Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Lectionary 12C   Proper 7C
June 20, 2010
Texts: 1 Kings 19:1-16; Psalm 42:1-8; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39

How many of you were Simon and Garfunkel fans back in the dark ages?

Who remembers the song “The Sounds of Silence”?

I was in high school when this song was released,
And I must have driven my mother crazy
With the number of times that I listened to it.

Somehow the haunting lyrics just seemed to grab me
In what was probably the melancholy of adolescence.
I can’t say that I fully understood that song at that time,
And I probably still don’t!

However, whenever I hear the story of Elijah
Who experienced God in the sound of the sheer silence,
A few words from this Simon and Garfunkel song,
“The Sounds of Silence”
Seem to pop into my consciousness.

One line of the lyrics seem particularly to fit
This story of the prophet Elijah
“No one dared disturb the sounds of silence”

I can only imagine that Elijah
Experiencing God on Mount Horeb
In the sound of sheer silence,
Would not have dared to disturb this sound of the sheer silence.

I can visualize the prophet emerging
From his hiding place in a rock crag,
Face wrapped in his cloak,
Straining to hear God in the sheer silence.

You have to know something about Elijah’s history
To experience the full impact of this encounter with God.

Everything we know about Elijah says this was one powerful prophet.

He managed to get food and drink out a starving widow.
Even God listened to him,
When he pleaded to have the widow’s son restored to life.
Without a second thought, Elijah took on King Ahab,
And prophesied his violent death
After the King’s jealous fit caused the death of a neighboring vineyard owner.

In the Biblical narrative just preceding this one,
Elijah took on all of the prophets of the false god Baal,
Bested them in a bake off contest,
Which demonstrated the power of God. 
And then proceeded to kill off all of the prophets of Baal.

With all these antics, you would think
That Elijah was unstoppable!!

However, after Elijah killed all of Baal’s prophets,
Queen Jezebel returned the favor
By threatening to kill Elijah within the next day.

Somehow this took all the wind out of Elijah’s sails,
And he went into a rapid tailspin,
Pulled down into discouragement and despair.

Instead of confronting Queen Jezebel
Which you might expect based on past performance,
Elijah, uncharacteristically, fled town.

First he walks 50 miles to another town,
Abandons his servant,
And then journeys into the wilderness.

In the wilderness, Elijah, now in deep despair,
Prays for God to take his life.

In an example of how God always answers prayer,
But not always with what is being asked for,
God does not take his life,
Rather God sends an angel who prepares warm bread and cold water.

Rather than taking Elijah’s life,
Which is what Elijah asked for,
God offers sustenance and encourages Elijah on his journey.

God meets Elijah where he is:
In the midst of his despair,
And gives him both physical and spiritual nourishment.

Then after Elijah walks the 40 days to the holy mountain,
Mount Horeb, or Mount Sinai as it is also known,
God again sends a messenger to meet Elijah.

This messenger lets Elijah know to expect God.

God demonstrates all kinds of fireworks:
Mountain splitting, wind and earthquakes.
These special effects most certainly made Elijah sit up and take notice.
But God was not present in the special effects.

And then came the sheer silence,
The proverbial sound of silence.

After all the drama,
The sheer silence is what really got Elijah’s attention.

It was the silence that finally got him to crawl out of his cave,
With his cloak wrapped around his face.

And only in the sound of silence was God present.

Somehow God knew exactly what Elijah would respond to.

Unlike the false gods who need drama and sound effects to make an impact,
God reached Elijah in his despair, discouragement, isolation,
And desire for the final complete silence of death,
By showing up in an otherworldly silence.

We have no idea how long the silence lasted
It might have been a minute;
It might have been several hours.

But once Elijah had crawled out of his cave,
And God had Elijah’s attention,
It became clear that God did not just show up for effect.

God used the shock value of the silence
As a prelude to re-tooling Elijah for further ministry.

For the second time in this story, God asks Elijah what he is doing there.

After listening to Elijah’s answer,
God takes the no nonsense approach,
And sends Elijah back into the world,
With the command to anoint two kings and a prophet. 
Far from granting Elijah’s wish to take away his life,
God grants him new life and new work. 

