Chris Taylor’s Sermon – 8/16/09
Counting on God
Psalm 111
1 Kings 17:1-7
Fly over the center of Pittsburgh today and the first thing you might notice are the great office towers that dominate our skyline: UPMC, the Gulf Building, Mellon, PPG, Highmark and all the rest. Then, just across the river, you’d see our two massive stadiums; Heinz Field and PNC Park which cost 281 and 216 million dollars respectively. Finally, a little further down the river, our newest addition might catch your eye; the 600 million dollar Rivers Casino.
What might a visitor conclude about our priorities as all these structures are taken together? I think it is fair to say that he or she might decide that we are very serious about our work, and very serious about our entertainment – particularly our sports. The truth is I’ve taken great pleasure this year in reminding friends and family around the country that we are the City of Champions. In Seattle particularly, the mention of Pittsburgh was usually met with something approaching a grimace, and in one instance with the phrase, “That was still a bad call.”
Generally, those first impressions of our city seem to correlate with the salaries we tend to pay – and not just here in Pittsburgh, but all through the country. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, for example, the average salary for a teacher here in Allegheny County is just over $56,000. Obviously, that doesn’t begin to compare with the millions that an actor or a professional athlete might make.
Now granted, the skill set of a professional is truly unique – the best club player isn’t even in the same league. And we recognize that both athletes and actors tend to have a small window in which to work. But still, we are talking about entertainment. What does that disparity communicate about our values and our priorities?
Our second lesson this morning is about those priorities. It is really about the struggle between the idols of this world on the one hand, and the one, true God on the other. Where are we looking for our meaning? In our heart-of-hearts, where do we really believe we are going to find life?
Read 1 Kings 17:1-7
Ahab has become King of Israel. He has married a foreign wife, Jezebel, and chosen to worship and serve her god, Baal. He has even gone so far as to set up an altar for Baal right in the center of his capital. We are told, 16:30, that Ahab “did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.” And again, v. 33, that “Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him.”
It is out of this context that Elijah is abruptly introduced, 17:1, “Now Elijah the Tishbite… said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’”
What follows in this chapter are essentially three confirmations of his call to serve as God’s instrument. First, our text this morning, in God’s provision for him out in the wilderness. Second, verses 8-16, in the constant replenishment of the widow’s jar and flask as she feeds him. And then finally, verses 17-29, in the miraculous raising of the widow’s son in response to Elijah’s prayer. Taken together these three events make it clear that God is with Elijah and that His hand is resting very powerfully upon him. Elijah is indeed a prophet of the Lord.
But there is something else going on here at the same time. The stage is being set for a great battle between Yahweh (the God of Israel) on the one hand, and Baal, the Canaanite god on the other. Elijah’s prediction of a coming drought is a direct challenge to Baal. Who really controls the rain and vegetation? Who is the real source of life and goodness? If Baal was in control, the prediction itself never would have come to pass. Elijah would have died in the wilderness. The widow’s jar and flask never would have been replenished. Her son would never have been raised from the dead.
What we are seeing here are the preliminary maneuvers in an extraordinary struggle. Yahweh versus Baal. Elijah against the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal – the great confrontation on Mount Carmel that takes place in the very next chapter.
Now if we relegate this struggle to the events of some three thousand years ago and to a place half way around the world, then we are missing the point. The same great battle persists to this day. It is a battle for our souls, and it comes down to this: who or what are we choosing to worship?
This past week the Wall Street Journal carried a piece about the prosperity of second tier investment firms. It featured one broker showing off his fifty three million dollar home. What struck me was the absolute lack of any shame or embarrassment on his part. No, he was clearly proud of his home, and proud of what it signified.
Well that is one view of life, a view that reflects the dominant culture. We are what we possess. We are what we accomplish. We are here to get and to enjoy whatever we can along the way. That’s a view, incidentally, that was shared by one philosophical school in ancient Greece; the Epicureans. Look around: we are constantly bombarded with the message that life and meaning and fulfillment are found in having the right watch, the right car, the right set of clubs? You can’t even go to a football game anymore without being constantly bombarded with advertisements.
It is not that watches or cars or golf clubs are wrong or bad. They are like rain, or vegetables, or fertility. Who can argue against things like that? No, it is not the things themselves that are the problem. It is when we elevate them to the level of a Baal – when, in other words, we begin to think they hold the power of life itself
This isn’t an issue of right or wrong so much as it is a question of which one works. You have that broker, you have so much of our culture on one side. And on the other you have the very different kind of life that we find lifted up in Scripture; a way of life that values sacrifice over self-indulgence, service over being served, the needs of others ahead of oneself. Which of these two approaches is going to lead us to the good life; to the kind of life for which our soul longs? Baal or God?
Elijah didn’t come to Israel in order to impose an oppressive, demanding God upon those people. He came to offer life. He came to point towards that God who alone can offer life – the kind of good and full and abundant life that all of us are looking for.
He knew they weren’t going to find that kind of life worshipping Baal. Neither will we. The names might have changed – today our Baal might be our work, our wealth our recreation – but the stakes are just the same. The challenge here is to put God first – first in the kind of choices we make each day; first in the way we serve our families and our community; first in the way we spend our time, our resources and our energies.
That brings us back, then, to the same question with which we began: In your heart of hearts where do you really think you are going to find life? If your answer is God, then it is fair to ask how your choices each day are going to reflect that conviction.