Be still and know that I am God.

Today we heard a story about Elijah, a figure from the history of ancient Israel. Elijah was one of Israel’s first prophets. Prophets were those who felt God’s call to speak out when people were being led astray, or the rulers of Israel acted out of self-interest rather than faith.

Elijah spoke out against what he saw as the idolatry, and abuse of power by King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. Jezebel was the daughter of a foreign king, who used her influence to promote the worship of Baal, a god of the Canaanite people. Elijah’s protests greatly displeased the Queen. She threatened to kill him, and he fled from Israel in fear for his life.

He escaped to Judah, the southern half of the divided kingdom, no longer under the control of the King of Israel. He left his servant in a town called Beersheba, and journeyed alone into the wilderness. This may remind us of the story of Jesus in the wilderness we heard last Sunday. It also sounds like Moses, who went alone into the desert when he felt burdened with the demands of leading his people.

 After a day in the wilderness Elijah was ready to give up. He sat in the shade of a broom bush, and prayed he might die. He fell asleep, and when he awoke there was an angel with him, and there was also fresh bread and water. Again, this echoes the story of Moses guiding the Israelites across the desert, and God providing manna to eat, and springs of water to drink. It also points ahead to Jesus in the wilderness, hungry, and tempted to turn stones into bread.

Elijah was visited twice by this nurturing angel, who fed and watered him until he was well enough to travel. He then journeyed 40 days and nights. That number reminds us of both Moses and Jesus.  He reached Mount Horeb. That’s another name for Mount Sinai, which was where Moses went to talk with God and receive the commandments. Elijah found a cave, and spent the night on the mountain. He heard a voice which sent him out of the cave, to stand on the mountain, because God was about to pass by.

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. …Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah told God about the hardships he had endured in his work as a prophet. He told God about the death threats against him. It’s hard to know what Elijah thought would happen next. But if he was expecting God to suddenly lift away his burden, solve his problems, and make everything better, that is not what happens.

Essentially, the message that Elijah heard that day, after the powerful wind, after the earthquake, and after the fire, was a still small, gentle voice asking him, “What are you doing here, Elijah? “ The quiet voice tells Elijah to go back where he came from, and carry on. God would be with him, but he had to carry on.

I was on the phone this week with someone who’s had a long struggle with depression. After chatting with her for a few minutes, something in her voice led me to ask, “How are you?”

“Not very good, today, “she answered. “I am having one of my dark days.”

She went on to describe the storms in her life. She talked about her one of her grown children, and some hurtful words they’d recently exchanged. She described feeling let down by her son, and her deep longing for things to be better between them.

More than once I reminded myself to just listen, and to not take sides, as she told her version of life in her family. I also told myself, she does not need me to try to fix anything with words. As I listened to her I prayed for her, that she would know that she is not alone, that God is with her, even when the wind and the waves knock her off her feet.

An amazing thing happened. It wasn’t like the storms in her life just magically dissipated, and everything was all better. But it was still remarkable. She repeated something she had said earlier, “This is one of my dark days.”

Then she said, “Every once in a while I have a day like this, when it seems like too much. I’ve learned they don’t last. I will live through it, and tomorrow things will feel a bit brighter.”

I told her this reminded me of something I heard in an interview with the Benedictine nun Joan Chittister, on the subject of hope.  Sister Joan said hope is confidence that comes from having lived through hard times and come out the other end, changed by the experience, but still alive.

I have an old friend who is a fire-fighter. Years ago he told me about the first time he had to go into a simulated fire.  Actually it wasn’t really a simulation- more like a controlled burn. The fire college has a training building in which they set a real fire, with real clouds of toxic smoke. My friend said it wasn’t until he was in the midst of the blaze that he really understood why it made sense to risk injury in such an exercise. He needed to apply what he had learned, about how to act in the situation. He needed to have the personal experience of going in, and coming back out again.

The Gospel story about a storm on Lake Galilee was collected by early followers of Jesus, and re-told long after his earthly life. The person who first wrote it down was not there, to be rocked by waves, and blown about by wind. The account passed through generations of story tellers before being committed to a page. It is hard to know what was in the hearts of the disciples who were in the boat with Jesus. What did it mean to them?

One interpretation is that it was about a time when Jesus’ friends saw something extraordinary in him- he could calm a storming sea.  Scholars refer to “signs” stories, remembered and re-told because of what they reveal about Jesus. In this way of thinking, the important moment was when Jesus commanded the waves and wind. A message we might take away is that we can depend on Jesus to protect us from all the scary things.  But I am not sure about that one.

We have probably all heard about people who prayed for, and received miraculous cures, or last minute rescues from disaster. Most of us also know someone who prayed to God to take away the bad things, but were disappointed when their storm was not suddenly calmed. I am sure there will be many of both kinds of stories that come out of the terrible tornadoes that ravaged the American Midwest this weekend.

Another interpretation of the Gospel story is more like the experience of my friend on the phone, who tells herself, “I have lived through storms before, so I trust that I will make it through.”