The beat-up discouraged despairing Elijah
Was given the opportunity to retreat,
To be fed and nourished,
To be assured of God’s mysterious presence,
But then re-fitted for God’s work.

God came down to Elijah right in the midst of his despair.
God didn’t stand around waiting for Elijah to come to his senses,
God interceded in very tangible ways that reached Elijah just where he was,
In the devil’s playground of despair and discouragement.

There is a fable about the devil holding a yard sale
To sell his used tools,
Useful for trapping unsuspecting people.

On one table with lots of signage and advertising,
And fairly reasonable prices,
Are all the devil’s usual tools:
Envy, hatred, lying, addiction, adultery and even murder.

Then on an out of the way table,
With little fanfare,
Is one very worn tool,
Which also has a very high price.

Several on-lookers ask the devil,
Why does this worn out tool
Have such a high price?

The devil cheerfully responds
That the tool is worn out
Because it is the one he uses most frequently.

He then goes on to say that he had priced
This tool of discouragement and despair at such a high price
Because it is the most effective tool in his toolkit,
For separating people from God.

In this Bible story we just heard,
God intervened with the sound of sheer silence,
To break the devil’s attempt
To use despair and discouragement
In isolating Elijah from his God. 
To bring the power of this story back into our own lives,
I’d like to ask if you or anyone you know
Is skirting the edges of the devil’s playground,
With a descent into discouragement or even despair.

You know the feeling.

Perhaps a specific task seems so hopeless and overwhelming,
That your whole mood is affected.
You would rather not get out of bed
Than face this onerous job.
There is just no other word for it.
You are discouraged.

Or maybe you’ve had such a whole series of bad breaks,
Job, health, school, personal finances, you name it,
That you are beyond being just merely discouraged
And are well down the descent to despair.

Life no longer seems worth living.
You understand Elijah’s sentiment exactly when he says,
“It is enough now, O Lord, just take away my life.”

Just like God did not want to lose his faithful servant Elijah
To the sins of despair and discouragement,
God does not want these tools from the devil’s toolkit
To separate you from God.

God signaled to Elijah twice that he was cared for.
First God made the meal of hot rolls and cold water,
And watched over him as he slept.

In those times when you are about to slip down that slippery slope of discouragement,
Have you ever had anything happen that gave you just a shadow of hope,
The proverbial sliver of a rope to hang onto. 

God was in that sliver of rope!

Maybe a colleague thanked you for something.
Maybe your spouse made your favorite dinner.
Maybe the doctor had a few encouraging words about a new treatment.
Maybe your daily devotion gave you a different perspective on your situation. 

In any of these things, God is looking for a way to get your attention,
Trying to give you a glimmer of hope to hang onto,
To keep you from slipping into total despair.
Once God has your full attention,
Just like God captured Elijah’s attention in the sheer silence,
God will remind you of the gift of hope you already possess.

God has many tools to counterattack despair,
However, the powerful gift of hope
Comes in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
Emmanuel, God with us.

We know that God sent Jesus to live and die among us,
And through his resurrection,
Show the power of God over all kinds of evil.

God, in the cross of Christ, comes down to you,
Providing a hope that is more powerful
Than any despair the devil can dish out.

God uses all kinds of ways to get your attention
When you are filled with discouragement and despair.
Things that are the modern day equivalent of Elijah’s hot rolls and cold water.

You are not likely to have Elijah’s experience of God in the sound of sheer silence,
But, unlike Elijah, you are able to know God through Jesus Christ
Who was sent especially for you,
Who died especially for you
And who gives hope to you in his triumph over death and evil.

Every time you experience the presence of God in the bread, the wine and the water,
God is giving you a powerful antidote
To the despair with which the devil is tempting you.

In the sustenance of the bread and wine,
You will feel the presence of Christ,
And with that presence a light that will lift you
Out of the darkness of despair.

Instead of living the first lines of that Simon and Garfunkel song
“Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again,”
God invites you into the life of light in Christ Jesus.
God reminds you of the words to one of my favorite hymns  (ELW 715)
“Christ be our light. Shine in my heart, shine in the darkness.
Christ be our light.  Shine on your church, gathered today.”

When you are safely gathered into the light,
God then re-orients you, re-tools you, just as God did to Elijah,
And sends you back out to do God’s work in the world.   Amen