Limping
with Different Opinions?
Live
with Contradiction!
Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA; 2nd
Sunday after Pentecost, 2 June 2013
Year C RCL: 1
Kings 18:20-21 (22-29), 30-39; Psalm 96; Galatians 1:1-12; Luke
7:1-10
What
amazing trust we hear in our scriptures! What amazing contradictions!
We hear the ebb & flow of faith & loyalty, of action &
stillness. People follow God, fall away & return to God in the
multi-cultural, polytheistic world of Elijah, Paul, & Jesus.
We live in a
multi-cultural, polytheistic world.
How
do we sing a
new song to this 21st
century world so that all people can ascribe to God – credit God –
recognize that God IS Creator
of all?
God
creates all, including the fire & the water that are the focus of
the power struggle between the prophet Elijah & Baal’s
prophets, who work for
Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab. She is the daughter of a king1.
Baal is her culture’s god of rain & water2.
As royalty, her duty is
to champion her god.3
The
land of Israel is
in drought
& Elijah takes
the heat.
The
Israelites support both the God of Israel & Baal. They do not see
this as deserting God.4
“How
long will you go
limping
with
two different opinions?”
He sounds like Paul writing
to the Galatians:
“I
am astonished
you are so
quickly
deserting
(God)...”
The Galatians are limping
with different opinions.
The
people Elijah speaks to, the people Paul writes to seem like children
learning to walk,
holding onto something
with each hand, afraid
to let
go & trust.
People
are afraid to
let go & trust God,
to trust God’s Good News
in Jesus.
People
are afraid to
establish this relationship.
Relationships
require the hard work
of
balancing
action & stillness.
Elijah
does the hard work of balancing action & stillness, waiting for
God to act. Elijah challenges
Baal’s prophets. The contest is to see whose god will respond &
send fire to burn up
their respective sacrifices on their
respective altars. Baal’s prophets go first. That noisy bunch tries
hard & gets no response.
Nothing
happens.
Totally
trusting God, Elijah prays
simple words that contrast
with all
the shouts of Baal’s prophets.
His actions contradict
what seems
logical . . . .
He makes sure the
altar he sets up for God, the wood to
burn the sacrifice, and the
sacrifice itself are
completely
soaked.
¿You
pour water on something you want to burn?
Elijah does the hard
work of balancing his action & waiting in stillness for God.
God
sends
fire that devours the drenched
offering, the soaked altar & licks
up
the extra water.
So much for Baal’s power.
So much for Baal as the god of water.
The
people see, believe &
turn to God.
What
a contrast we see in the steadfast faith of the centurion in our
Gospel. He sends for Jesus & says:
"(Don’t
come all the way to my house, just)
say
the word & let my servant be healed."
The
centurion sounds like Elijah who prays: “O Lord...let it be
known...that you are
God...that I have done all these things at
your bidding...” The centurion says he is
“under authority” & does the bidding of others. People under
his authority do his bidding.
The
centurion demonstrates the balance
of
action & stillness:
quiet trust, waiting.
The
centurion balances active life in the world & a life of faith in
close relationship with the people of God. Balance requires times of
action &
times of stillness.
(A)ction
springs from stillness.6
This sounds like a contradiction – like Elijah’s preparing the
sacrifice to be
burned
AND soaking
it with water. This
kind of contradiction is at the heart of the spirituality of St.
Benedict that author Esther de Waal discusses in her book Living
with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality.
When
we balance working
with God & waiting
with
God, we grow & we gain insight for what’s next in active
ministry.7
It
is hard to hold opposites in balance8.
Yet without this
balance, our “(a)ction is more likely to grow out
of
confusion..., fear or self-interest;
it is less likely to be
grounded in God.”9
We
live in a world limping with
different opinions.
In
this noisy, busy world
“that is angry, fear-ridden,
distracted...”10,
we can live with contradiction.
We
can balance action & stillness.
As de Waal says, and I paraphrase parts: “(E)ven
in...the most busy & active daily life...[WE]
can...carry
a heart of stillness, an awareness of God’s presence...”11
Even
in...the most busy & active
daily life,
we
can carry a heart of stillness.
We
can carry an awareness of
God’s presence.
Amen.
Bibliography
Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An
Introduction. New York: Paulist Press. 1984.
Chittister, Joan. The Monastery
of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life.
www.bluebridgebooks.com:
(United Tribes Media Inc.) BlueBridge. 2011.
De Waal, Esther. Living with Contradiction: An
Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality. Harrisburg: Morehouse
Publishing. 1989.
Harper’s Bible Commentary. General Ed.: James.
L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers. 1988.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New
York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Holy Bible with the Apocrypha. New Revised
Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.
Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH
Translation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Matthews, Victor H. Social World of the Hebrew
Prophets. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. Inc. 2001.
Merriam-Webster. Smartphone Dictionary app.
Merriam-Webster Inc. 2012.
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.
Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University
Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Partnoy, Frank. Wait: The Art and Science of Delay.
New York: Public Affairs (Perseus Book Group). 2012.
3
Note: I read this some time ago, and cannot find the source to
credit.
7
Ibid. P. 105.
8
Ibid. P. 107.
9
Ibid. P. 108.
10
Ibid. P. 112.
