{"id":20982,"date":"2023-06-21T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-21st-june-2023"},"modified":"2023-06-21T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T05:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-21st-june-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-21st-june-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion 21st June 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

I Kings 18:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, \u2018Is it you, you troubler of Israel?\u2019 He answered, \u2018I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father\u2019s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel\u2019s table.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel. Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, \u2018How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.\u2019 The people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, \u2018I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal\u2019s prophets number four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.\u2019 All the people answered, \u2018Well spoken!\u2019 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, \u2018Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.\u2019 So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, \u2018O Baal, answer us!\u2019 But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, \u2018Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.\u2019 Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Elijah said to all the people, \u2018Come closer to me\u2019; and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, \u2018Israel shall be your name\u2019; with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, \u2018Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt-offering and on the wood.\u2019 Then he said, \u2018Do it a second time\u2019; and they did it a second time. Again he said, \u2018Do it a third time\u2019; and they did it a third time, so that the water ran all round the altar, and filled the trench also with water.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, \u2018O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.\u2019 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, \u2018The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.\u2019 Elijah said to them, \u2018Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.\u2019 Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re very good at remembering parts of the story.  Some years ago I took part in a remembering exercise where the preacher asked us how the story of Elijah and the Still Small Voice started.  Of course, I called out \u201chaving committed genocide, Elijah was on the run from the authorities.\u201d  I\u2019m not entirely sure this was how my colleague wanted the story to start but\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

We enjoy the still small voice story; I\u2019ve preached sermons on God\u2019s care for an exhausted Elijah.  We sing that verse from <\/span>Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (forgetting it comes from a Quaker poem about the evils of church practices like hymn singing) and feel terribly spiritual.   I don\u2019t want to undermine that – I love the story, adore the hymn, and get how we need food, drink, and sleep when we\u2019re exhausted.  It\u2019s too easy, however, to ignore the bits in the Biblical stories that we don\u2019t like – whether that\u2019s Elijah\u2019s genocide of pagan priests, Elisha\u2019s setting a bear on some annoying boys, or some of the stories we\u2019ve been looking at over the last week or so.  <\/p>\n

I think it helps to realise that the Bible is full of very human stories; we see strength and weakness, sanctity and atrocity, virtue and sin.  We\u2019re shocked by what we read, we understand why these passages don\u2019t appear in the Lectionary, or Sunday School, but we need to know them.  Why?  Because we too are full of strength and weakness, sanctity and atrocity, virtue and sin.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Self awareness is a great gift – one that often religious folk don\u2019t cultivate.  I once heard it said that the Bible is the only book that reads us; maybe that\u2019s so, but in the Biblical stories we see so many aspects of the complexity of human life and we can allow those stories, and our reaction to them, to shape and change us as we wrestle with them and their complexity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Breathe through the heats of our desire<\/span>
thy coolness and thy balm;<\/span>
let sense be mute, let flesh retire;<\/span>
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,<\/span>
O still, small voice of calm!<\/span> <\/p>\n

John Greenleaf Whittier (1872)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Kings 18: When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, \u2018Is it you, you troubler of Israel?\u2019 He answered, \u2018I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father\u2019s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount … <\/p>\n

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