The Lord of Silence - A Sermon for Pentecost 4, Proper 7C, Ordinary 12C

My sermon for Sunday, June 24, 2007  was based on the following scriptures:  1 Kings 19:1-18, Psalms 42, Isaiah 65:1-9, Galatians 3:23-29, and Luke 8:26-39.  These can be read in full by clicking here.

My thanks to my colleagues on Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary E-mail Discussion List: Jim McCrea, Beth Johnston, and especially Frank Fisher (to whom I am especially indebted for the sections on Elijah and the demoniac).

Below is an excerpt.  If you want to read more, then click here.

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Claude and Myrnie Hart are salt of the earth kind of people.
There were among the very first church members I met when I moved to Southern Lancaster County to become the pastor of Mt. Hope UMC.
Though I had served two years as an associate pastor at St. Mark’s,
a large suburban church outside Trenton, NJ,
and had a year of experience as a student minister at the Wesley Foundation at EKU, this was my first solo church.
Naturally, I was a little nervous and worried and anxious about how things would go. But I needn’t have been.
Claude and Myrnie took me under their wings almost immediately.
How do you like it out here in the country,
Myrnie asked me shortly after I had settled in.
And after having spent the last two years in New Jersey,
this old country boy from Kentucky had to admit that he liked it just fine.

In 1988 the Harts were already in their seventies,
but they were both still very active.
They had a huge vegetable garden and a small orchard behind their home.
I never lacked for fresh produce in the summer and fall.
Further, they invited me over to their home for dinner almost every other week or so.
Myrnie was Pennsylvania Dutch through and through,
and the meals she served were evidence of this.
They were always quite tasty,
even if the vegetables were a little overcooked for my taste.

I did make one major mistake when dining at their home once.
Myrnie served up some of her custard pie for dessert one evening.
To be blunt, it was nasty.
Much too eggy tasting for me - kinda like eating a very sweet scrambled egg mousse in a crust, without, however, the moussey goodness.
Of course I didn’t tell her that.
I told her it was delicious.
Imagine my chagrin then that from that meal on, whenever I ate at the Harts,
I was always served another piece of Myrnie’s delicious custard pie.

This, however, did not keep me away from the Harts.
Once or twice a week I would stop by their home and sit in their living room or out on the front porch swings and shoot the breeze with them.
I especially like to talk religion and church and theology with Claude.
He knew his Bible, was as sharp as a tack, and had a keen mind for details.
Claude had taught Sunday School for almost 40 years by then,
and he was the very definition of Christian, at least to me.
What I especially like about him was his ability to give voice,
not only to the certainties of his faith,
but also to the doubts he had.
One evening, while on the front porch,
watching the Sun go down after our supper and another slice of Myrnie’s custard pie,
Claude leaned toward me in the silence and said,
“You know, I’ve only asked God for two things in my life.
When my first boy was born,
all I asked was that he be healthy.
That was my only prayer.
But he when he was born,
we found out that he would be severely mentally and physically handicapped for his entire life.
At that time the only thing to do was to put him in an institution.
That’s what everyone did back then,
and we did it too.
He’s still there today.
The only other time I asked God for something was when my youngest boy was sent over to Vietnam.
All I wanted was for him to come back home alive.
This was my prayer for months,
until the day the soldiers drove down the road and pulled into my driveway and told me that he had been killed in action.”

After his confession, we sat in silence.
What more could be said, and what could I possibly say that would add anything to what Claude had just confided to me,
his young, inexperienced, still wet behind the ears, pastor?
After all, here was a man who had experienced a most profound disappointment with God,
and yet he had continued to serve this God for decades afterwards.
Sometimes silence  is the best, the most eloquent, response we can give.
To sit still, to be silent, and to let God enter into the silence in his own good time and way.

Of course, it took awhile for Elijah to come to this realization.
He is filled with disappointment, despair, and more than a little anger.
You see, God has let him down,
and now on top of all these other devastating emotions,
Elijah now also fears for his life.

At first it was merely a fear of Queen Jezebel.
For her husband King Ahab had told her how he’d killed Baal’s prophets.
Not being one to overlook a little thing like that,
she’d sent the prophet a fairly blunt message.
“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.”

Knowing the extent of Jezebel’s power, Elijah believed her threat.
So away he went into the wilderness.
But he didn’t go quietly.
For suddenly all he’d been through,
combined with his uncertain future,
became a bit too much to handle.
So, being the mighty servant of God he was,
he did what came naturally to him . . . he started to whine.
“It is enough,” he cried, “Now,  O Lord, take away my life,
for I am no better than the prophets who’ve gone before me.”

As mentioned earlier, if you want to read more, then click here.

Technorati tags: 1 Kings 19:1-18, Psalms 42, Isaiah 65:1-9, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39, Elijah, Demoniac, demon possession, silence, sermon, lectionary, Pentecost 5, Proper7C, Ordinary 12C