15 July 2020
Text: 1 Kings 19:11-21
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
The
prophet’s task is often gloomy. Elijah
preaches to the people of Israel as their civilization is collapsing. He calls them to repent. They continue in their sin. He proclaims the Word of God. They don’t listen. And the faithful remnant gets smaller and
smaller. The people of Israel have
become enamored by the false god Baal – a popular “deity” among other peoples
in the region. The king of Israel is
corrupt and wicked and doesn’t fear God.
Elijah
is about to quit. He lays out his
complaint before the Lord: “The people of Israel have forsaken Your covenant,
thrown down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I, even I
only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Indeed,
in just a few years, God will visit judgment upon the northern ten tribes of
the people of Israel. They will be taken
captive by the bloodthirsty Assyrians and never heard from again.
But
in the meantime, Elijah is ready to pack it in. He believes that he is literally the last
believer on earth.
God
had previously shown him a vision which he doesn’t seem to understand. The Lord Himself passed by Elijah as he stood
on the mountain. A blast of wind “tore
the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was
not in the wind.” The Lord then
demonstrated the might of an earthquake, but again, this was not God’s Word. Then there was a fire – that was also bereft
of the Word of God. Then the Lord God
revealed His Word to Elijah in the form of a “low whisper.” Maybe Elijah interpreted this to mean that
the Word of God was weak. Whatever he
thought, he went out of the cave and was ready to quit.
But
what Elijah did not understand was that the Lord was still at work among the
people. Yes, it was a remnant, but it
was not a remnant of one as Elijah thought. There was still work for the prophet and the
remnant to do.
And
the Lord said, “Go.”
“Go…
you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshi you
shall anoint to be king over Israel.” In
addition, the Lord instructed Elijah to anoint Elisha “to be prophet in [Elijah’s]
place.”
For
even among the remnant, there is still work to be done. The “low whisper” of the Word of God is indeed
mighty – mightier than the works one sees with the eyes in winds and
earthquakes and fires. We are called not
to see the destruction of civilization and the faithlessness of our nation as a
reason for despair, but rather, with the eyes of faith, we are to “fear, love,
and trust in God above all things.”
There
will be new kings. The proclamation of God’s
Word will continue by means of other men who are called and ordained into this
preaching office. And indeed, the faithful
“seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every
mouth that has not kissed him” who are left in the nation still need to hear
the Word of God preached, still need to hear the Law calling them to repent,
and continue to hunger for the Gospel: the good news of the forgiveness of
sins, eternal life, and the coming of the Messiah, the Savior, to save the
remnant and redeem them. No matter how
small the remnant becomes, no matter how hopeless the political and cultural
landscape looks, no matter how weak the “low whisper” of preaching appears – we
live prophetically by faith, and not by sight, dear friends.
The
Word is needed now more than ever: Law and Gospel, the cross, the proclamation
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan – or Baal
if you prefer – wants us to despair, to quit, to convince ourselves that we need
blasts of wind and earthquakes and fire instead of God’s Word. The devil would have you believe that the Word
is weak and ineffectual. The devil would
have you listen to politicians and bureaucrats and doctors and experts and
professors and activists and talking heads on the screen – those who worship Baal
and not Jesus – and to put your trust in them.
They
want to close our churches. They want to
make sure that you cannot gather with the remnant. They want you to be gagged from singing praise
to the One True God. They want you to
fear taking the Holy Eucharist. They
want you confused and befuddled, in terror and in despair.
Dear
friends, God is in control. We are
indeed a remnant, but we are a remnant under divine protection, kept secure in
the Ark of the Holy Church, bearing the armor of the Word of God, redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb.
There
will be an Elisha to our Elijah. There
are others who will not take a knee for Satan. Wicked kings will be deposed and will receive
their due: but in God’s time and according to His plan.
This
is why we pray: “Thy will be done” in the Lord’s Prayer. His ways are not our ways. We are not called to fix the world, but to
confess the faith before the world. We
are not called to drag people into the Ark, but rather to let the “low whisper”
of the Word of God have its way among those who worship the Lord and those who
worship Baal – leaving their calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying
to the Holy Spirit according to the will of God. We are called to preach or to confess,
according to our callings, whether we are prophets, priests, or kings; whether
we are preachers or hearers, whether we live in times of prosperity, or in times
of uncertainty.
Our
task is the same. And our task is often
gloomy as well. We do see our
civilization collapsing. It does seem to
us that our calls to repentance go unheard, unheeded, and even mocked by those
for whom Christ died. It seems as if the
“low whisper” of God’s Word is becoming a silent scream, overpowered by the
world’s bluster, by the din of wind and earthquake and fire. And yes, we see more and more empty pews in
the church, more gray heads, and fewer young people among the faithful. All the while, the worship of Lucifer becomes
bolder in our rotting culture, seemingly by the minute.
But
we do not despair, dear brothers and sisters!
We have the promise of God. We
are baptized into Christ. We are
children of paradise. We have the mighty
Word that is there for anyone with ears to hear. We have received the free gift of everlasting
life – no matter what happens in this fallen world. And thanks to the Word of God, thanks to the
prophets, thanks to the Holy Scriptures, we know how this all turns out. We know that Christ is victorious, that the Church
is triumphant, and no matter what will happen to us in this fallen world, what
awaits us is ultimately not our destruction by the Assyrians, but rather the
creation of the new heaven and the new earth, “the resurrection of the body and
the life everlasting,” eating and drinking with God Himself in a banquet that
has no end, the joy of living in paradise, undisturbed by sin, death, and the
devil – without pain, without tears, and without being separated from our loved
ones. We await with expectant joy the
return of our Lord, the one whom Elijah met when he rose into the whirlwind,
even as many believe Elijah will return before the end of the world to complete
his work of preaching to the faithful remnant.
Let
us remain in that “low whisper” dear friends, not swayed by bluster, not despairing,
and not resigned to worship Baal. Let us
look to Christ, to the cross, to your baptism, and to eternal joy that has no
end! Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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