Sermon for 9 August 2015, 11th Sunday after Pentecost: "Enough"

Sermon for 9 August 2015, 11^th Sunday after Pentecost

1 Kings 19:4-8, John 6:35, 41-51

“Enough”

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer,Jerusalem

The Rev. Carrie B. Smith

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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hear again the first reading of the day, from 1 Kings chapter 19:

4 [Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8 He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

I saw Elijah around nearly every corner this week in Jerusalem. Everywhere I looked there were people lying under trees, napping in any few inches of shade, exhausted from the never-ending heat. Just walking through the streets to and from the church under the blazing sun made me weary, almost as weary as Elijah, who cried to the Lord “This is enough!” and decided lying under a tree and waiting for death would be preferable to taking one more step.

I might be exaggerating a little—but not much! Even lifelong Jerusalemites seemed overcome by the heat this week. On the positive side, I did learn a few things. First, if you say “Boy, it’s hot today” in Jerusalem, someone is bound to reply “Yes, but it’s worse in Jericho.” And second, I learned it’s often best just not to mention the heat at all. In this way, summer here reminds me of winter in Minnesota (or, I imagine, Sweden or Finland). During winter in Minnesota, there’s simply no need to mention how cold it is. Of course you’re cold! So is everyone else. 

There is another good reason, besides the heat, that we may relate to Elijah this morning. After all, Elijah wasn’t just finding shade under that broom tree. He wasn’t just weary from a long day’s walk. He was under that broom tree and refusing to take another step because he was already facing the threat of death.

You may remember the story of Elijah’s dramatic confrontation with King Ahab. The king had been convinced by his wife, Jezebel, to worship Baal instead of Yahweh. Elijah, in a rather dramatic stunt, proved the mightiness of the one true God over Baal, by calling down a fire that burned an animal sacrifice which had even been drenched three times with water. Having made his point that “our God is bigger than your gods”, Elijah then killed all the prophets of Baal.

Of course when King Ahab told his wife Jezebel all that Elijah had done, she was far from happy.

“Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”

At the risk of death, Elijah challenged authority and spoke truth to power. He faithfully defended the name of God against false gods—just one voice against four hundred fifty prophets of Baal. And now, he was facing death again. And so it was that weary, alone, and afraid for his life, Elijah sat down under that solitary broom and decided he just couldn’t go any further. It was enough.

For this reason Elijah was on my mind this week—not only because of the weather, but because of a new death threat made against Christians in general and churches specifically here in the land of Jesus’ birth. This threat comes from the leader of a right wing Jewish group, the same group responsible for burning the Church of theMultiplication at Tabgha. The threat promises the torching of all churches, and the leader said he himself was prepared to spend 50 years in prison for doing so.

Elijah was also on my mind yesterday morning when the news broke that Saad Dawabsheh, the father of baby Ali who burned to death in last week’s settler arson attack, had died of his injuries—and that the mother’s burns are so severe she could be next.

Christian religious leaders meet with relatives of Ali and Saad Dawabsheh
this week in Duma (Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, Bishop Munib Younan,
Archbishop Atallah Hanna)
Photo from Jerusalem Interchurch Centre

Dear sisters and brothers, I don’t need to tell you that people of faith can become weary. Even Elijah, prophet of the one true God, who could call down fire and defeat the prophets of Baal, came to a day when he was simply too tired to fight the threats against him and too exhausted to continue the journey set before him.

Therefore I am not ashamed to say that these violent threats and the horrific deaths of a toddler and his father make me want to join Elijah’s sit-in under that solitary broom tree, calling out to God, “It is enough, Lord!” It is more than enough. One toddler’s funeral is more than enough. One church burnt is more than enough. One rocket, one bomb, one war in Gaza, one more generation raised under occupation, is more than enough. 

But, thanks be to God, we know that Elijah’s sit-in didn’t last very long. His labor strike never got off the ground, and his nap of despair had barely started before an angel of the Lord appeared with water and cake and woke him up with one simple instruction:

“Elijah, Get up, and eat! Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”

Elijah may have been weary. He may have given up. But God did not give up on him, and in his moment of despair Elijah’s received exactly what he needed to get up from under that tree.

As we gather this morning with the weight of this week’s news upon us, and with the sadness of yet another community farewell on our hearts, you may very well be weary. You may be wondering, like Elijah, how in the world you can continue to fight the good fight. You may be feeling overwhelmed by the daily challenges of living and working in this land, not to mention these recent threats against even our holy places of worship.

A Palestinian young man carries a load of
bread down a street in the Old City
of Jerusalem
Photo by Carrie Smith

But thanks be to God, this morning we have heard the Good News, and we know that the one true God never leaves us abandoned or in despair. Our God never leaves us without hope. Just as an angel of the Lord appeared by his tree and brought Elijah food and water, so God comes near to us in these difficult times. Our God is a good God, who hears us when we cry, and provides us with the bread we need for the journey.

You may have noticed that this morning’s Gospel lesson begins with the same verse that ended last week’s lesson: Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” In case you missed it, Jesus = bread! On this fourth Sunday in a row in which Jesus is revealed as the bread of life, maybe by now we’re getting the message. Jesus = bread. Jesus’ teaching, Jesus’ healing, Jesus’ self-emptying love for the world which took him all the way to the cross—and which rolled the stone away from the tomb—is the bread we need today, and every day. Jesus is enough!

Jesus is enough to rouse us from sleep and despair. Jesus is enough to save us from sin and death. Jesus is enough to sustain us on our journey of faith, just as the angel’s offering of cake and water was enough to sustain Elijah for forty days, and just as manna was enough to sustain the Israelites for forty years. The Good News we need today is this: Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are enough, for as he said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Amen!

It may seem impossible that bread and water were enough to sustain Elijah for forty days and forty nights. It may also seem impossible that the love of one man, Jesus, could be enough to give life to even one sinner, let alone the world. But this impossibly Good News, this unlikely story, this unexpected feast of love, is enough and more. The cross is more than enough grace. The empty tomb is more than enough joy. The Holy Spirit is more than enough power. And the bread of life we are about to receive at the table along with the words “This is my body, given for you”, is more than enough strength for the journey.

Jesus is enough for us to stand up even against threats of arson and death. Even before this latest threat, flyers appearing to represent ISIS were dropped in the Beit Hanina neighborhood. The flyers called for the savage killing of Jerusalem Christians before Eid. Many were afraid. Others said it was foolishness, people just pretending to be ISIS. Others predicted it was a scheme to divide the community, planted by the government.  

But in the face of this menacing threat, I appreciated the words of His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem, who said: (translated and paraphrased from Arabic)

“If they are ISIS, we stay in our land. If they are pretending to be ISIS, we stay in our land. What’s the difference? We Christians will not be afraid.”

Dear sisters and brothers, in this time of increasing tension, when so many want to inspire fear, incite hatred, and weaken our resolve, and when some would like nothing more than for Christians to sit down under a tree and give in, we need more than ever to draw on the source of our strength. We will not despair. We will not be afraid. We will not give up. For we have Jesus, our bread from heaven, and he is more than enough to keep us on the path of peace, justice, and reconciliation. Amen.