Wilderness Surprise

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
June 20th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
Luke 8:26-39; I Kings 19:1-15a
“Wilderness Surprise”

As a people of faith we come to believe that our religious life is ultimately about comfort, certainty. This comfort and certainty focuses on the rhythm of our daily life, what we expect to happen in worship, and even to how we experience God in our daily lives. Any deviation from this routine can seem like an affront to very nature of God. When objections arise: “We have never done it that way before!” or the quiet disagreement that leads to behind the scenes organizing or the complete disengagement are really a struggle over a belief in the way God works. Unfortunately, despite our objections, the essence of our faith is not truly built on our desires and beliefs. However, I still believe that faith in God can bring comfort and certainty but it is never what we expect.
Elijah is exhausted and afraid. It is not exactly the picture of comfort and certainty. He has acted faithfully for God and now the Queen has placed a death sentence on his head. To save his life he runs for the wilderness and finally exhausted, physically and emotionally, lies down, begs to die, and falls into a deep sleep. No longer able to handle the direction his faithfulness has taken him Elijah is ready to let it all end.
It is finally when Elijah is fully vulnerable before God, when he is no longer the towering figure who brings down the prophets of Baal that something incredible happens. It is only when Elijah’s certainty of the ways of God come crashing down does God provides for his comfort and sustenance. But this is only the beginning of God exploding the categories of comfort and certainty.
As a people of the book, we should hear this story building up to God’s grand entrance. This journey into the wilderness begins much in the same way as Moses. Moses kills and Egyptian and runs into the wilderness and when he is exhausted it is the daughters of Jethro who provide for his needs. Moses’ whole world of comfort and certainty has come crashing down and it is only then that God provides. Each part of this story echoes something from the story of Moses. If we are not careful we too can fall into the trap of certainty and comfort believing that we know how this is going to work.
When God shows up with Moses, there is great fanfare. Burning bushes, smoke on the Mountain, earthquake, and great noise always let us know that God is on the scene. But there is where the certainty of Elijah is shattered. Expecting that God will make a grand appearance is where the certainty and comfort comes. However, Elijah seems to know that something is going on. God says; I will pass you by. So Elijah goes out and hears the mighty wind, feels the earthquake and sees the fire and realizes that God is not doing things the way God has done them before.
Some interpreters refer to this moment where God speaks as “Sheer silence.” When Elijah recognizes God’s presence in the silence he is coming face to face with what is often called: Silence rich with Holiness. It is a moment where there are no words, no sound but a moment filled with a clear confidence and certainty that God is present. The certainty and comfort that Elijah expected was fulfilled in this moment by the certainty that God is still God and the comfort that he was not alone, even in the wilderness places of life. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, this is the certainty and comfort of our faith and really everything else is up for change.
The disciples had learned their own form of comfort and certainty. Following Jesus was not without its challenges and changes, but as long as he was around, people were getting fed, healed and made clean. The religious establishment was not happy and the crowds just kept coming. But this day, Jesus takes them to the “other side.” The comfort of being in a place they knew and the certainty of the rhythm of life came crashing down on a trip to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Likewise, the people of Geresene had come to expect that life had a certainty and comfort in knowing that the crazy man lived in the place of death. The certainty and comfort so many had come to expect. Jesus really can bring healing for “those people too,” and even out of the places where we can only see death, God can bring new life.
When I went to Israel I wondered what it would be like to see the places so many people call holy. What was it going to be like to walk in this place that Jesus once walked and lived. As we travelled to the different holy sites I found my interest in actually being in those places was rather low. Each was wrapped in struggle, and conflict, and tradition that the historicity always seemed to be in doubt. But as a natural cynic – hopeful cynic is probably a better term – it was not a great let down.
I did not go expecting to come face to face with God or have some grand encounter with God. I had my own comfort and certainty about what the trip would be all about. But on one Saturday something happened. I do not really have the words to explain it but will do my best. There is a place in Jerusalem that is known as the Western Wall. I had the opportunity to travel there on two occasions. The first was on a Saturday, Sabbath.
By all appearances, this place is just a very large wall with very large stones where people place prayers and where Jewish tradition teaches that God’s presence resides. By the time I got to the wall, the idea that God’s presence could be contained or would reside in this place over others was not something I had taken to heart of frankly believed. As I came through the security checkpoint and around the corner I looked at this collection of stones and was confronted with what I can only say was a powerful presence that I could feel in every inch of my body. I left the group and walked down to within ten feet of the wall where I stopped. It was as if I could not move.
I do not remember hearing any noise around me and at that moment tears streamed down my face. They were not tears of sorrow or joy. In fact, I do not remember being overcome by emotion at all. I remember feeling a calmness and presence and then realizing it was time to go. What seemed like five minutes turned out to be forty-five! I did not come away from that experience with a new message or mission from God, but for the next few days I could not really let it go and after a while I believed it had something to do with being tired.
But, once again, my certainty and comfort came crashing down. Two days later I had the opportunity to go to the Dome of the Rock Mosque. In order to enter the holy site in the Muslim faith, you pass within ten feet of the stones of the western wall. As I wound my way of the security bridge I was rather excited to see this site and had honestly forgotten what had happened only two days earlier. As I turned the final corner I felt the same feeling that I had forgotten about from two days before. I looked through the small slits in the wood to see where I was and noticed that I was standing the same distance from the wall I had only two days earlier. But on this day, I did not get to pause because, for security reasons, there is no stopping on the way into the Dome of the Rock.
So what do I make of this? At the end of the trip I came home with the realization that I too am just as guilty at wallowing in my own expectations of certainty and comfort. I also came home with a renewed commitment to the ministry of Westminster – in case you were wondering. And I also begin to understand just a bit what it means to have a silence filled with holiness, to be surprised in the wilderness places of life to find out that God is providing comfort and certainty but not in the way I always expect or even fully appreciate.
So once again, these passages confront us with questions we too must wrestle with. Where are the places of your comfort and certainty? Where are you seeing only death without the expectation of life? Where are you so sure that you know better than others? Or where are the places where you have narrowed the power of God to be controlled by the thoughts of your own mind? I invite you to find places for silence, find places to quiet your mind and clear the clutter of expectations. Our calling in this place is not an easy one but it is one that will bring great joy and surprise. And it is my prayer that we let down the walls of our resistance, certainty, and expectations of comfort long enough to expect life when we are surrounded by death.