Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 19:1-15a
Prayer:
Sovereign Lord God Jehovah
Be with us we pray as we look into our Desert Places
Send your Holy Spirit down upon us
Our Teacher of your knowledge
Give us eyes to see,
Ears to hear
And a willingness to obey
And we pray this in the Strong Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior
Amen
Sermon:
Good morning class and welcome to Desert Places: 101. I will be your facilitator for this class and the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, will also be here among us…circulating around the room making sure that we hear what we need to hear. There will be no test at the end of the class but…our Teacher may give us “pop quizzes” through out our lives…which I like to call Desert Places 102, 103, 104 and so on.
OK…I said there wouldn’t be a quiz but I do have a few questions to ask…how many of you have been in one of these Desert Places? OK…how many of you wish that you never had to visit these places on your journey of life? Now the last question…how many of you have learned something during your journey and come back stronger?
Desert Places/Wilderness experiences…how we wish we did not have to endure them. It is in this place where we feel lost and alone…we feel sad and hopeless. It is times like these when we wonder if there is any hope. We ask why do I have to go through this time…what good are they any way? We ask what have I done to deserve this? I haven’t done any thing wrong. I have tried to live a good life. So…why is this happening to me? How am I supposed to act when in the Desert Places anyway? Well…the prayer I have this morning is that we are able to get a glimpse of an answer to some of these questions.
First let us look at today’s scripture from 1 Kings. In our reading…Elijah runs away because King Ahab’s wife Jezebel has threatened his life. He runs to the wilderness…a desert place and when he gets there he falls asleep. Now…I think that if I were running for my life I would get exhausted and fall asleep too. I am sure that after all that had happened to him prior to this time, he wasn’t getting that much sleep. As Elijah was sleeping, an angel of God awakened him, not once but twice. He is fed cake and water.
Here is God’s providence. Elijah had been zealous in what he was doing for God. He had been faithful to what God had called him to do. God provided food and drink for Elijah so that he would have the strength he needed to continue on with what God had called him to do. Isn’t this how God feeds us through the Word today? God is providing nourishment for our souls so that we can continue on with the work that we are called to do. After Elijah is strengthened…he goes another 40 days & nights travel to Horeb the Mount of God (which by the way is the same place that Moses first met God. It sounds to me like this is definitely the meeting place of God in the Old Testament). Once he gets there…he goes into a cave and the Word of the Lord comes to him there.
At this point…things get real exciting for me. God tells Elijah to stand on the mount before the Lord…and a wonderful thing happens there. The Lord passed before him. WOW…to be Elijah! Just think of it…you are standing right where God tells you to stand and Our Creator passes by you…right in front of you. Can you imagine it…the Lord passes by you…so close that you can almost reach out and touch the hem of God’s robe? What a wonderful thing that must have been!
The next presentation of Elijah’s divine appointment is very helpful to me when I am in that quiet desert. There was a wind so strong it broke rocks in pieces, then an earthquake, then fire…but God was not found in these “phenomena”…I want to stop here for a moment and reflect a little about Yahweh…it is not unusual for God to make himself known in dramatic ways. As a matter of fact…in 1 Kings: 18:38 God revealed himself with a great fire that “fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.” Here…God is…choosing a different way to reveal himself. God sends wind, an earthquake, and fire…which not coincidentally were phenomena associated with Baal, the storm-god…yet…Yahweh was not present in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire.
The Scripture goes on to say “and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.” Then silence…but…it was not until there was this…silence…this quiet, before the Lord’s still small voice was heard, and it was heard by Elijah. The sound of silence…a gentle whisper…is dramatically different than the sound of rock-splitting wind, the earth-splitting earthquake and the roaring sound of fire. This piece of Scripture tells us that the Lord’s word doesn’t need extravagance to reveal the Lord…or even to manifest the Lord’s power. The Lord so often reveals himself to us in the quiet moments of our lives. This gives me hope in those desert experiences in my life. I know that I will hear God’s voice, God’s comfort, God’s guidance and direction calling out to me in the wilderness. If we would just be still and listen…there is hope!
This reminds me of a poem written by one of my favorite poets…my husband. Its called Speaking from Silence. It is about Elijah’s and our voice in the wilderness. It reads: “After mighty wind, the trembling of the earth, a roaring fire. Then audibly silence, to fill the Prophet with awe. Within the sheer silence was God, heard by the Prophet. A message of guidance…of instruction…to overcome his fears and follow God’s will.” As Elijah…we will hear the guidance of our Creator as we travel through the desert if we are attuned to God’s voice.
We have choices in the wilderness…God’s chosen people, Israel, spent generations captive…oppressed…by Pharaoh in Egypt. God sent Moses to free them from their oppressors. Being held captive for so many years is a wilderness experience in itself but…we see God’s mercy and grace as God sends Moses to free them from their “desert place.” This was God’s providence to them…to give them a way to be free.
