10TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Lessons & Meditation
10TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 08-09-2020
FIRST READING: 1 Kings 19:9-18
Why would the prophet Elijah be hiding in a cave, trembling in fear? He has already experienced the power of God’s word in his own prophetic ministry. He has already witnessed the arrival of a drought that he was told to proclaim. He has already been protected in his journey by God and fed by ravens that God sent. He has already survived far beyond expectation on a widow’s very last meal and helped revive her dead son. He has already stood fearlessly before King Ahab of Israel and soundly defeated Queen Jezebel’s 450 priests of Baal, the most popular of the Canaanite gods. And he has already been drenched by the drought-ending rains that God had told him to forecast. But now he is in a cave, hiding, scared, and weak of faith.
Just because Queen Jezebel threatened to take his life? After all that he had seen and experienced as God’s presence and power at work?
And did Ezekiel already forget that, when he had started to run from Jezebel, God had ignored his plea to die, God had sent an angel to give him food and water and encouragement – all three of them strength for the journey? Elijah had traveled 40 days and 40 nights strengthened by what the angel gave. Did he forget so soon?
But here he is, hiding, scared, and weak of faith. Elijah sits in a cave at Mt. Horeb/Sinai, where God had appeared to Moses long ago with typical signs of God’s presence – earthquake, wind, and fire. However, on this occasion, Elijah experiences God in “sheer silence”, not in earthquake, wind, or fire. The prophet’s triumphant shout, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left” (see 18:22), brimming over with self-confidence and courageous faith against imposing odds, is here repeated twice (see 19:10 and 19:14) as an expression of fearful self-pity, depression, and despair.
We must remember that it was not really Elijah who triumphed in Chapter 18. It was God! And just as God was victorious over the 450 prophets of Baal through his prophet, so God will once again defeat Baal through sending the prophet Elijah to anoint Hazael to be king, to anoint Jehu to be king, and to anoint his successor, Elisha, to be prophet.
Like Elijah, we sometimes get discouraged and fearful, “burned out” and ready to quit, full of self-pity and empty of trust in God. Like Elijah, we sometimes need to be reminded that we are not all alone – devoid of either God or other human beings who are trying to be faithful and obedient. Remember this: God’s perspective is different from our own. In the midst of troubled times, God may be calling out to you, “Step out of your hiding place and go back. Others will stand with you. And I will go with you.” And Elijah went. Will we?
SECOND READING: Romans 10:5-15
In Romans, Chapters 9-11 Paul – a man with a deeply rooted Jewish heritage (both by birth or “flesh” and also by his previous faith or “law” who has been converted to Christianity – considers the knotty issue of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the plan of God. Paul has previously said that both Jews and Gentiles are saved not by good works but by God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, grace that is freely received by faith. But most Jews in his day refused to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. In writing about his Jewish brothers and sisters, Paul does not show anger but anguish and sorrow. It is Paul’s desire that the Jews may be saved.
In these verses, Paul is saying that no one is too good or too bad for God’s salvation. God has made it near to all through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The same God who made covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel – the Jewish believers – in the past has reached out in Christ to embrace all persons. Paul believes that God’s plan is not to exclude but rather to include – Jews, Greeks, Romans, barbarians, both male and female, “free” as well as “slaves”.
At the close of today’s reading, Paul celebrates the beauty of the feet that carry the gospel to others. May your feet be on the move, bearing hearts big enough to share love and to respond with compassion!
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 14:22-33
Jesus had earlier stilled the waves and the winds and calmed his disciples in a boat in Matthew 8:23-27. But that was a “furious storm” with huge waves that swamped the boat, and the disciples were in such a panic, thinking that they were going to drown. So the disciples had shaken the sleeping Jesus awake and cried out to him in great fear.
In today’s reading, there are strong winds and waves but no great storm. And the disciples are not in a panic about potential drowning; it is not the weather that scares them. What terrifies them is someone walking toward them on the sea. It is Jesus, but they fear that it is a ghost. Jesus assures them it is him and encourages them not to be afraid.
Disciple Peter (Remember, St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, this congregation is named after that disciple… do we sometimes exhibit both his bold faith and his bleak faltering?) proposes a foolhardy test for identifying that it is his Lord. He ends up sinking, scared, and weak of faith. Until Jesus rescues him.
What do you think about Peter? Was he showing great faith or was he challenging Jesus to prove it? I used to think of Peter as showing great faith in this incident until he looked around and maybe down. But this season I am looking at this reading differently. Stay in the boat, Peter! Stop trying to prove how faithful and great YOU are… stop asking Jesus to prove how faithful and great HE is!
What must God show you, what must Jesus do for you or give you, how do you dare Jesus or demand of Jesus in order to receive your continued trust and faith? What will satisfy you, what will convince you, what will earn, and keep your faith? What must Jesus do to prove his love for you?
Let JESUS walk on the water. YOU stay in the boat. There are plenty of faithful ways to live and fervent ways to love without doing useless things like walking on the water. Try, for example, to do something that Jesus commands earlier in Matthew – to turn the other cheek if someone smacks you in the face, to not even become angry at others, to love your enemies, to not resist an evil person, and to pray for those who persecute you. Or try something that Jesus will say beyond today’s reading, such as to take up your cross and follow him.
“Lord, save me!” cried Peter. An outstretched arm saved him from himself.
When have you faced a difficulty, a storm in life, and doubted the power of God, the love of Jesus? When have you doubted yourself, even as you stepped out in faith? When have you trusted Jesus in the storm?
A MEDITATION
Faith is not mere intellectual assent or a “warm fuzzy feeling” only when things are going well. It is the risk of surrender, the courage of trust, and the commitment of obedience. It is peace in adversity, strength in trial, inner calm in the midst of an outer storm, looking forward rather than back and looking up instead of down. You might be holed up in a cave like Elijah – feeling disillusioned, worn out, alone, and very afraid. You might be scrambling for lifelike Peter in swirling seas – sinking, wearied, desperate, and in great fear. The truth is that – if you are alive – then your life and every life will face any number of challenges along life’s path, storms both literal and figurative, all kinds of crashing waves and opposing winds and furious circumstances that will lead you to whimper or cry out that ancient, simple prayer, “Lord, save me.” But there is another truth. TAKE HEART, DO NOT BE AFRAID. JESUS IS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU! A strong, outstretched arm tenderly reaches to steady us through it all.
Someone once wrote that faith is something we learn only through trials. In those deep and seemingly impossible waters that threaten to swallow us up, we might be surprised to find that we are not only staying afloat but even walking above the turbulent waves. Be encouraged.