Rev.Daniel Bradley
Faith Journey United Methodist Church
August 25, 2024
“Do the next right thing”
17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe 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.”
Elijah Fed by Ravens
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastwards and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
So, he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.)
If Jesus was from Alabama
A little girl from Alabama went to church for the first time ever when she was visiting her grandparents in Michigan. When the pastor announced it was time for the Lord’s Supper, she was excited–and hungry. The congregation filed up to the altar rail, and the child watched in confusion as her grandparents received a wafer and small plastic cup of wine. She could hardly wait to get back to the pew to tell her grandma that Jesus wasn’t from Alabama.
“How do you know that, dear?” asked her grandma.
“Because that was the poorest meal I’ve ever seen,” she said. “Mama would’ve at least given everybody some corn bread and sweet tea.”
There are times when God asks us to do some tough things. Things that we would not consider doing if it were not at the voice of God.
The goal of this life is not getting into heaven, but to thrive in this life as a child of God. Many of the early church fathers and mothers were asked to do difficult things. Those things lead to the faith that we now profess as Christians in the 3rd millennia.
Stepping up to the plate and swinging the bat is the most awkward thing to do in the game of baseball, but if we do not, we will never know if we will hit a home run or strike out. It’s a huge risk and one that we must take if we want to win the game.
For us in the church it is not about the number of people that sit in the sanctuary on Sunday morning. The sanctuary is the place we come to worship, pray, fellowship with other people and are equipped for the work outside our doors period. I remember all those years ago when God called me into ministry. I did not have a clue where God was calling me to or what God was calling me to do. The only words that I had to go by were “if you go I will provide.” In all these years of ministry God has yet not to fulfill those words that were spoken to me.
My career in ministry has taken me from the western end of the state to the central part of New York. In each church that I have served I have found challenges that have been difficult but possible. I have grown over the years as a pastor, preacher, leader. I have seen God work through the tough times and the good times as God does.
This summer has been no different. Since my stroke events I have become more consciously aware of my mortality and the things of God. As I have shared with you, I am still learning Psalm 46: 10” Be still and know that I am God” That “be still” part is the most difficult.
A friend of mine shared with me that amid an ugly divorce and the loss of his parental rights to his child that he felt as if God, were punishing him. He ranted and raved to his priest about the situation. He was told by his priest to put a kitchen chair in the middle of his living room and sit there for two hours a day. No phone, no television, and no Internet. Just sit with the discomfort in silence. He was frustrated with his priest's instructions, but every day for two hours a day he did what he was told. At the end of the week, he returned to his priest calm and reserved to change his life for the better. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just to be still; still in the demanding times, the good times, and the times that make us question whether or not God is with us.
This summer I have been sitting in the good times, the challenging times, and times that have made me question whether God is with us. When I say us, I am referring to Mary, Kiah and me. However, i am also thinking of the Faith journey United Methodist Church and what the future holds. As the spiritual leader of this church, I am constantly evaluating what we have done, what we could have done, and the direction that we are headed. What is God saying to the Faith Journey United Methodist Church? What does it mean for us as a church to be still and know that God is God. Or let me take part of our mission statement, “seek God” Let me boil this down in terms that will make sense to you. What does it mean for you and this congregation to be still and know that God is God?
Elijah was one of the most powerful prophets in all of Israel’s history. He was continually in the presence of God. Yet his ministry did not start until Israel was in complete rebellion to God. King Ahab and his wife Queen Jezebel were worshippers of the god Baal. They had torn down the altars to the Lord and created altars to Baal. They put up Asher Poles in the temple of the Lord. Baal was a a fertility god, of the weather, God of the crops, god over reproduction and over all the land. They would often present children in child sacrifice to this false god. In this open defiling of the God of Israel they worshipped their own desires and decided that the God of Israel had left them.
The history of the Old Testament shows how God worked. God repeatedly daught a fidelity relationship with Israel, but Israel will walk away from God again and again. They will lose faith in the one that brought them out of Egypt into the promised land. God will sometimes use Israel’s enemies to teach them the lesson of fidelity and faith.
