What are we looking for?
Text: 1 Kings 19:9-18
Burnout. At some point in our lives, every one of us is going to experience it.
It can be either short or long-term… it could just mean that we need an extended vacation, or it could mean that we need to look at a complete change in careers. It’s that point at which we feel we are truly spinning our wheels, desperate for a break… In more serious cases, there is a genuine anxiety over even returning to work, and even genuine clinical depression. Whatever its severity, burnout comes when no matter what amount of work that we do, no matter how many hours we put into it, we either aren’t getting enough done, or more importantly we get no satisfaction out of it… we’re burnt out.
I suppose now would be a good time to say that I am NOT talking about myself.
I’m back from vacation, so if I were feeling burnt out now, I think there’d be a serious problem. Although I will admit that prior to that vacation, things were beginning to fray along the edges. It had been eight months since my previous vacation, and while I wouldn’t consider myself burned out, I was noticing that a few things here and there were beginning to slip… so it was a good time for a break. Burnout is something that happens a lot in today’s workplace, we talk about it all the time… it happens when through either frustration or being weary from the day to day grind becomes greater than the energy that we have. Burnout is nothing new… and that’s where we find the prophet Elijah.
Elijah is sitting on a mountaintop by himself. The cold wind whips around him… he sits down on the hard rocks, looking north… It’s the land he calls… well… called home. At least up here he could see the soldiers coming, and in the midst of the rocks he could last for years. Well, as long as he can ensure a good food supply anyway.
In the whispers of the air he hears a voice…
“What are you doing here Elijah?”
He replies: “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
A tone of resignation… When God asks what he is doing here, Elijah’s reply betrays his frustration.
“Well… I did everything you asked. I’ve even took it on with a keen enthusiasm!
Your people have turned their back on you, and I’ve done everything I can to show them they’ve gone off the rails. They’ve pulled down your altars, and have let this… this… Jezebel have her way. Ahab’s a spineless wimp, and so I’ve been the only one to stand up to them… to stand up for you.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question,” the voice replies again, “What are you doing here?”
Elijah sighed and looked at his feet. “I did all this, I did all that you asked… I’ve shown them the wonders of your power, and it hasn’t made a lick of difference. Nobody seems to care anymore, and now they’re out to kill me!”
Elijah had succeeded it seems in every way… he tried his absolute best, he even delivered the goods. Yet he felt that even his best wasn’t good enough. Things were still the same, it didn’t seem to make a difference. Burnout…
It’s not just people who feel burnout… congregations can and often do. The original passion and fire that a congregation may have had seems to have waned from those past glory days. We are left celebrating anniversaries of what once was, but don’t really have a sense for where we’re going. Our mission becomes less focused on what God is calling us to be, and more on preserving the institution… but really, when we look at it, that’s congregational burnout.
Last year, we celebrated 50 years as a congregation. I think it was a healthy for us to look at where we began, and how far we’ve come. Now that our 50th anniversary is past, we have a harder time looking forward… to trust that God is going to work even more powerfully in the future, and to be willing to be a part of that.
“Let me show you something,” the voice says to Elijah.
What follows is the spectacular lightshow… the natural spectacle of mountain-shattering wind, earthquakes, searing fire… the kind of thing you would expect from Mount St. Helens. It’s also the kind of thing that we have come to expect from God, big and spectacular… but here’s the rub. In the midst of the boom and crash, God isn’t in those things. God is not in the wind… God is not in the earthquakes… God is not amidst the fire… God is not where we expect.
After all of the smoke, flame, and shattered rocks there is nothing… just silence…
In the silence of that moment, Elijah begins to realize something…
It isn’t in the spectacular displays that we find God… but somewhere far more personal far more deep. The changes and difference that Elijah was hoping for is something that will take more than simply a spectacular lightshow to get people to change. After all, real, genuine change happens from within…
In the end, Elijah realizes that God isn’t in those big flashy shows… God isn’t in those places that we might expect… God’s vision is far longer reaching than any of us expect.
With this new affirmation, God re-commissions Elijah, and he returns to his work as a prophet. This time, Elijah knows full-well that he will not see the end result of his own work… but he realizes that he is part of setting something up for the future… something that will last beyond his own lifetime. He will find a successor, he will anoint a competing king who will hold Ahab and Jezebel to account. He will pave the way for a line of prophets who will continue to hold Israel to account, and who will speak of the hope of God in times of great darkness.
