8/8/21 “Interrupted by an Angel” by Nancy E. Petty

I Kings 19:4-8

When I think of a tree, I think of a towering oak tree like the ones down on Moore Square. Or the tall pines that sway and bend with the wind in my neighbor’s back yard. So when I read that Elijah took shelter and sat under a broom tree, the image in my mind is of one of those tall oaks, much like the one I sat under as a child at my grandparent’s house when I wanted to be alone. But as is the case with these biblical stories, the geography and landscape of ancient Israel is quite different from modern day North Carolina.

I didn’t know much, really anything, about broom trees until I started researching our lectionary text. While in my mind’s eye I had Elijah sitting under a tall oak, I learned that a broom tree is not so much a tree as it is a shrub. This so-called tree grows to around 6 feet tall and can provide shade to shelter someone from the scorching desert heat. In fact, it is mentioned in the Bible often as a place of shelter and sustenance. But it wasn’t just a place of shelter. The broom tree was also a source of fuel. Having roots and branches that burn hot, it could provide high-quality charcoal for fire. It also provided food in dire circumstances. Job speaks of men who, in extreme conditions, resorted to eating broom tree roots. “Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night. In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree.” (Job 30:3-4)

The broom tree play a significant role during the Israelites’ time in the desert with Moses. As the people wandered in the desert we read in various places that they camped at a place known for broom trees. My point in highlighting the broom tree is that the small details in these biblical stories are often pointing us to an important theological and spiritual aspect of the story. Any time we encounter a broom tree in these ancient stories we are being reminded of God’s provisions for us – shelter, shade, and sustenance - no small reminder.

“To set the stage, [for the text Chalice has read] in the preceding first three verses of 1 Kings 19, we are told that Ahab has reported to Jezebel all that Elijah did, and specifically that Elijah killed all the prophets with the sword. Jezebel’s response is to send a messenger to Elijah with a death threat that she vows will be fulfilled in one day. Elijah is afraid, flees for his life, and goes to Beersheba. I Kings 19:3 reminds us that Beersheba is under Judah’s control, which means that legally, it is beyond Jezebel’s reach.” (Commentary on 1 Kings 19:4-8, Sara Koenig)

We pick up the narrative in verse 4 which tells us that Elijah goes beyond Beersheba into the wilderness. In terms of geography, he is safe, but he is also in exile – far from what is familiar and comforting. It is there, under one of these broom trees, that we encounter a depressed Elijah. There in the desert, under a bush, Elijah begs God to let him die, telling God, “it is too much.” Maybe you, too, at some point in your life have felt the same. Maybe not begging God to let you die, but that feeling of “it’s just too much.” Elijah goes to sleep under the shade and shelter of the broom tree only for his rest to be interrupted by an angel. The angel touches Elijah, awakes him, and tells him to get up and eat. Sitting beside Elijah is a cake, we probably would call it a piece of bread, baked on a hot stone, and a jar of water. Elijah rises and eats and then goes back to sleep. We are not told how much time passes before, for a second time, Elijah’s sleep is again interrupted by the angel. Who this time says, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” The angel’s words this time point us back to Elijah’s words in verse 4 where he tells God his situation is “too much.” Elijah does as the angel instructs and he gets up and eats a second time.

I want to pause here for just a moment and spend some time with the angel that interrupted Elijah. Obviously, in this narrative the angel was sent to offer Elijah what he would need for the journey ahead. It seems God had more work for Elijah. The angel was sent with not only that message but with the provisions Elijah would need to carry on. This made me wonder about the angels that are being sent to us with the message, “there is more of God’s work to do,” and “here is what you need to sustain you for that work.” As I sat with this story, I realized that there are angels all around us interrupting our sleep telling us the journey is not over. God has more work for you to do.

I think about the environmental angels interrupting our sleep telling us there is more work to do. I think about our transgender family members nudging us from our sleep telling us there is more work to do. I can feel the voting rights angels tapping our shoulder telling us there is more work to do. The angels that work for minimum wage are shaking us from our slumber, interrupting us, telling us there is more work to do. As best I can tell, there are angels all around us, interrupting our privileged lives, telling us there is more work to do for God’s reign to come here on this earth.

Like Elijah, it is easy to get depressed, to run in fear from the problems before us, search out our broom tree, lie down and close our eyes. But God keeps calling us, interrupting us with angels, telling us to wake up and journey on. My next word to you, to me, to us might not be a popular word, but God’s response to prophetic burnout is: there is more work to do.

And that brings me to the part of this narrative that really caught my attention. The second part of verse 8 says, “then he [Elijah] went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.”

We know Horeb better by another name. It is none other than Mt. Sinai and like Moses before him, Elijah goes up the mountain…making a pilgrimage perhaps…to seek the wisdom of God. Once on the mountain, resting in the cave of the mountain, again an angel interrupts Elijah and tells him to “go out of the cave” that God is going to speak to him directly. Now when Moses was on the mountain and God came to him the mountain quaked and burned and smoked and blew. It’s the same mountain, but God’s approach with Elijah is different. Suddenly, it is the quiet…the kind of quiet where even the noises that are supposed to be there are not there. This time, God shows up in holy silence, and Elijah immediately recognizes the silence as God. Listen to that part of the story that was not included in our lectionary text.

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: and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Out of sheer silence, there is an exchange between Elijah and God. And at the end of the exchange, after Elijah recounts all he has done for God, which was a lot, God says to Elijah: “Go, return on your way…” and I will paraphrase the rest…“there is more work for you to do.” The call of the prophet is tough, hard work, work that is always before us. It is not always safe. It is demanding. It will carry you to stand out on Western Boulevard with a sign protesting the death penalty as Duane Adkinson did every week for years before his death. It will lead you to Washington, DC and get you arrested as Chalice found out this week. It will call you to do things that you never thought or dreamed you could do. It will invite you to risk things you never imagined you would risk.

Here’s the lesson of this narrative. When Elijah wears out with the work, when he is depressed and on the edge of burnout, God provides. God provides not only the nudge, but the nourishment that will be needed for the journey ahead. I love that phrase in the second half of verse 8 that says, “he [Elijah] went out in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights.” God gives us the strength – the spiritual strength – we need when the angels interrupt us with more work to do. And the angels are all around us right now interrupting us, reminding us not only of the work, but of the help they are here to offer.

The angels can’t afford for us to go to sleep under our broom trees, right now. There is too much prophetic work to do in this world, in this city, in our community. Sure we are in a pandemic and it’s hard to know how to do this work. But that’s part of the prophetic challenge. To figure out how to be God’s voice and God’s hands and God’s feet in this world, especially in this time and place. Even if we have to suspend our in-person worship and gatherings again because of this pandemic, the angels are still interrupting us telling us to get up for we still have work to do. Angels are all around us interrupting us. And God will provide what we need if we but only respond to the prophetic call to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly – to feed the hungry, to protect voting rights, to give the thirsty water, to advocate for a living wage in this country, to welcome the stranger, to fling wide open our doors to those who are oppressed and marginalized in our world, our nation, our community. Now is not the time to sleep under our broom tree. Now is the time to “go in your strength” – the strength that comes only from God, and be the Elijah’s of today. In so doing, God will provide all the sustenance we need.

Some days, I can feel as depressed as Elijah sitting under that broom tree. But without fail, an angel will interrupt me and remind me there is more work to do. Or I will hear that sheer silence and know that God is present, calling me/you/us to journey on. The good news this morning is that we go in the strength of the One who calls us and who provides for us – the one who created us, who calls us beloved, and lives inside of us. Know that that is your strength, and when the angels interrupt you, go in your strength to do the prophetic work of your faith.