12^th Sunday after Pentecost at Epiphany on August 23, 2009

1 Kings 19:3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴ while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." ⁵ Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." ⁶ He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. ⁷ The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." ⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

Bread for the Journey

Are any of you planning on doing any volunteer work in the Amazon Jungle? Probably not. But if you are, what should you do if you are attacked by an Anaconda? The Anaconda is the largest snake in the world. It grows to 35 feet in length and weighs between 300 and 400 pounds. It squeezes it’s victims to death.

Here is the strategy laid out in the U.S. Government Peace Corps Manual, if you are attacked by an Anaconda:  1. If you are attacked by an Anaconda, do not run. The snake is faster than you are. 2. Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another. 3. Tuck your chin in. 4. The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body. 5. Do not panic. 6. After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet end – always at the feet end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic. 7. The snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time. 8. When the snake has reached your knees, slowly, and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg. Then suddenly rip upwards, freeing yourself and rendering the snake helpless. 9. Be sure you have a knife. 10. Be sure your knife is sharp.

Could you really see yourself lying still and allowing a 30 foot snake to begin to swallow you whole? We may not face the fear of being swallowed by an Anaconda on a daily basis, but we do face big problems and losses, stresses and burdens in life that attempt to swallow us and overtake us. Everybody gets stressed – debts, grades, layoffs, family arguing, crime. Everybody suffers loss – friends, income, health, marriage, even hope itself.

These worries and questions occupy our time and energy; they bring unneeded stress to our lives. We try to figure out every possible way to work these problems out. Wouldn’t it be nice if for every big issue in our lives we had a ten-step guide to help us through it? Things aren’t that cut and dry. Burdens and hard times in life are a reality that we will never be able to fully escape. We can’t do it alone, but we do have an offer for some help.

Elijah couldn’t do it alone. Elijah was a great prophet of God. He had just come from a great victory of God’s power on Mt. Carmel where Elijah defeated the 450 prophets of Baal in a contest to see whose god was the true God, once and for all. When Queen Jezebel learned that her prophets were dead and her god had lost, she threatened Elijah’s life. Fear and despair then got the better of Elijah. So he ran away. He forgot about the awesome power and victory of God, turned tail and ran. He journeyed into the wilderness and there he sat sulking under a broom tree and told God, “I’ve had enough, God. I quit as your prophet. I quit on life. Take my life and let me be.”

Have you ever felt like Elijah under the broom tree? One of those days or weeks or years where you just want to curl up under the nearest broom tree and die? You work, you slave, you pray, you expect visible success, some tangible results, a return on your investment. Or you see defeat snatched out of the jaws of victory, and everything you’ve worked for seems to have fallen apart and come to nothing. And so we want to cry out, “God, I quit. Take my life and let me be.”

Yet God does neither for either Elijah or us. He doesn’t take Elijah’s life and God doesn’t leave him be. God feeds him. The angel of the Lord – by the way, who is no ordinary angel – but the pre-incarnate Christ, the Son of God before He takes on human flesh, comes to His discouraged prophet saying: “Arise and eat.” Gracious words, inviting words, Gospel words. Arise. Eat. Be strengthened and nourished. At Elijah’s head are a freshly baked loaf of bread and a jar of water. Bread and water in the wilderness! We’ve seen this before. Manna from heaven and water from the rock that sustained Israel in the Exodus.

Christ gave Elijah food not just once but twice. This was no ordinary mere bread since it sustained Elijah’s strength for the entire journey – Elijah’s personal Lent – of 40 days and nights of traveling. Bread that sees him through the wilderness until he arrives at the mountain of God.

Elijah couldn’t journey through the wilderness on his own … and neither can we. No matter how strong a Christian you are, no matter how strong your faith. How easy it is for fear and despair, stress and frustration to get the better of us. How easy to feel abandoned and alone. How easy to lie down under our own little broom trees and, like Elijah, tell God: “Take my life and let me be. It’s too much.”

