Asking Big Things

1 Kings 17:1-16

“Asking Big Things”

30 October 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            Kings isn’t one of the Old Testament books we rush to read in our daily devotions. Because of that, we tend to miss a bit of Israel’s history. The writers of 1 and 2 Kings cover a span of about 400 years of history from the ascension of Solomon to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, the exile to Babylon.

            But, this isn’t a normal history of just the facts ma’am. The writers of these two books, which originally began as a single scroll, sought to not just tell the history of the various kings of Israel after David, but to offer a theological explanation of how Israel went from David to exile, to include how the kingdom split into Israel in the North and Judah in the South after Solomon’s death.

            As with any monarchy, there were factions and divisions; one of the reasons God originally established a system of Judges over Israel. Late in life, despite his supernatural wisdom, Solomon defied God so God promised Jeroboam control over ten of the houses of Israel. After Solomon’s death Jeroboam came to Solomon’s son Rehoboam and asked him to lighten the taxes and yoke upon Israel. Rehoboam lacked the wisdom of his father and rejected the advice of his oldest and wisest advisors and actually raised the taxes and made the yoke heavier. This caused Jeroboam to lead the ten tribes away from Judah and split Israel into two kingdoms.

            The kings of Judah receive mixed reviews from the writers of Kings. Some followed God’s heart, others not so much. Up in the North in Israel however, their kings without exception are declared evil by the writers of Kings. Despite being the one chosen to care for the majority of Israel, Jeroboam was declared evil because he built two golden calves as gods for the people so they wouldn’t go back to Jerusalem and align with Judah. God sent a man speaking his word to Jeroboam to help him turn from his evil ways and even that didn’t work, so evil was brought upon his house. And this continued until the fall of Samaria in 722 BCE.

            All of this is behind the writing when we are first introduced to Elijah. He appears out of nowhere with a powerful prophetic word of a three year drought in Israel, the “evil” Northern Kingdom. Not only is he sent to proclaim the drought, but he is told to go live by a wadi, a creek bed. Now we tend to associate the word wadi with a dry creek bed, but this one had water which sustained him along with ravens bringing him bread and meat.

            Eventually the wadi dries up due to the lack of rain, so Elijah is commanded to head to another area and find a widow to feed him. This widow is also down on her luck during this famine. When Elijah meets her she tells him she is headed home to fix the last bit of food she has for herself and her son so they can die together.

            Elijah has some recent experience in trusting and relying on God, so he tells the widow, “Do not be afraid.” Just do what I say and your meal and oil jugs will not run empty until the rain returns. The widow probably didn’t believe a word Elijah said regarding her salvation. She most likely indulged his request because she had nothing to lose at this point. If feeding him didn’t result in food, she just died quicker. If giving him bread worked, then she and her son stay alive.

            Isn’t it weird how God seems to be waiting when we are at our worst, when we are at “rock bottom” with nowhere to go but up? I’ve lost count at the times people testify that God was there at their lowest moment. When things seem to be going well, God seems distant and far away, but when the struggle is real, God is right there with them lifting them up, holding their hand, clearing a path, whatever is needed for them to get through the challenge.

            What we tend to forget is that God isn’t just there in the fire and the storm, God is always beside us, always working in the world. The struggle of Elijah and this widow demonstrate that while God is there, God may not always provide a permanent or overabundant solution to the problem we face.

            The first wadi ran dry for Elijah, so God’s first solution wasn’t the permanent answer for Elijah’s hunger and thirst. When he met the widow, even then the three of them lived on the edge of starvation because the jars of oil and meal never overflowed, they just didn’t run out. Just enough for them to live. Later Elijah revives the widow’s son, but that too is temporary because the son will eventually die.

            But, does a non-permanent solution negate the power and goodness of God? When we think about it we’d all probably say no, but in reality we’re quick to complain when God doesn’t meet all of our demands. Society tells us that we can have it all, that we aren’t worthy unless we can have all of the money, all of the fame, all of the things so we get angry when God doesn’t deliver our demands.

