Who Do We Worship?

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 29, 2018.  The Bible verses used are 1 Kings 18:20-39.

            As we continue our sermon series on Humor in the Bible, today we hear about a contest.  On one side is Baal and all of his prophets.  Four hundred fifty of them.  And on the other side is the Lord God with one prophet.  Elijah.

            This is one of those periods, as happens repeatedly in the Old Testament, where the people of Israel have abandoned God.  It really is a regular cycle in the Old Testament.  God helps the people, and things are going well.  After things go well for a while, the people abandon God and worship other gods.  God leaves them to their fate, and the people get into trouble.  The people repent and ask God for forgiveness.  God forgives them and helps them.  Things start going well again.  After things go well for a while, the people abandon God again.  And the whole thing starts up all over again.  Not that much different from how things are today, when you think about it.

            So this is one of the periods in which people have abandoned God.  And things are not going well.  There’s been a severe drought, which is something that Elijah had prophesied back in Chapter Seventeen, which we did not read today.  And because Elijah had prophesied it, the king and lots of other people were blaming Elijah for it.

            So, Elijah had been on the run for a while.  But then, God told Elijah to go back, and that when he does, God will make it rain.  So now he’s back, and the king is not exactly pleased to see him.  The king still blames Elijah for this.  But Elijah says the reason for the drought is that the king and everyone else has abandoned God. 

And so, Elijah proposes a contest.  Baal and his prophets versus the Lord and Elijah.  They’ll each get an offering ready.  They’ll cut up a bull and put it on an altar.  They’ll get the wood already to be burned, but they won’t set it on fire.  Instead, they’ll each ask their god to provide the fire.  The prophets of Baal will call on Baal, and Elijah will call on God.  Whoever provides the fire is the true god.

Everyone agrees.  Elijah says the prophets of Baal can go first.

Now, to see the humor in this, you really have to try to picture it.  They start in the morning, and until noon they’re calling on the name of Baal.  Four hundred fifty prophets.  And at first, they’re probably fairly calm.  They’re confident.  They truly believe in Baal.  They’re praying “Baal, answer us.”  And nothing happens.  And nothing continues to happen.  So they get louder.  “Baal, answer us!”  And still nothing happens.  And they get louder.  They start shouting.  “Baal, answer us!”  They get desperate.  They start dancing around, frantically trying to get the attention of their supposed god who’s not responding.

So now it’s noon.  And nothing has happened.  And Elijah starts mocking them.  Elijah is having a great time.  He knows what’s going to happen.  He says, well, you just have to call out louder.  I mean, Baal is a god, right?  So, he’s probably just lost in thought.  Or maybe he’s busy.  Or, hey, maybe he’s out of town.  Maybe he’s traveling someplace.  Or wait, I know.  I’ll bet he’s asleep.  Just yell louder.  Wake him up.  I bet that’ll do it.

I mean, Elijah’s having a great time with this.  It was maybe not the kindest, most loving thing for Elijah to do, but you cannot really blame him, either.  He’d taken the blame for this drought, he’d seen the people worshiping this false god that did not even exist.  I mean, Elijah’s getting even, and he’s loving every minute of it.

Meanwhile, the prophets of Baal keep going.  They keep yelling louder and louder.  They get more and more frantic.  They’re dancing like crazy people.  And nothing happens.  Finally, evening comes.  No response from Baal.

So now it’s Elijah’s turn.  And this is funny, too.  Because he says, I’ll show you how great God is.  We’re going to make this even harder for God to bring this fire.  Soak all the wood with water.  Then do it again.  Then do it again.  Make sure all that wood is just completely, soaking wet.

And you heard the rest.  Elijah prayed to God.  God sent the fire.  And the people all believed in God again.  And in a part of the story that we did not read, God eventually did end the drought and bring rain.

So okay.  There’s some funny parts to the story.  The prophets of Baal frantically dancing around and shouting, Elijah mocking them, all that.  But we’ve said before that everything in the Bible, even the humor, is there to make a point.  So what’s the point of this story?  What are we supposed to learn from it?

Well, when I look around at society, it seems to me that we worship a lot of little--and not so little--gods, rather than worshiping the real God.  And I don’t want that to sound like I’m so superior to everyone else.  I’m susceptible to worshiping some of these other gods, too.  I think we all are.  

A lot of times we don’t intend to.  A lot of times we don’t even realize we’re doing it.  It may not be a conscious decision we’ve made at all.  The thing is that what we worship is revealed in the casual conversations we have.  It’s revealed in the small decisions we make.  It’s revealed in the way we live our lives.

One of the ways what we worship is revealed is what we spend our money on.  It’s been said that if you really want to know what a person values, go through their check register.  These days it’d be their credit or debit card receipts.  But regardless, the ways we spend our money shows what we value.

Another way what we worship is revealed is by what we spend our time on.  Think about how you spend your day.  A lot of it, of course, is spent on our work, and that’s natural and normal.  We need to work.  But how about our leisure time?  What do we spend that on?  The way we spend our time, again, shows what we value.

Another way what we worship is revealed is by what we think about.  When we have some time to just sort of let our minds drift, what do we think about?  Do we ever think about God?  Or do we always think about something else?  What we think about is something else that shows what we value.

So, what do you value?  What do I value?  What are you worshiping?  What am I worshiping?  Is it God?  Or is it something else?

This is not an easy question.  It’s not intended to be.  It’s easy to say, well, of course I worship God.  But do you really?  Do I really?  When we think about how we spend our money, how we spend our time, what we think about, does it show that we worship God?  Does it show that we’ve put our full faith and trust in God?  If we say yes, would an objective person agree with us?  Or would they look at these things and decide that we’re really worshiping someone else or something else?

Now, don’t take this the wrong way.  I’m not saying we should spend one hundred percent of our money or one hundred percent of our time or one hundred percent of our thoughts focused on God.  That’s not practical or realistic.  I don’t think it’s what God requires of us, either.  Also, I know a lot of you have and continue to give a lot of money and a lot of time to this church.  I know it’s important to you and you think about it a lot.  None of this is meant to be critical or to point fingers at anyone.  And again, any finger I’m pointing goes to me as much as it does to anyone.

What I am saying, though, is that we really need to think about this questions.  Because, as the people of Israel found out, false gods cannot hear us.  False gods cannot answer us.  False gods cannot save us.  Only THE God, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, the God of Jesus Christ, only that God can hear us.  Only that God can answer us.  Only that God can save us.  No one and nothing else can.  Only God.

So let’s all think about where our money goes.  Let’s think about where our time goes.  Let’s think about, well, what we think about.  And each of us has to do this for himself or herself.  No one can do it for us.  Take the time to think about these things.  If each of us can honestly say that these things show we worship God, then great.  But if we cannot say that, well, then, then obvious question is, what are we going to do about it?

When the people of Israel realized that their gods were false, they cried, “The Lord--he is God!  The Lord--he is God!”  May each of us realize that the Lord--and no one else--is God.  And may the way we live our lives show that we truly believe that the Lord--and no one else--is God.