Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 11, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Even a second time, declares the Lord
For the second time the angel came to him with food and water. Elijah got up, ate and drank, and strengthened, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God.
Elijah had enough. His fear of Jezebel overcame his confidence in God. But God would have none of it.
In this 19th chapter of 1st Kings God speaks sternly to Elijah and sends him off for six years to mentor his replacement, a farmer named Elisha. But Elijah has to get to the rendezvous before the message can be received. And somehow Elijah keeps falling asleep on the way.
So God feeds him. Not just once, but then a second time. That is God’s way with us – he never gives up, he never gives up even when we do. And so we can trust him, we can be grateful to him even in the darkest hour, we can bless him at all times.
I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears.
I can’t see it, and you probably can’t see it either. But the angels are right here, resting on my right shoulder and yours, doing a vigorous battle with the demons on our left.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh! Taste and see that the Lord is good.
We watched a 1935 movie called Rendezvous, during which WWI spies infiltrate anywhere infiltratible to capture important coded messages. A huge troop ship heading for France from New York is at stake. A submarine opens the movie with a single torpedo strike which destroys a British destroyer. This will happen again, and kill thousands and thousands of soldiers. But William Powell and Rosalind Russell save the day. Angels watchin’ over me, my Lord.
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in the Lord. Therefore be kind to one another, compassionate.
Don’t become spies, don’t betray your friends, do not do not do not. Nothing is worth it.
Instead be imitators of God.
Paul warns us about powers and principalities in the dark world. Ron Rolheiser says “paranoia is waging a war against metanoia:”
Hatred is battling love, anger is battling patience, greed is battling generosity. Bitterness is battling grace, jealousy is battling admiration, holding onto grudges is battling forgiveness, ego and narcissism are battling compassion and community. Self-hatred is in a bitter battle with the acceptance of love and God’s unconditional embrace.
God provided Elijah with food and water, and perhaps most importantly, sleep. We can give what we have to each other, food, water, rest – letting God refill us, as he does, not just a second time, but over and over, in spite of our impatience and fear.
(1 Kings 19, Psalm 34, Ephesians 4, John 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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