Elijah
1 Kings 18:16-21
Who doesn’t love superheroes? Every child watches shows about superheroes and every culture throughout history has had its heroes; people who were able to do and be more than the rest of us. In ancient times, you had the heroes of Greek mythology. Then it was King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and Robin Hood. Then there were the explorers who sailed around the world and discovered new places. Then here in the U.S., you had the tall tale heroes of the early American culture, like Paul Bunyan, Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Rogers, Calamity Jane and Billy the Kid. In our lifetime, there were The Lone Ranger, Batman, Nancy Drew, Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen. Every generation has its heroes.
Many of our blockbuster movies tell stories about superheroes. Since 2000, there have been over 100 big-budget movies with superheroes or characters with super human strength. And they’re consistently among the top grossing movies at the box office each year! Why do we love stories about superheroes? What is the draw? When you look at when particular heroes were created, you discover it was usually during a time of great difficulty, uncertainty and darkness. For instance, many of the most popular comic book heroes were created in between The Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. It was during this time that people were searching for symbols, something to put their faith in; someone who could protect them.
What all of this says is that our draw toward superheroes is about way more than entertainment or just wanting to hear a good story. There is something deeper going on. Grant Morrison writes in Relevant Magazine, “Superheroes deal with the interior elements of humanity; they are colorful incarnations of the human soul. In this way, we put our hopes, fears, dreams, emotions and all the unspeakable facets of human nature into physical form and loose them in fantastical worlds to see what we may learn from them.” In other words, our heroes are projections of some of our deepest longings and our greatest fears and teach us about ourselves and what we can be. Every hero lives a story worth telling.
But heroes aren’t just limited to the big screen. There are numerous heroes in Scripture whose stories have been told and embraced by people of faith for 1000’s of years. From them we learn who we are, who God is, and the life available to us. For the next 6 weeks, we’re going to take a look at several Biblical heroes in order to see what we can learn from them about living a story worth telling. Our first hero is Elijah who was one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament and is to this day one of the most celebrated heroes in the Jewish faith. In the New Testament, both Jesus and John the Baptist are compared to Elijah. The watershed event of Elijah’s ministry and life was taking a stand against the wicked King Ahab and his wife Jezebel.
Elijah was a prophet during a time in Israel’s history when the nation was divided between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. Ahab was a Jewish king of northern Israel, but the truth is his wife Jezebel, a Sidonian woman, was calling the shots. Some say the last decision Ahab ever made was, “I do.” Every great hero has an equally wicked villain and Jezebel was that. She made it her mission to wipe every trace of Israel’s God off the earth and to force the people to worship her own gods instead. To make things worse, the people didn’t put up a fight; they just went along with it. Now they didn’t necessarily stop worshiping Yahweh, their God, but chose to worship Jezebel’s gods too. In the midst of all of this, there’s Elijah courageously taking a stand for God and calling people to faith alone in God: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.’” 1 Kings 18:21 The Hebrew literally says, “How long will you limp between two opinions? At some point you’ve got to make a decision and choose.” What made him such a hero is that at a time when virtually no one stood for anything, Elijah stood for God.
What do we learn from Elijah about living a story worth telling? First, heroes have a purpose. Elijah’s name literally means, “Yahweh is Lord.” Jewish tradition suggests that Elijah actually chose this name for himself. Why? He knew who he was and what he was about. Every great hero knows their purpose and what they stand for. The same is true in real life. Think of some of the greatest people who are real life heroes. They knew what they stood for: Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Helen Prejean, Billy Graham. What about you? If your life were a movie, would people have a hard time figuring out what it is about? Many of us lead lives with no clear purpose and no idea what we stand for. We’re just trying to get by, going through the motions and working for the weekend. But that’s not what God wants for us. The Good News of Jesus Christ is an invitation to participate in God’s plan of salvation.
Living a story worth telling is not easy. Having a purpose, making a difference, and deciding to stand for something is scary and involves risk. That is why most of us choose to be spectators rather than players in the Kingdom of God. In reality, it’s easier to watch someone else do it than it is to do it ourselves. We get this temporary fix from living vicariously through other people’s stories, but it does not truly satisfy nor does it change things. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could be a spectator; you were created to contribute, to use your life, your resources and your will to make a difference and to have a role in building the Kingdom of God.
Second, heroes make great sacrifices. You see what takes a story from just “ordinary” to “great” is when the character makes great sacrifices. This is what inspires us! A big, epic story always involves sacrifice. This is certainly the case with Elijah, who sticks his neck on the line when he confronts Ahab and Jezebel, the two most powerful people in his world at the time. It’s a showdown like at the OK Corral between Elijah and 450 Baal prophets. But even though Elijah wins the battle glorifying the name of God, he has to run for his life as Jezebel puts a bounty on his head. He spends several years in hiding. Great purposes always call for great sacrifice.
The problem is the majority of our stories are being hijacked. We live in such a consumer culture where we are bombarded by 1000’s of commercial messages every week telling us life is about us: our wants, our happiness and our desires. As a result, most of us are not living stories worth telling. But we can do and be so much more! Donald Miller in his book, “Million Miles in a Thousand Years” writes, “The ambitions we have will become the stories we live. If you want to know what a person’s story is, just ask them what they want. If we don’t want anything, we are living boring stories, and if we want a Roomba vacuum cleaner, we are living stupid stories.” He then suggests imagining our life summarized on a “Coming Soon” movie poster that always have catch phrases describing the heart of the story. What would a movie poster about your life say? “This year John is going to save for a new, larger home. Will he do it?” “Sherri bought a new set of curtains and now has her eye on new living room furniture. Will she get it?” “Tom is working for the weekend. Will he make it to Orange Beach this summer?” There is nothing wrong with any of those things. It’s just that when they become the totality of our dreams, they distract us from what life is really about. You were created for more than just getting by and personal satisfaction and happiness. You were handwritten to live a story worth telling; don’t settle for anything less.
