1 Kings 19:9-18
Proper 14 (19) - Year A
Can you tell any tonal difference in Elijah’s two explanations of why he is off dreaming in a cave when he might be engaged in the danger that is life?
When you read this passage aloud do you read verse 10 the same as verse 14?
The first question about what Elijah is doing at a cave comes after 40 days without food. The second question comes a 1st day after the symbolic 40 and after feasting on sheer silence.
Elijah’s first response reflects his not finding G*D in all the usual in-your-face places. Elijah’s second response follows the hiddenness of quiet or silence.
With the same words do you sense a shift from edgy, defensive, blaming to calmly centered, clear, ready to take part?
How’s your stress level today? Is it time to be intentional about casting about for a gentle whisper that will reorient your attention and fortify you to re-engage?
Quiet is a place we do well to regularly cultivate. It must be noted, though, that silence is not a natural place for many and it can take earthquake, wind, and fire to move some toward it. If nothing else noise will eventually deafen us and so consider finding a vast and reorienting quiet before it is required.
When you read this passage aloud do you read verse 10 the same as verse 14?
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
Can you tell any tonal difference in Elijah's two explanations of why he is off dreaming in a cave when he might be engaged in the danger that is life?
When you read this passage aloud do you read verse 10 the same as verse 14? For me there is a shift from edgy, defensive, blaming to calmly centered, clear, ready to take part.
Does that come from not finding G*D in all the usual in-your-face places? The hiddenness of quiet or silence is a place we might all do well to cultivate. It must be noted, though, that it is not a natural place for many and it can take earthquake, wind, and fire to move some of us toward it.
Be bold enough to stick your head outside your bunker. The sound of silence may catch your attention and fortify you to re-engage.
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Lorne (Reader)
This text is rich in meaning
First, I am amazed that the man who prayed, "I have had enough Lord, take my life", which I read as a death wish, is taken up to God without dying.
Secondly, at a practical level, when we are depressed, we often feel that God has abandoned us. As one person said, "It feels as though my prayers bounce off the ceiling back at me, they don't go anywhere". In our depression we feel that God doesn't hear our prayers. Part of this divine mystery is that God doesn't speak to Elijah(according to the text) when he prays his death wish. It is not until forty days later on Mt. Horeb that Elijah hears God's voice, and then God addresses him with a quesiton, "What are you doing here?" The Divine invites us to tell him our story.
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Wesley (Blogger)
Thanks, Lorne -
This comment is helpful to me in waiting/hoping an impossibly long time (even if it is the just right or kairos time of 40 days). It even gently reminds me to ask for more stories about how folks got to where they are. This is tough for this J that does judge pretty quickly.
One of the other interesting stories that could come from here is the story of the servant. I usually think about Elijah being alone. Perhaps it is because he deliberately went off to pull a Jonah, pouting under a wee tree. What about this invisible servant. Did they take their task seriously enough to track Elijah down and play angel with him. As servant leaders can we image taking our task seriously enough to play angel with folks?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/august2002.html
1 Kings 19:9-18 or Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
In a pit or in a cave or just standing on a corner, there can come a sudden question about who we are and what is happening to us and around us. This can strike whether we feel chosen, called, blest, favorite or if we have experienced being left out, rejected, unlucky, second-class.
There is not much escape from such moments. If we are fortunate we have a community of trusted folks with whom we can check our sensibilities. If we are alone we are thrown on our own resources, our memories, our hopes, a whisper, an echo of a far-off hymn.
May you be given the gift of a plethora of options for such moments in your life when it feels like wandering and numbness are setting in.
May you be given the gift of a friend who notices and walks alongside.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/august2005.html
1 Kings 19:9-18 or Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b or Psalm 85:8-13
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-33
A promise: I will send you to those who hate you, who cannot speak peaceably to you.
So Joseph responds to his call as a prophet, "Here am I" and goes to his "brothers." So Elijah hears as a prophet hears, in great silence, and returns to those seeking his life. So the disciples enter the chaos of the deep, of wind and wave. So the faithful strive not for heavenly stairs or power to change the past, only a word and heart for this day's need.
This promise is repeated continually. Some hear and are renewed. Some almost hear and fear. Some do not yet hear, but are called, nonetheless.
Sometimes we hear and jump into the waves. Sometimes we forget in the presence of pressing need and regret our jump. Nonetheless, a repeated call is available to hear when we can clear our mind.
= = = = = = =
sent ahead
we know our own
times of famine
made worse by tired feet
starved of peaceable speech
as well as of daily bread
our insides and outsides
stumble onsent ahead
without a clue
we take
what we know
and join it
with what others know
silently singing
steadfast love to actionsent ahead
into unfamiliar chaos
we battle wind and wave
until we can step aside
from our fears
until our words
turn to healing
for the nations