The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 1 Kings 18:16b-39

In Christ Jesus, who cannot be overwhelmed, outnumbered, or overcome, dear fellow redeemed:

Elijah said to the people of Israel, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Which one would it be? The people did not answer. What made them go silent? Wasn’t it a simple question?

The people knew there was something special about Elijah. They had almost certainly heard that he had told King Ahab there would be no rain in the land until Elijah gave the word. Now three and a half years had passed with no rain; the land was in a severe drought. Shouldn’t that have been enough to show them that Elijah was a prophet of the true God?

But Elijah was not the king. Ahab was the king, and Queen Jezebel stood right by his side. Jezebel was not an Israelite; she was from Sidon. And in Sidon, the people worshiped the god Baal and the goddess Asherah. Baal was the Canaanite god of rain, and Asherah was associated with fertility. Ahab and Jezebel were so committed to this religion, that they supported 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.

So when Elijah told the people to choose one God or the other, the Lord or Baal, they did not want to go against Elijah, but they also didn’t want to face the wrath of Ahab (or rather Jezebel) by declaring that the Lord is God. It was safer, they thought, to keep their mouths shut. The prospect of following Elijah seemed much more dangerous than going along with the popular religion of the time. They weren’t interested in risking their lives or their place in society.

We can understand their hesitancy. It takes a special kind of courage to go against the status quo or to stand against the majority. When our beliefs or values are questioned by others, and they appeal to the fact that the vast majority believe differently than we do, this can cause us to have doubts. How can we be so sure we are right? How can so many others be wrong? Whether we are talking about the origin of the world, what is true or false, or what is good and bad, we hear many voices telling us that we don’t want to end up on the wrong side of history. Better to stick with the popular opinion, they say.

But evolution, for example, hardly entered people’s minds until Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species in 1859. That’s not that long ago. This theory wasn’t taught in public schools until about a hundred years ago. It didn’t become the majority opinion until relatively recently, and now we are told that we should accept the theory of evolution because that’s what the majority thinks. So many people can’t be wrong, can they?

But what about the much greater number of people throughout history who believed that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Don’t they count? Or what about the attempt to redefine marriage in our day? Should we go along with the current majority view and ignore the thousands of years of consensus about what marriage is and what it isn’t?

We will find ourselves on shaky ground if we chase after what is most popular, if we give in to the pressure of those in power, if we operate simply by saying or doing what seems best for us in the moment. Elijah’s question for the Israelites is still pertinent for us today: will we follow the Lord and His Word, or will we follow the path that is most advantageous for us in this world?

The answer should be simple: We will follow the God who created us, who sent His only Son to redeem us, who sent out the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith. But this is not always the answer we have given when our faith has been tested or when we have faced temptation to sin. Often we have taken the easy route, the path of least resistance, the way that would keep us from standing out too much or inviting the ridicule or wrath of our peers. When we were called to speak the truth, we went silent just like the people of Israel did.

I recently read a book about the Norwegian Lutherans in America, and at the time of the Norwegian church merger in 1917, the author said that nearly 95% of Norwegian Lutherans joined in the merger. The remaining 5% spread across the United States included the Saude and Jerico congregations. Members of our churches would not have done this unless they were certain they were standing on something more solid than popular opinion. They would not compromise the teaching of the Bible for the sake of unity. They stood firmly on the unchanging Word of God even when it affected their standing in the community.

Would we do the same today? Are we willing to say “no,” even when everyone else is saying “yes”? The courage to do this is built on the confidence that what God says in the Bible is the truth. Our beliefs are not based on our own private opinions; they are based entirely on the Word of God. The Bible is not my truth or your truth to take or leave as we please; it is God’s truth. Even when we find things in the Bible that challenge how we think and how we want to live, we stick with the Holy Bible.

Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Asherah was the Lord’s way of calling the people of Israel back to the Scriptures, back to the true faith. He is the One who established His chosen people from old father Abraham. He is the One who led His people Israel out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to the promised land of Canaan.

Elijah referred to the true God by the name He revealed to Moses at the burning bush, “I am who I am” (Exo. 3:14). In Hebrew, this name is Yahweh; and in English, the name is given as “Lord” in all capital letters. Elijah was saying that the Lord who made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and who led the people out of Egypt through Moses, is the Lord who even now would show His power through Elijah.

It was a bold statement. Elijah stood alone against the leaders of the land, 850 false prophets, and most of the people. One man against a mob. How could he alone be right? The prophets of Baal tried everything they could, but Baal didn’t answer. From morning to evening, they danced around their altar, cried out to their god, and cut themselves till the blood gushed out. But Baal sent no fire to burn up their sacrifice.

Now it was Elijah’s turn. He rebuilt the altar of the Lord, dug a trench around it, and placed the wood and the bull on it. Then he ordered the altar to be doused with water three times, so that everything was soaking wet. Then he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord sent fire from heaven that “consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” What else could the people say, but “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”

We might wish that the Lord would do something like this today, prove to our skeptical society that He is who the Bible says He is. But remember that many of those who watched Jesus perform miracle after miracle still rejected Him. Faith does not come through powerful signs; “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The Word of Christ is the message of what He has done to conquer our greatest enemies. What He did was more amazing than what God did through Elijah. Elijah seemed to be alone, but we will hear next week that God preserved 7,000 people who had not bowed their knees to Baal (1Ki. 19:18).

Jesus truly stood alone as He faced the sinfulness of the world, the dark powers of the devil, and the deep pit of death. Was Jesus really the one to follow? Many thought so for a while; they thought He could be their king. But by Good Friday, Jesus stood alone, with even His disciples forsaking Him. As the people saw Him condemned and crucified, they wondered about what could have been. What if Jesus had done things differently? What if He would have compromised somewhat? What if He had made political alliances with the right people? Then maybe He could have become the king they wanted. What a disappointment, they thought.

Jesus knew what the people wanted, but much more importantly, He knew what they needed. On Good Friday, He went forward in silence, not because He was afraid to speak the truth, and not because He had nothing to say. He went willingly to the cross—like a lamb that is led to the slaughter—to save you and me. He went to the cross to pay for our sins, for not speaking the truth when we should have, and for going against His Word by our words and actions. He did not take the easy path; He took the hardest one, the path of eternal punishment for all of our wrongs.

But how can we know that this was done for us? How can we know that Jesus made eternal satisfaction for all our sins? We know because on the third day, He rose from the dead. Only God could do that. Only God could win the victory over death itself. The prophets of Baal could neither make their false god burn up their offering nor save them from death. Only the true God can save. The true God is the God revealed on the pages of Holy Scripture.

He is not the God we expect. We expect a god who requires great things from us, who exacts payment from us before he will act—perhaps like the blood the prophets of Baal poured out. But the true God does not require the shedding of our blood; He saved us by the shedding of His blood. Jesus is the Lord of all heaven and earth, seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and bringing His blessings to us still now, even today, through His powerful Word and Sacraments. And so we worship Him by faithfully confessing, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God!”

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

+  +  +

(picture from the outdoor service at the parsonage)

(sermon audio not available this week)