Sermon - Trinity V 2020 - Luke 5:1-11 / 1 Kings 19:11-21

Elijah was a great prophet of the Lord, speaking the Word of God and performing great and mighty works of God. Now in his days there was a great drought. During this drought, we remember the days he spent with the widow of Zarephath and her son, where the jar of flour and jug of oil miraculously remained full for the duration of the drought. When the widow’s son became ill and died, Elijah raised him from the dead.

We remember Elijah who challenged 450 prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, in which the Lord consumed Elijah’s burnt offering while the 450 Baal prophets’ burnt offering remained untouched. Elijah mocked Baal and those prophets and they were all slaughtered that day. Afterwards, God sent rain and ended their drought.

In spite of all of those great works God performed through Elijah, he was no less a sinner and afflicted with doubts and fears. When wicked queen Jezebel heard that her Baal prophets had been bested and slaughtered by Elijah, she swore to have him killed. Elijah, afraid for his life, fled from her. He went into the wilderness, laid down under a tree, and prayed to God in his despair: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Yet the Lord ministered to his servant and sent an angel to feed him before he went to Mt. Horeb (also known as Mt. Sinai), where the Lord and Elijah spoke. The Lord said to him, “What are you doing here Elijah?” and Elijah replied, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Well, Elijah was wrong on pretty much all accounts. While the majority of Israel had forsaken God’s covenant, there were still some who had remained faithful; God mentions 7,000 who had never worshiped Baal, this is only counting those in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, not counting those in the Southern Kingdom who currently had a good king. And Elijah wasn’t the only faithful person left, there were other prophets of the Lord living in his day. The only one seeking to kill him was Jezebel, since many people had just spared him and killed the 450 Baal prophets instead!

Still, Elijah had become so focused on himself, so doubtful of the Lord, so full of depression and despair, that he wasn’t thinking clearly. So the Lord counseled Elijah and revealed Himself to him on Mt. Horeb. “And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks 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 the sound of a low whisper.”

In the sound of that still small voice, a low whisper, the Lord was present. Thus God made it manifest to Elijah that though God may reveal Himself in strong winds, earthquakes, and fires, great and showy events, that’s not how God ordinarily makes Himself known. God's not usually found in the extravaganices and finieries of this life, but in the still small voice of the Gospel, which is worth more than all the world.

Like Elijah, Christians today can often feel despondent and depressed at the state of things in our country. Just thirty years ago our sanctuaries were much fuller than they are today, and 50-60 years ago they were even fuller still! We’ve been in a rapid decline ever since.

Not only has there been a steep dropoff in our churches, but our culture itself seems to be corroding away, bowing down and kissing the feet of Baal. The books we read (if we still read) are poorly written and lacking in creativity. No longer do we make music, we simply consume the stuff pumped out by a corporate machine. The movies we watch are poorly done remakes of okay remakes, and the cartoons our children watch are filled with as much sodomy as adult shows. Our parks, playgrounds, and picnic houses have sat mostly empty in communities which have been practicing social distancing for years.

It’s really tempting to follow after Elijah, lie down under a tree, and wish it all over. “All right God, I’m done with it all! Take away my life, please! Enough!”

So our Lord, chastising and encouraging us, would remind us today that He doesn’t always (or even usually) reveal Himself to us during extravagant and wealthy times, but often in times when His people are seemingly outnumbered and in decline. Consider, for instance, the greatest event in human history doesn’t take place in a moment of extravagance, but in the bloody, filthy, beaten spit-covered body of Christ on the cross, set on a hill called the place of the skull, Golgotha. In that miserable moment in history, the faithful inherited the kingdom of heaven.

 It’s tempting to romanticise the past, to long for an era which doesn’t belong to us anymore. But the fact is we live right now and we live right here, perhaps as a minority who may never become more than what we are right now. Yet we have the same treasure belonging to Christians throughout all generations: the still small voice, the low whisper, of the Gospel.

The Word of God is our great heritage and shall be ours forever! We may not have the miracles of Elijah or the Apostles, we may not have the attendance and wealth of a couple generations ago, we may not have the arts and high culture of past centuries, but we have the Gospel, God’s Word, forgiveness and life eternal, and that is more than enough for us. 

That low whisper was enough for Elijah, as it awakened him from his despondency to continue in God’s ministry prepared for him to do. That small voice was enough for Elisha, as he left all he had to become Elijah’s successor. That simple Word was enough for Peter, James, and John to go back out to sea and put out their fishing nets after just getting done working all night. 

That plain Word of God is enough for us today as well, indeed it is more than enough. Because of the net of God’s Word we have all been brought into this boat of the church today. That Word was attached to some water and we were baptized; it was spoken by our parents and our pastors and we were catechized and absolved; it’s attached to some bread and wine which we eat and drink as Christ’s body and blood. That little Word became flesh in the person of Jesus and was sacrificed for the salvation of the world.

Oh it may not look like much, but it’s a treasure beyond compare! What the woke world sees as strange and backwards, outdated and boring, is truly the most important thing happening in any of our lives. Without the Word of God and His grace, without the prayers of the faithful, any semblance of culture would cease to exist and indeed this whole world would be burned up in an instant!

Here in Christ’s poor little church we have everything and we are the curators of our world’s culture. We are those who still make music filled with God’s Word. We are those who aren’t socially distantanced because we commune with God and one another. We rejoice and celebrate true beauty. We retain the best poetry the world has ever known in our Psalms and hymns. We have the finest literary works read aloud weekly and daily in our homes. The height of the world’s finest culture dwells wherever the faithful continue to hear the still small voice of the Gospel.

This low whisper of the Gospel is your greatest treasure in this life, of far more value than any worldly treasure and glory. Elisha made this clear when he sacrificed his two oxen and their yokes and left everything and followed Elijah. In the ancient world pretty much everyone worked the land just with their hands, because horse or oxen required you to have more land than any ordinary person could afford. Elisha had at least two if not two dozen oxen and he sacrificed two of them, leaving his worldly wealth, because God’s Word was greater.

Peter, James, and John left their huge catch of fish, their boats and employees, their entire livelihoods and all of their very great wealth, in order to follow Jesus because He and His Word were greater. The same ought to be true for every Christian. All of the extravagances and finieries of this life aren’t worth comparing to the surpassing riches of God’s grace in Christ Jesus revealed to us in His Word. 

Let us all join in the Psalm of Asaph: “Lord, if I have you alone, then I expect nothing of heaven and earth. Though both my body and soul were to languish, You, God, are still ever the comfort and portion of my heart.” God, the low whisper of His Word, and the grace of Christ, truly is our treasure.