            What if not giving us an abundance of everything is how God gets us to trust God again and again? What if God gives us what we need so that we learn that God is all that we need? In this story three people are cared for with exactly what they need, nothing more, nothing less.

            There is another aspect of trusting God that may not make sense at first. Asking, even demanding, God to take care of our needs is a form of trust. Elijah demands the woman to provide him food without worrying about how it will affect the woman or her son. Now, Elijah didn’t speak this demand lightly because God told him a widow would provide for him, so Elijah was demanding the food from God.

            Sometimes we need the level of trust Elijah had in God in this story. Too often our trust in God wanes making us tame our requests of God, it shrinks God and places God in a box we design. That box will never contain God. God won’t give us everything we ask for, but if we never ask big things of God we limit God to a God of the small and insignificant. God is the Lord of the impossible.

            God creates, God loves, God forgives, God does the impossible. The good news is that no matter what I’ve done in the past, God will still be God and will always be there with me. So let us go forth knowing that there is no sin too big for God to forgive, no request too large (or small), and let us honestly ask God for big things including the forgiveness of whatever sin makes us think we aren’t pure enough to trust God enough to ask big things for us and the world.

Forging Idols

Exodus 32

“Forging Idols”

09 October 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

 Have you ever been in such trouble or disturbed your parents so much that one looks at the other and says, “he’ your child…?” Me too. Did you know that even God has those moments when humanity has gotten on his last nerve? So, parents, when you let your significant other know that the offending party is solely his or her responsibility , know that even God sometimes wants a break from us. For those of us who have caused those words to be spoken, we aren’t the first to hear those words from our parents.  Israel had quite a party causing that reaction from God. Even Moses was getting in on the act, describing Israel to God as “your people.”

Now, before we get all smug with Israel let’s set the stage just a bit as to how Israel got to this moment. Three months after leaving Egypt Israel arrives at Mount Sinai and God tells Moses that God will appear in a dark cloud and speak to Israel. From that cloud, Israel receives what we now know as the Ten Commandments. After Israel heard the Ten Commandments, Moses was called to spend some more time with God receiving some additional laws, including how they aren’t to build gods of silver or gold. God then calls Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel to worship at a distance. Before this occurred, Israel swore a covenant with God to keep all that had been decreed, including the Ten Commandments and that bit about not building gods of gold and silver.

After this, Moses is told by God to come a bit farther up the mountain where God would provide him with stone tablets containing the law and commandment. Moses went up into the presence of God as instructed. From the ground it looked as if Moses had entered into the ash cloud of a fiery volcano for the “glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.” So here we are 40 days later and Israel is getting a bit nervous.

Their leader followed the voice of God into a fiery cloud to retrieve some stone tablets. How long could that realistically take? I mean God is all-powerful. Surely God already had everything ready for Moses. Did Moses get lost trying to find God? If so what kind of bumbling leader did God choose to lead us out here in the middle of nowhere. Did God kill Moses and is God preparing to take out the rest of us out here where no one will know?

Then they remember that Moses left Aaron in charge. Aaron has done some pretty impressive things before, so obviously God has some special plan for Aaron and surely Aaron can make some decisions for the group. Succession of command and all that. It’s important to know who we’re following. So, they take their concerns to the acting CO.

Moses is gone and we’re a bit worried that God is angry at us, just look up there at the mountain. Moses went into that firery pit and hasn’t come back. We’re pretty sure we need to do something to appease God. God’s given us commands, but nothing since then. We’ve go to do something, right?

So, Aaron forgets everything he’s been told by God and Moses. He forgets everything he’s seen God do, everything God’s done through his hands. He too gives into peer pressure, fear of missing out, fear of the unknown, whatever reason is going on in our own minds and gives up on God and God’s promise to Israel. Aaron collects all the treasure of Israel, melts it down, and casts an image of a calf.

We can get into a semantic debate whether this was an image of God or if it was a foreign God for Israel to follow. Either way, this represents a lack of trust in God, a lack of hope within a people.

This isn’t just an Aaron or Israel problem, we still do this today. All of us, including yours truly.

Our idols aren’t usually golden calves. Ours are money, fame, stuff (2.35 billion square feet of self-storage in the US), friends, politics, status, phones and other technology, work (that’s the one people would probably blurt out first about me), the list is long.

