June 22, 2025 Sermon
Sermon title: “The Still, Small Voice”
Scripture: I Kings 19:1-15a
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 42, Galatians 3:23-29, and Luke 8:26-39.)
1 Kings 19:1-15a
Elijah Flees from Jezebel
1Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. 4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. 9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10He answered, “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.”
Elijah Meets God at Horeb
11He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14He answered, “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.” 15Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.
The sermon title is “The Still, Small, Voice,” and the Scripture is from the Old Testament and talks about the prophet Elijah. For me, there is something so very compelling about The Still, Small Voice. In our first hymn this morning, we even sang the words of John Greenleaf Whittier, who says, “Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire.” But the Scripture from I Kings 19 seems to suggest that God doesn’t always speak in the Crash, Boom, Bang. Sometimes he speaks in a really quiet voice. And I must admit, I really wanted to preach about that still, small voice! There is much more to say about the great prophet Elijah - but the fact that the concept of the Still, Small Voice makes its appearance this early in the Old Testament seems particularly significant.
Elijah was running for his life because of events that happened earlier. Here is a brief synopsis of what led up to his running away. It’s from a sermon source from the internet. “The kingdom of Israel continued to suffer from having no water. King Ahab told the people to follow a false god named Baal. (Sidebar: the Israelites were constantly tempted to follow false gods, and Baal was one of them. King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel had turned away from Israel’s God, and they urged the people to do the same.)
The Lord sent the prophet Elijah to meet Ahab. Elijah invited all the people to the top of a mountain. He invited the king and his priests to a challenge to see whether the Lord or Baal was the true God. Elijah explained the challenge. He and the priests would sacrifice a bull on an altar, but they would not light a fire themselves. Instead, the priests would pray to Baal to start a fire. Then Elijah would pray to the Lord to start a fire. Elijah knew that only the true God would start the fire.
The priests of Baal prayed to their god from morning until noon, but nothing happened. Elijah joked with them and said their god Baal must be asleep. (Note: the translator may have cleaned this up a little. What Elijah may have suggested is that Baal was relieving himself in the bathroom!)
The priests grew angry, jumped on the altar, and shouted into the evening. They hoped their god would answer, but there was still no fire. Then it was Elijah’s turn. He built an altar to the Lord, dug a trench around the altar, and prepared the sacrifice. Elijah asked the people to fill four barrels of water and pour them onto the wood of his altar three times. Water soaked the wood and the altar. It filled the whole trench. Elijah prayed to the Lord to show the true God’s power. The Lord’s fire came down and consumed the sacrifice, wood, stones, and water. The people knew that Elijah’s God was the true God. Elijah prayed that the drought would end, and the Lord sent rain.”
Elijah was not only successful in his challenge of the priests of Baal. He also killed them all with the sword after he won! We read about that this morning as he fled the wrath of Jezebel. (The Old Testament can be violent, as we heard that Elijah was!) But one of the things that makes Elijah appealing is his vulnerability, and he even hoped God would let him die! But God wasn’t finished with him yet, as he was not finished with Jonah, who also hoped to lie down and die! The commentator Graeme Auld points out that LOTS of us have prayed that prayer, maybe without quite saying the words: “Oh Lord, please let me NOT wake up in the morning.” Says Mr. Auld, “Elijah’s first need was simply care and food. (And so, it is with most of those who ask for God’s release.)” We heard the word “angel” in today’s reading. Usually that word means “messenger,” even though we sometimes try to make it more than that. The point is that it is GOD’s activity, and whoever God sends is not really important. The point is that GOD initiated the activity.
Now perhaps the reason I felt called to preach this sermon on the Still, Small Voice. The Hebrew text tries to describe the experience but finds it hard to put into words. Says commentator Graeme Auld, “the Hebrew means ‘a voice (or sound) of fine (or thin) silence (or quietness).’ It is that pregnant silence in which one can hear the proverbial pin drop - and yet (much more important) in which one feels oneself challenged and knows one has been addressed. It is that total yet audible stillness which is for many a necessary part of communion with God. We are familiar enough with the witness of spiritual giants and faithful mystics who have testified that their most intimate experience of God has occurred in the peace and silence that have followed long privation or intense struggle. Silence is an important element in real worship, including public worship. It is so vital alongside its words and music and action, and yet so seldom properly provided for.” Amen.
Pastor Skip
