“The Kings and Us: Don't Run, Stand”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Text: 1 Kings 19:1-15
We sat down in a coffee shop together to talk about the great joy and the exhilaration happening in his life. The person who met with me was a young father whose wife had just given birth to a beautiful daughter. He was in a state of ecstasy and joy. He said: “It's amazing. I went through the whole thing and I never felt any pain at all.”
I said: “Clearly, we are having this conversation without your wife present, and that's a good thing.”
He agreed. “But,” he said, “you know, Andrew, it was one of the most amazing moments in my life. I'll never forget it. It was a miracle. It was a joy. It was a triumph. When I held the child in my arms, my life changed.” And then, sitting grabbing his coffee as tightly as he could, his eyes open wide, browner than they'd ever been, he said: “Now, Pastor, now what do I do?” He was overcome by the enormity of being a father. He was overcome by the responsibility of being a father, and, legitimately, he didn't know what to do.
The two of us sat down and we talked about the state of the world. We talked about bringing a child up in this generation. He felt daunted by it, overcome by the immensity of it all. He thought that the world that he was bringing his daughter into was chaotic. After all, he is someone who has suffered through the recession and his income dipped just at the time when he was having a child. We actually met the day after the cataclysmic earthquake in Haiti and he wondered about the state of the planet. He was worried about the climate and what it would be like. He was concerned about violence in the world and whether his little daughter would be safe, something that people just down the road are asking this very day. He was overwhelmed by it all.
We even talked about an article that had just appeared in the Globe and Mail about the revaluation of the Yuan, the Chinese currency, and what this would do to the state of the world economy. This gathering a few months ago was daunting.
And then he picked up his iPhone and he started to scroll through it. Every single photograph on his iPhone was of his daughter. As he went through it and looked at her, showing me every single picture without exception, saying, “Isn't she beautiful. Isn't she gorgeous.” He was overwhelmed by the innocence of this little child and the enormity of the world that she would face. And for a moment, just a moment, he just wanted to run away from the responsibility. He said to me: “How am I going to bring this child up? What can I do?”
Far be it from me to give him advice on childrearing, I simply made this affirmation: “Whatever your daughter faces, whatever you face in your life, know this: You do not face it alone.”
Here was a man who wanted to run away from his responsibilities, having hit the highest high and reached the pinnacle of his life, and yet the enormity of reality had set in. How many of us, if we are honest, at times in our lives, even when we have hit the highest highs, want to run away from our obligations, our responsibilities, and our challenges? Whether it is in the realm of work, family responsibilities, social obligations, or even when it comes to the faith, sometimes we just want to run away.
I listened to a wonderful lecture given this past week at Tyndale University College by the great Ravi Zacharias. If you haven't read any of Zacharias' works, believe you me, they are worth the read - a great Christian apologist. Ravi Zacharias, defining evil in these terms: He says evil is the defiance of purpose. By purpose, he means God's purpose for our life, God's will, God's desire; and that evil is the defiance of that purpose and of that will in the broadest sense of the word. He made a philosophical argument for his case. He expanded it, but he repeated it again. As far as he was concerned evil was a defiance of God's purpose in our lives. “And so,” he says, “if we run away from God, if we run away from our faith, if we run away from the responsibilities that God has given us, we are doing evil.”
To run is not an option. To bring a child into this world and to run away from looking after it is not an option. To hear the message of the word of God and to run away is not an option. To be a good citizen in the full sense of the word and run away from it is not an option. To work hard and to be dedicated - to run away from that is not an option.
And if you look at the Bible, there are so many stories of people who have faced being challenged by God to find their purpose and his will in their lives. You can see it when Moses wanted to send Aaron; you can see it with Peter when he actually stepped away and denied Jesus; but the most telling story is the story today from the book of Elijah. It's a moment where Elijah, one of the greatest if not the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, wanted to run away from the obligations that God had set for him, and in this magnificent story of Elijah there is a lesson for every one of us here. Elijah, as I said, was a great and a powerful leader. He burst on to the scene and in what is known as the Elijah cycle, there are a number of stories, independent stories in the Old Testament of the life of this amazing prophet. He breaks into a situation which is very simple: Israel, the country where he lived and where he was a prophet had a king called Ahab. Ahab was a weak king, a king that was supposed to represent God and make sure that Yahweh, the Lord, was to be praised. But he was a bit of a syncretist. He wanted to play loose with things and his wife, Jezebel, worshipped another god called Baal Melkart. Baal was a Phoenician and a Canaanite god and in this particular form Jezebel wanted temples built in celebration of Baal. Ahab was weak; spineless; he wouldn't say no. Elijah comes along and he says: “No, you cannot worship a false god. For Israel to have the faith of God, to have fertility and bear children, to have crops and water, they must remain true and faithful to God Himself, not a facsimile called Baal.”