Humans throughout history have wanted to take things into their own hands and we’ll find a way to fill a perceived hole in our lives. Usually with something that is only a temporary patch that will never address the reason we turned to that idol in the first place. We look around and assume that God isn’t in control so its up to us to bring order into the chaos we see everywhere. We forget that God originally brought order from chaos, something we’ve never been able to master.

When people have a strong desire to control their own destiny, to control their surroundings, people assume the best action is to do something. Doing something is always better than doing nothing, right? Maybe not.

In this case, had Israel waited just a bit longer, Moses would have descended the mountain with the full law and proof of an unbroken covenant with God. Instead, he is stuck pleading with God to not just wipe everyone out and start again, like with the flood. Luckily it worked and God’s anger subsides. Eventually, the covenant is renewed and new tablets of the law are made for Israel to carry.

Now, there are situations where waiting is not an option and it takes some wisdom to learn when action is necessary and when it isn’t. I don’t think that’s the point of this episode in Israel’s life.

From this story, we learn that God is always working in the background, setting the stage for the next thing in our lives. God may feel distant, but God is there. We also learn that God listens to us and to those who intercede on our behalf. Prayer is our conversation with God and in prayer, we can be open, honest and blunt knowing that God is listening and may alter course a bit if that change still fulfills the plan.

Most importantly, God will always honor the covenant. Even when we lose focus on God and turn to idols to fill a perceived void in our lives, or when we get nervous that God has left us to our own devices, or when we make bad decisions regarding our lives, God will always honor the covenant. No matter how many times or how completely we destroy our own covenant tablets, God will rewrite them on a freshly chiseled set. No matter how angry and disappointed we may make God, God will still listen to us and forgive us, because God loves us. That is good news to take into the world.

Remembering Together

Exodus 12:1-13, 13:1-8

“Remembering Together ”

02 October 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            What would this community do if I came here one Sunday and said, “Get ready to leave tonight. It’s a new beginning for us. We are going to leave all of this behind for good. God told me it’s time to go so we’re out of here?” We’re not under oppression, so you’d probably let out a few nervous laughs to humor what you assume is some weird joke or bad sermon illustration. You’d definitely question my sanity and at least one of you would text the Admiral and medical letting them know to check on me ASAP.

            But, then I up the stakes and say that not only are we all leaving tonight, but that you have to take only what you are wearing, leaving all of your valuable belongings here in Singapore and that before we go, we’re all going to have a final meal together at our homes. Those that are single or in small homes will combine with others families so that we are not wasting the last bit of food we’ll consume. There won’t even be time for the bread to rise we have to leave that soon.

            On top of all that, when we prepare the meat for our dinner, has to be prepared and cooked in a certain way and we need to leave some blood on the doorposts to mark our family as safe from an unseen danger that will wipe out anyone who isn’t hearing and believing my message. Even more, the meal we will eat together will mark the new year and our new life and be a focal point of our community forever. We will gather each year having the same meal and retelling the story of this night because God led us away and saved us.

            At this point, would I be speaking to an empty chapel? Would there be some police here to make sure I made it to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation? Would you have gone straight to my house after leaving here to pack up my belongings so you could send me on my way as I predicted?

            Granted, our situation is a bit different. We aren’t enslaved by a powerful country nor have we seen nine supernatural events occur based on my speaking with the leader of the powerful nation (what we know as the plagues). So why did Israel follow Moses? And why would God want a day that looked like a failure (getting run out of a country) as a new year tradition told forever?

            I’m sure that Israel followed Moses with some hesitation and second-guessing, they are humans after all. In a few chapters they are complaining about not having enough food and having to eat the same manna day in and day out. They even complain to Moses, they’d have been better off dying at the hands of Egypt than starving in the wilderness.  

Israel had faith that Moses spoke for God, they’ve even seen some pretty impressive things done by Moses and Aaron on their behalf. But even impressive miracles aren’t ever enough to really get that many people to leave everything behind like in this story. Moses’ words were in line with what God intended for Israel and he had years of time spent fighting for Israel. Long enough that Israel knew Moses wasn’t a false prophet. So, they trusted that God was speaking through Moses.

