Tags
1 Kings 19:7, Community, Elijah, Holy Communion, Lord's Supper, Mercy, Mt. Carmel, Mt. Sinai, New beginnings, New life, Strength
Day 34
Friday in the fifth week of Lent
1 Kings 19:7
The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’
Elijah is in the wilderness. The queen has vowed to kill him. The crowd has risen up against the prophets of Baal following God’s triumphant showdown on Mt. Carmel, and now the queen vows revenge. It is the third year of a drought. Baal is (supposedly) the god of rain, but it is the God of the exodus and Sinai who has shut the heavens – and opened them again.
The queen’s threat is real. The prophet’s great victory seems turned to dust. The leaders of the nation do not turn from their idolatry. Elijah is on the run. He collapses and prays to be relieved of the burden of living. And there, in the wilderness, he is wakened by an angel with fresh bread and water. When he falls asleep, he is wakened again: ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’
The heavenly meal sustains him for forty days. It carries him to the mountain of God and his stunning encounter with God.
‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ The journey of life is never an easy one. Even those most charmed existences face the inevitable losses of the grave. Sometimes death strikes early, robbing us of loved ones. Sometimes it strikes the body, robbing us of health. Sometimes it strikes the family, breaking it into fragments. Death, that power at work in the world that cuts us off from all that is good and radiant, works its random and cruel work. A car accident. A stolen identity. A knee on the neck. A pandemic, a flood, a fire, destroying what years have built.
The journey of life is never easy. But in the wilderness, a messenger of God taps us on the shoulder and bids us rise to eat and drink. There is bread for us. Living bread. Life-giving, life-renewing, eternal bread, bearing to us mercy and grace, a divine compassion, a holy taste of the promised feast.
There is bread for us. And wine to share. A remembrance of perfect love poured out. A remembrance of a life laid down and taken up again. A taste of community. A promise for all the world.
‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ Each Sunday there is a tap on the shoulder and fresh bread and wine. A new beginning. An abiding mercy. Strength for the journey.
Living Bread, Welcome Arms,
companion on the way and our eternal home,
sustain us on the journey of life.
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Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jules_Gu%C3%A9rin._The_Wilderness_of_Judea_._1910.jpg; Jules Guérin (1866-1946)Book author: Robert Smythe Hichens, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
© David K Bonde, 2021, All rights reserved