All Saints Sunday (NL4) John B. Valentine
1 Kings 19:1-18 November 7, 2021

“SCARY SITUATIONS”

Here’s an awkward question for you to ponder on this All Saints Sunday ...

“What are you scared of these days???”

Come Tuesday night ... in the context of our Zoom Bible Study class ... we may do some sharing of our answers to that question .... because I really am curious what in particular you are scared of these days ....

But ... for now ... I’m going to have to be so bold as to guess that many ... even ‘most’ of us ... would say that there’s no lack of things to be scared of right now.

If you’re a person who gets scared by what you see in the news ...

• Obviously ... there’s the whole pandemic thing ... COVID and the Delta variant ... that’s pretty scary ... given the fact that the death toll from COVID-19 just passed the three-quarters-of-a-million mark in this country alone earlier this week ...

• Then there’s the whole political divisiveness / culture war thing that’s has pitted populists against progressives ... and swapped out slogan-shouting for meaningful public discourse ... THAT’S pretty scary too ...

• Earlier this week ... there was that global climate summit that took place in Scotland ... that pointed out pretty clearly that the eight billion inhabitants of Earth HAVEN’T been very good stewards of our shared environment ... and that’s more than a little scary ...

• There’s the scourge of terrorism ...

• There’s talk of the rising national debt ...

• Et cetera ... et cetera ... et cetera.

On the other hand ... if you’re a person who gets scared by what arrives via the mail ...

• There’s medical reports and doctor’s appointments that may hint at things going amiss in your body ...

• There’s bills to pay and financial records to review that may beg the question of whether there’s going to be enough money to allow you to carry on ...

• There’s college applications and acceptance letters ...

• There’s driver’s license renewal forms ... and letters from lawyers ... and letters from the IRS ...

• And the list goes on and on.

Point being ... a sober look at our lives and our world can be downright terrifying.

And though we may on occasion live in denial of the scary stuff that's going on around us ...

The question is probably not "Are you scared?" ... but rather "What are you scared of?"

+ + + + +

Now ... given the fact that "scared" is something that we may not like to admit to ... but which seems pretty much a universal condition ...

Let’s take a look at this morning’s Bible story ... from 1st Kings ... chapter nineteen.

• It’s the story of a man who was scared ... terrified ... ‘deathly afraid’ even ... and

• It’s a story that may have something to teach us about dealing with the fears and the pressures and the terrors of our age..

You see ...

Elijah ... the main character in the story we just read ... was a prophet ... a spokesman ... for God.

His calling was to speak the truth about the way things were ... and give voice to the way God felt about the way things were ... whether people wanted to hear it or not.

Problem was ... there was this woman ... Jezebel ... QUEEN Jezebel ... and REALLY didn’t like what Elijah had to say ...

And she swore that she was going to have him killed.

And I suspect it’s a bit of an understatement when the text we read says “Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life.”

And ... in no short order ... Elijah’s fear lead to despair ... which is a place where fear often leads ...

And in his despair he declared “It is enough ... now, O Lord. Just take away my life ... for I am no better than my ancestors."

+ + + + +

Now it seems to me that there's a couple three details about this story that command our attention:

• The first of them is the whole issue of "fear versus faith."

God says ... "Elijah, remember what I am with you."

To which Elijah basically responds ... "How can I think about you being with me when I’m worried about who is after me?"

Then God says ... "Elijah, remember what it was that I did for you yesterday."

To which Elijah replies ... "How can I think about yesterday when I’m really worried about today?"

There’s a battle between ‘fear’ and ‘faith’ going on inside Elijah that is one of the key themes of the whole of the Bible ... and I suspect that a few of us can somehow relate to that.

• The second thing is perhaps the whole "temptation to just give up" thing.

Elijah's sitting there under that single solitary broom tree out in the middle of the desert ... saying ... "I give up, Lord. It's all just too much. I can't take it any more. Stick a fork in me – I'm done."

Do you ever find yourself wanting to say something like that in the face of despair??

• "Oh, fine!" ....
• "Whatever!" ....
• "Enough is enough." ....
• "I quit!"

Sometimes despair can well lead to resignation ... can it not???

• And then check out this third thing! You've got to love Elijah here.

Elijah's scared to death ... way over-stressed ... and at his wits end.

But in the face of all of the potentially productive things that Elijah could be doing at a time like that ... what is the one thing that he does do?

He lays down and takes a nap!!

Any of the rest of you ever know that feeling???

When you're trapped in some situation that finds us way over our heads ... do you ever feel as though the only thing you can do is lay down and take a nap???

+ + + + +

But there's at least one other thing for us to take note of about that story.

How does it resolve?

Even that Elijah is losing the battle of fear versus faith ... and gives up on any semblance of hope ... and is paralyzed to the point of taking a stress-induced nap ...

In spite of it all ... Elijah gets empowered by God.

Suddenly ... this angel shows up ... and gives him a nudge ... and says "Get up and eat."

(And Elijah gets up and eats ... and drinks ... and goes right back to his nap!)

Then the angel shows up again ... and says ... "Get up and eat."

And this time he eats and drink ... and finds himself refreshed and renewed ... and empowered to continue his journey.

God gives Elijah what it is that Elijah NEEDS to continue his journey.

+ + + + +

Any of you remember the name of Benjamin Weir?

It was back in the late 1980's ... Benjamin Weir was that missionary who was held hostage in Beirut, Lebanon for sixteen some odd months.

For nearly a year and a half ... Weir

• endured the strain of being kept in isolation ... and
• tolerated the hardship of always being chained ... and
• by his own admission ... came really close to giving up hope.

But one day ... when being taken to a bathroom ... Weir discovered that by standing on the toilet he could just peek out the window.

And he could just catch a glimpse of the outside world.

And what he saw out that window was the beautiful Bekkaa Valley and its fertile green pastures radiant in the morning sun ...

And beyond that green valley were some beautiful snow-covered mountains.

And though it was just a glimpse ... just a peek ... "that sight" ... Weir later noted ... "and the memory of it throughout the day ... spoke to me of the grandeur of the Creator and his good intentions for the world and its people. It gave me hope and a sense of harmony."

Truth be told ... it was forbidden for Weir to look out the window.

And soon enough ... his captors caught on to what he was doing ... and shortened his chains so that he couldn't do it any more.

But just that memory ... just that vision ... that little glimpse of hope was able to sustain him in his hour of need.

+ + + + +

Life is hard ... folks ... and life right now IS scary.

Though we made not be held hostage like Benjamin Weir ...

Or pursued by the army like Elijah ...

We DO sometimes find ourselves "under the broom tree" ... questioning ... wondering ... fearing ... doubting ... trying to make sense of it all.

And maybe what this story of Elijah is trying to tell us is that ... when we think we've hit bottom ... when we think we're done in ...

Even then ... EVEN THEN ...

• We haven't fallen so low that God can't lift us up ...

• We haven’t gotten so lost that God can’t provide a new path ...

• We haven’t gotten so desperate that God can’t offer us some unexpected sustenance to help us make it through.

I guess the question we really need to wrestle with is ...

When despair comes to roost ...

When fear takes hold of our lives ...

When we feel like we can’t go on ...

When we’re paralyzed to the point of being able to nothing except to take a nap ...

Are we going to succumb to that fear ... or are we going to walk ... with the saints ... in faith??