Finding God at the End of Ourselves | 1 Kings 19 | Lenten Reflections

Transcript

00:00:00:36 – 00:00:30:52
Michael Gewecke
Hello again, friends. Welcome back to the Pastor Talk podcast. We are thrilled to have you joining us as we continue on now with this new series that we are calling Lenten Reflections. We are just changing our pace a little bit with these. They’re a little bit shorter and the intention behind them is less to study these texts that Clinton I have chosen as among our favorites, but rather to look at them and to see in them an invitation to our own life and faith.

00:00:30:52 – 00:01:00:00
Michael Gewecke
And so we hope that there are more meditations. We hope that they invite you in the week that is to come to be an opportunity to reflect and to grow deeper and dig deeper into your own faith in what God is doing in this Lenten season. And today we turn to one of Clint’s chosen texts, which is a famous, often preached, often read and studied, and a text that I don’t know that you would get to the bottom of.

00:01:00:10 – 00:01:04:13
Michael Gewecke
It’s endless and it’s depth of wisdom, and we’re excited to share it with you today.

00:01:04:30 – 00:01:42:45
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think one of the things that has sort of spoken to me about this text through the years, Michael, is is there are times it just feels true. You know, sometimes it’s hard to resonate with biblical texts because they’re different era, different assumptions, different culture. But I think the bones of this one, the core of this one, is an experience that most people have had within the Book of First Kings and really was centering on Chapter 19, though the story really begins before that, the Prophet Elijah, Elijah has had this moment, this triumphant moment.

00:01:42:45 – 00:02:15:52
Clint Loveall
He’s he’s challenged the prophets of Babel, the primary idol or the primary false God that the Israelites have chased in this time in their history, a Canaanite God, a deity of sorts. None of that really matters. But he has challenged the prophets of Bell to the showdown on top of Mount Carmel, and he’s won in spectacular fashion. In fact, so complete is his victory that in a moment of passion, some of the people following him chased down the prophets of Bel.

00:02:15:52 – 00:02:46:44
Clint Loveall
I think 300 of them, and killed them, destroy them as God has sort of warned them not to let those prophets spread their falsehoods in Israel. Well, the Kings, a man named Ahab, Ahab is not happy about this. He tells a ruler, Queen Jezebel, and Jezebel sends word to Elijah. And it’s very clear, she says, By this time tomorrow, woe to me if I don’t make you like one of the prophets.

00:02:46:44 – 00:03:11:43
Clint Loveall
In other words, I plan to see you dead in the next 24 hours, and it does something to Elijah, and he flees from Jezebel and he flees out into the desert. And so I’ll just read a couple of verses here. In chapter 19, he went out A Day’s Journey into the wilderness. He came and sat down under a solitary broom tree.

00:03:12:01 – 00:03:43:22
Clint Loveall
And there he asked that he might die. Lord, it is enough. Take my life for I’m no better than my ancestors. Then he laid down under the broom tree and fell asleep. And I think, you know, this is a heavy setting for attacks. But you have this man who in a very recent past was wildly success. Will he he perhaps thought there was going to be revolution renewal.

00:03:43:49 – 00:04:07:33
Clint Loveall
Perhaps he thought that he had seen the pinnacle of his work and now he finds himself out in the dry, dusty desert under a really it’s called a broom tree, but it’s really probably a bush. And he prays to God. And the words that I think at some point, maybe all people of faith come to say, it’s enough.

00:04:07:55 – 00:04:28:46
Clint Loveall
I don’t want anymore. I can’t take anymore. I’ve had it. None of this is going the way that I thought it would. And then if you know the story, an angel appears. The angel gives him some bread and water and says, You’ve got to take this or the journey will be too much for you. Which is another rich kind of phrase.

00:04:28:46 – 00:04:54:27
Clint Loveall
The journey is too much and ends up in a cave and he finds himself. It led to a cave at Mt. Horeb, and he’s in the cave. And the angel, the voice of God, says, Go stand on the mountain before the Lord and the Lord is about to pass by. And then this is a fascinating section, and I think this is one of the things that draws people to this passage.

