1 Kings 19:1-21 Elijah: All Hope Lost

Elijah has just defeated the prophets of Baal in a God vs god competition. Yahweh, Israel’s God, completely humiliates the foreign god Baal. Baal worship came into Israel when Israel’s King Ahab married Jezebel, a cruel vicious princess from a nearby nation and made her his queen. With the arrival of Jezebel came Baal’s prophets and worship. Jezebel has a deep hatred for Israel’s God and is doing everything she can to make Yahweh small and Baal big. But Yahweh is more powerful than she could ever imagine, but that doesn’t stop her from threatening to kill Elijah and Elijah, knowing Jezebel and the power of her anger, is afraid and he runs. Even though he’s just seen Yahweh in action, Jezebel’s threat feels more real than Yahweh’s power right now.

Elijah runs, he falls into a depression. Elijah’s fear now is as deep as the high from his sense of joy and excitement for God was when he defeated and killed the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It feels as if life has smacked him across the face to wake him up. It’s common after spiritual highs to experience spiritual letdowns which is often deepened by fear and doubt. I’ve seen and experienced this myself after mission trips or emotional times where I’ve experienced God doing something really special. It’s not uncommon that a few weeks afterwards that the pressure to keep your faith private and not get so pushy about sharing our faith begins. On the mountaintop it feels as if Jesus is everywhere, then you get home and the reality is that there are so many who haven’t yet really accepted Jesus, and you can feel alone and different.  

The fall into sin is not just about doing bad things, it’s also about experiencing separation from God, the experience of being thrown out of the Garden to Eden into a world where life has now become harder. This creates emptiness, doubt and fear in people; barriers to experiencing the joy and strength that comes from being close to Jesus. Jesus experiences this separation from God on the cross for us, coming to a place where he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus goes to the cross for the sin of the world so that we no longer need to experience the feeling of aloneness from him anymore; giving us the gift of his Spirit who makes our hearts his home now. Jesus invites you to accept the presence and strength that comes from the Holy Spirit as we follow him. But the reality is that many of us struggle with loss of hope, with feelings of not measuring up, experiences of rejection and deep hurt and some of us have even wondered, like Elijah if it’s worthwhile to carry on.

Elijah runs into the wilderness, a place the Jews expect to meet God. Elijah is so depressed he sees no reason even to continue on, he sees no future where God is powerful enough to draw Israel back to him. God sends an angel to minister to Elijah twice and Elijah finds the strength to continue on to Mount Horeb, formerly known as Mount Sinai where God met Israel and spoke to Moses so many years earlier. This is God’s mountain, a place to go to meet God, similar to what Jesus calls his church to be today, a place and a people who allow Jesus to shine through them. God comes and asks Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah answers God, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”  

Elijah’s cracks and nicks in his heart and soul are showing through. Elijah, even having accomplished amazing things for God, is still a jar of clay and he’s being hard pressed now and the pressure is showing through in his depression as he’s overwhelmed emotionally and spiritually. He’s having a hard time seeing forward and so lashes out at God. God invites Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain on the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. On Mount Carmel, God sends fire to consume the offerings on the altar in a spectacular way. It’s our nature to expect God to show up in big ways, to save us in spectacular ways, giving us a great faith story to share that will amaze everyone. God does things his way; look at Jesus, he’s not the Saviour people were looking for.

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” In the whisper comes the question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It’s the same question asked gently and Elijah gives the same answer, the cracks in his soul are large. I’m not sure what Elijah is expecting here, but I’m sure he’s not expecting God to give him three tasks that are going to lead to a new king in Israel and the downfall of Jezebel and her reign of terror.

God reassures Elijah that he’s not alone, “Go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” God is going to save his people. In anointing Elisha to succeed Elijah as prophet, God is providing Elijah with someone to walk with him who can understand the pressure of being called by God.

We’re not meant to walk alone, we are created for community so that we can support, encourage and build each other up. One of the most important things I’ve learnt in my own walk following Jesus is the importance of having people who are close to you who understand what you’re going through because they’ve know you. Our perception of what is going on may feel right but it isn’t always so. Elijah feels he’s all alone, he feels that Jezebel is a greater danger than God is able to handle and yet God already has plans in the works to free his people and there are many more who follow God than Elijah ever imagined. Elijah finds the hope and strength he needs in God’s tasks for him.

