Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Old Testament lesson (1 Kings 19: 9-18, Elijah and God's voice in the gentle whisper) read earlier.                 

Whenever we think of Elijah, we usually think of a great, grand prophet of God, perhaps the greatest and most faithful of the prophets. You remember the great stories. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest to test whose God is truly God. The prophets of Baal fail in showing the power of their fake idol, but Elijah called upon the Lord, Yahweh is his name, and the Lord sends down fire from heaven to burn up the offering, the water, and the altar itself. The prophets of Baal are soundly defeated by Elijah's God.

Elijah raised the dead to life. He raised back to life the dead son of the widow of Zarepath, one of the only situations in the Old Testament where the dead were raised. Elijah announced that there would be a multi-year drought in the land. Then when he announced that the drought would end with a huge storm, Elijah actually outran the king's chariot back to the city for safety. Elijah challenged kings like Ahab and Ahaziah, the Queen Jezebel, yet lived. Elijah was one of only two people in Scripture not to have a physical death, the other being Enoch. When it was time for Elijah to leave this earth, the chariot of the Lord came down for him, and he was lifted into heaven by a whirlwind. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4: 17 that when Jesus returns, those who are still living on earth will be like Elijah and "will be caught up … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. " 800 years after Elijah went to heaven, he returned to earth, along with Moses, to participate in the Transfiguration of Jesus Himself. If you were to ask which Old Testament prophet had the most colorful ministry, which one was most like Star Wars Jedi knight, it would have to be Elijah, the faithful and imposing prophet of the Lord.

But here in our text, Elijah is far from imposing, far from colorful, far from magnificent, perhaps not even faithful. Elijah seems broken, defeated, depressed. "And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah? He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.'" Elijah, the faithful and imposing prophet of the Lord, sounds whiney!

Has that ever happened to you? One day you've felt strong and deeply connected to your Lord spiritually. The next day, or a week later you feel down, hopeless, even whiney? You feel like you're the only one left, alone in the world, lacking in God's power, lacking in faith. That seems to be Elijah's predicament. Have you ever been frightened by God's elements, wind or sea or earthquake or fire? Peter was in a similar position. Peter, the one we normally think of as impulsive, but not always faith-filled, Peter asks to step out of the boat to exercise his faith in Jesus. The dialog between Peter and Jesus could easily be placed into Elijah's story and the story would remain the same: "Lord, save me!" "Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Have you ever been frightened by God's elements, wind or sea or earthquake or fire? One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father got outside another way and stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As you can imagine, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters. Trust me and jump!" (Traditional Story)

Psalm 46 our Lord says "Be still and know that I am God." Have you ever stood outside at night, under the stars, away from the city lights and traffic noises? If you ever have, you know what it means to say that silence can be a deafening silence. When our English translation of our text says "And after the fire came a gentle whisper" that "gentle whisper" could also have been translated "a powerful silence". That kind of deafening silence that makes us aware that we are only creatures standing before our powerful Holy God, creator of the universe. Then, when Elijah was prepared to hear the Lord by his own realization of his mortalness, his weakness, then the Lord comes to him with His Word. Elijah is not a great Jedi Knight, ready to do battle by the Force that is within him. No, Elijah and Peter are just other human beings, sinners, powerless apart from God. But this loving and gentle God comes to Elijah and says 'Go back the way you came. I, the Lord, am still in charge even when you don't feel like I am. Go and anoint those kings and that prophet. Oh, and by the way, I still have thousands of people who are trusting in Me that you don't even know about. Go and be an example for them.' In essence the Lord is telling Elijah the message as the father of the little boy in the fire: "Trust me and jump. I am here and I am strong enough to catch you."

Peter trusted his Lord and had seen him do many spectacular miracles. Peter initially trusted enough to ask to come out of the boat and walk with Jesus. And the inviting Word from Jesus was "Come." But then Peter took his eyes off Jesus, saw the wind and the waves instead of the Lord, and begins to sink. To the sinking Peter our Lord reaches out his hand, catches and saves him. Scripture doesn't actually describe how Jesus got Peter back into the boat. We don't know if Jesus threw him over his shoulder or walked with him by his side. I rather like the "Peter being carried over Jesus' shoulder" image myself.

Have you ever taken your eyes off Jesus for a while, only to find yourself feeling alone and helpless. Apart from Jesus we are all like Elijah, trapped and no place to go. Apart from Jesus we are all like Peter, sinking into the waves of this life. Apart from Jesus we are all like the little boy trapped on the roof by the fire, not able to save ourselves from our sinful condition. But Jesus invites us, again and again through His Word, to trust him to jump into his saving arms. We look to his cross, to the ransom he paid for our lives there. We look to the empty grave, to his resurrection, and can confidently know that God is in control of not just wind and fire and earthquakes and waves, but Jesus is in control of even life and death.

The Lord assured Elijah that He, the Lord, was still in power and still speaking to and caring for his servant and his 7000 other servants. But the Lord didn't tell Elijah to just sit back and wait. He told him to go and tell others that the Lord was still in power and anoint them to positions to become vessels of that power. That little boy that jumped into his father's arms, what do you think happened after he was safe. It's a traditional story that I've not found an end to, but I would imagine that the father held the boy in his arms and continued to comfort him with his words "You're ok, you're save now. I have you." After being saved by trusting his father, what do you think the boy did later? Did he keep that salvation story to himself, or did he tell others about the wondrous, saving father that he has? In the same way, we have the privilege to respond to the saving love Jesus has showed in our lives, telling others about Him whenever He gives us an opportunity. We can simply, straightforwardly tell others that Jesus is risen from the dead and lives and reigns in heaven and on earth and that we await his return. We can tell them that if He returns while we are still here on earth, we expect to be like Elijah "caught up … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. " We can expect that, not because of anything great and glorious we have done, but because of the great love shown for us in Christ Jesus.

The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us always.