After a fashion…after the plagues that God sent down on the Egyptians…God, through Moses, sets the captives free. From there…they are lead into the desert, a 40-day trip, to a better land. While they are out in the wilderness…God again provides for them…and yet what happens? How do they react to their experience…to God’s provision? Well…Psalm 106 vs. 13-14 tells us what happens. It reads “but they forgot His works, they did not wait for His counsel. But they had wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert.”
How many times have we acted like Israel in the desert? How many times have we forgotten what God has done in our lives…how God has sustained us in and brought us through our desert places? How many times have we thought that God has forgotten us? How many times have we relied on our own strength to survive trials instead of relying on God and letting God work out His plan for our lives? We try to be the author instead of the actor. Like Israel we just wander around in the unfamiliar places…we wander in the desert…trying to find our way out without our Guide. Like Israel…until we follow our God…until we are still and listen for that still small voice…we will wander until we get it right. Just think about it for a moment…Israel’s 40-day trip turned into a 40-year lesson because they wanted it their way. They wanted to travel the highway instead of the footpath that God had planned for them. What a lesson we can glean from Israel’s “Desert Places” expedition.
Now lets look at another example…lets look at Jesus in Luke 4. Jesus was filled with the Spirit and led…by the Spirit…in the wilderness, a desert place. While he was there…He was tempted by the devil…now we all know what it’s like to be tempted. But…listen to what Jesus did when He was tempted during His desert experience. He relied on the Word of God to get Him through. Each time He was tempted…His answer began with “It is written.” The Living Water was His strength…His peace…through His desert experience. By relying on God and His Word…He made it through desert experience. God provided a way out…His Word…and Jesus took God’s footpath in stead of the wide highway of society. As a matter of fact…Matthew 4: 11b tells us that after He was tempted…and made it through…”Angels came and waited on Him”…God’s providence in the wilderness was seen again. Like Elijah and Israel…God provided strength and sustenance in the desert place. How this providence was received is what made the difference in these stories.
Desert Places…we don’t like them but they are necessary. In them we are stretched to grow. In them…we learn to rely on God and His Word and less on our own devices. In them…we are able to look at our lives to see our growing areas. In them…we learn to hear God’s still, small voice. But have no fear…God is always with us. He will not leave or forsake us. God tells us…during these times…to “be still and know I am God.”
The feeling that I get when in my desert place is beautifully written about in Joyce Rupp’s book “May I have this Dance?”. The Poem is called Dry Bones. It reads, “tiredness grounds me into a quiet stupor of the Spirit. I yearn to be inspired, to be lifted up, set free beyond the place of deadness. The struggle goes on, however, and you and I God, we exist together with seemingly little communion. Yet, in the deepest part of me, I believe in you, perhaps more strongly than ever. I am learning you as a God of silence, of darkness, deep and strong. I do not wrestle anymore, only wait, only wait, for you to bring my dry bones into dancing once more.”
I am sure that many of you have felt the same way in your own desert place. Yearning to be done with the journey only to realize that the only way through is to wait on God…and God’s time is not the same as ours.
We have a choice to make during these times…these seasons of life. We have two ways to respond in these desert places. We can either behave as Israel and try to do it on our own and complain the whole time…or…we can follow the example of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, and rely on God and His Word to sustain us. The choice is ours to make. There is no short cut or easy way out of our desert places but…how we react while we are in them is what makes a difference…how we respond to them determines how long we stay in that area of our journey.
In closing…I would like to share with you a writing by Henri Nouwen found in his book “The Dance of Life.” It is called The Garden of Our Hearts. I feel that it sums up our Desert Experience beautifully. It reads, “Solitude is the garden of our hearts which we yearn for love. It is a place where our aloneness can bear fruit. It is the home for our restless bodies and anxious minds. Solitude, whether it is connected with physical space or not, is essential for our spiritual lives. It is not an easy place to be, since we are so insecure and fearful that we are easily distracted by whatever promises immediate satisfaction. Solitude is not immediately satisfying, because in solitude we meet our demons, our addictions, our feelings of lust and anger, and our immense need for recognition and approval. But if we do not run away, we will meet there also the One who says: “do not be afraid. I am with you, and will guide you through the valley of darkness.”…Lets keep returning to our solitude.” May we embrace our Desert Places full knowing that we have a guide…there is “light at the end of the tunnel”…there is a lesson to be learned here and will hear our Creator’s voice say “Be still and know I’m God.”
Please pray with me…O God, our help in ages past…our hope for years to come…bring the freshness of your presence in such a way that we can celebrate you even when we do not see you…praise you when we do not feel you, and thank you even when we do not hear you.
AMEN
by Pastor Ruth Foss
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