Elijah was burned out because he thought that he wasn’t making a difference… that no matter what he did, or how big a show he was able to put on, that nobody seemed to care. In his experience and re-commissioning at Mount Horeb, Elijah learned the lesson that maybe all of us need to… we may not see the end result or the difference that we make in life. God is never quite where we expect, but does have things under control.
So now, the question for us, is “what are we doing here?”
In our congregational health survey that we did earlier this year, as I mentioned before the one area that we collectively need to work on is “Passionate Spirituality.” Not surprising. We’re Presbyterian… we don’t get passionate about anything… or so the joke goes. I can speak of my own level of comfort, or rather, discomfort after some bad experiences as a teenager with a Pentecostal-style churches. It was bad enough that if that had been my only experience of church, I would not be standing in this pulpit today. So when I first heard “Passionate Spirituality” I really had to come to grips with what that meant…
For those of you who were at the workshop in June, Passionate Spirituality is not about how outwardly expressive we are… Our congregational development officer John-Peter Smit reminded us that this doesn’t mean we’re supposed to turn into Pentecostals… On one level, Passionate Spirituality is about how well we answer the very same question that God asks Elijah in this morning’s story from 1st Kings.
“What are you doing here?”
One of the revealing things about the survey is that as a congregation, one of the things we are not very good at is answering that basic, fundamental question… “What are you doing here?”
The question on the survey was a response to the statement: “I can easily explain why I come to the worship service.” Judging from how things came back in the compiled results, most of us answered either “rarely” or “not at all.” What does this mean? It means we have work to do.
This is both a challenge for us personally, but also for us as a community of faith. That if we cannot figure out why we are here in the first place, then how can we as a community expect others to join us? If we are going to grow as a congregation, we really need to take hold of God’s question to Elijah, and trust that God is going to be here with us in years to come. Because whether we believe it or not, God is already up to something…
As Elijah learns… God is up to something with some very long-term views. It was true then, it’s true now… that God is calling us to something even more profound and wonderful... we’re just not sure what it is yet. This story reminds us that God is constantly with us... but not in the spectacular great displays... but is with us, quietly reassuring and renewing us... and is most definitely there calling us into the future, rather than to dwell on past glories. Learning a lesson from Elijah, that our energy, our passion for doing God’s work comes out of trusting that God is indeed here in our midst.
Amen.
Burnout. At some point in our lives, every one of us is going to experience it.
It can be either short or long-term… it could just mean that we need an extended vacation, or it could mean that we need to look at a complete change in careers. It’s that point at which we feel we are truly spinning our wheels, desperate for a break… In more serious cases, there is a genuine anxiety over even returning to work, and even genuine clinical depression. Whatever its severity, burnout comes when no matter what amount of work that we do, no matter how many hours we put into it, we either aren’t getting enough done, or more importantly we get no satisfaction out of it… we’re burnt out.
I suppose now would be a good time to say that I am NOT talking about myself.
I’m back from vacation, so if I were feeling burnt out now, I think there’d be a serious problem. Although I will admit that prior to that vacation, things were beginning to fray along the edges. It had been eight months since my previous vacation, and while I wouldn’t consider myself burned out, I was noticing that a few things here and there were beginning to slip… so it was a good time for a break. Burnout is something that happens a lot in today’s workplace, we talk about it all the time… it happens when through either frustration or being weary from the day to day grind becomes greater than the energy that we have. Burnout is nothing new… and that’s where we find the prophet Elijah.
Elijah is sitting on a mountaintop by himself. The cold wind whips around him… he sits down on the hard rocks, looking north… It’s the land he calls… well… called home. At least up here he could see the soldiers coming, and in the midst of the rocks he could last for years. Well, as long as he can ensure a good food supply anyway.
In the whispers of the air he hears a voice…
“What are you doing here Elijah?”
He replies: “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
A tone of resignation… When God asks what he is doing here, Elijah’s reply betrays his frustration.
“Well… I did everything you asked. I’ve even took it on with a keen enthusiasm!
Your people have turned their back on you, and I’ve done everything I can to show them they’ve gone off the rails. They’ve pulled down your altars, and have let this… this… Jezebel have her way. Ahab’s a spineless wimp, and so I’ve been the only one to stand up to them… to stand up for you.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question,” the voice replies again, “What are you doing here?”
Elijah sighed and looked at his feet. “I did all this, I did all that you asked… I’ve shown them the wonders of your power, and it hasn’t made a lick of difference. Nobody seems to care anymore, and now they’re out to kill me!”