Jesus comes into the world as a whisper, rejects Satan’s temptation to be bold and noisy in establishing the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Jesus creates community around himself as a source of strength and encouragement, and while preparing for his death for our sin, he promises that he will not abandon us or leave us alone but sends his Spirit to be with us always. Jesus establishes the church, as fragile and cracked as it may be at times, to be a place to find encouragement and strength, community, love and blessing, especially through hard times of depression when life becomes overwhelming. Jesus went to the cross for us so that we can be part of building a better, stronger, healthier kingdom, a kingdom where Jesus is with his people always and we never need feel alone or overwhelmed by life again.

A New Year and Hope

In a way it always feels a bit strange that just because we change from one month to another that all of a sudden people feel this urge to make resolutions for their lives. It's not a bad thing, it's actually really good to slow down once in a while and think about how life is going and what values shape us, and what we kinds of things we should focus on.
Just before Christmas, our family lost a dear member and we travelled from different corners of this country to be with my brother and his family. All of a sudden all our Christmas and party plans meant nothing, family does, and so we worked out our budgets and we all came together. It was a time of tears, but also of love and laughter. We told stories, looked at pictures, and shared precious memories. It drew us all closer together. It reminded us of who we are.
Extended family made the effort to come and those unable to make it made a point to connect in lots of different ways. It reminded us that we belong to a much larger family, one that we can draw comfort and hope from. It doesn't take away the hurt of losing someone you love, but it reminds us that we are loved and supported and that when we find it too hard to carry on, we have people and family who will help carry us for a while. As one cousin said about my brother, "He always comes to our family events and is there to support us during the hard times. When we heard the news, there was no decision to make, we knew we were coming to support him."
This is where we find strength, comfort, peace and hope, knowing that we belong to something much bigger than just ourselves. Leading the funeral, I was also reminded that this is why faith and a church family is important, it reminds us that, "We are not our own, we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ." Jesus told us that he would never leave us alone, that he was sending his Spirit, but we are also never alone because he puts people who genuinely care for us into our lives during the difficult times.
So my resolution this year is to try and be there for the people in my life to offer hope and friendship and love, remembering they're what's really important in life because they're important to Jesus. So what's your New Year's resolution?

Self-Control

We've come to the last aspect of character that Paul lists as being part of the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives: self-control. To be completely honest, this has not always been a strong part of my character. For all of my life I have fought a bad temper that has simmered deep inside wanting to get out. There have been many times it would have felt so good to just let go, but looking back, each of those times, letting go would have destroyed a friendship or relationship, making a bad situation much worse. But self-control is so about much more than just anger, it's about balance in life.
Self-control is seldom embraced as something we really value because it might mean giving up something we really want. Self-control might look like this: Saturday night is friends' night; going out and enjoying good friends, food and a little wine. This is a good thing and important. The self-control comes into play when you balance the good times with your friends with the call to join with your church family the next morning to celebrate with them the things God is doing in your life and community on Sunday morning.
Now maybe you're not religious, self-control might be about how you balance the good times of Saturday night with being there for your kids when they get up, fully being their parent on the one day of the week where you all have some extra time.
Self-control might look like holding your tongue when you want to say something sarcastic because you've find something ridiculous and wrong, but sarcasm often ends up hurting someone else or making you look negative.
Self-control might look like holding off on buying the newest iPhone or toy and putting the money towards bills, or using some of it to bless a charity or someone you know who could use a little extra help to simply get by.
Self-control might look like leaving work at the end of the day and leaving your work there instead of taking it home again and instead taking the time to really be with your spouse, your kids, your friends, or simply to wind down and get a decent night's rest.
How would self-control work in your life? The examples I've listed are examples from my life, but we are all different and are out of balance in our lives in different ways. But in the end, it comes down to your priorities and values in your life which reveals your character.
A healthy person has balance in their life, balancing responsibility with entertaining yourself, balancing relationships with others and taking care of yourself, balancing caring for yourself and caring for others, balancing time and work and family and volunteering and more. Self-control is about shaping your life with an ethical and honorable foundation recognizing that you are not the center of the universe.
For followers of Jesus, self-control is about being a master of yourself and living your life in the way that Jesus desires and has called you to live. If you are looking for a summary of what that looks like, it's found in Jesus' call to love God with everything you have and to love your neighbour as yourself; a noble and healthy life.

