Scripture 1 Kings 19:8-18
In this scripture, Elijah
hears the voice of God. That is: He hears what he thinks is the voice of God.
What reaches the prophet’s ear is
what our New Revised Standard Version translates as a “sound of sheer silence”
– some of us may be more familiar with the older translation, “a still, small
voice”. In
the midst of life’s cacophony and hubbub, listen for God’s still, small voice
within us, we are told – or a sound of sheer silence, for that matter. Listen
for it – just listen. All will be well, if we but quietly and meditatively and
inwardly listen for God’s will.
But then there occurs what the late
radio showman Paul Harvey would call “the rest of the story.”
For the silence is but prelude
for the holy voice to come: “Go, (Elijah), return on your way to the wilderness
of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also
you shall anoint Jehu … as king over Israel
Rather brutal … wouldn’t you say? Hear again not
God’s still, small voice, but the Almighty’s clear, strong voice: “Prophet, do
what you prophets do: Anoint a king. No, wait: Anoint two kings! And – while you’re at it – anoint your prophetic
successor. And whoever King 1 does not kill, King 2 will kill. And whoever King
2 does not kill, your prophetic successor shall kill. Oh, and P.S. I will spare
a holy remnant. Carry on.”
Think
that’s God? Think that’s of God?
If
there is a singular moral-of-the-story to Elijah’s today, it’s this: Going
it alone in spiritual matters is quite dangerous and usually unnecessary. How often have we heard the most well-intentioned of
persons claim the guidance of God when it was all too plain that they were
sorely mistaken? Lacking both practice and humility, they – often, we – become
deluded and able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this
was what God was actually saying.
It is worth noting that persons of
very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking in with
friends or spiritual advisers regarding the guidance they feel they have
received from God. Surely, then, a novice ought not lay herself or himself open
to the chance of making foolish, perhaps tragic, blunders in this fashion.
While the comment or advice of trusted others is by no means infallible, it is
likely to be far more specific and more spiritually reliable than any guidance
we may think we receive in attempting individually to establish or discern direct
contact with God.
If
only the prophet Elijah knew all this.
Alone, isolated, caught in a fright-and-flight mode for a very long time,
hiding out in his own personal cave, he listens, and listens hard, for God’s
voice to make itself known to him. And what does he hear? Crown this king, and
this king, and this prophet, and tell them to go out and mop up the blood of each
other’s mass murder.
Oh,
Elijah was sincere, all right. Many spiritually-seeking persons are. And yet, somehow
I believe that God values honesty with our sister and fellow human beings far
more powerfully than our sincerity!
Which
is why we worship together every Sunday as the Body of the living Christ. Which is why
communal spirituality – soliciting advice, phoning a friend, praying with others – has no substitute. No amount of personal, daily time of devotion … no amount of
basking in God’s incredible flora and fauna of creation, finding God in the
sunrises and sets … no amount of mano-a-mano
struggle with the universal (as many pastors do on many a Saturday afternoon) …
none of any of this personal piety can substitute for the community of faith
broken as living bread for one another, and poured out as a libation of God’s
healing in return.
