God’s presence in unexpected ways

Mentmore Sunday 9th August

Reading 1 Kings 19.4-8

⁴Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ ⁵Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ ⁶He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ ⁸He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Gospel John 6.35,41-51

³⁵Jesus said to the crowd, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

⁴¹Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ ⁴²They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ ⁴³Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. ⁴⁶Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

Sermon

You may have been puzzled at the reading from I Kings. We are given no inkling of the plot. What is going on? The main character is Elijah. Elijah we know is the greatest of the prophets. We are told that he takes a journey into the wilderness and sits down under a broom tree. He’s had enough. He wants to die. Then he lays down and falls asleep, hoping no doubt never to wake.

But an angel taps him on the shoulder. Get up and eat. Elijah looks around blearily. He rubs his eyes, and smells the wonderful aroma of a fresh stone baked loaf. And a life saver in the Sinai – a jug of water.

Elijah eats and drinks, then he falls asleep. There is another tap on his shoulder. Get up and eat. Same angel. More food and water. The angel tells Elijah he needs the strength for a long journey. 40 days and 40 nights – a long fast.

Elijah arrives at Mount Horeb – the mountain where Moses was given the Ten Commandments. Why did he go there?

He was escaping King Ahab – or more properly his wife Jezebel. Ahab was king of Israel in Samaria. He married Jezebel who was a worshipper of the local god Ba’al.

Elijah the prophet condemned the king for worshipping foreign gods and probably engaging in child sacrifice. He predicted a long drought. Everything dried up. There was no water in any of the wadis. Elijah himself was miraculously fed by a widow whose stock of oil and flour never ran out.

Elijah then organised a test of strength. Who would win? The 450 priests of Ba’al or the prophet of the one true God? It was trial by fire. Two bulls were prepared for sacrifice. They were laid on a pile of wood, but the fire was not lit. The priests of Ba’al invoked their gods. They danced in a frenzy and cut themselves with knives, but failed to set the fire alight.

Elijah prepared his sacrifice, doused it with 4 buckets of water, and prayed for fire. The bulls were consumed, and the failed priests of Ba’al Elijah massacred. The rain then came, ending the drought.

It’s a strange and rather gruesome story for a Sunday morning in Buckinghamshire. There are a couple of aspects that interest me. After Elijah’s victory over the priests of Ba’al, Jezebel is out to get him. She sends him a threatening note. By this time tomorrow she says you will be put to the sword just like the priests of Ba’al.

Despite the demonstration of God’s power, Elijah is afraid and escapes a day’s journey into the wilderness. Eventually when he reaches Mount Horeb, the word of the Lord comes to him again. What are you doing here? God says.

Elijah replies that he has put himself in danger over and over again. He has been very zealous for God. Yet all the other prophets have been put to the sword, and Elijah is the only one left alive. Now Jezebel is after him to kill Elijah too.

The first aspect of the story that struck me is that when he was in trouble and wanted to end it all, Elijah was not provided with counselling, encouragement, or more signs of God’s power. Instead, when at his lowest ebb, Ejijah was given stone baked bread and a jar of water. He was given strength to go on. Not strength of the mind or spirit, but bodily strength.

Then when he encounters God in a cave on Mount Horeb where Elijah goes into hiding, and when he asks for a demonstration of God’s power to give him encouragement to go on, God does not appear in a mighty wind, or break rocks in an earthquake, or even appear in a pillar of fire. No, God’s presence is signalled in an equally unexpected way.

God appears to Elijah after the earthquake the wind and the fire have all died down. He appears in a sound of sheer silence as the NRSV puts it. Better, I think, than the still small voice from the King James version.

How often, when we feel down and unable to go on, do we look for God to come to us in whizz bangs and in mighty power? We look for a sign, and it’s got to be an obvious one to get through the weight of discouragement. More often than not, we see the way forward in doors that open and close. Opportunities that present themselves or are taken away.

And the spirits are lifted not by a religious experience or by a dramatic sign of God’s presence with us, but by the metaphorical stone baked loaf. A listening ear from a kind friend. A smile from a caring neighbour. A cup of tea and a chat with someone who can put things in perspective.

God is in the stone baked loaf and the sound of sheer silence. It’s just that we have to listen more carefully to the sound of silence than 104 decibels of noise. And we have to look more carefully for him in a cup of coffee and a cake than in what we think are the more obvious places.

The stone baked loaf and the sound of sheer silence. The presence of God in totally unexpected places.

Amen