But such words show that we are trying to do it on our own, and relying on our own strength, our own intellect, our own words, our own ingenuity, our own wisdom and might. For if life is too much for us, it is not God’s strength that has let us down ... it’s because we’ve (once again!) struck out on our own, through the wilderness, only to find out that the journey is too great for us. We can’t do it alone.

But we try because the world tells us that we should be able to. Don’t be weak, be strong! Don’t be dependent, be independent! Right? Why go to the doctor when you can do it yourself on WebMD? Why go to a lawyer when there are software packages with all the forms you need? “Talk to Chuck” and invest your own money. Sell your house yourself. And even when it comes to pastors and church? Nah, you don’t need ‘em anymore. You can be spiritual yourself.

But Elijah couldn’t do it alone ... and neither can we. In fact, when it comes to our spiritual life, we can’t do it at all. I may think I can be the spiritual bread winner in my life, in my family, and maybe for a while it seems that I can. But what happens when your strength lets you down? When – sooner or later – you find out that the journey is too great for you? When the only bread your pride can buy you is filled with the maggots of sin and death? No, Elijah couldn’t do it alone and neither can we. We need the Bread of Life that only God can give. The bread that is no mere bread, but the bread which will see us through this life, through the wilderness, to the mountain of God. The Bread of Life. The Bread that gives life.

The journey is too great for you. The journey through this life. The journey to the next. Don’t try to go without proper nourishment. You won’t make it. You can’t. So Christ comes and says, “Arise and eat, discouraged, downtrodden, depressed child of God. Get up and eat the bread from heaven for you. Drink this heavenly wine poured out for you. The journey is your life, your death, your resurrection is too great for you, and without this food, you cannot run the race that is set before you. Without this food and drink you will die in the wilderness of your sin and death. But it is not too great for God.”

Jesus prepares a lavish banquet that never ends. “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. … If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Elijah lasted forty days and nights on the strength of that bread and water in the wilderness. Forty days and nights. And that was only a foretaste. Jesus says, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Here is the bread of Christ Himself. Here is the heavenly vintage poured on the cross. For you to eat and to drink with this promise: “I will raise you up on the last day.” Here the fruits of Jesus’ death on the cross come flowing to you, are placed on your tongue, are poured on your head. Food and drink in the wilderness that will bring you to your destination and your home with God.

And so Christ comes to us, no longer as the angel of the Lord as he came to Elijah. No, now He has come in an even greater way – this time, as a man. God and man together in one person. A man to make the journey for all men, and God to give His life for the life of the world. To do what we could not do. To make the journey we could not make. To give us the life we need. To relieve our stress and remove our frustrations. To come to us who are curled up under our own little broom trees, beat up and beat down. Defeated by the sin without, and overcome by the sin within. He doesn’t wait for us to come to Him, but He comes us to as He came to Elijah. With bread, with life, with hope. With Himself.

And so the Son of God comes down from Heaven, and becomes a man. Born of the Virgin Mary. Given the name Jesus. Raised in Nazareth. Yes, as His opponents pointed out, looking like everyone else ... but not like anyone else. For there is only one reason He is here; there is only one reason for His life. The Son of God came down from Heaven alive in order to come down from the cross dead. He died that we may live. He came down from Heaven so we may one day enter Heaven. He endured Hell so we may escape Hell. He came down from Heaven alive, to remove us from under our broom trees.

He comes down from the cross dead in order to rise us again back to life. That His life might be our life. That when we are finished with this journey we may end up at the mountain of God.

Elijah couldn’t do it alone, and neither can we. But you are not alone. So if you’re going to curl up and hide under a tree, don’t look for a broom tree! Curl up and hide under the tree of the cross, where God gave His life for you. His life for your life. To be the bread winner for you, and give you the Bread of Life. The journey is too great for you, but it is not too great for your Savior. In the midst of your stresses and frustrations, whether you are being swallowed by a giant Anaconda or a giant recession, Christ comes to you with help. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus said. So come, dear saints; eat this bread and live. This is no mere earthly food, since this journey through the wilderness to the mountain of God is no mere earthly journey! Amen.