00:04:54:54 – 00:05:15:50
Clint Loveall
There was a great wind so strong it split the mountains and broke rocks in pieces before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind after the wind and earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. Now, all of these things in the Old Testament are signs of God’s presence.

00:05:15:50 – 00:05:47:31
Clint Loveall
They’re called the orphan. These things are funny is when God shows up and earthquake, wind fire, that those are all signs of the presence of God. But here, in his despondency and his depression, he doesn’t see God in the Lord was not in them. And then there’s a verse, you know, but not might not know that, you know, After the fire there was a sound of sheer silence or in the old translation of the King James, there was a still small voice.

00:05:48:01 – 00:06:09:25
Clint Loveall
And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave and then a voice comes to him, What are you doing here? Elijah and Elijah and God have this moment, this discussion very interestingly in this instance. Michael God never really comforts Elijah. He doesn’t really say much about it at all.

00:06:09:25 – 00:06:33:27
Clint Loveall
He simply says, Go on, do the next thing I’ve got people for you to meet. I’ve got a successor for you, Elijah, to train. But this not in some ways. It doesn’t feel like a compassionate moment. God doesn’t say, Oh, I’m so sorry. You’re feeling bad. God says, Hey, you’ve got it wrong. You’re not alone. And there’s work to do.

00:06:33:27 – 00:06:59:33
Clint Loveall
And he sort of gently, I think, but firmly pushes Elijah back out of the cave to do his work. And if you think about that as the scope of a story, I just find that there’s so much in there. The idea of being worn out, the idea of seeing it is enough. The idea that when you’re there, big, impressive things are not impressive at all.

00:06:59:49 – 00:07:28:08
Clint Loveall
Going to church and seeing a light show or a your favorite hymn or whatever it might be, don’t have the same power when you’re in that empty place, when you’re just spiritually dry. And then finally, it is the whisper. I think if I remember right, Michael, that phrase literally translates. He heard the daughter of a whisper. It is that small voice and it’s inside.

00:07:28:08 – 00:08:06:05
Clint Loveall
It’s not from the outside. It’s an internal internal anl soft, quiet voice that generally puts us back on the track to remember that we’re not alone, to take a real accounting of the things that need done and to sort of reconnect us with our life in our faith. And I just think it’s it’s fascinating to me. It has always intrigued me that Elijah, the great figure of Old Testament prophecy, gets this story told about him that that this great man has this kind of moment where he says, You know what?

00:08:06:05 – 00:08:21:55
Clint Loveall
Just leave me alone. Let me go. I, I don’t want to do this anymore. And I think, you know, in a less dramatic fashion, I just imagine that we’ve all been there. And I whenever I have been there, I’ve been comforted by this text.

00:08:22:26 – 00:08:57:41
Michael Gewecke
One of the great temptations and I think it’s a dangerous temptation of the church is we come across as a place where you need to get dressed up, cleaned up, and then show up with your happy face on. And that is in the season of Lent. I think the idea that gets chipped away at because at the end of the day, Saint Augustine reminds us in some of his ancient writing that the church is a hospital for sinners, and we would be fools to be surprised that there are sick people in church and friends.

00:08:57:41 – 00:09:25:33
Michael Gewecke
Sickness comes in lots of different ways. We think of that physically. We think about that as a brokenness of our bodies. But sickness touches the very part of our spirits. Where we’re sinful, touches our relationship ships, where we follow our own self-interests, and we break the trust of other people, of the sickness of the soul is a really dangerous and a kind of shaping force within us.

00:09:25:33 – 00:09:53:56
Michael Gewecke
And we often don’t take it seriously enough. And here what I think is so striking, this would almost seem you might almost seem a little pedantic if we didn’t reflect on our human experience because literally just moments ago, this great prophet Elijah, literally saw the fire of God consuming this altar and everything on it to the absolute shock of everyone that was present.

00:09:54:19 – 00:10:25:24
Michael Gewecke
And now there’s fire again and God isn’t in the fire, but instead God lives as deep as that quiet, still smallest voice that could possibly be heard. And that is exactly the human experience. I think we we will have one day where we feel great. We feel like a superhero. We feel like everything went our way. And then the next day we’re completely drained and we’re stripped bare and we don’t have the energy to do the next thing that is required.

