“Elijah, why are you here“
My wife, Anna and I went shopping on Saturday. We needed to mail our son’s Birthday Card to England and she needed some summer clothes. The most hated 8 letter word a man knows is “shopping”. However, we do play nice together and had fun. As the day grew on we stopped at a favorite restaurant and shared a sandwich and a drink of ice tea. Since the pandemic neither of us has been out a great deal. This is the second or third time we had been out and Anna remarked to the waitress on how strange and unsure of ourselves she felt out in public. We wear masks and social distance in stores. There are new manners of social behavior mixed with the old.
In our first reading today, Elijah was also unsure of himself. Not because of new manners or rules. It is the old rules that he was upset. The people he was sent to shepherd could not kept the covenant and the old rules, the Ten Commandments. Elijah was at the end of his rope, the people he was sent by God as a Prophet wanted to kill him.
He replied,” I have been most zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. But the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life.”
The answer, Elijah received says a great deal about the mind of God and how God thinks. God wants a relationship with His people. He tells Elijah to GO……………………….
Go and anoint two kings and your successor , Elisha.
In Matthews Gospel, Jesus talks about the sins of lust, adultery and divorce. We can add to the list of the sins today of racism, pornography and greed. God knew in Elijah’s time, in Jesus time on earth and the world today that His people would not all listen.
So Go is telling us today the same answer…….GO
Don’t look at the failure of the world around you. Don’t give up !
Go and be as the Gospel Acclimation from Philippians says to, Shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life.
In Matthews Gospel again Jesus says, It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
Jesus is saying to use self-discipline and not self-mutilation. He still says for us to Go.
“I, myself am a minority, but God and I are an overwhelming majority.” That statement is from one of the talks of a Cursillo. Elijah was learning this.
God’s mind is this, keep on fighting against mistreating immigrants, racism, abortion and greed. Go ! Go and do His work as long as you can. Encourage good wherever you can. Speak against evil. Shine !
With God we are in the majority……………. Go!
God Love you always
Bob Burford
