It’s been really a tough year.
Since last All Saints Sunday — just think about all that has happened. It has been a really tough year.
Hurricanes all over the gulf: destroying the coasts of Texas, Florida, whole islands in the Caribbean, namely Puerto Rico. Even Ireland got hit. Earthquakes in Mexico City and around the Pacific rim. Some of the worst wild fires we’ve seen in California and Oregon. It has been a really tough year.
Fatal and senseless violence...in Charlottesville, Virginia. Las Vegas, Nevada. And New York City this week. And that’s just since August. Wars and rumors of wars. We are a nation divided and dividing. We can’t even agree on what “facts” are anymore.
It has been a really tough year. On a global, and a national scale, but even out of the limelight: right here at Shepherd of the Valley, it’s been a really tough year. We’ve lost loved ones — Dorothy Campbell, Nancy Spillane, Barbara Baker, John Levorson, Vernon Schwandt. And those are just members of our congregation. I know there have been others, other tragedies among us: other difficult life-changing losses, cancer diagnoses, injuries, problematic operations, long recoveries. Death of pets. Higher expenses, less resources, loneliness and depression. It’s been an unbelievably tough year…
And perhaps we, like Elijah, get to this point of wanting to hole up. Go sleep in a cave. Wallow in pity — self-pity, pity on behalf of others we love, for the whole world. When we get so overwhelmed with tragedy, it’s easy to want to go curl up in a cave, like Elijah. “I am left alone, and they are seeking my life to take it away.”
That’s when the word of the Lord, according to our text, arrives and says, “What are you doing in here? Go and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Doesn’t God get it?! Now is not the time, to go stand on a mountain, and listen for God! How could God be asking this of us? We need to hole up in the cave, here, licking our wounds. Doesn’t God get it?
But Elijah goes out anyway and waits for God. He waits thinking this epiphany will happen in the windstorm, but it doesn’t happen in the hurricane. God is not in the hurricane. [pause]
Then maybe the earthquake. But God is not in the earthquake either. Maybe the fire. Nope. God is not in the fires.
Some people have said that earthquakes, hurricanes, fires might be God’s way of speaking, even punishing people. But here we see the God is not in disasters.
God comes in the sheer silence. When we are holed up, at our worst, hunkering down, scared to death. God is there. After a tough year, in the midst of depression, is precisely when God is made known...that’s when God speaks and says, “Get up, I have not abandoned you, I am still here, I always have been. Here’s some bread for your journey. Get up. Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.”
Wilderness?! You want us to go back out there, God?!
Yes. God is still with us. God meets us in our chaos and our caves, feeds us with grace, and calls us to go back out there, back into the wilderness of this world.
Sisters and brothers in Christ, this All Saints Day, we’re reminded again that God is not done with us. We’re all the saints who are still here. And God still needs us saints to be about the work of Gospel ministry out there in the wilderness, still. God’s not done with us, in fact, in the midst of the fury, the sorrow, the pain, the loss, the violence — that’s precisely when God arrives. And often when we’re down and at our worst is precisely when we may be the best vessel of God’s purposes. [pause] When we’re empty, down and out, then there’s room for God to come and fill us with grace, hope, peace, joy and a love for this world that is beyond our own human capability. [pause] We become vessels of God’s healing, anointing this earth with Divine grace.
God is good. And goodness is stronger than evil. It’s been a tough year, but look around. We’re still here. God reminds Elijah he’s not alone too — 7000 in Israel! All knees have not bowed to Baal! God’s still got us. Even if there were only 10 of us here. All knees have not bowed to the powers, the lures, and the false gods of this world!
And God still needs us to go back out there, and live, and teach, and serve, and pray for this world that is so deeply hurting. Here’s some bread. Like the angel said, “Eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” God’s still got us, through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns. God arrives, not in explosive ways, not in disastrous ways, but in the sheer silence. And God stays.
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Let’s take 5 minutes of silence…
Put bulletins, phones, hymnals aside.
Deep breaths.
Listen for God. Pick a single word...joy, justice.
Let the thoughts and distractions come and go.
Together, let us silently rest in God’s presence.
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