June 20, 2004
Rev. Andrea Harrison
Hebrew Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 19:1-15 (page 314)
Epistle Reading: Galatians 3:23-29 (page 1014)
Gospel Reading: Luke 8:26-39 (page 898)
The people are desperate. There has been no rain in the land. The wadis have dried up. The drought has lasted for three years. And so the people pray for rain. Some pray to Yahweh, “a transcendent, universal God who is the provider of rains and fertility yet who is no ‘nature God’ trapped in unvarying seasonal cycles.” Others pray to Ba’al, the Canaanite storm God who annually brings revival of vegetation and fertility. Others pray to the Canaanite mother-goddess, Asherah. But the gods will not answer, and the rain is not coming.
So Elijah engineers a competition to determine to whom the people should be praying to bring about the gift of rain. On one side, there are the 450 prophets of Ba’al. Somewhere in the assembly are the 400 prophets of Asherah, although they do not seem to have been invited to participate in the competition. On the other side is Elijah, the self described only remaining prophet of Yahweh.
The first to enter the competition are the prophets of Ba’al. They build an altar of stone, lay wood upon it, select a bull, slaughter it and lay pieces of the animal upon the wood. They then call upon Ba’al, the God who holds a thunderbolt in one hand, imploring him to answer with fire, to light the tinder dry wood upon which they have place meat for a burnt offering. The hours pass, the prophets work themselves into a frenzy, but there is no voice, no answer, and no response. And Elijah mocks them.
This righteous prophet of Yahweh, the one true God, enters the competition. He builds his altar of stone, covers it with wood, lays the pieces of his bull on top, and just to make sure that no one could accuse him of cheating, he has the whole thing doused with water three times, enough so that the trench around the altar fills with water. Elijah then prays to God, saying, “ ‘O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so that this people may know that you , O LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back.’ ” Then the fire of the LORD falls and consumes the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licks up the water that was in the trench.” The victorious Elijah then oversees the seizing and killing of all the prophets of Ba’al, which greatly annoys Queen Jezebel, causing Elijah to flee for his life, even though the long sought after rain did actually come upon the land.
Elijah then laments to God, “ It is enough now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” After he sleeps and has a vision, and arises twice to eat food provided by angels, he journeys without food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. He then laments to God again, saying “I have been very zealous for the LORD, 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.”
Elijah is then instructed to stand out on the mountain, and await the passing by of God. There is a ‘great wind’, but God is not in the wind; then an earthquake, but God is not in the earthquake; then a fire, but God is not in the fire, unlike before at the altars of competition with the god, Ba’al. After the fire, there is a ‘sound of sheer silence’, or a ‘still small voice’. In the conversation that follows, God points out that Elijah he is not the only faithful follower, but that there are indeed 7,000 faithful followers, who will not be subject to God’s wrath.
It’s tough to be a follower of God. In our world, even today, there are many gods from which to choose. What about Yahweh, or Allah, or Vishnu, or any of the other names ascribed to the god of the universe or a smaller aspect of that god? We call our god “God” with a capital “G”, implying that our god is the one true God. Even my Microsoft Word autocorrect spellchecker changes the small g to a big G when I type God! Perhaps Bill Gates will get to heaven after all.
Gerard Sloyan says, in his commentary about this story of Elijah, that it is a salutary (or helpful) text for the many Christian groups of all the ages convinced that they alone have preserved the true faith.1
Just look at the Martintown stories of the “preservation of the faith”, as we heard referenced by David Anderson and Rev. Phil Joudrey last weekend. In the mid 1800’s there was a split in the Presbyterian Church, between the “Old Church” and the “Free Church” of Scotland. Jean MacIntosh says of this that, “a reformed movement within the church called for changes and a more spiritual outlook. Then, of course, “church union” in 1925 raised more questions about how best to defend and preserve the faith.2 Since 1988 in the United Church, there have been “Affirming” congregations and “Community of Concern” congregations, and those of us in between, all seeking to be faithful witnesses.
A book I have recently purchased, and am looking forward to reading, is titled Saving Jesus from those who are right – rethinking what it means to be Christian.3 This book is written by Carter Heyward, an author whom I know to be liberal, or on the “left side” of the theological spectrum. Faye Wakeling, a United Church minister who has recently returned from six years of “overseas work” in Guatemala, and whom we had the privilege of hosting in our home a week and a half ago, noticed this book on my shelf, and recommended it. The curious thing that she said about it was that although Carter Heyward does indeed criticize those on the right who consider themselves to be “right”, she also criticizes the self-righteousness demonstrated by those on the left who consider themselves to be “right”.
Then, what about beyond our denomination, or beyond the Christianity?
Interfaith dialogue, today, is no longer limited to conversations between Christian denominations, it is between people of different world religions. In the United Church, extensive conversation has occurred with our brothers and sisters of the Jewish faith, as evidenced in the document, Bearing Faithful Witness. This year, a new study document, That We May Know Each Other: United Church – Muslim Relations Today,4 has been published, and is something we could choose to study together.
Does it matter any more, what name or names we use for God, what we believe, or even whether we believe?
The ancient peoples were different from us. They had to pray to their gods for help, as they had troubles like drought and pestilence. They had to deal with imperial nations who engaged in trade wars, not to mention territorial wars. Oh, maybe we’re not so different. That sounds like the plight of Canadian farmers, Guatemalan campesino’s, and Iraqi civilians, just to mention a few.
