I Kings 17:8-16; Psalm 127:1-2
Hypothesis:  Who is Your Church?
Nothing But Sticks
Rev. Nancy Gowler Johnson
Puyallup First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

November 12, 2006
 

"Ivan Illich was once asked what is the most revolutionary way to change society.  Is it violent revolution or is it gradual reform?

He gave a careful answer.  Neither.  ‘If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story.’" [i]

In our Scripture reading this morning there are many competing stories; each one claiming to be true.

The King’s story -

It’s a story of power.  King Ahab ruled over Israel (the Northern Kingdom) for 22 years.  To rule that long one must become very skilled at exercising power and influence, forging alliances with foreign lands, and collecting much more than his fair share in taxes and revenues.

As with most kings, Ahab was surrounded by a court of advisors:  number-crunchers, trend-watchers, poll-takers.  All handing out advice aimed at allowing the king to keep his power and accumulate more wealth.  Most likely under their advisement, he arranges a marriage to the daughter of the King of the Phoenicians, thereby solidifying a political ally in the region and securing access to popular trading routes. 

He succeeds in finding a wife just as ambitious as he is, for his new wife Jezebel seems cut from the same cloth as Ahab.  Ever calculating, controlling her own power and wealth with great skill, she cultivated a strong influence over her husband. 

Before you knew it, Ahab had an altar built to the ever-popular Phoenician god of rain and sweet water right in the middle of the city of Samaria.  He built a sacred post to the goddess Asherah in the city as well.  These were all carefully calculated decisions.  Ahab recognized the power of religion to influence the masses, and he chose to cultivate already popular religions in the area as a way to appease the people.

The text says that Ahab did more to vex the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the other kings of Israel who preceded him.  Now that’s saying something!

His story is one of power, control and prestige.  All of his actions are calculated to increase his power and to secure his authority.

Elijah’s story -

Elijah walks onto King Ahab’s stage, unannounced.  For him the power of the king is just an illusion, and Elijah plans to expose him, and all of his foreign gods, as frauds.  Jabbing his finger at Ahab and his wife Jezebel, Elijah announces that there will be no dew or rain until he declared it.  And so, the drought that spreads across all of Israel, that deadly drought that afflicted both the rich and the poor - that would be Elijah’s fault.

This is the first story of Elijah.  It is the story of a devoted prophet.  He follows God’s lead as he is able to understand even though doing so places him in serious danger.

He is flamboyant - a real showman when it comes to confronting the priests of Baal.  Remember the story of his competition with the priests?  They spend all morning in a frenzied ritual attempting to persuade their god to burn up their offering on the altar.  Elijah watches from the sidelines, mocking them.  Nothing happens.

Then Elijah steps up.  He motions for the people to gather up close.  And then, just to make things interesting he pours twelve jars of water all over the altar - completely soaks it.  But when he prays, a fire from heaven breaks through the sky and burns up not only the bull, but the wood, the stones, and the earth beneath it!  He was a great antagonistic - he relishes a public showdown.

Elijah also could be headstrong and proud; at times thinking too much of himself.  Once he was forced to flee Jezebel, and he finds a hiding place in a cave in the middle of nowhere.  When God confronts him there, Elijah declares that he is the only one faithful left in all of Israel.  And God says, “Funny, I can think of 7,000 people in Israel alone who are still faithful!”

There is the Widow’s story -

She lives under the oppression of the king’s story.  He lives in splendor, paid for with taxes forced upon the people.  She lives in poverty, without protection.  She has no advocate, no influence.  She lacks everything.

The society has no safety net for the poor.  She has no social security, no resources.  In her story she sees no future, only desperation; no hope, only death.

Into all of these stories, God intrudes.

God’s story -

God sends Elijah into the wilderness to hide out near a source of water, the Wadi Cherith. There, ravens mysteriously feed him both bread and meat every morning and every evening.  Eventually the wadi dries up too.  The situation is dire.

What will God do? 

Will God send him to Judah, the southern kingdom, to find salvation?  Perhaps to those familiar places where God has been present with the people before?  to Bethel?  even Jerusalem? 

Or maybe God will give water as God has in the past.  Tell Elijah to take out his staff and hit the rock in the same way God gave water to Moses and the Hebrew people in the wilderness so many generations before?

No… God sends Elijah into foreign territory.  He calls him out to the north to Sidon in Phoenicia.  Sound familiar? It’s Queen Jezebel’s homeland.  A land of foreign gods.  What was God thinking?  How would a prophet of Israel find welcome and hospitality there?  And yet, God leads Elijah to Phoenicia.   Well, perhaps God will take Elijah straight to the king?  Or if not the king, then at least a merchant with plenty of resources? 

No.  God sends Elijah, thirsty and hungry to a widow - who is poor, alone, powerless, and in despair.  Walter Brueggemann points out that God sends Elijah to “a nameless widow in an unnoticed village in enemy territory.”[ii]  Now, at this point, I might have sought clarification from God - “Are you sure you have the right house, God?  This woman has no food - should I try Mapquest?”

But Elijah has entered God’s story.  He sees the woman’s situation, he hears the despair, and he says to her, “Do not be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid.”

But open your eyes, Elijah.  Look at the reality here.  We have nothing but a handful of meal and a dash of oil.   That’s it.  Nothing more.  To that Elijah says, “Do not be afraid.  For the Lord says, ‘The jar of flour shall not give out and the jug of oil shall not fail until the day the Lord sends rain upon the ground.’”

Elijah invites the widow into another story, God’s story.  A story, not of scarcity and lack, but of abundance and hospitality.

She accepts.  The widow could have turned away, saved that last bit of bread for herself and her son.  No one would have faulted her; after all, it was all she had.  Somehow she finds the courage and faith to share her last morsel of bread with a refugee.  And by doing so, she rejects the king’s story of power and influence, she leaves behind her story of despair and lack, and she steps into God’s story.   It is a story most improbable - that there is more than enough, that God provides, that there is abundance in the world we are to share in a very radical life of hospitality. 

The text tells us, “She ate for many days.  The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord.”  The word of the Lord - God’s story of grace and abundance.

Our story?

Our calling as the church is not unlike Elijah’s:  to invite people into God’s story - a story that stands against the dominant stories in our culture.  A story of unbounded grace; a story of unlimited abundance?  Of radical hospitality, of inclusion and true community.

Too often we become trained like those fleas - until we are shaped and formed by another story, by the stories of the kings in our time, until we no longer are even aware of the new possibilities in which God is already at work and in which God wants us to join together.

Can we imagine?

Can we imagine a church beyond a weekly gathering?

A church connected with one another and engaged in the world?

A church welcoming to spiritual seekers, pilgrims, and sojourners?

A church in which people are engaged in the practice of discipleship, connected in small groups, and accountable to one another for their spiritual journeys?

Too often we get caught up in the same story of lack and scarcity.  You can see it even as we share in communion together.  We have this big loaf of bread - more than enough - and yet we take teeny tiny little pieces, barely enough to get even a taste.  And there will be much left over, unused, and discarded. 

God says there is more than enough, more than enough.  Let us in faith enter God’s story.