It could be that early followers of Jesus used the story to remind each other that no matter how rough things get, storms don’t last forever. In this case, the key to the story would be the image of Jesus, asleep in the boat. He remained calm, when others were overwhelmed with fear and despair.

We can’t make ourselves be like Jesus who, with a few words, can cause waters to be still, and winds to cease blowing. We shouldn’t expect that faith in God will be for us a magical umbrella that shields us from the storms of real life. But we can learn to be a bit more like Jesus who is calm on the inside, even in the midst of the chaos around him. We can learn to find peace within, no matter what happens, because God is with us. Amen

What do we focus on?

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an award-winning novel in the children’s literature category, written by Brian Selznick. Director Martin Scorsese made into a movie, with the shorter title, Hugo. The story is about a 12 year old boy who is orphaned, and taken in by his uncle, a shady character who maintains all the clocks in a Paris train station. When the uncle disappears, Hugo finds himself alone. He lives in the secret passages and rooms behind all the clocks, and carries on his uncle’s work, living in the shadows of the grand old station.

Hugo becomes friends with a girl named Isabelle, who is also an orphan. Isabelle is cared for by her god-parents, who make their living selling hand-made mechanical toys at a small booth in the train station. Hugo is drawn to the booth, and winds up working there, repairing broken toys. He finds it to be very much like fixing clocks. The toy booth is also a place where he finds parts he can use to fix an automaton, a mechanical figure built to look and act like a human. The automaton was something Hugo’s father was working on before he died.

Clocks, and other intricately designed machines are important to Hugo, and provide a way for him to understand life. In a conversation with Isabelle, Hugo asked, “Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason? They are built to make you laugh, like the mouse here, or to tell the time, like clocks, or to fill you with wonder, like the automaton. Maybe that’s why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn’t able to do what it was meant to do.”

Isabelle picked up the mouse, wound it again, and set it down.

“Maybe it’s the same with people, “Hugo continued. “If you lose your purpose… it’s like you’re broken.”

In the next scene in the novel, Hugo brings Isabelle up a tall staircase, and then up a ladder, to show her the view through the glass face of a clock in a tower atop the train station, that overlooks the city.

I have not seen the movie yet, but that short clip I found on Youtube leaves me with the feeling that I would enjoy it.  I read the book this week. I bought it for our son Joel, and he loved it, and devoured it in two days. When he was done, I did the same.

One of the themes running through the book like a living stream, like those rivers of light that we saw illuminating the Paris streets, is that every person has a purpose. I don’t want to spoil the novel for you, but I will say that there are several characters who seem lost and forlorn, until they discover, or re-cover, the purpose for their lives. It did my heart good that in most cases, the purpose discovered involved using their talents and creativity to help others.

God creates each of us with gifts and talents for us to develop, and with special purpose. There are things that each of us have been lovingly designed, and created to do, that are just for us. As the movie says- there are no extra parts in the machine. We are all necessary to God’s hopes and dreams.

Each of us need help in knowing, and staying true to our purpose. Each of us can get lost or confused, and wander away from who and what we are meant to be. Each of us may struggle to understand what our lives are for. It calls for careful and prayerful listening, and watching for the clues and hints that God sends our way. It calls for paying attention to the times when we feel the most alive. These are often good indicators of what God has in mind.

We may at times resist, avoid, or ignore our purpose in life. We may allow ourselves to be distracted, or tempted away from what God envisions for us. There is wisdom in having a season like Lent every year, a time when we can re-examine our lives, and consider whether we need to make changes, that help us get more on track.

Originally, Lent was devised as a time of preparation for those who planned to formally join the church at Easter. From around the 3^rd or 4^th century after the earthly life of Jesus, new members would be baptised on Easter Sunday morning. They would have spent the 40 days leading up to Easter in intense prayer, and receiving instruction in the faith. This time of preparation was not just for those who would be baptised. All members of the congregation were encouraged to spend this time before Easter in prayer, and fasting, to renew their spiritual commitments. The hope was that the whole congregation would be doing their best to live up to its promise to be the hands and feet, the living body of Christ in the world.

This was a forty day period, not counting the Sundays, which were always meant to be joyful celebrations. The 40 day length was based on the time Jesus spent in the desert, after he was baptised, and before he began his public ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. This time is often looked at as Jesus’ time to get focussed, and to connect deeply with the purpose of his life.

Last year during Lent I offered the opportunity to be part of a 6 week Ex-Prayer-iment. We ended up having two separate classes, and more than 20 people who did daily readings and prayers, and met together once a week. I still hear from people who were in those classes about how much it meant to them.

This year I am offering an evening group that will meet for 6 consecutive Tuesdays, beginning this Tuesday at 7:30 pm.  At each session we will study one of the Bible readings for the following Sunday. We will also have time to learn about one of the classic Christian spiritual practices that have helped people grow in their awareness of God.

You are invited to come to all 6 Tuesday evenings. I know that not everyone will be able to do that, and that’s okay. The things we talk about each week will stand on their own, and not depend on the previous classes.  There is no book to buy, and I will give out copies of anything we need to read.

I look forward to this time of prayerful study, and deeper connection with God. Amen