Elijah had succeeded it seems in every way… he tried his absolute best, he even delivered the goods. Yet he felt that even his best wasn’t good enough. Things were still the same, it didn’t seem to make a difference. Burnout…
It’s not just people who feel burnout… congregations can and often do. The original passion and fire that a congregation may have had seems to have waned from those past glory days. We are left celebrating anniversaries of what once was, but don’t really have a sense for where we’re going. Our mission becomes less focused on what God is calling us to be, and more on preserving the institution… but really, when we look at it, that’s congregational burnout.
Last year, we celebrated 50 years as a congregation. I think it was a healthy for us to look at where we began, and how far we’ve come. Now that our 50th anniversary is past, we have a harder time looking forward… to trust that God is going to work even more powerfully in the future, and to be willing to be a part of that.
“Let me show you something,” the voice says to Elijah.
What follows is the spectacular lightshow… the natural spectacle of mountain-shattering wind, earthquakes, searing fire… the kind of thing you would expect from Mount St. Helens. It’s also the kind of thing that we have come to expect from God, big and spectacular… but here’s the rub. In the midst of the boom and crash, God isn’t in those things. God is not in the wind… God is not in the earthquakes… God is not amidst the fire… God is not where we expect.
After all of the smoke, flame, and shattered rocks there is nothing… just silence…
In the silence of that moment, Elijah begins to realize something…
It isn’t in the spectacular displays that we find God… but somewhere far more personal far more deep. The changes and difference that Elijah was hoping for is something that will take more than simply a spectacular lightshow to get people to change. After all, real, genuine change happens from within…
In the end, Elijah realizes that God isn’t in those big flashy shows… God isn’t in those places that we might expect… God’s vision is far longer reaching than any of us expect.
With this new affirmation, God re-commissions Elijah, and he returns to his work as a prophet. This time, Elijah knows full-well that he will not see the end result of his own work… but he realizes that he is part of setting something up for the future… something that will last beyond his own lifetime. He will find a successor, he will anoint a competing king who will hold Ahab and Jezebel to account. He will pave the way for a line of prophets who will continue to hold Israel to account, and who will speak of the hope of God in times of great darkness.
Elijah was burned out because he thought that he wasn’t making a difference… that no matter what he did, or how big a show he was able to put on, that nobody seemed to care. In his experience and re-commissioning at Mount Horeb, Elijah learned the lesson that maybe all of us need to… we may not see the end result or the difference that we make in life. God is never quite where we expect, but does have things under control.
So now, the question for us, is “what are we doing here?”
In our congregational health survey that we did earlier this year, as I mentioned before the one area that we collectively need to work on is “Passionate Spirituality.” Not surprising. We’re Presbyterian… we don’t get passionate about anything… or so the joke goes. I can speak of my own level of comfort, or rather, discomfort after some bad experiences as a teenager with a Pentecostal-style churches. It was bad enough that if that had been my only experience of church, I would not be standing in this pulpit today. So when I first heard “Passionate Spirituality” I really had to come to grips with what that meant…
For those of you who were at the workshop in June, Passionate Spirituality is not about how outwardly expressive we are… Our congregational development officer John-Peter Smit reminded us that this doesn’t mean we’re supposed to turn into Pentecostals… On one level, Passionate Spirituality is about how well we answer the very same question that God asks Elijah in this morning’s story from 1st Kings.
“What are you doing here?”
One of the revealing things about the survey is that as a congregation, one of the things we are not very good at is answering that basic, fundamental question… “What are you doing here?”
The question on the survey was a response to the statement: “I can easily explain why I come to the worship service.” Judging from how things came back in the compiled results, most of us answered either “rarely” or “not at all.” What does this mean? It means we have work to do.
This is both a challenge for us personally, but also for us as a community of faith. That if we cannot figure out why we are here in the first place, then how can we as a community expect others to join us? If we are going to grow as a congregation, we really need to take hold of God’s question to Elijah, and trust that God is going to be here with us in years to come. Because whether we believe it or not, God is already up to something…
As Elijah learns… God is up to something with some very long-term views. It was true then, it’s true now… that God is calling us to something even more profound and wonderful... we’re just not sure what it is yet. This story reminds us that God is constantly with us... but not in the spectacular great displays... but is with us, quietly reassuring and renewing us... and is most definitely there calling us into the future, rather than to dwell on past glories. Learning a lesson from Elijah, that our energy, our passion for doing God’s work comes out of trusting that God is indeed here in our midst.
Amen.
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