Gentleness

This past week I saw a beautiful thing, a man holding another man who was weeping because of the brokenness in his life. The man who was weeping had made so many wrong choices in life and now they had come back to bite him hard. The man who was holding him gently sat him down and over the next while simply listened and offered his compassion. He answered with love and gentleness, acknowledging the brokenness and even the other man's role in creating the brokenness, but he simply showed love and understanding.
For me, this is what gentleness is all about: compassion, love and support in difficult times. It doesn't mean that you ignore the other person's role in creating the difficult time, it means focusing first on the person and their need for hope, healing and understanding. It means not jumping right away to assigning responsibility or blame, but to simply being there; person to person, heart to heart, realizing that we might well be in the other person's shoes if things had turned out only slightly different from choices or decisions we've made in our own past. Gentleness is often grace in action.
Gentleness is strength and courage acting in love and grace because it's about moving towards hut and brokenness instead of away, about seeking understanding and desiring healing for someone else and being willing to be the one who brings it.
If you are looking for one area of your character to grow in the next year, I would suggest gentleness and you will be a life changer.

Faithfulness

As I look back at the past couple of weeks, I'm reminded of how important our character is, no matter who we are. I started reflecting on the Fruit of the Spirit, 9 aspects of the character a follower of Jesus should work on, because I believe that too many people who follow Jesus focus only on believing the right things instead of becoming the right person. With all the anger and hatred in the world, and our country, provinces and cities here in Canada are not immune, let's make sure we don't get complacent about the importance of character or thinking it could never happen here. We need to return to the focus on becoming people of character who are focused on blessing others instead of ourselves.
The character aspect today is faithfulness and faithfulness is always outward looking, being faithful to others or a set of beliefs. For a follower of Jesus it's about being faithful or true to him first, meaning we take seriously who Jesus has called us to be. For Jesus, character is founded on loving God and others and faithfulness is also founded on love and commitment to others. This love is not about feelings, but about how we treat others, about respecting others because they are people created in the image of God.
We learn faithfulness from watching others. As followers of Jesus, we learn faithfulness from God who never gives us on us and keeps coming after us. If we want to see more respect and love in our society, we need to be faithful to what we say we believe; that we are to love God with everything we are and love others. It's easy to justify violence against those filled with hate, but history is filled with how love and peace, how grace filled words and respect of others counted hate and anger and violence: Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Elisabeth Elliot, Mother Teresa are just a few who come to mind.
So who or what are you faithful to and how are you making your community a better place to be, a place of safety and blessing out of your faithfulness to being who Jesus has called you to be.

Goodness

What does it mean to be good? I just got back from vacation where we did some camping, some fishing and spent a wonderful week with family back in Thunder Bay. It was good, but that's not what goodness is all about. What does it mean to be good as part of who you are as a person, as part of your character? I know for myself that I want people to think that I'm a good person, that goodness is part of who I am, but I want it to mean more than just nice. When I think of being good, it's about doing the right things, even when it's hard. It's about being who I should be as a person, especially in how I treat others. It has to do with my morals and being the same person in private that I am in public and that has to fit with who Jesus tells us who we are supposed to be. How you live and treat others shows who you are inside.
You don't have to be a religious person to work at being good. There are many people I know who accept Jesus' teachings as wise because they recognize the importance of good character and being consistent in yourself. "A good person's good behaviour shows a good heart," is how one person put it and I am working hard to have this said about who I am.

Kindness

Have you done your random act of kindness yet today? For a while there was a big push to encourage people to do a random act of kindness each day to help make our communities and world a better place to live in. There were all kinds of stories going around about how people quietly acted to help someone out, to bring a bit of joy into a difficult life, of people who gave what they had, whether it was stuff, or time, or some kind of help to someone they didn't even know just to make their life a little bit better for at least a short time.
Kindness can change another person's day right around, turning a miserable day into a really good day. Kindness offers hope to people who may have lost hope. It can change you as you see how a simple act of kindness can affect someone else, bringing a bit of joy or grace into their day. From what I can see, kindness is love, compassion, and grace in action. Kindness comes from people who are unselfish and generous. Kindness shows what a person's character really is, it's who you are, not just what you do. One of  the best compliments you can give a person is that she is kind, that he has a kind heart.
God is kind and shows kindness to everyone, sending rain and sun to all people, giving gifts and talents to each person, offering love and acceptance and an invitation to anyone to become one of his people, his children.
This is why we are called to do kindness, to imitate God's character in this way. Imagine a world where people worked on their kindness levels, looking for small and large ways to do acts of kindness for others without any need for thanks or recognition. What kinds of communities would we have?
But kindness starts with you and me as individuals making a decision to be kind and to look past ourselves to act kindly no matter how we are feeling, no matter how our own day or life is going. You are the starting place for a better world. So get out there and do a random act of kindness today, tomorrow and every day and you will make the world a better place.