not, this did not sit well with God. So God sent the prophet Elijah to call upon the king of Israel, who by this time was a man named Ahab. Are you with me?
Elijah’s first recorded sermon is to a congregation of one. He speaks to King Ahab alone. Elijah’s sermon is brief and abrupt. It consists of a mere 17 words in Hebrew. To the casual observer it sounds like little more than a weather forecast. Elijah says, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years…except by my word.” In other words, a drought is coming upon the nation of Israel…for an undetermined amount of time.
There’s a certain irony to Elijah’s words. Do you remember the kind of god that Baal was supposed to be? Baal was the god of rain. What would a drought prove to the people of Israel? It would prove that Baal was impotent and ineffective. It would prove that Baal and Asherah were essentially nonexistent. Elijah’s seventeen-word sermon to Ahab…is an altar call.
God then instructed Elijah to go into hiding. While King Ahab may not have picked up on the subtle meaning of Elijah’s words, his wife, Jezebel, certainly would. And she would have had Elijah’s head if he’d stuck around. So Elijah disappeared for a period of about three years.
A severe drought came upon the land of Israel, the likes of which the people had never seen before. When Elijah returned and met with King Ahab, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, O troubler of Israel?” Elijah replied, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, because you have forsaken the commandments of God and followed Baal.” He then instructed Ahab to assemble the people of Israel – along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah – atop Mount Carmel for an epic confrontation. Elijah meant to prove – once and for all – that there was but one God of Israel…and that Baal was a figment of their sordid imaginations.
The day of reckoning arrived. All of Israel was gathered on Mount Carmel, as were the prophets of Baal and Asherah. Elijah drew near to the people and boomed, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is god, follow him!” Elijah was calling upon the people of Israel to make a choice. “Choose God, or choose Baal,” was what he was saying in essence. Yet the people responded with blank stares. They could not bring themselves to say a single word.
So Elijah concocted a scheme to put the two gods to the test. Two bulls were brought to the top of the mountain. The prophets of Baal and Asherah were to cut one bull into pieces and lay it on some wood. Elijah would do the same. The god who answered with fire from above was the god who was really God.
The prophets of Baal and Asherah were up for the challenge. They cut up their bull and laid it on the wood. Then they cried from morning until noon, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, there was no answer, and there was no fire. Elijah began chiding them. “Cry louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Maybe he’s meditating, or maybe he’s gone on a journey, or maybe he’s asleep! Cry louder!” The prophets of Baal cried aloud and cut themselves with swords until blood gushed out all over them…but still there was no answer.
Now it was Elijah’s turn. He built an altar to the Lord and dug a trench around it. He put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid the bull upon the wood. Then – just for effect – he told the people to pour four jars of water on the bull and on the wood. When they did so, he told them to do it a second time. When they did so a second time, he told them to do it a third time. By now the bull and the wood were soaking wet and the trench around the altar was full. That’s when Elijah called upon the Lord. And God rained down fire from heaven that consumed the bull and the wood. It consumed the stones and the dust and the water in the trench. Then, upon Elijah’s instructions, the people of Israel seized the prophets of Baal and Asherah and put them to an untimely death. And it wasn’t long before the rain began to fall.
God takes a dim view of syncretism. God takes a dim view of combining culture with faith.
“Harlotry” is the word the prophets so frequently use against those who do just that. While the word “harlotry” has a literal reference to the Temple prostitution of the Baal cult, perhaps it is also a metaphor that extends into the entire theology of worship. Perhaps we could call worship harlotry when it accepts the needs and desires and passions of the worshipper as its baseline. In other words, is worship about us…or is worship about God? Harlotry in worship is worship that says, “I will give you satisfaction. You want religion to make you feel good? I will make sure that it does. You want your own needs fulfilled? I will do it in the form that is most arousing to you.” Harlotry in worship reduces worship to the whims and desires of the worshipper. Harlotry in worship says that worship should be interesting, relevant and exciting and that I should always “get something out of it.” Because after all, worship is really all about ME.
When Elijah faced down the prophets of Baal and Asherah, he was alone at the altar. It was a relatively quiet affair. It was worship that was centered on the God of the covenant. Elijah prepared the altar, then prayed briefly and simply. Something was said: words that called men and women to love, to serve, to obey, to sing, to adore, to act responsibly, and most of all…to choose. Authentic worship means being present to the living God who penetrates the whole of human life. Again, authentic worship means being present to the living God who penetrates the whole of human life. Nothing is done simply for the sake of the sensory experience involved – which eliminates all propagandistic and emotional manipulation. Worship has to do with being present to God. And worship is first and foremost about God…not about us.
This was not an easy thing for the people of Elijah’s day to accept. You see, they were used to gods that were meant to serve them. Perhaps the same thing is true of us today. It brings to mind what has become my favorite question of late. That question is this: “Does God exist to serve us, or do we exist to serve God?” Again, “Does God exist to serve us, or do we exist to serve God?” Get the answer to that question wrong…and we’re never going to get any of the rest of this faith stuff right either.
The prophet Elijah called upon the people of Israel to make a choice. “Choose God,” he said, “or choose Baal.” It was not an issue of compromise or tolerance. It was an all or nothing proposition. Perhaps the very same challenge could be posed to us today. “Choose God, or choose Baal.” “Choose God…or choose culture.” It is not an issue of compromise or tolerance for us either. It’s an all or nothing proposition. What it seems to come down to is this: Do we possess an insatiable desire to get our own needs fulfilled…or are we willing to be present to God? That choice, my friends…is yours. Amen.
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