Well, well, well
Ahab - searching like crazy
Nation in turmoil - no rain for 3 years
Jezebel back at the palace

Elijah proposes a test
Mt. Carmel - north, feel like it overlooks the whole country
Next to the Via Maris - international route connected East/West

High Places
idol worship
already pagan worship
neglected altar to YHWH

450 to Baal
400 to Asherah
…eat at Jezebel’s table
Paid for by the crown
vs. Elijah - having been provided for by another Sidonite woman

Detestable worship

Call to the people
Crown establishing false worship
Elijah
Biforcated hearts

God’s love
Mitral valve prolapse - valve too loose
Crying out for help on a toy phone

The Test
math - numbers, English - words is good
What is this testing?
not theology, not life results, not history
Who is real?

Elijah’s mocking
Deep thought, on a journey, sleeping, using the bathroom
Is your god even real?

Hab 2:18-20

“What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.” —Habakkuk 2:18-20

Elijah’s turn
Water - hard to come by
Baal’s speciality

Fire comes
Consumes all
Bull, Water, Stones

People see
Lord is God - Elijah’s name…life purpose

Elijah cuts out the cancer
Brings justice - ridding the people of God of those who’ve been demanding child sacrifice, breaking their marriages by inciting adultery, stealing their few crops

Then, God’s mercy rains down
Literally
Rain sweet rain

So many questions:

Who is God?
Patient and powerful

Where are we?
This ultimately doesn’t have the lasting effect we think it should have
At the end of this, minor chords
Only the exile

We, the people of God, need to hear this story
We, the church, are the people of God
Grafted into Abe
We have bifurcated hearts
Hear again Elijah’s question:
How long will you go limping between two different opinions?

Come near to me
Named stones
Consumed by fire

On us, these stones that Jesus is also making an offer to the world!
He’s the new and better Elijah - not us!

What is Jesus’ offer to the world?
Love

Worlds love?
self-interest, self-expression
fall in, fall out
Chaos - you have to get yours
Love is now self-expression
Vocation, Sexuality and friendship, identity, value

Self-expression of a self that is defined by its desires
Flat earth - what is actually real?

Problem of Pain…why do bad things happen?
Problem of Pleasure…why do good things happen?
What is beauty, truth, goodness, and love?

In this contest of Jesus vs. other false gods
Real vs. fake

We like Peter - Where else could we go?

World gives out bubble gum
Jesus offers himself
actual food and drink

Where are we?
Altar stones - Jesus is sending the fires of heaven
beauty and truth and goodness and love
Everyday the miracle happens
In every breath, the all-consuming fire is right there
Elijah’s gentle invitation, Come near to me
Stands as the small still voice that pierces every heart

May our lives by lifted up
May our Christian community be stacked together
May God’s fire
Truth, beauty, goodness, love
Consume us

That the world may know
Truth over falsehood
Food over bubble gum

Come to the table
Where we are fed
Where we are knitted together
Where we bear witness