Second Sunday after Pentecost
I Kings 19:1-15a; Psalm 42; Galatians 3:23-39; Luke 8:26-39
There are days when I read and watch the news, and I feel like the author of the 42nd Psalm.
V.6 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?
And why are you so disquieted within me?
The Psalmist repeats the lament.
V. 14 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul?
And why are you so disquieted within me?
Psalm 42 is joined with the story of the prophet Elijah of our reading from I Kings. Ahab, King of Israel, and the Queen, Jezebel, wanted Elijah, the prophet, gone. So, Elijah, alone and afraid, fled for his life into the wilderness, and asked that he might die, “O Lord, take away my life…”. Under a broom tree he laid down to die. An angel awakened him, and Elijah discovered a fresh baked cake and a jar of water. The angel said, “Get up and eat”. Elijah ate, drank, and laid down again, ready to die.
A second time Elijah was touched by the angel who provided bread and water. This time the angel instructed —
get up and eat;
otherwise, the journey will be too much for you.
Journey? What journey? For 40 days and 40 nights (a long time), he traveled to Mt. Horeb, the holy mountain of Israel, where at the base the people of Israel had encamped and waited for Moses to return from the mountain top with the 10 commandments. Elijah went up the mountain and found a cave for the night. While taking shelter, he heard God’s voice asking, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
God knew his name! And then Elijah explained to God why he was there, as if God needed the information. He started with “I’, never a good beginning when talking with God. I have been very zealous for the Lord God, 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.
Speech completed, the wind rose, the earth trembled, and fire broke out, followed by “sheer silence”. Again, standing at the entrance of the cave, Elijah heard these words, a second time. “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah repeated his first speech, as if God had not heard it the first time.
I have been very zealous for the Lord God, 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.
Without hesitation God responded —
Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.
It would probably be a 40-day and 40-night journey to return, to go back. Elijah was sent back to anoint a new King of Israel, Jehu, to anoint a new King of Aram, Hazael, and to anoint his own successor, the prophet, Elisha.
And the Lord God added, by the way, there were 7,000 faithful people in Isreal. Elijah, you are therefore not alone.
Elijah, you are to be on the road again. Elijah, you have service to do.
The Gospel according to St. Luke picks up that theme. After the wildman of Gerasene is cured by Jesus, he begged Jesus to join the disciples in the boat to return to the other side of the lake. Instead, the man was instructed —
Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.
The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians picked up the theme of aloneness–
…for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female…
St. Paul declared that God has given us all sisters and brothers “in Christ Jesus”, in the community of faith, in the Church.
To conclude
Today, yes, today, God gives us, and we receive food for our journey, The Body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven, and the Blood of Christ, the Cup of Salvation.
(I Kings 19:7)
Today, yes, today, God gives us, and
we receive companions, sisters and brothers, look around. (Galatians 3:28-29)
Today, yes, today, God gives us, and we receive our mission, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. (Luke 8:39)
Amen
