Elijah the Troubler
Isaiah 6: 1 – 8; John 3: 1 – 8; 1 Kings 18: 7 – 19
Rainb
I know it is Trinity Sunday but with a name like that, I can’t resist this opportunity: Elijah the troubler! Actually the thought came to me a good few weeks back. I was sitting on the floor here with the kids doing a “Godly Play” story. Young Elijah and his mum came up. Elijah walks straight onto my green cloth, the centre piece of the story, and sits down in the middle. Ummm, I thought. Here is a little bit of trouble. Well what could I do, but work around him. His mum had her steely eye on me! Elijah does get involved in story time and it is rather charming. However calling him Elijah the troubler is a compliment, albeit a strange one.
The name of Elijah means, “ My God is Yahweh”. Or we would say, ‘my god is God’. Yahweh is the holy name of God the Creator and Lord of life. Elijah is one of the great prophets of Bible times. He ministered in the 9th Century BC in the reign of King Ahab. King Ahab secured the Northern Kingdom called Israel through a political alliance. He married princess Jezebel a priestess of Baal – a Philistine fertility cult. She brought to her marriage with King Ahab hundreds of Baal prophets. She aggressively promoted Baalism against Judaism. Elijah was called to confront King Ahab to tell him, that because he had compromised his faith and let his wife promote this pagan religion there would be a great drought in the land. God then told Elijah to leave the Northern Kingdom, because his life was in danger. He went to Zarephath and stayed in a widow’s house. In time Elijah returned to the Northern Kingdom and encountered King Ahab, who on seeing Elijah said: “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” [1 Kgs 18:17]
At this encounter Elijah challenged Jezebel’s prophets to a dual to show whose God is real. Ahab strangely did Elijah’s bidding. He assembled all the Baal prophets on Mt Carmel where the contest of faith was to take place. Each side built an altar, placed wood on the altar and a bull. Both wet the wood on their respective altars. The Baal prophets were challenged to call upon their god to ignite the fire. They failed after much ritualistic performance. Then Elijah stepped forward and called upon the Lord God, then the altar ignited consuming the sacrifice. Yahweh is shown to be more than a match for Baal. Jezebel’s prophets were killed by the Israelites. The rain comes and the drought is broken. Queen Jezebel is furious and orders her soldiers to kill Elijah who escapes. Elijah is the great prophet who successfully defended Israel’s faith. So significant is Elijah that a tradition arose that Elijah would return to prepare the way for the Messiah. At each Passover / Seder meal a cup of wine is set aside for Elijah in the event of his return.
Elijah successfully defended the Faith against the corrosive influence of cultural populism and religious compromise. Elijah is God’s troubler!
Today we live in a time when the cultural gods of acquisition, materialism and independence corrode our lives. These gods compete for our faith and loyalty. You may wonder why I call these things gods. I do so because they take on the character of a god. That is, they demand our attention and loyalty. Our media, our shopping malls and our economic system are structured around materialism, acquisition and our self-interest. Listen to advertisements and you will see they appeal to who you are, not to whose you are. The advertisers already know who you belong to – their gods of acquisition and materialism. Many believe that their fulfillment lies in what they own and possess. We speak lightly of ‘retail therapy’. It is true; there is a degree of therapy in shopping. We fall prey to this. We get caught up in such activities failing to see the moment when we are no longer exercising our God given free will. Have you ever reflected upon how what we have created and come to possess ends up possessing us? It is that shift from we possessing and using things out of necessity to those things possessing and using us. I see the present uncovering of corruption in many financial institutions as an example of people losing control and the culture possessing and controlling those who work within these institutions. The humble motorcar is another example of this. We created it and now we can’t live without it – at least we think so.
Today we are deceived into thinking we are independent and need no transcendent being or values to guide and direct us. Strangely, to give up God is not to give up belief and dependence. The giving up on Christianity or any other religion that acknowledges God, has resulted in us believing in many different spiritual movements, often accepting them with blind faith. Compounding our naïve believing is a new dependence on constant entertainment and masking of our superficiality.
When we descend into our selfish and greedy ways we ultimately bring trouble upon ourselves and upon the innocent victims of our corruption. But our lives are not free of troubles. We are plagued with anxiety, distress, fractured relationships and sickness. Self-centredness drives us apart not together. More trouble occurs. I believe God sends us trouble and troublers to save us from the self-destruction of our ways. Elijah was one such troubler. He was a right royal pain to the king and queen. He reminded them of their guilt and self-interest, their disloyalty and corruption.
God’s troublers remind us that we aren’t doing well. God’s troublers remind us of the injustice and suffering we cause. Here are some of the names of God’s troublers: Elijah, Nathan, Ezekiel, Amos, Thomas Becket, Luther, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wilberforce, Lord Shaftsbury, Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Tutu, Eddie Mabo, Nova Peris and Malala Yousafzai to name a few. King Ahab calls Elijah a troubler; King Henry II said of Thomas Becket, ‘Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?’ These troublers, and countless others, have all played their part in making this a better world.
I’m reminded of Tom, another troubler. That is his name. This story is a little chapter in his life. He was the Business Planning Manager of a major Australian oil company. When oil was discovered in Bass Strait a price had to be worked out for the crude oil. This exercise was allocated to another company. A year later Tom’s company established its own research department to handle pricing. It was then discovered that the company had been overcharging the companies purchasing the crude oil. To correct the mistaken overcharging was going to cost a lot of money. Some thought that they should just run with the old calculation as the new correct pricing would cost the company a great deal. Tom and a few others argued that they should work with the right calculation. After 6 months of research and debate a letter was drafted that would perpetuate the wrong pricing. Tom took it home to his wife and together they pondered it. Both are devout Christians. Tom’s wife considered the letter and though she didn’t understand the technicalities, she understood the letter to be devious. Tom knew that she was right. The next day he challenged his senior manager saying that they shouldn’t go ahead on the basis of this drafted letter. It was decided that Tom would have to go himself to Sir James McNeil, the managing director, to explain. When Tom explained to Sir James, Tom’s senior manager mentioned to Sir James that this would cost the company $10 million dollars over the next five years. Sir James looked at him over his glasses and said; “I’m more interested in the good name of BHP than in $10 million dollars.”
The result of this was, that BHP under Sir James’ leadership re-calculated the price that would cost them $10 million. And they also refunded the over charged monies to those concerned. Tom was given the task of taking the cheques amounting to $1.1 million dollars. When Tom took the refund to one of the companies, where he knew the leader of the company, he was told that the refund had saved his company from bankruptcy. Another company said they wondered why BHP had done this because of the cost, however now they could truly trust BHP. This story is told in a small booklet, “Industry at its best” by Bert Reynolds. However it does not bring out the pressure to cover up the truth that Tom faced. This is a case where justice meant life for others.
God needs ‘troublers’ – brave men and women who will stand by what is right and true. When God called Elijah the Tishbite, he responded. When God called Isaiah, Isaiah said, ‘Here I am, Lord.” Let us sing the song, ‘Here I am, Lord’ composed by Daniel L Schutte.
*******
Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 27/05/2018
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org