But Ahab was weak. He built the temple, started to bring in the prophets as his wife, Jezebel wanted and Elijah took on the prophets of Baal. And in another story which is well worth reading in the Book of Kings, he takes on the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel and he wins. He wins the great debate. Fire comes down from heaven. It's a big, fantastic story and Elijah is all puffed up. He has won the battle against the prophets of Baal.
He is so excited that he goes to the king and when the king is in his chariot, for 17 kilometres he runs ahead of the chariot, full of joy and praise and victory. “Aren't I great! Isn't God great! Isn't everything wonderful!” “Baal is out of here, God is king. I've done my thing; aren't I a great guy!”
But he forgot something - Jezebel. Jezebel wanted to kill him. And we are not talking just figuratively we are talking in its actuality. Elijah says, “Oh no, Jezebel wants to kill me, so what am I going to do. I'll run away.” And he runs all the way to Horeb, 130 miles away and hides in a cave. He's had this high moment of victory, but now he's terrified for his own life and hides in a cave hoping he'll be safe there. Suddenly there's a storm and in the wind, he expects God to speak but God doesn't speak to him. He gives him a meal. He makes him stronger. Everything is fine. He is puffed up. He has courage. But it's only in the silence that God speaks to him. And what does God say to Elijah?
“Elijah, hear me now. You cannot run away. You must stand. You must go to the top of the mountain and you must go back for the work has not been finished until I am glorified.” Elijah gets up. He stands and a revolution begins in the country of Israel.
So, you're saying: “What has this got to do with me?”
It's got everything to do with you. It shows you the dangers of trying to run away from responsibility. Do you run away from your responsibilities at work, or family, or faith, or community? Do you serve your fellow human beings? Do you take time to worship God? Do you bring up your children as promised, in the nurture of the Lord? Do you help your fellow human beings? Are you good citizens or, do you run away?
There's a wonderful story of Khrushchev when he was premier of Russia. He was standing before the grand Soviet of the council giving a speech after the death of Stalin, someone handed him a note that said: “Mr. Khrushchev, where were you when Stalin was doing all those terrible things? Where were you?”
Khrushchev read the note carefully and said: “Who in this grand Soviet sent me this note?” And no-one put up their hand. He said it again: “Who wrote this note?” And no-one said a word. He said, “Well, let me tell you what I did when Stalin was doing what he was doing. I was doing the same as the person who wrote this note - Nothing! Nothing! And I'm ashamed of it.”
People run. When they face challenges, they run. When they face obligations, they run. But there comes a time, and Khrushchev realised it right there and then, when you have to stand. You have to recognise the challenges that stand for something.
People often say to me, “You know, it would be so great if God would just do some big thing to help me out.” Whatever the challenges of life, why doesn't God do something big? You know, speak from on high; solve my problems for me; eradicate the challenges; heal the sick; bring about something new. But, have you noticed what happened to Elijah? When he asked for that God didn't speak in the storm; God spoke quietly in the stillness and assured him of His presence. God did not talk about what he would do; rather, God challenged Elijah and said: “First, you stand; first, you go to the top of the mountain and I will be with you.”
I have rejoiced, some of you will appreciate this, in watching all the documentaries during the last few weeks leading up to the World Cup, as you know, the wonderful documentaries about my beloved South Africa. Even a few nights ago, as I was reading this text from Elijah, my mind actually went back to a trip that I took to the Okavango Delta in the northern part of Botswana, a neighbouring country and in one of the most beautiful parks that you will ever see, with wild life that will make you cry for its magnificence.
I remember going with a guide who took three friends and me on the tour of the Okavango Delta. We paddled in what was known as a Makoro, one of the row boats, and we went through dangerous waters and saw amazing creatures. The guide only had a few things to say to us. He pointed things out, he suggested where we might take our best photographs and he said one thing at the beginning, before we began. He said: “You are in the presence of some of the most beautiful and some of the most dangerous creatures on earth and my suggestion to you is: Stay close to me and you'll be fine.”
It's interesting, as I look back at some of the photographs that were taken in my time in the Okavango, none of them included the guide. My friends were there. The water buffalo were there. The cheetahs were there. The animals were there. No guide. He was just sort of in the background. But without the guide, none of the beauty and wonder and splendour would have been possible. And his comments: “Stay close to me and you will be all right” enabled us to have the wonder and the beauty of that moment.
To you, this day, in helping young children in their lives, God is saying to you: “I'm the guide. Stay close to me.” He is saying: “Do not run, because, if you run, you run from me. But if you stand, I will be with you.” Whatever the future brings, whatever challenges lie before you know this: That guide will never forsake you. Elijah would say: Amen.