I assure you that even when we are in open rebellion to God, God still works in us through us and despite us. We may not like the lessons that we have to learn, but when we learn those Lessons, our lives become richer and more fully devoted to God.
What are some of the lessons that you have learned because of your rebellion?
There is a story of a young monk who fell when he was tempted, and in his distress, he stopped practicing his monastic rule. He really longed to take it up again, but his own misery prevented him. He would say to himself, “When shall I be able to be holy in the way I used to be before?” He went to see one of the old men and told him all about himself. And when the old man learned of his distress, he said: “There was a man who had a plot of land; but it got neglected and turned into waste ground, full of weeds and brambles. So, he said to his son, ‘Go and weed the ground.’ The son went off to weed it, saw all the brambles and despaired. He said to himself, ‘How long will it take before I have uprooted and reclaimed all that?’ So, he lay down and went to sleep for several days. His father came to see how he was getting on and found he had done nothing at all. ‘Why have you done nothing?’ he said. The son replied, ‘Father, when I started to look at this and saw how many weeds and brambles there were, I was so depressed that I could do nothing but lie down on the ground.’ His father said, ‘Child, just go over the surface of the plot every day and you will make some progress.’ So, he did, and before long the whole plot was weeded. The same is true for you, brother: work just a little bit without getting discouraged, and God by his grace will re-establish you.” (ANONYMOUS 76)
Faith is demanding work. It is not just a belief in God but working with God to change our circumstances and the world around us. This life is not so much about getting into heaven as it is living in the world that we have been given by God for the propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and God's grace to all people.
We are not called to be the light. We are called to reflect the light. Matthew 5:18
Physics tells us that particles in our world move at the speed of light. How much faster does an act of mercy, love, and grace move. When we engage God through a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit Enters us, dwells within us, and directs us in this world.
I cannot imagine it was easy to call a drought on the land. It is my belief that Elijah had to do something drastic to get King Arabs attention. It cost him the comfort of home, family, and robbed him of community. He is all alone. The Kerith ravine was a desolate place. He was drinking drinking water from a brook, eating the rodents that the ravens would bring, and bread. Sounds like a prison sentence.
We have no idea how long Elijah stayed there—we do know except when the brook dried up he headed to zarapath in gentile territory. Remember it did not rain on the land for three years. These circumstances to us seem tough but being in the presence of the lord —waiting on God brings its own joy.
The time spent in the ravine was not wasted it prepared him to provide for a gentile woman and raise her son from the dead. When we are continually in the presence of God—God is getting us ready to “do the next right thing” this was a time of mental, physical, spiritual preparation for the battle on Mt. Carmel when the full glory of the God of Israel would be shown, and the four hundred prophets of Baal would be slaughtered.
There was a French existential playwright named Jean Paul Sarte. He wrote a play, Waiting for Godo. In this play all the characters are waiting for Godo. During the play you learn about the characters and their life and choices. Just when you think Godo is going to appear the play ends and leaves you in despair just as the characters. In other words what is the point on waiting for God? Life is suffering, loneliness, longing, and hell.
I hear that story all the time. It breaks my heart because I know it does not have to be like that. Without God life is all those things. With God there is freedom and joy. People will sit in sanctuaries for fifty years and die without the comfort of knowing God. Knowing God is not about membership or being on the community for church dinners. It is not about how many Sundays you attended, but how many people you attended to in the name of God.
James the brother of Jesus made one of the most controversial statements, “Faith without works is dead.” The great reformer Martin Luther argued that the book of James be burned for heresy. Luther believed that salvation was by faith and faith alone in Jesus. If you have seen the movie Luther or read about his life you know that he was not a perfect person. Neither am I. There are times when I sin and get it wrong. I look to Gods restoration in grace and move on. I used to play in the manure of the past looking for gold coins. Not anymore. The past is in the past and all we have is this day of grace.
Elijah’s path of faith will take him to a show-down with the prophets of Baal and lead him into a suicidal depression, however, in all this God has not left Elijah.
This summer I know that God has not left me—but has been waiting for me to be still. This morning, I am calling you like the monk to slowly work the field and experience Gods grace. I know that God is at work in this church and in your life. What does your experience tell you about God?
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