Just Like Us

Just Like Us
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr).

Well here's another one.  Another one of those pieces of scripture the Lectionary sometimes foists on us without context or explanation (I call them "scrap-ture").  

Or is it?   Could it be the selection of these fragments is intentional, setting the hook so to speak, ploys to tempt us to head into the Book to find out on our own?  Maybe.  For me, the jury is still out on that one.  In any case, if you know any thing about Elijah, you know this scrap (1st Kings 19:4-8) is about a not-very-well-known crisis point in the life of the great prophet of God.

Crisis?  Wait.  Isn't this the guy who prayed that it wouldn't rain and got a 3-and-a-half-year drought?  And didn't he later pray the rain to start again?  Isn't he the one who led the defeat of the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel with that spectacular fire from Heaven thing?  Isn't this the guy who was the first to raise the dead?!

The fiery chariot guy, right?

Why would HE have a crisis?  That right there---that question---is why the inclusion of this particular "scrap-true" may just be intentional on the part of the Lectionary.  Elijah doesn't take up a lot of Biblical real estate: a few chapters in 1st Kings, a few passages scattered across a handful other places.  But, page count aside, he is considered the greatest prophet; clearly the one connected to the most, and most spectacular, miracles.

And yet, here he is in this week's passage begging God to take his life.

If you think about it, you know those other stories about Elijah.  And the one that follows this week's passage, too: the "still, small voice" story.  And you may have heard the one where Elijah passes his Prophet job onto Elisha.  And, of course, pretty much everyone knows about Elijah being swept up into heaven by way of a fiery chariot ride.

There is a passage elsewhere that has a bearing on this moment in Elijah's life, an "An Instance of the Fingerpost" (thank you Ian Pears!) where God is pointing us to something important.  I remember well the moment I first read James 5:17 ("Elijah was human just like us").  It stopped me in my tracks.  All I could think was, "That guy?!"

It hardly seemed possible that such a legendary figure could be the same as we.  How could that be?  It drove me to investigate.  What was it about Elijah that was "just like us?"  As I read one amazing episode after another, I began to wonder if James and I were thinking about the same Elijah.  And then I came to today's passage and I knew.

He dropped his basket. 

That's the polite southern way to say, "He lost it" or, less prosaically, "He was depressed."  You have to be a very long way from mental health before you beg God to take your life.  That kind of thing, that depression that sometimes follows those wonderful mountaintop experiences, that can happen to any of us.  And does.

Besides the frank revelation that Elijah had begun to believe more in the power of his enemies than in the power of his God---as comforting as it is to see him as human---there is also what God did about it.  In the passage that follows this one, God listens to Elijah's litany of concerns and then does something remarkable: God (a) helps Elijah see reality is not as bad as he thought, (b) re-tasks Elijah for the next phase of his service, and (c) sends Elijah BACK THE WAY HE CAME(!).

Elijah's journey, from mountaintop to depression and back, was a long one.  There had to be periods of physical rest and refreshment as well as spiritual renewal.  And one-on-one time with God was essential.  But the results made that journey worthwhile, maybe even necessary.

Elijah was human.  Just like us. 


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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt
Proper 14 (19) (August 12, 2012)

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm 34:1-8
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51