"Wade in the Wadi"

Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
First Congregational UCC, Manhattan, KS
May 20, 2016
Sermon Text - 1 Kings 17:1-7

I want to thank Scott for sharing his testimony with us this morning. A few weeks ago, at the youth group’s variety show, he blew me away when he offered his art and I knew I wanted to share it during worship sometime soon. When the Romans text about finding hope through adversity came up in the Lectionary, I knew it was the perfect fit. Thank you, Scott.

The topic of somehow struggling to find hope on the other side or - or perhaps even in the midst of - suffering is on my mind a lot these days. Last month, I met with an awesome group of LGBT students and allies on campus. They asked me to come and talk with them about Christianity and how my faith relates to sexual orientation and gender identity. We had a wonderful back-and-forth conversation. Towards the end, one of the students asked me, “When everything seems like it's such a mess, how do you stay hopeful that things will ever get better?”

I wanted to have an easy answer for this person. But I didn't. Instead, I told them the truth: that sometimes I find it really hard to find hope. And that one of the reasons I have to keep coming to church and engaging with other Christians is that I need to keep coming back to our sacred texts and to all of you in order to keep my head and spirit in the game.

Lately, to live in Manhattan, KS, is to feel a bit like a shadow is hanging over us all the time. The presidential election looms in the distance and you just know people are going to continue to be bolder with their hate-speech as the election ramps up. The never-ending attacks on marginalized groups by state governments all over the country is a mess. I hear people say, “Isn't it silly that we’re arguing over bathrooms?” Heck, I've said that. It IS silly. But underneath all the arguing over bathrooms lie the real issues of intolerance, discrimination, and hatred. People who are transgender deal with microaggressions and flat-out-aggressions all day long. They are constantly re-evaluating their safety. Too many have died or have taken their own lives. Lives that are beloved and precious to God. It goes way beyond “silly debates” about bathrooms.

And I know I'm not the only one who breathes a sigh of relief when the Kansas legislative session wraps up. Like, “Oh, good. They can't do any more damage until next year.” These days, I frequently find myself in conversations with people who are actively trying to find a way to get out of Kansas or wish they could. As a fifth-generation Kansan, this breaks my heart. I look around this building that has been here since the 1850s when our faith ancestors came to this state seeking freedom for those who were enslaved and I can't help but feel like good ol’ Rev. Blood is just shaking his head from the Great Beyond. What has our state come to?

For the past week or so and into the foreseeable future, my phone tells me there are thunderstorms forecast every single day. And yet the Lectionary sends us this week the story of a prophet who came in the midst of a drought. Water is funny like that….we need just the right amount. Too much and we run for cover. Too little and life itself seems to dry up.

Elijah comes to the people of Israel in the midst of a drought. Not just any drought, mind. An act-of-God drought. Ugh. I know. I don't like to think of God as one who sends punishments. I prefer to think of God as the one who causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rains on the righteous and the unrighteous. That’s the Gospel of Matthew, by the way.

But in the book of 1 Kings, the author had a different understanding of God. It’s very simple: “You do good, you get good. You do bad, you get bad.”

Now, although I'm not particularly keen on this understanding of God, I can certainly see where it comes from. In the First Testament in particular, the people often believed they were being punished because they had evil Kings. And although I don't think God sends droughts when we elect incompetent leaders, I do think that when you make choices like exempting all kinds of people from paying taxes, revenue falls short, roads start to crumble, and schools have no money. Cause and effect. Bad governance does often make us wonder if someone is standing behind a curtain finding new ways to make life more challenging. I just happen to understand it more as natural consequences instead of God sending a drought.

But in 1 Kings, it's clear that the author believed God was sending a drought - a really bad one. So bad, in fact, that we are told there won't even be any DEW for years. Why is God so mad? God is mad at King Ahab. Ahab who “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, more so than ALL who were before him.” A bad leader. A really bad leader.

The author of 1 Kings has given us a loooooong list of leaders. Some awful, some decent, some middling. Something about reading that list brings me comfort. Just knowing that the arc of history is long and that good leaders often follow terrible ones and vice versa….I dunno. It makes me calm down a bit when I can remember that our lives are about so much more than the people who lead us and that our worth doesn't change every two to four years with the election cycle.

Another thing that brings me comfort and hope is Elijah’s arrival. In the midst of the rule of King Ahab - a really bad King - God sends Elijah the Tishbite. We don’t know much about him, really. He appears out of nowhere, bringing the Word of God to the King. Now you have to realize just how incredibly stupid-brave this is. Kings hate receiving bad news. And sometimes they shoot the messenger.

But this is what it means to be a prophet. Prophecy is not about telling the future. Prophecy is about shining a light on injustice, speaking truth to power, standing up to those who are in control and speaking words they don't want to hear….and doing all of it with the hope that there is a possibility real change might yet occur.

The Elijah stories are some of my very favorite in all of scripture. This guy that we know nothing about who seemingly appears out of nowhere, boldly makes his entrance by bringing bad news to a bad King. There are many more theatrics to follow - and, fear not, we’re going to get to them later in the month of June. We’re going to be following Elijah, the one King Ahab called “troubler of Israel” for several weeks.

We’ll travel with him to the widow’s home in Zarephath and we will see the bag of flour and jug of oil that wouldn't run out - even in the midst of drought. We'll go with Elijah to the top of Mount Carmel, where he will stage a massive showdown with the King’s minions. And we’ll run alongside him as he flees the Queen, who wants his life, finding himself in the middle of nowhere. Desperate, at the end of his rope, ready to give up….only to find himself, once again, in the midst of God’s unfailing love. If you want to read ahead and get yourself ready for the rest of this sermon series, you will find all these stories in 1 Kings chapters 17-19.

But before all of that happens, there's this small moment before it all begins. On one hand, it may seem insignificant. Compared to all of the fireworks on Mount Carmel, it’s certainly not so glamorous. The Lectionary committee must have thought it didn't matter much, because they left it out when the picked the passages about Elijah.

But I wanted to include it, because I think it's awfully important. Before he traveled to bring and share hope with the widow in Zarephath, before climbing Mount Carmel for the showdown, before running for his life...Elijah has a conversation with God and God tells him, “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

A wadi is a place where water collects when there is plenty of runoff from ample rain. In a drought, it becomes dry, which is why Elijah is only able to stay at the wadi for a brief period of time before the water runs out. But it is the place God sends him as the troubles begin. After he tells King Ahab trouble is coming, God sends him to a place where he can be sustained and prepared for the work ahead. God sends him to a place where he can remember that the rains have come in the past….and where he can perhaps learn to have faith that they will come again in the future.

A wadi is the perfect place to spend time near the beginning of a drought. The wadi is God’s gift to the Prophet Elijah in the midst of hard times. We all have our own wadis, I suppose. Where are yours? Has God shown them to you? Have you traveled to them to get away from the drought-areas of your life? Have you shared these places of refuge with others who might need refreshment during a drought?

(Prayer)
God, in the midst of a drought, when leaders are hard to trust, and trouble feels close at hand, send us to the wadi. Help us to find those places of refuge and refreshment that we need to sustain us so that we can continue to do your work. Amen.