Elijah: Outside your comfort zone
1 Kings 17:8-16
June 12, 2016
So I’m curious…when was the last time you were outside your comfort zone? For some of you, it may have been here, last Sunday. The sounds of the service were a little outside the box for this place. In case you missed it-another congregation called Spirit Garage joined us for worship. They’re another Lutheran congregation that usually worships in the Longfellow neighborhood in Minneapolis. Right now, they’re in transition. Their building has a new owner and there’s uncertainty about whether or not they’ll be able to use the space where they regularly gather. So we offered to share this space for a Sunday. They led us in music.
It was loud—I’m pretty sure I’m not alone on thinking that—but I also noticed that our kids were dancing and smiling and engaged in worship…and that is a good thing. So an important reminder for all of us: what’s outside the comfort zone for some can be exactly the sweet spot for others.
As I was thinking about a time I was outside my comfort zone, an experience from last March came to mind. All 4 of my kids were home for a week—to clarify—that’s my sweet spot not something that puts me outside my comfort zone. Anyway, with the unusual reality of everyone home my husband and I decided to make an adventure out of it. We took the family to Vancouver, Canada. Yes…in March. Not the best time of year to head north but it was a place that was on our bucket list, so we went. The last night we were there we went out for dinner to a place called The Dark Table. Have any of you heard of it?
It’s a restaurant in which the proceeds go to research and support services for the blind and visually impaired. It’s a blind dining experience. It’s a concept that was started in Switzerland in the home of a blind man named Jorge Speilman who blindfolded his dinner guests in an attempt to show them what eating is like for a blind person. Theses initial dinners evolved into a restaurant concept of which there are now 5 throughout the world.
When you arrive at the restaurant you order your food before you go inside. Once you place your order, your waiter, who is blind, brings you inside the restaurant. The restaurant is completely dark. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face. Our waiter, Bobby, physically moved each of us into a particular place when we first got inside, lined us up and then one by one took our hands and put them on the shoulder of the person in front of us. When our human train was in position, Bobby led us to our table and then, again, one by one helped us to find our chair, sit down, and introduced us to the space—the table, the placemat, the utensils. He did this with each of us. So it wasn’t only a blind dining experience but it was a long dining experience! Without our sense of sight everything took more time. Other things changed too. Without the sense of sight, our sense of hearing, taste, touch and smell intensified. The dynamics of our family conversation around the table were also different. Without visual clues the conversation slowed way down—there was less interrupting as we waited for a little silence after someone spoke rather than jumping in before they were done.
There was discomfort too. After awhile, some of us developed a headache. Remember, I said it was a long dinner…so imagine for a couple hours that your eyes are open but you can’t see anything. My brain was getting mixed messages and it physically hurt. There were moments when I closed my lids just to give my brain a break.
All of this was unexpected. The experience had an impact. We were outside our comfort zone. As a result, our awareness was heightened as we paid attention to our surroundings in a whole new way. Our perspective was changed. We had a greater appreciation for the gift of sight and a deeper compassion for the blind and visually impaired.
In our reading today Elijah is way outside his comfort zone. On the surface, it seems to be a story of one of God’s great prophets who performs a miracle: a widow and her son, on the brink of starvation, are provided with an oil jug that will not run dry and a stash of grain that will never be empty. But this isn’t only a miracle story. It’s also a story that reveals a way for finding God. First, some context for the story.
About 100 years had passed since the time of King David. Now it was King Ahab who occupied the throne. Ahab was wicked and his wife Jezebel was cut from the same cloth. The two of them did more to provoke God to anger than all the previous Kings. They dedicated their lives to leading Israel away from God to worship Baal instead. Baal was the Canaanite god believed to be responsible for rain, thunder, lightening and dew.
God sent warnings and waited patiently for His people to return to true worship (1 Kings 14:6-16) but Israel kept their hearts fixed on Baal. And here’s a part of the story we shouldn’t overlook: God doesn’t give up on them —God wants to stir the people to action to return to him. So God sends a drought hoping that might get their attention. God sends the prophet Elijah to warn the people about the drought.
Like a lot of the characters in the Bible, Elijah didn’t aspire to be one of God’s messengers. God chose him. We don’t get much background information on him. Elijah just shows up and declares to King Ahab that a severe drought is immanent. He brings a message from God: everything and everyone is dependent on God; Yahweh is the one true God. Turn from Baal; return to God. Elijah’s confrontation is bold. He challenges authority; he denounces the status quo. And then God tells Elijah to run and hide and wait things out.
3 years later, Elijah’s still hiding but now he’s out of food and water. I imagine Elijah had grown weary; feeling far from God, maybe even forgotten.
Have you ever been there? Maybe that describes what you’re feeling right now or maybe it’s an experience you’ve had in the past or is yet to come. Feeling far from God may not be your experience but it is a common phenomenon.
Loneliness, fear, anxiety, stress, uncertainty…these are the themes that come up throughout. It can wear you down. It leaves you feeling dry. You hunger and thirst for God. It’s a spiritual drought of sorts. We look for God but are blind to God’s presence. We listen for God and only hear silence. Feeling far from God is not just your experience or mine. It’s been the reality for people of faith throughout time.
Elijah spent 3 years alone by the side of the brook. His only company the ravens that brought him food. Eventually the water dries up and the ravens disappear. The prophet is all alone. The situation seems hopeless. But pay attention to what happens next.
God speaks into Elijah’s desperate time and it’s not what you might expect to hear. It’s not a word of comfort. It’s a word of challenge. God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath where he will find a widow who will feed him. Translation: “go outside your comfort zone into a hopeless situation. It may not make sense. But you will see me for I am there.”
Zarephath was way outside Elijah’s comfort zone. It’s a small village in Sidon, in the region of modern-day Lebanon. And Sidon is where Queen Jezebel is from. God is sending Elijah back into the center of Baal worship to live there. God’s telling Elijah to move from the frying pan into the fire. And with only one promise Elijah goes: there he’ll meet a widow who’ll feed him.
Don’t get me wrong: a promise from God is enough to go on. But this promise makes no sense. A widow is poor. She’ll have nothing to offer. And when we meet her that’s exactly the case: she’s picking up sticks and with a handful of meal and a drop of oil she’s preparing the last meal before she and her son die. They’re at the end of their lives; there’s no possible way for her to provide for someone else.
But that’s exactly what happens—it’s just as God said it would be. Elijah goes outside his comfort zone into what seems to be a hopeless situation and a miracle happens. Elijah is fed; the widow and her son on the brink of death are blessed with new life. God creates what little there is into more than enough. Elijah and the widow see that God is indeed with them and it changes everything. Now they have hope. Now they know abundance. They’ve been assured that God takes care of them and that God can use them to care for others.
This is a story we need to hear and one we need to tell again and again. It’s a story that has power to strengthen us in faith in those moments we feel far from God. God is not far off—ever. BUT God may not reveal himself in a way that you would like. God’s more likely to show up in ways you don’t expect, in places where you aren’t comfortable, in situations that feel hopeless, in people who seem to have nothing to give.
God’s promise is that he cares for you. Never forget, God loves you so much that God sent his very own son Jesus into the world for you. So if you’re feeling far from God call to mind this story of Elijah and the widow from thousands of years ago: Listen for God’s word to you in your desperate time. God will speak. For God is not far off it’s just that you might need to go outside your comfort zone for your perspective to change. But do not be afraid, God is already there working miracles in places and people you least expect.