Sunday, June 19, 2022
/Proper 7 – Commitment Sunday
1 Kings 19: 1-15; Psalm 42; Galatians 3: 23-29; Luke 8:26-39
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: AMEN.
In our Sunday morning Bible Study class, we are reading through the book of Exodus, which tells the dramatic story, of God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from their enslavement in Egypt – a powerful story of emancipation we recall this weekend as we honor Juneteenth today. After their delivery out of Egypt, Moses and the Hebrews encamp at the base of a tall mountain, called Sinai. It is to the top of this mountain that Moses summits, where he meets God, and receives the ten commandments. One of the commandments God delivers to Moses is “Thou shalt not murder.”
It is to this specific commandment Elijah – God’s chosen prophet, turned a deaf ear to. We are told in today’s reading from 1 Kings that Elijah slaughtered the prophets of Baal by the sword, perhaps while thinking “yeah, God probably didn’t mean for us to take that commandment seriously.” Why did Elijah do this? He did so because of revenge, never a good motivation, but it was Elijah’s. Elijah was taking revenge upon Jezebel, Queen and wife of arguably the most wicked king in Israel’s history - Ahab.
In the chapter that precedes the one we heard today, Jezebel murders the prophets of God. And Elijah decides “well two wrongs don’t make a right, but I’ll give it a chance anyway,” and he proceeds to murder the prophets of Baal. Now who was Baal? Baal was Yahweh’s competition. While Yahweh might have lead the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt, it was Baal who controlled the weather. Weather back then was extremely important for people like farmers, and shepherds who depended upon seasonable weather to raise their crops and their herds. This will be a stretch for all of us, but imagine you lived in a humid environment with a stifling heat wave and no sign of rain on the way. I know, it’s a stretch.
Who are you going to pray to? The answer is easy – Baal. And it was Baal’s prophets who served as mediators between the people and this weather god. Elijah murders them and Jezebel’s response to Elijah’s revenge, is to issue a threat for his life. Elijah flees, and ends up going to place familiar to him – Mt. Horeb. Horeb was a holy mountain of God – elsewhere in the Bible it is called Sinai – the mountain where Moses went centuries before and received the ten commandments, one of which Elijah wasn’t so good at following.
Nevertheless, upon this holy mountain, Elijah waits for God. All kinds of things happen on the mountain: wind, earthquake, fire, and Elijah does not observe God’s presence in any of that. It is only in the silence where Elijah eventually hears God speak to him. Although not included in today’s reading, Elijah receives direction from God to anoint new kings over Israel and a new prophet (this occurs later in chapter 19 if you wish to read the rest of the story).
It’s not until things get quiet that Elijah hears God. Our lives are really noisy. And in my experience, the more noise, the less I hear God’s voice. When I stop hearing God’s voice, I lose direction, and I am lost.
It might seem that none of this has very much to do with a parish capital campaign, which is a very noisy thing – there’s emails, signs, people talking, cards in your pews. And yet, this is where we are – Commitment Sunday – this is the day we formally wrap up our campaign, and probably more exciting for all of you – you will stop hearing me, and others, ask you for money, for about four months until October when we do it again for our annual stewardship campaign.
In your pews are cards that look like this – I want everyone to grab one, and fill it out right now. Fill it out even if you have already pledged, fill it out even if you don’t intend to pledge. All of us are doing this together – now. We’re going to take a minute and do this.
Now that your cards are filled out, hold onto them, and bring them with you to the altar on your way to receive communion. You will see that there is a basket here, and all of us will place out forms into the basket just like this. After communion, we will bring the basket to the altar, and offer it to God.
As we close out the campaign today, we will transition into the implementation phase. There will be much more to say about this at a later date, but for the time being, know that an implementation committee, called the Capital Project Committee, consisting of parishioners, will assemble in August to begin scheduling our upcoming capital improvement projects. I am pleased today to share that David Rennie, a lifetime member of St. Andrew’s, will serve as chair of this committee.
I close today with a word of gratitude to St. Andrew’s staff, its clergy, the members of its Vestry, our consultants, and the members of our Campaign Executive Committee for their collective hard work on this campaign. I believe this campaign is a historic milestone for St. Andrew’s. I also believe that what we are committing to today will impact our community and neighbors for the good for generations to come.
I believe we are following God’s command to live. To honor life, to create new possibilites, to step out in faith – all of that we are doing in this Holy space, where God speaks to us. We are making our promise – upon this card, and giving it to God. We are following God, not the other gods of the world today -modern day equivalents to Baal from centuries ago. We are not following false Gods of selfishness, arrogance, or certainty – we are following the true God who calls us toward love and generosity. We are establishing God’s legacy at St. Andrew’s for decades to come.
I can’t wait to see this next chapter at St. Andrew’s begin. AMEN.