Sermon

JUNE 24, 2007

“Acting” Christian: Finding Purpose

I Kings 19: 1-15

June 24, 2007

All persons have a purpose in life.  Do you believe that?  I do.  Sooner or later, most people come to think about what that purpose is.  You say to yourself, “There’s got to be more in life than this:  Get up in the morning, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed.  (Repeat.)  Do something fun on week-ends.”  At some point, we begin to ask things like, “Why am I here?  Where do I want to go?  Why don’t I feel more fulfilled?”  Os Guiness says, “Deep in our hearts, we all want to find and fulfill a purpose bigger than ourselves.  For each of us, the real purpose is to know what we are to do and why.”  These are human issues, not just Christian issues.

Then there’s the Christian twist to the search for purpose.  Usually, it is what has God called me to do?  What has God designed me to do?  If a Christian life is a life of serving God and others, how can I do that?  I talk with people all the time, young and old, who are struggling with those questions:  “How can I contribute to this life?  How can I use my gifts to serve?  How can I find my purpose, a purpose bigger than I am?”

For Elijah, the issue was slightly different.  He had discovered early on what his purpose in life was.  His purpose in life was to prophesy; to warn people not to be so attached to their possessions, to turn from their wicked ways, to walk close to God; to be compassionate to foreigners and strangers; he had never once wavered from the purpose to which he had been called.  Yet now, today, he has fled into the desert and is praying to die!

If we look at the chapter before this week's reading, we see that Elijah has encountered the prophets of Baal 400 of them – and 450 of Asherah.  Those prophets are ultimately destroyed on top of Mt. Carmel.  Jezebel's reaction to the loss of her prophets is not surprising!  She is, as always, vindictive.  What is surprising is Elijah's reaction to Jezebel’s threats!  He runs away from his purpose and goes to sit under a broom tree!!  Elijah had experienced the power of faith in his life many times.  Up until now, he has been able to deal with all kinds of adversity.  He has an innate sense of God’s direction; he has lived all through the terrorist reign of Ahab and Queen Jezebel and has taken a stand against those 850 prophets of idolatry and hate – and won.  He was the model of success, of unwavering integrity, and yet today, he has entered a time of depression, of job fatigue.  What was the source of Elijah’s depression?  Was he depressed because of the never-ending demands of being a prophet?  Was it the high price he paid? He was, after all, often isolated and misunderstood. Each time he is asked to articulate his malady, he repeats the same thing: "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."   That, along with Elijah's admission that he was no better than his ancestors, causes one to wonder if Elijah suffered most from feelings of abandonment or feelings of superiority, or – worse, had he begun to question his own calling?  His own purpose?

Have you ever been to a place of desert depression?  A place where you regress in your spiritual journey, a place which keeps you from fulfilling your purpose?  One where your depression, your burn-out, leads you to question your calling?  “I once was much more active in the church; I once read the Bible daily; I once was a big brother/big sister on my free week-ends.  There was one job I had when I felt I was really helping people.”  Then you come to a point of paralysis, a point of exhaustion, a point of simply not making the effort, not taking the time?  That was Elijah. 

Elijah falls asleep under the broom tree.  An angel appears.  The angel offers sustenance, refreshment – a cake of bread baked over coals and water for renewal.  These are treats denied soldiers on the march.  “Wake up and eat, Elijah!”  Elijah did so.  Then he lay down again.  Once again, the angel tells him to get up and eat.  The journey ahead is too much without food, without water, without exercise, without renewal for that journey.  Elijah eats and drinks until he has enough strength for the 40-day journey to Mt. Horeb.  There he goes into a cave to spend the night.  And the word of the Lord finds him even there and says, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  “You know my love, my power, my promise for your life.  What are you doing in this place of fear and doubt?”  Do you know that scenario, that question?  “What are you doing in this place?  Not using your gifts?  Not relying on God’s love, God’s power, God’s promise for your life?”  Those are dark days, aren’t they?  Those dark days when you lose all of your forward direction in what seems like a very short time.      

Nothing in Elijah seems to change.  His  complaint never changes.  In spite of the spectacular display of wind, earthquake, fire, and sheer silence; he is still depressed.  God was not in any of those things.  And then he hears, “Elijah, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”  He does it – finally.  He stands alone on the mountain, that place in all our lives where we formulate our picture of faith, only to hear God say, “Go back the way you came.”  Get back in the fray.

Elijah was a leader.  The purpose of leadership, of influence, is not to build your ego.  It is to speak up for those who have no voice.  There are so many today who have no voice - the aged, the young, the mentally challenged, the impoverished.  In the New Testament passage today, there is someone who does not have a voice.  He is called a demoniac.  Go with me to the eighth chapter of the gospel of Luke.  “They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee.”  The country of the Gerasenes is thought to have been near Gadara, one of the cities of the Decapolis, on the eastern side of the Jordan River.  “When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town.”  We don’t know what those demons are – alcohol, drugs, food addiction, addiction to gambling, addiction to pornography, or some mental or physical ailment.  But the local people know he is a demoniac.  They don’t assume that he will be healed.  They assume he will always be that way.  “For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.  When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg you, don’t torture me!’  For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man.  Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.”

Finish 30-35.  They were so frightened, in fact, that they asked Jesus to leave them.  When the former demoniac, now in his right mind, begged to go with Jesus, Jesus commanded him to remain in that town as a witness.  Don’t you know he would much rather have gone with the one who healed him, the one who saved him?  Yet he did as he was commanded.  He went back into the fray so that he could share the good news of what God had done for him. 

We have a slogan, a motto at our church this year.  EMI.  Do you know what that means?  It means “Every Member Involved.”  Do you know why?  Because God has created everyone with gifts and talents.  Corporately and individually, it is our calling to seek the very best use of these gifts and talents. The question is this:  What do you have that you have been given?  What are you wired to do?  Enter data?  Usher?  Greet people?  Make meals?  Paint walls?  Build a media center?  Knit?  Crochet?  Quilt?  Operate technical equipment?  Teach a class?  Listen to others?  Write a check?  Play basketball?  What talents do you have?  What resources do you have?  Are you using your God-given gifts to share what God has done for you?  Are you using them for those who have no voice?  For those who have not heard that God has created them with their own gifts?  And what if your calling involves helping only one person?  Then that is the perfect calling.  The truth is that if you are sitting under a broom tree and you are “acting” Christian, if you listen carefully, you will hear God asking, “What are you doing here?”  If you decide to use your God-given talents, you will find yourself transported from that broom tree to the feet of Jesus – and THAT is good news!!  Amen.