11 He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 14 He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ 15 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 17 Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.’ 1 Kings 19:11-18
If I have to pull any more weeds from my flower beds and garden, I am going to scream. I feel like I have done nothing but pull weeds this entire summer and, in a few days, they grow back, plus some that were not there before. We get a little rain and some warm weather, and they grow in abundance. Covering them with mulch helped for like five minutes. Using my Weed Wacker helped for about a week and then I must do it again. I am at that point where I don’t care what grows and what anything looks like, I am done. Until the leaves start. Grrr.
Elijah was also done. Not done picking weeds but he was burned out from trying to lead Israel from following and worshipping Baal. He just has his great victory over the hundreds of Baal’s Prophets, but the Queen runs him out of town. He’s done. He leaves the country and runs back to God’s Mountain as a tired and frustrated failure of a prophet. As disciples we can also become done in frustration and burnout. We tried and nothing worked. We need more people and more excitement. We gave of ourselves and nothing much changes from week to week. The weeds continue to grow, we try new things, and nothing stops. Like Elijah we are done.
But God is not done with Elijah, nor with us for that matter. God tells Elijah to meet him on the mountain and Elijah complies. After the wind, the earthquakes, and the fire pass by, God comes, and Elijah comes out to meet him. God asks him why he is here instead of being back on the job? Elijah gives him a reason which looks totally like an excuse: everyone left you/me. Amid his burnout, Elijah goes from advocating and working toward the goal of a Baal-less society to attending to God. From working and toiling to conversation and prayer with God. Instead of focusing on the plan and how to get there, Elijah focuses instead on God and enters a state of attending on God.
What if we should also, who find ourselves in a similar place to Elijah, cease our fruitless, frustrating, and failed plans to instead attend to God? What has changed around us and what might we need to change how we do things? Attending to God and a new possibility and new potentials instead of spinning our tired wheels in the mud in frustration. Asking ourselves God questions in discernment instead of endless organizational questions, which may not have an answer, about more members, more resources, and more building repairs. Like Elijah when the plans or programs stop working and maybe never did, we should stop and instead attend to God.
What Elijah gets is a new focus, a new purpose, and a new call. Instead of fighting the Baal prophets and Queen Jezebel, Elijah is called and commanded by God to go anoint another King, who will rule justly over 7000 faithful Israelites. What is our new focus, new purpose, and new call? The plans and programs don’t work, but we do have loving, connectional people. How do we engage our neighborhood with what we do have? How do we adjust the leaders and resources we do have? How do we become covenantal people on mission, not just CEO’s and middle managers of yet another dying institution? God’s answer is not what we want, but what we need: new focus, new calling, new energy, new tasks.
We all get tired and burned out as disciples of Jesus Christ. We all end up exactly like Elijah. But while Elijah was done, God was not done with him, nor us. But instead of running headlong to our destruction because we cannot imagine doing things a new way, we can stop the frustrations and life-taking ways from previous times. Instead of doing things the same old way, we can attend instead to God and a new focus and energy. Instead of going back to the failed mission, Elijah accepts the new purpose of God and finds renewal. We can do likewise; to attend to God and to perhaps see and discern the emerging possibilities God is creating. But we need to attend to God and the new opportunity, instead of putting our heads down and running in mud. We might be done, but it might be done with the way things were, not the new things that God is doing. Let us in faith attend to God and God’s emerging Kingdom instead of toiling in the failed enterprise. God is not done with us, but let us be done with ways things were. Amen.
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