00:10:25:24 – 00:10:50:20
Michael Gewecke
Then a text like this reminds us that both of those are dangerous. It’s dangerous to think that you will ever live on the mountaintop every day. It’s dangerous to show up in church thinking that every time you show up, you need to be happy, healthy and strong. It’s also dangerous to think that in those down and low moments of our lives that there’s anything to be ashamed of or that God isn’t present.

00:10:50:43 – 00:11:10:48
Michael Gewecke
No God is present, but it often comes to us in ways that we weren’t expecting, that we were not anticipating. It’s having the eyes of faith to see and hear, even in all in silence that God is there. And that’s, I think, what makes this text so beautiful of a invitation for us as people of faith in the season.

00:11:11:15 – 00:11:39:25
Clint Loveall
There’s a line where God is speaking with Elijah and essentially asking him, What’s wrong, though He phrases it as, Why are you here? How did you get here? And what are you doing here? Elijah Which is a fascinating because he’s not God is not asking about his route. He’s asking about his soul. And in the context of answering him, Elijah says, I alone am left.

00:11:40:04 – 00:12:18:07
Clint Loveall
And I think when one experiences this, what some have called the dark night of the soul, there is a sense of aloneness in it. There is a sense of disconnect. There is a sense that I am by myself. And I think as Elijah struggles with that, it is fascinating that the traditional symbol calls and instances of God’s presence that the typical signs that announce that God is here don’t speak to Him at all.

00:12:18:07 – 00:12:44:33
Clint Loveall
Instead, it’s fine. Silence. It’s a whisper. It’s a quietness that embraces the way he feels, doesn’t try to put a Band-Aid on it and say, Well, let’s just sing a song. Let’s just do this. Let’s know it. It is a recognition of where he is, even as God reassures him, You are not the only one left. There are others.

00:12:44:58 – 00:13:11:56
Clint Loveall
I am with you and I think that’s just a it’s this is a beautifully rich text. I mean, I think you could read this text over and over and over again and would likely, depending on how you were when you read it, find something different in it each time. I’ve often thought, Michael, that Broom Tree Presbyterian Church would be a would be a pretty good biblical name for a church.

00:13:11:56 – 00:13:35:43
Clint Loveall
The place where sometimes we come when we’ve had enough and we need to hear that simple, quiet voice of God again in order to regain some of our faith, some of our energy, some of our humanity. And I just there is a if you don’t know this story, I would suggest maybe you read I’ll start with about chapter 18.

00:13:36:00 – 00:13:54:55
Clint Loveall
Read 19. You could go on to 20 if you wanted, but you’ll need some of Chapter 18 to really make sense of Chapter 19. But I would commend this as a text that particularly when you find yourself in those moments where life feels heavy, this is a good place to go.

00:13:55:19 – 00:14:25:33
Michael Gewecke
And I think only by way of emphasizing what you’ve already said. I think one of the great insights of this text is that it calls Elijah to the next step to action to do something. And that is a little counterintuitive. We live in a culture where the idea is treat yourself, sit down, rest and there is a kind of lethargy that comes if you’re in the dark night of your soul, laying down and doing nothing is the prevailing temptation.

00:14:25:48 – 00:14:52:01
Michael Gewecke
If you find yourself at this moment really in a dark night, if you might even consider that when you wake up in the morning, you already start feeling fatigued and you don’t know how you’re going to make it through another day. If that’s your place, the first thing is to reach out and have community. And most of the time that begins by talking with a professional or a pastor or someone who’s going to help you identify what the next step is going to be.

00:14:52:21 – 00:15:26:18
Michael Gewecke
But it is essential, and I think it’s important that you raise the point that what God says to Elijah with some compassion and love and tenderness, but yet with real conviction, is you shall go on your way, you shall anoint our Hazel, you shall anoint Elijah. I mean, there’s these shall statements are intended to show us that in those moments of life trusting looks like doing it may not look like calling down fire on the altar as had happened in the previous chapter.

00:15:26:29 – 00:15:49:08
Michael Gewecke
But it certainly looks like taking that next step that I think many of us, especially if it resonates today and you sense and feel that darkness or you’ve you sense and feel that struggle, if that’s where you’re at right now, then the call of this text may be to take the next step, to do the next thing. It will be brutally hard, but God is with you in it and take heart in that.

