Background

Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Sumter, SC, celebrated Legacy Sunday on March 2, 2003. This celebration marked the renewal of parish planned giving work. Robert Wiltshire has served the parish as consultant to initiate the work of the Planned Giving Committee. He preached the following sermon to underscore the theological themes of the work.

Last Sunday before Lent, 2003 March 02

Sermon texts: I Kings 19:9-21;
II Peter 1:16-19;
Mark 9:2-9

What are you doing here, Elijah? When God poses a question in scripture, it is often a moment of accountability, for the person addressed and for you and me.

Elijah is a pivotal figure in Biblical history. He lived roughly 850 years before Jesus. He proclaimed a fundamental principle of faith that still matters today. And Elijah left a legacy that was vivid in the minds of people of faith in Jesus' day—8 ½ centuries after he lived. Elijah was transfigured together with Moses and Jesus in our Gospel lesson this morning. And in my view, Elijah deserves our attention today.

The Elijah stories are told in six chapters at the end of I Kings and the beginning of II Kings. They comprise a remarkable set of narratives that illustrate God's sovereignty expressed in powerful acts by God's prophet. Let me tell you about the Elijah stories.

He appears first at the beginning of I Kings 17, and is simply described as Elijah the Tishbite (from across the Jordan River). In his opening line he addresses the king, Ahab: "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain for three years, except by my word." Elijah announces famine to the king—a famine that only God will end through Elijah's word in three years. Drought in the Carolinas has been tough in recent years…

This famine statement to King Ahab sets the stage for the Word of the Lord to resound anew in Israel's history. There are wonderful side stories about Elijah during the famine:

• "ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening";

• next, heeding the word of the Lord, Elijah sought out a poor widow to feed him during the famine, and when she showed enough faith to give him her last handful of meal and bit of oil, Elijah blessed that widow with enough meal and oil to last until the famine was over;

• later in the famine that same widow's son died, and Elijah brought him back to life, prompting the widow to declare: "Now, I know that you are a man of God, and that the Word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."

These great stories of our faith simply set the stage for Elijah's main mission: to declare again the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me. There is so much rich material to share this morning that I'll have to give you the condensed version.

Elijah confronted King Ahab because the king sanctioned the worship of foreign gods. You see, Ahab had married Jezebel. Jezebel was from Phoenicia, and she worshipped Baal. In order to make his foreign bride at home, King Ahab built a "temple of Baal" and let his wife worship her own gods. Jezebel had taken that opening and advanced to the next level—she hired 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Ash-er-ah with government funds. Furthermore, Jezebel began an aggressive campaign to "cut off the prophets of Yahweh," or, in other words, she tried to eradicate every vestige of Israel's traditional faith. What started out innocently as the king's religious tolerance became, a campaign to change the religion of the Israelites through Jezebel's leadership.

Whoa, girl! This became the issue that made Elijah into a legend. And Elijah's chief asset throughout his work was always the Word of the Lord.

Now, the famine is a key element of the story because Baal was thought to have special powers with rain and with the fertility of the earth. Elijah drew a line in the sand. The second half of I Kings 18 is a powerful story of Elijah standing alone and challenging the 850 prophets of Baal and Ash-er-ah to a contest to see whose God could bring rain and end the drought. The king called an assembly of citizens and of Baal prophets on Mt. Carmel. And on that dramatic day the truth of God's power was so undeniable that the people of Israel declared: "The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God."

Yet, that was not the final word. God gave the gift of rain, but that did not end the matter. Even for us God’s blessings do not often keep us focused for long. The key questions of faith are ones that you and I, along with all God's people, ponder repeatedly even when the message is clear. We learn and forget, we doubt and rediscover God's word throughout our lives. And there is always someone available to steer us wrong. In today’s story it's Jezebel's response. Her response to the defeat of her prophets was to go after Elijah. Elijah's response to Jezebel's heat was fear and flight and self-pity.

All of the preceding Elijah background sets the stage for our Old Testament lesson today. In Elijah's escape from Jezebel, he was guided by an angel, and he traveled into the wilderness forty days and forty nights until he came to Hor-reb, the mount of God. Hear the echoes of the patriarchs in Elijah’s journey ….....; and understand that Elijah retreated to the ancient holy mountain where God delivered the commandments to Moses. But also know that you and I take similar journeys when we try to seek God's new direction for us or when we try to regroup our lives. Whether we go to Camp St. Christopher's or Kanuga or a cherished family spot or the solitude of our own reflections, our searching can put us into caves that are either vulnerable or receptive places before God.

As Elijah sat in a cave on holy ground, the word of the Lord came to him saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" What are you doing here, John?…Mark?… Carol? …Tom?