So what should we do? Does it matter to whom we pray, and what we believe? Do we believe that if all Canadians united in praying to the same god, we could bring an end to drought, that we could overcome imperial and terrorist enemies? Do we believe that national policies, such as legislation approving same-sex marriages, could anger God, and cause God to rain down fire upon British Columbia forests? - a view expressed by a clergy colleague on the front page of the Cornwall Freeholder last summer. Is a particular belief going to get us to heaven or send us to hell? In the end, does it matter what we believe about God, or even if we believe in God?
I’m not convinced that we do need to hold a prescribed belief, or follow a dictated path. I don’t long for one unified church or religion where we all believe the same thing, and engage in the same spiritual practices. I enjoy the freedom to explore faith, sometimes whimsically, sometimes critically.
I enjoyed reading Tom Harpur’s book, The Pagan Christ,5 where, amongst other things, he suggests that the Jesus story was not a historical event, but rather the historicizing of a myth. I fear no retribution from God for mulling over such ideas, although they could be a vocational challenge.
Joseph Campbell has been acclaimed as “the world’s foremost authority on mythology”. He, himself, claimed that mythology was “the song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” In a conversation between Bill Moyers, television journalist, and Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers says, “Myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance. We all need to tell our story and to understand our story. We all need to understand death and to cope with death, and we all need help in our passages from birth to life and then to death. We need for life to signify, to touch the eternal, to understand the mysterious, to find out who we are.”
Joseph Campbell responds, “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life.” He then continues, saying, “I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about, and that’s what these clues [these myths, these stories] help us to find within ourselves.”
In our Gospel story today, a man tormented by demons, a man who was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, saw Jesus, and, as the Gospel writer puts it, recognized Jesus as the “Son of the Most High God”. This man, this demoniac, living a life of chaos, knew he was in the presence of one who could restore order in his life, who could break the bonds with which chaos gripped him.
In 1993, in solitary confinement at Kingston Penitentiary, there was a man whose life was likewise gripped by chaos. He was young, bright, had committed one or more crimes warranting a federal sentence. For some reason, or probably many reasons, he became so wild that he smeared the walls of his prison cell with his own feces. And he smeared his own body in the same way, making his removal from his cell by prison guards a slippery and offensive task.
As an act of desperation he was brought over to the Regional Psychiatric Treatment Centre, still within the walls of Kingston Pen. A cell had been adapted particularly for him, and others like him, so that he could be not throw feces into the corridor, and could be observed by camera. When the camera cover, the walls, and his own body became smeared again, all could be hosed down within his cell, as enabled by the newly built-in drainage in the floor. For some reason, or probably many reasons, he started to emerge from the chaos.
After a while of maintaining cleanliness and stable behaviour, he was able to come to the rehab/activity area. He was given permission to take paper and pencils back to his cell. I read some of his writings, which became more and more intelligible, and less and less bizarre over time. Later on, he participated in therapy groups, where he was insightful, open, and supportive of others. I enjoyed working with him. The demons had left him, hopefully not to return.
Did this man have an encounter with Jesus? Would it matter if he was Protestant or Catholic, or prayed to the Christian God, to Yahweh, or to Allah? Would it matter if he had no faith at all?
The Apostle Paul said, “There is no longer Jew of Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
I like to would extend Paul’s metaphor of oneness, of inclusion. I would like to say that the good news is that we are all invited to cultivate our inner life through the richness of religion, ritual, and story, and we are then all challenged to reflect the kingdom of God, in the way we live our lives.
In the particularity of our Christian faith, are universal themes of love and redemption, of forgiveness of sin, and of a challenge to live justly and in harmony within ourselves and with one another and our God.
I don’t think that “right” beliefs alone can save us, or using the “right” name for God, or engaging in the “right” rituals and observances.
In the created order of this planet, it is only humans who have the privilege of consciously cultivating our spiritual potentialities. I choose the Christian tradition as my way of nurturing my spiritual or inner journey, and of empowering me in my pursuit of right living. More particularly, I have chosen and continue to choose the United Church as my church home because this is the denomination that I find most life giving.
I do not know the stories of Ba’al or Asherah. I do not know the practices of ritual burnt offerings of peoples long ago. I do not think that I am better or worse than my fathers, than my ancestors, for the wisdom and love of God seems to penetrate all generations.
I do know that there is a God of many names, to whom I can pray in the midst of drought or abundance, and whom, through Christian and other stories, theological debates, worship, and community, I can encounter and follow in my day to day life. I thank God for the privilege of this journey, and pray that we may all find paths to God and through life, that enable us to flourish in body, mind, and spirit. Amen.
References:
1. Sloyan, Gerard S. Preaching from the Lectionary: An Exegetical Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2004.
2. MacIntosh, Jean McCuaig. Our Heritage: a History of Old St. Andrew’s, the Stone Church at Martintown. 1984.
3. Heyward, Carter. Saving Jesus from Those Who Are Right: rethinking what it means to be Christian. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1999.
4. Harpur, Tom. The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2004.
5. That We May Know Each Other: United Church–Muslim Relations Today – Toward a United Church of Canada understanding of the relationship between Christianity and Islam in the Canadian context. Authorized for study in the United Church of Canada by the 38th General Council. Produced by the Committee on Inter-Church and Inter-Faith Relations of the U.C.C., 2004.
6. Campbell, Joseph with Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth. Toronto: Doubleday, 1988.