Nowadays, we’d worry that Moses was a false prophet, so much so that I’m not sure that society or even the church would recognize a true prophet if one were to speak God’s word. We’d find reasons to dismiss what they are saying. She doesn’t look like me. She’s a Democrat. He’s a Republican. He’s speaking to them, not me. That isn’t happening in my city.

Even with decades of hindsight, are we even willing to admit someone was prophetic? I think we give Martin Luther King, Jr. that title for the words he spoke and his actions to fight for civil rights in the US. But, are we looking for the prophetic words in rap lyrics and the words and actions of Black Lives Matter or are we seeking ways to discredit what they are saying? They are calling us to listen, truly listen to what they have been fighting for decades. Even if one disagrees with the tactics employed, maybe Black Lives Matter is speaking a prophetic word and calling us to follow them to a new place free of distractions so we can fully see and appreciate the pain from which they are crying out for deliverance.

Perhaps the vigor and coming from those on the economic margins of our societies to disrupt the current way of doing business is a prophetic word that we are ignoring. I think of the surprise that Britain actually voted to leave the EU, as well as other elections where people are voting on how global economic realities are affecting them locally. Is this a prophetic word on how economies around the world relate to each other and how they affect local communities?

Based on how things turned out, I’m glad that Israel followed Moses, but are we now living in a time where we are at best tone deaf to and at worst actively silencing prophetic words around us?

Maybe that is why God, through Moses, said that Israel would always remember the night they were spared and fled Egypt. Especially as the moment that looked like defeat and cowardice back then was actually a victorious moment not just for Israel, but for the world. So why mark a day such as this one for remembrance? Why not the day Abraham followed God’s call? The day the presence of God descended onto the tabernacle? The next day when Israel truly washed away the bonds of slavery at the Red Sea?

            We don’t have to look too far for a modern example of this type of remembrance. Our brothers and sisters from Australia and New Zealand remember a day of defeat every April in Anzac Day. If you haven’t made it to Kranji War Memorial for one yet, make sure to go next year.

            This year Philip Green, the Australian High Commissioner, spoke about why they annually remember a day of defeat in Gallipoli. He said it was a day in which Australia and New Zealand “gained a sense of nationhood and identity with a new self-consciousness that arose from a moment of national crisis.” He also discussed the importance isn’t just what a society remembers but also how society remembers events. For Aussies and Kiwis, the rituals of Anzac day helps them “reflect on [their] shared history and learn from it. These rituals provide an atmosphere for reflection, a way of reimaging our past and its connection to our present.”

            He highlighted that Anzac day is an “active and changing way in which we configure the past, understand the present, and imagine our future. How we do it matters to our collective sense of self, and the collective sense of our futures.” There is also a tradition of welcoming more people into the remembrance and into the story of Anzac so that other societies can learn from a shared remembrance.

            Sounds a lot like what God and Moses were going for with the remembrance of Passover as a focal point in the life of Israel. Even today, the story is retold to the newer generation and to people like myself who have been invited to Seder meals because the story is important and tells a great deal about God’s character.

            Telling this particular story and re-enacting the conditions of a sudden departure remind every generation that God is a God of deliverance for the oppressed and a God that works for the flourishing of all people regardless of their belief system. That God wants everyone to participate in the economy of God and to weave their story into God’s own story in the world. All of this is a vital task for those who claim God as the God of all creation.

            We have to retell this story, God’s story, again and again both to society and ourselves. Because if we fail to tell this wonderful story of grace and redemption for all, then other stories will fill the vacuum. And we know that not all stories promote human flourishing. Those are the stories of the false prophets.

            It is our job to go forth from here remembering God’s story and re-enacting it as often as we need to keep it fresh in our minds and the minds of the generations that come after us. We are also called to hear the similar chorus in stories around us and invite those stories into God’s story, to show them how they are a vital piece to complete God’s tapestry of a place where all are welcome and flourish. For even threads colored with defeat are woven into a beautiful scene when they are included in God’s story.