Third, heroes are part of a great cause. One of the keys to telling a great story is participating in something bigger than yourself. That is Elijah’s story. What is so interesting about this is that typically, in scripture when a prophet speaks God’s word to someone, there is an moment when God actually tells the prophet what to say. There is something like, “The word of the Lord came to so and so…” This doesn’t happen with Elijah. Instead, it seems as though Elijah went to Ahab out of his own initiative. He was acting on the faith of something God had already said to Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness, “if the people ever turned from Him and worshiped other gods, he would close up the heavens, stop the rain and the land would field no produce.” Elijah’s clear purpose and his great cause came from a familiarity with God’s bigger story. He was so grounded in his understanding of the heart of God and what God wanted to do that when he saw something that wasn’t ok, he didn’t need to sit around and wait for God to tell him to do something about it; he went and did it. This is how heroes are born and great stories are lived. It begins with knowing who God is and losing ourselves in God’s bigger story.
In the midst of an interview author Bobby Conway was presented with the popular saying, “You may be the only Bible some people read.” He responds with Gypsy Smith’s quote: “most people never read the first four.” And then he says, “Talk about tragic. Smith’s words carry a great implication. It begs the question, ‘If the world will never read the first 4 gospels, then what will they read?’ They’ll read you…and me. They’ll read our lives. Talk about a ‘big gulp’ moment. Yes, you are The Fifth Gospel. And unless you’ve gone undercover, you’re being watched….“If that’s the case, then am I living like a Fifth Gospel Christian?”
God invites us into His larger story of salvation. This sort of takes the pressure off of figuring out what God wants us to do with our lives. I’ll be honest I’m not so sure that God has this specific, detailed plan for our lives. God has a plan for the redemption of all creation, but the role we get to play in all of that is still being written. I believe we actually have some freedom in deciding what that role is. We may even use a lack of clarity as an excuse not to try. God would rather us step out and do something with the intention of doing His will, even if we aren’t totally sure it is the right thing. Donald Miller said, “When I think about God, I see Him letting us have control of our will and our desires and I see Him bonding with you as the two of you create a new and better world to live in. I think we are spending a lot of time asking God to tell us what to do when the whole time he’s asking us what we’d like to do instead. I think he’s asking us what’s in our hearts, what makes us come alive, what ignites our passions and saves many lives.” Most of the greatest stories are birthed out of places of disruption; when we are made terribly aware of the fact that things aren’t ok. How close are we to the broken things in our world? What bothers you? What is not ok? What makes you angry? Wrestling with these questions will move us closer to living a story worth telling.
The stories we live are not just about us but about God’s story. They impact the people around us. All of us have a role to play. President Dwight Eisenhower used to talk about his mother’s belief that every child should be raised to believe that if they did not exist, their family would fall apart; they had something to offer and the family desperately needed them. Can you imagine a world where every child grew up not only believing that they had something to offer, but it was also their obligation to share it? That being a spectator was not an option; that everyone had an important role to play in God’s greater story.
A native Puerto Rican, Camille Solberg understands the need for information to reach Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. After moving from Puerto Rico to Spain and then to Washington D.C., and finally settling in Wisconsin with her husband 11 years ago, she's noticed an influx of Hispanics to the area—particularly in the last three years. These immigrants—most of whom speak no English—are left stranded when it comes to finding jobs and learning about the U.S. Camille said, "There was nothing to help these people become acclimated to a different culture. I wanted to find a way to help other Hispanics make a life for themselves while sharing the gospel with them." So she began the first Christian Spanish newspaper in her state—“La Voz Cristiana” or “The Christian Voice.” So Camille began writing the paper out of her home. "The paper's primary goal is to share the gospel message—which is printed on each edition's front page—while providing news updates, political information, and employment opportunities.” To fund the paper, Camille contacted local churches who gave willingly. And then she says, "It's fabulous to be in a place that has a need God lets you fulfill…If just one person becomes a Christian because of this paper, it will have been worth it." And they have. "It's incredible when I hear of changes in people's lives—especially someone accepting Christ—because of something they read in the paper, I thank God for using me this way."
Jim Daly writes, “Heroes are everywhere. You just need to know where to look to find them. Heroes walk the halls of hospitals. They are dedicated and skilled doctors and nurses, and they are volunteers who come to sit and pray and bring communion. A hero in a hospital may not provide a cure, but they offer hope. Many teachers are heroes, often possessing the patience of Job. Today they not only must manage a curriculum but also be prepared to manage a crisis. Faithful missionaries, those who tell others about Jesus, are heroes. In a culture quick to criticize standards, standing in a pulpit and sharing God's perspective isn't always popular. It takes guts to preach the Gospel. And then he writes, “So, yes, some say heroes are a thing of the past. I disagree. Heroes are everywhere.” And you can be one to. All you have to do is join in God’s work in the world and live a story worth telling. Amen