"Go…stand still before the Lord." Elijah stood up probably expecting some dramatic answer from God. We are much alike in this—you and me and Elijah—we all come before God looking for a sign. Often, we hope only for the sign that is the one we want to see. What was Elijah expecting? I don't know, but I know what he got:

• a mighty wind, so strong that it broke rocks in pieces—but the Lord was not in that mighty wind;
• a ground-shaking earthquake—but the Lord was not in that earthquake;
• a fearsome fire—but the Lord was not in that fire;

and then after all that—

• a sound of sheer silence ...........

When Elijah heard that silence…....…he wrapped his face in his mantle.

"What are you doing here, Elijah?" God was ready for Elijah to go back to his calling. God’s instructions were not complicated—go return to your life’s work, and anoint three key people to carry forward God's will. And remember—you are not alone. Even though you think that you are my only true servant, there are others who are faithful—7,000 in Israel who have not bowed a knee to Baal. What is the lesson for you and me? Stay on task in your faith. Walk in truth as you know it. Be aware that many others also know the Lord, whether they go to your church or not.

"We have the prophetic word made more sure." God is creator. God is ruler of the universe. Love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength. And pass on the legacy of your faith to subsequent generations. Pass it on without diluting it.

Elijah was given a mandate to anoint Elisha prophet in his place. In I Kings 19:19, "Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him." Elijah bequeathed to his successor Elisha a "special cloak," the mantle that was the embodiment of his life's work. And through that legacy gift 2800 years ago, true faith continued in Israel, and the Judeo-Christian faith thrives throughout the world today.

The Elijah stories continue beyond the anointing of Elisha for three more chapters. In the final narrative, Elijah ascends in a whirlwind into heaven. "Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home"—that song bespeaks the chariot of fire and horses of fire that came for Elijah. Yet, even in that wonderful drama of faith, there is still more to the story.

Later prophets believed that Elijah would come again before the messiah came. So in Jesus' day people of faith were still looking for Elijah. And when John the Baptist appeared, many people compared him to Elijah. So, by the time the dumbfounded disciples saw Elijah with Jesus and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration, there is no surprise about the company that Jesus was keeping. The issue for the disciples was how to respond to this theophany, this holy moment. How odd that Jesus ordered the disciples to tell no one about what they had seen until after the resurrection.

In trying to tie together our scripture lessons for today three thoughts come clear to me. One, the first two commandments are relevant today. We must have no other gods before the Lord God Almighty. And we should not make idols of anything. Not many of us are tempted to worship Baal, but all of us are tempted in our culture to seek fulfillment everywhere but in simple faith.

Two, hindsight always makes things clearer. When Jesus ordered his disciples to tell no one until after the resurrection, he simply wanted them to have the whole story so that they would not place the emphasis in the wrong place. Each one of us still has time to shape the endings of our own stories. If someone wants to know the full story of who I am or who you are, they will know the most when our life is behind us.

Three, we all leave a legacy. Elijah left a mighty legacy symbolized in his mantle. Jezebel left a legacy—I grew up in the 1950s knowing that a "jezebel" was a dangerous woman. Ahab left a legacy of religious tolerance, which is fine unless you dilute the faith. The disciples left a legacy of not understanding Jesus at first and needing hindsight to know the full story. I will leave a legacy. You will leave a legacy. I encourage you as fellow Christians to find ways to witness to your faith and your values in the legacy you leave.

Please allow me to close with a personal story. Today, March 2, would be my father's 84th birthday if he were alive. Like all of us, my dad had his strengths and his weaknesses. He taught me several unforgettable lessons: for example, that your word is your bond; and what work you do doesn't matter, but, even if you are a ditch digger, be the best ditch digger possible. My dad loved the Lord. He was a Baptist deacon; he made church visits to lots of folks in the hospital; and he was a committed tither. I can not imagine that my dad ever went to an estate planning seminar, but he and Mother made a will. When Dad died in 1980 his will provided for a special gift for church music at Lakeside Baptist Church, and the rest of his resources went to Mother, who lived another 20 years until December 2000. Mother's will was faithful to the decision that she and Dad made years ago, that the first 10% of their estate was a gift to the Virginia Baptist Foundation. The balance had small gifts to seven grandchildren, and then the rest was split between my brother, my sister, and me. When my older brother closed the estate last month, he wrote me: "This closes a chapter. I was glad to send the additional money to the Foundation—felt like I was carrying out a mandate."

I look forward to giving my children a comparable mandate. I have a mantle to pass along. We all do. Let us stand for God & hear his Word, even in the silence. What are you doing here?

 

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