00:15:49:24 – 00:16:22:40
Clint Loveall
And I want to be careful, Michael, because I don’t think this text is some sort of recipe for modern mental health. But I have always been intrigued by the idea that when the angel meets him there, the angel says, eat, drink, rest and get up. And sometimes it is just in that moment reengaging with the simple tasks of life rather than stay under the broom tree, rather than simply sleep and sleep and sleep.

00:16:22:40 – 00:17:06:59
Clint Loveall
And there’s a difference between sleep and rest, and I think that matters. But I find it fascinating here. Tend to some of your physical needs, get up and go and rest. And, you know, again, I want to make I want to make it very clear that I don’t think this is trying to solve our mental health struggles. But I do find it compelling that in the text we see a man in a rough place who is called to reengage some of the basic tasks of life slowly and methodically as he moves back toward health.

00:17:06:59 – 00:17:11:29
Clint Loveall
And I, I don’t think that’s an accident.

00:17:11:29 – 00:17:35:18
Michael Gewecke
No. And I think it is an open invitation for us today to recognize that when we enter into God’s spaces with God, people, the stuff that we try to do in church that we shouldn’t be afraid of, the dark nights of the soul, we shouldn’t try to put mascara on the difficult body of this day. We shouldn’t try to hide behind masks.

00:17:35:18 – 00:17:53:52
Michael Gewecke
No friends, you are a beloved child of God. Whatever moment you find yourself in, whether that be the hi moment at the burning of the altar that comes in chapter 18, or you’re in chapter 19 and you’re under the bush and you’re saying to God, this is all this is all I have. I don’t want any more of it.

00:17:54:28 – 00:18:15:07
Michael Gewecke
Everywhere on that spectrum, God is with you. And if we have but enough faith to look for God in those moments, it may sound like the mighty rushing sound of wind and fire. Or it may sound like the absolute silence. And in both of those God speaks, and in both of them, we will find the strength for today.

00:18:15:45 – 00:18:44:15
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think you know, it’s just go return on your way and there’s something beautiful in this story arc of a man who had great success and then great struggle and then goes on to continue to do great things. And in many instances where I found myself in a in a difficult, dry moment, I have resonated with this text.

00:18:44:15 – 00:19:03:39
Clint Loveall
So if there are others out there who might be in a season of life like that, I encourage you to get to know Elijah’s struggle and to take heart in knowing that those dark moments are not the end of the story. God sees us through them.

00:19:05:02 – 00:19:20:02
Michael Gewecke
Thank you, friends, for joining us today for this. I hope that you have been encouraged and I hope you’ll join this next week as we continue on next week to the New Testament as we find another story to call us forward in our journey in Lent this year. Thank you.

00:19:20:20 – 00:19:41:45
Clint Loveall
Hey, we want to thank you for listening to this broadcast. We’re grateful for the support and the connections, the relationships we get to make through some of these offerings. We hope that they’ve been helpful. We know that there are lots of choices that you have, lots of things you can listen to. We want to make you aware of some of what we’re doing, and we greatly appreciate you being a part of it.

00:19:42:01 – 00:20:00:54
Michael Gewecke
Absolutely. We want to just thank you for being one of our audio podcast listeners. It’s amazing to have you with us in the midst of our conversations. Of course, I hope you know that you can find the whole archive of all of these conversations at Pastor Taco. We would love for you to join us there. You can find options for subscribe being by email.

00:20:01:06 – 00:20:34:31
Michael Gewecke
You can easily share things there with other people who you think might appreciate recordings like this. And of course, we just want to welcome you if you’re ever interested in joining us for the video podcast, you can do that on YouTube. It is YouTube.com slash PC Spirit Lake. There you can comment and engage with us, or if you would prefer to do that without going to YouTube, you can actually just click the link in the description of this podcast where you will be able to send us form and information and reach out to us.

00:20:34:44 – 00:20:51:45
Michael Gewecke
We’d love to hear from you and engage in conversation with you. Thanks again for taking time to be with us. We look forward to our next conversation and can’t wait to see you then.