( 1 Kings 19,1-13 ) - [ Deutsch ] - [ Akündigungen608.14 KB ]
Dear congregation,
During the Passover festival Jews always prepare one extra place at the banquet. The free space is reserved for the prophet Elijah. Because according to the Old Testament Elijah did not die but was taken up to heaven.
When he returns, he shall be welcomed in this house.
What makes Elijah this expected guest? What message would he bring and what would he tell about himself and his story with God? We need these stories of people before us, telling us about their lives of faith and how God showed himself or remained hidden from them.
Elijah is a prophet in Israel at a time when the country is increasingly threatening to succumb to the influence of foreign religions.
Ahab, the then king of Israel, married the Phoenician princess Jezebel, who brought her cult of the gods - the worship of the god Baal - into the marriage and into the country.
Elijah fights for people to find their way back to their god and turn their backs on the false gods. He becomes a tireless lone fighter after Jezebel had almost all the prophets of the one God killed. King Ahab did not stop her.
One day, God appeared to Elijah with orders to announce a great time of drought to King Ahab. Not a drop of rain shall fall in this land until God wills it again.
A great power struggle ensues on Mount Carmel between the prophets of Baal and Elijah. A bull is placed on a woodpile that is not ignited. Which god will cause fire to fall from heaven to show that he is the true and only god? The prophets of Baal fail, no matter how ecstatic they become and beg their god. Elijah, meanwhile, receives the longed-for fire after his prayer.
Elijah feels so close to his God at this moment and intoxicated by the power of his God, that he allows himself to be carried away to cruel violence in the heat of the moment. He gives the order to kill all the prophets of Baal.
But after the great victory, Elijah collapses and loses the ground beneath his feet. The sermon text explains this:
1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,
4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
(1 Kings 19, verses 1-4).
Elijah is at the end of his strength. Jezebel's death threat causes him to doubt (or despair) the meaning of his assignment. He can no longer bear the constant tension and the threat of violence. And another question torments him: Did he go too far on Mount Carmel when he once again called for great violence? Was that still in the spirit of God?
But God is silent, and Elijah feels abandoned. His has just enough strength to flee, and arrives at the edge of the desert, with only one desire: to die, so that he no longer has to feel this life. It is enough, so now take my soul, O LORD!
Some of us may be familiar with such situations. When you gave all you had: for your children, for success at work, for your sport, for love, and now you can't anymore.
And you don't know whether your whole effort made any sense at all. "I am no better than my fathers," sighs Elijah.
Maybe that's how it is sometimes. You wanted to do everything better than your own parents, your colleagues, your friends. You achieved something and really did things better but made other mistakes. And then it dawns on you very slowly: you are no better than the others. You are devastated. Being dead wouldn't be so bad, then there would finally be peace. And something in you would find that beautiful.
We know that Elijah did not die, but it is difficult to imagine how it was possible that he arrived at such a turning point. The sermon text explains this
5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”
8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
(1 Kings 19, verses 5-13a)
Elijah did not give himself the first impetus to new life. The help comes from outside and it starts with the simplest things: food and attention. Whoever put toasted bread and a jug of water there by Elijah and touched him, God must have sent him.
The smell of toasted bread and the voice of God's messenger awaken Elijah from his exhausted sleep. He eats and drinks and falls into a deep sleep again. A sleep changing from a sleep of death to a sleep of new life.
And then, after a while, the voice wakes him up a second time: It doesn't help, Elijah, the time has come, you have to get going, you have a long way ahead of you. Leave the past behind you, don't look back, because it's not a path that takes you back to the city, among the people, to the tasks of everyday life, but it first leads you deeper into the desert.
Elijah is to wander through it for 40 days and 40 nights. He is to go as far as Mount Horeb, the source of faith, because that is where God once made his covenant with his people.
So he sets out, a difficult and uncertain path, but also a salutary one.
The hike through the desert ends at Mount Horeb. And finally, God speaks to Elijah, who has crouched in a cave at the foot of the mountain. "What are you doing here, Elijah?" he asks, and Elijah complains to God about his suffering. And God calls him out of the cave and appears to him very different from what Elijah always thought. Not in the power of the forces of nature, not in loud noise, in thunder, but behind the powers of violence and greatness there came a quiet, gentle whisper. And Elijah understands, all along God has been faithful to his prophet.
Elijah has changed, he is ready for departure, for a new beginning. God sends him back to life with the task of anointing a new king. He takes the experience of the crisis and failure with him, it is part of him - it belongs to him, he can accept it.
One can well understand that Elijah is an expected and welcome guest at the table of the house. Because he is a guest who can talk about his crises and detours in life, someone who has traveled a long way to find himself again and who has met God in the process.
It is and remains Elijah's story with God, but it has nevertheless become groundbreaking for me, it gives me courage to accept the times in life when I am exhausted and insecure and no longer have any advice on how to proceed.
If Elijah were to sit at my table, he might say: This experience does not mean the end of your life, but is necessary, it wants to be felt and endured, then you can wander through it and leave it behind. Look around for the messengers of God, i.e., for people who have more strength than you have, who can comfort you and show you new perspectives. Accept their help.
And be ready to hit the road. Don't be surprised if you see God in a different light.
Be ready for encounters along the way when someone needs your help. Then you can say: “Get up and eat, because you have a long way ahead of you”.
Amen