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1 WE VE BEEN HERE BEFORE June 23, 2013, Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time I Kings 19: 1-18 Rebekah M. Hutto, The Brick Presbyterian Church in the City of New York Open our hearts today, O Lord, to feel the powerful love you have for us. Help us to listen, not only to your voice, but to pay attention to how you speak to us through others. You have walked with many, for centuries, for years upon years, and we treasure the stories of those around us. As we receive your Word and embody it in our lives, enable us all to become more faithful saints in your service; for we ask this in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. This time of year often has me thinking back to all the graduation speeches, processionals and commencements in which I ve participated. On staff I sometimes get teased for being the only pastor who didn t attend Princeton Seminary, but that status gives me the unique opportunity to brag on my seminary experience at Duke Divinity School. If any of you ever travel near Durham, North Carolina, I hope you take a moment to look inside the chapel on Duke s campus. A beautiful gothic cathedral sits in the middle of the campus, filed with gorgeous stained glass and three separate pipe organs. During seminary I had the privilege of worshipping there on a regular basis. In particular, during my graduation ceremony, I had the great privilege of processing down the chapel s center aisle for our baccalaureate service. At the beginning of the service, after leaders called us to worship, one by one the faculty and students processed into the chapel, moving to the music of the enormous Flentrop pipe organ. Although I ll never forget that beautiful scene, what I remember most was the hymn being played on that organ. Over 200 future pastors and our professors walked down the aisle to the hymn we just sang this morning, For All the Saints. Often considered a hymn appropriate for a memorial service or for All Saints Day, that day this was the hymn that celebrated our transition into full-time ministry. It was as if Duke was telling us, from the - 1 -

2 moment we received our degrees, You re not the first one to do this. We ve been here before. In a unique and individually special moment for each graduate, the Divinity School was reminding its students, intentionally, that many saints have walked this same path. That day we were all prompted to lean on the wisdom of those who ve gone before us. Last week Michael reminded us of this very fact in his sermon on temptation and sin. In one of the pieces of advice he gave to anyone discerning an ethical dilemma, he said that we should learn from and seek the advice of the best lived lives of others. 1 Michael said, Look to those mentors you most esteem. Look to those greats of the past who fought the good fight and fought it well. 2 Well, this morning, I d like to make the case that that is exactly what Elijah is doing in our story for today. Elijah is one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. Preaching to the northern kingdom during a time of division and apostasy, Elijah faces the difficult task of calling Israel back to faithfulness. Most specifically, he preaches God s message to King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. In the chapter before this one, the Bible records one of God s most miraculous events in Elijah s ministry the destruction of the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Having gone head to head with Jezebel and her pagan religion, Elijah was vindicated. But, this victory quickly angered Jezebel and she sought more fervently to kill Elijah. When we meet him in the text for today, Elijah is on the run. After Jezebel s threat, Elijah travels as far south as he can, well out of her reach. But then he travels further, this time into the wilderness. Sadly, we don t find him on this journey celebrating or relishing in his victory. Instead, Elijah acts defeated. After all he s been through, the great Elijah is easily the most depressed he s ever been. He sulks under a tree, lonely and miserable. In his misery, Elijah prays to God that he will meet his death. Elijah, the great prophet of Israel, has lost his way, his hope, and his strength. But you ll notice that it s at this most vulnerable moment that God comes to Elijah, feeds him, and gives him the strength to 1 Michael Lindvall, sermon , 2 Ibid

3 continue. Elijah receives strength from God, continues on, this time traveling to Mt. Horeb, also known as Mt. Sinai. At this point in the story, those who know the Scriptures well should be asking the question, Haven t we been here before? The answer is yes, because this is the mountain where Moses met God and received the 10 commandments. Moses, if you remember, also complained about his call and asked that God take his life. 3 But instead of death, Moses found himself at the top of the mountain fulfilling God s promise. This mountain, where Elijah finds himself now is where Moses met God face to face. This mountain is the hallowed place where God renewed the covenant relationship with Israel. This mountain is the holiest of locations, and it is here that Elijah chooses to travel in order to gain strength and clarity. This summer, through Facebook posts and personal blogs, I m following the journey of two of my friends who are traveling on 3-month sabbaticals. They don t know each other, both are ministers, but they have one common destination in mind the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. Iona has become a sacred pilgrimage spot for many Christians. Outside of its gorgeous scenery, Iona is known for the worship and life of its monastery, which dates back to the Roman Empire. The religious community there celebrates Saint Columba, who arrived in the 6 th century, bringing Christianity to Scotland and making Iona the center of Celtic Christianity. But as my friends have reminded me, getting to Iona is no easy trip. Travelers there go by plane, ferry and car to reach their destination. But they do this because they say Iona is one of the sacred thin places in this world a place where God and earth feel all too close, and the space between becomes negligible. In fact, this place has become so sacred that both of my friends reunited, coincidentally, with other old friends while they were there. Apparently, Iona has become crowded by those looking for retreat and renewal. This morning I d like to make the case that Elijah, by traveling to that holy mountain, is looking for the same historical peace that my friends have sought on the isle of Iona. At his most vulnerable state, eager for new direction from God and 3 Numbers 11:

4 feeling incredibly lonely, Elijah travels 40 days to the same mountain Moses did with the Hebrew children. He s repeating the journey of his ancestors, listening for the same voice that they heard. And here s the truth: there s something very wise in knowing that you re not the first person to travel to the mountain looking for God. Elijah is neither the first nor the last prophet to need a reminder of God s presence. He s neither the first nor the last follower of God to feel alone and abandoned. By going to the mountain, Elijah was looking back to the wisdom of Moses and his people, reminding himself of God s promises generations before. Although incredibly depressed, Elijah is clear-sighted enough to know, We ve been in this place before. Each year, the Women s Association at Brick Church hosts a Lenten Bible study for all women, and we choose a study topic that relates to needs within the congregation. This year, we focused on the theme of faith journeys, drawing on the metaphor of travel as a way to describe our individual faith stories. Michael and I teach this study together, and as a part of the theme this year, we introduced the concept of traveling companions to our group. Traveling companions, in our faith, are those people who have walked with us on our faith journeys supporting us and teaching us. Most of us might find it easy to name mentors, loved ones and friends who do this for us all the time. But more than these, what about those ancient traveling companions, the ones whose stories are recorded in the Bible, in history books, or in ancient memoirs? In what ways do we lean on their wisdom, realizing that we re not the first ones to encounter spiritual difficulties; we re not the first ones to face grief and isolation. How do we rely on the wisdom of those who ve traveled this journey already, recognizing that, yes, they ve probably been here before too? Elijah has shown us today that God has a history, a vast history, of giving us time and space to remember those people, and remember the sacred places at which they encountered God. In the Church, we use the word saint a lot: in our liturgy, in our confessions, and in our prayers. We opened this morning with a hymn about saints, and in a minute we ll confess our shared belief in the communion of the saints. This word saint conveys so many things: it s a real person, it s a people, it s us. Saint evokes the collective history upon which we all draw when living our faith. The stories of - 4 -

5 saints, past and present, remind us always that, yes, we ve been here before, and we ll probably be here again. In another beloved mountaintop thin place, Montreat, North Carolina, there lies a very special building, tucked away, called the Prayer Porch. Nestled between two large structures, the Prayer Porch is a small wooden prayer center overlooking a tiny stream. In the center of this porch is a plain wooden cross and around it are kneeling benches. The porch was designed as a place for reflection and prayer, and Montreat provides pens and notebooks for folks to record prayers while visiting there. It s a gift to retreat into this tiny porch, enjoy the quiet, and compose prayers to God. But one of the greater gifts of being there is reading the prayers of those who ve come before you. Rather than it being a nosy or invasive activity, it s quite enriching and intimate to find prayers from others that connect to your own spiritual life. Sitting in that porch you read prayers of celebration, words of struggle; you might read and find others moments of clarity. While reading you see confusion, joy, doubt; you might even see ink that has bled from the stain of tears. Praying in that porch is sacred, but it s just as sacred to read the words of those who ve come there before you. From time to time the notebooks from the prayer porch are taken out when full and stored in the Student Center. I can only imagine the treasure chests of faith experiences one might find in those notebooks. Brothers and sisters, whether it s the faith story of Elijah, Moses, former Brick members or current friends, take comfort in knowing that someone, somewhere has been wherever you are today. We re neither the first nor the last to walk these journeys of faith. History serves as a great source of sacred memory, giving us strength to move forward. Others have done it before us, and God has brought them through. And just as God has seen them through, God guides and directs us, faithfully reminding us that, yes, we ve been here before. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen