Was That Offensive

1 Kings 18:`-39

James 5:17-18:  Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

As we catch up with our normal guy Elijah, he has had quite the adventure in trusting and obeying God and accepting God’s provision. When God told him to leave the king’s court and go hide in the ravine and be fed by ravens and drink from the brook, Elijah went. When the brook ran dry, God sent him to a widow in Zaraphath, where God miraculously multiplied her meager flour and oil supply, feeding him, her and her family until God once again brought rain. To finish up that passage (and I apologize for not being able to get everything in – time is short), her son died, but God, through Elijah, brought him back to life!

So in the third year of the famine, God tells Elijah he’s going to send rain once more. So Elijah, led by God (and obedient!) goes to Ahab. He runs into Obadiah, a devout believer who is ironically Ahab’s palace administrator. After a little wrangling (Obadiah didn’t want Ahab to kill him for finding and consorting with Elijah), we return to the text: 1 Kings 18:16-21

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

Let me break in here – I love how Ahab calls Elijah the troubler of Israel. Have you noticed that whenever Christians speak up and tell the Truth in public, they are “troublemakers” – especially when the Truth goes against popular culture? And how funny is it that Ahab is the one calling someone “troublemaker” when it is he who is leading the people to worship false gods?

“I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

But the people said nothing.

There is something in our culture that wants to avoid confrontation. We close our ears and eyes to those who bother us. If someone we know bothers us, we recognize the merit in going to the person with whom we have a problem and settling the issue. People of other cultures will settle issues, but often much more indirectly and generally more slowly. But we can be a wishy-washy people; not wanting to offend anyone, we don’t say anything that might be construed as offensive. In fact, this week I was disgusted to see that our own United Methodist General Board of Church and Society joined atheist groups to sign a petition to block the possibility of adding President Franklin Roosevelt’s prayer to a World War II Memorial on the national mall in Washington DC. They wouldn’t want to offend someone who hates religion.

We don’t like to offend people, especially with our religion, so we often keep silent about it. The truth is, our religion is offensive. We state without reservation that everyone is stained by sin, and that we cannot save ourselves; only God can save us. We unequivocally state that we are right and other people are not – if other religions are right, then Jesus did not have to die on the cross to save us from our sin. If other religions are right, that by our own actions, we can achieve our goal, then we are wrong. In fact, the goal of different religions are different. Is the goal oneness with everything? Is the goal nothingness? Is the goal a sensual paradise? Is the goal a new heaven and a new earth, where God will live with the people and there will be no need for a sun? These can’t all be true! For all who want a completely inclusive religion, you have to know that Christianity makes some exclusive claims. We, along with Elijah, claim that our God is the only true God, that other gods are false gods.

And that claim is offensive to many.

But Elijah didn’t back away from the challenge.

Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.”

Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”

Lest you think that Elijah unfairly slanted this challenge in favor of the God of Heaven, know that Baal was said to be the god of weather. And they are in the midst of a three year drought – a condition that could have been remedied by a weather god.

Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” So they took the bull given them and prepared it.

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

I wonder what’s going through Elijah’s head. He is so confident and starts the trash talk going – I’ll bet it’s been boiling up under the surface for a long, long time and now he can finally let it out.

How does he have the confidence to know he is going to win this contest? Because he’d look really bad, taunting Baal’s prophets, if God didn’t do something. Elijah has the confidence because of what God has already done. God has provided for him miraculously in the past and has even raised the dead on Elijah’s prayers. But of course, because Elijah is a religious superman. No, the even Bible reminds us that Elijah was a normal guy, just like us.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”

“Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.

“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time.  The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

Remember that this was during a time of devastating drought. It is no coincidence that he had the people pour twelve large jars full of water – one jar for each tribe of Israel. This water was a precious commodity, and Elijah sacrificed it as well.

At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

Something important happens here. Elijah has such great confidence, and he is asking God for a miracle, but he recognizes the most important part: that the reason for the miracle isn’t to justify Elijah. It’s not about Elijah; it’s all about God. Elijah didn’t do this to gain a great following. Elijah didn’t do this to establish his own credentials. Elijah didn’t do this for bragging rights. He did this to glorify God. “Let it be known today that you are God in Israel.”

When we think about what we want God to do with Hope Church, there can be a trap that we can fall into that has to do with numbers. We can want more people in church because we remember how great it was to have a full church. We can think that more people = more and better programming. We can think of how much better ministry we can do with more people and more volunteers. We can think of the greater impact we will make in the community if we had more people involved. Although all of these are true to some extent or another, the fact is, we do what we do for one reason and one reason only: for God’s glory. We certainly don’t want growth just so I can compare with my pastor friends at Annual Conference about how many people we have. And we have the most ridiculous phrase we use: “how many you worshiping these days?” Um, I’m only worshiping One.

But the reason we do want growth is because we want to see a measure of how God is saving people from sin. How God is transforming lives. It’s never about me or us; it is all about God.

So Elijah prayed, and Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

Once again, God wins. Yahweh is glorified and proclaimed as the One True God!

As we consider what this normal man did, and how God prevailed in the contest between the prophets of God and Baal, it can be one of those Bible stories that is encouraging in a kind of “yeah, I know God is strongest” kind of way, but what can we take from this that has bearing on our lives today?

First remember that Elijah’s prayers were not powerful and effective because he was someone special. He was someone special because his prayers were powerful and effective. There are so many people who think that my prayers are more effective than theirs, simply because a bishop laid hands on me. No, the reason my prayers are effective is because of God! And you have the same access to God as I have; God doesn’t check ordination papers. God doesn’t check seminary degrees. The qualification given in the book of James is that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16b)

So if you want powerful and effective prayers, be in right relationship with God. If you want to be in right relationship with God, understand that it only comes through Jesus Christ. Jesus came to reconcile us to God, and he completed his mission. And God further gave us the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God, to live within us. The Holy Spirit empowers us to do great things, not on our own and not for our own credit, but for God and for God’s glory.

Another part of this story is, that as Christians, the goal for everything we do is for God’s glory. This means clergy, so-called professional Christians, and it means laity, the “people in the pews.” There are no Christian bystanders. There is no such thing as a Christian audience. We have a part to play to give God glory, whether that is in public, in front of people, or in private and behind the scenes. We each have a part to play. If you don’t know what your part is, ask the Holy Spirit to show you.

Finally, we can’t be so concerned with offending that we never share Jesus. Sure, we don’t want to be offensive. The message of the cross will be offensive to some, and we must never compromise that. We don’t have to be jerks about it, and I wouldn’t suggest taunting those who don’t believe, but the fact is, many of us could stand to be a little more open about our Christianity. If you are someone who is very quiet about your relationship with Christ, I would suggest you practice with a fellow Christian. Before you leave this place, tell someone something that God has done in your life. We can’t be so afraid to offend that we end up offending Jesus! Matthew 10:32-33 says: “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” Let us be the ones who Jesus acknowledges before God with a “well done, good and faithful servant,” not “apart from me, I never knew you.”