Sermon October 22, 2023 San Carlos Community Church

Thank you for coming to church this morning, for coming here to be with your neighbors, to share your joys and concerns, to sit, to pray in this sacred place, to sing, to hear some readings from scripture (both lessons at bottom) and a brief meditation thereon, to talk to your friends afterward.

A local church is a remarkable institution.? This church and many like it have been badly stressed by any number of changes and developments in society, yet churches survive, old-fashioned institutions featuring live music, prayer, a talk, called a sermon, none of which are nearly as perfect as what you can find on television, or a mega church. ?Yet here we are.

In today’s Old Testament lesson we hear about Elijah.? The story of Elijah is wonderful, full of fascinating details.? Elijah lived in a time of cultural conflict and ferment. ?He and his enemies strove with each other about what was sacred, what was God’s will for God’s people, as did Jesus, as did Saint Paul, as did Luther, as did the Reformers, as people do today.?

God must love trouble-makers, for there sure are a lot of them in the Bible.? Perhaps that is not the way to put it.? Were all these people – Jacob, Jeremiah, Elijah - trouble-makers, or did trouble just come their way?? We in the Christian tradition would say the latter.? These people stood up for the truth, they did what God told them to do.? This action sent shock waves through society, with results which are now familiar.

Today’s Old Testament lesson leaves us with Elijah alone on Mt. Horeb, another name for Mt. Sinai, the original sacred place, the mountain where Moses received the commandments and the history of the Israelites as a people of the law began.? Further adventures follow, involving the primal elements of wind, earthquake and fire.?

In our New Testament lesson, Paul the Apostle is in the midst of similar adventures, having followed his divine call and having stirred up a great deal of strife.? Only Paul is now not alone, but on trial, in Jerusalem, for violation of the temple grounds, inciting to riot, blasphemy, disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly & much else.? Seeing little chance for acquittal under the circumstances, he decides to divide his enemies on the council.? He proclaims himself a Pharisee from birth, thus enlisting the sympathy and support of the half the council who were also Pharisees and the enmity of the other half who were Sadducees.? This does not sound very good, but having only half the council against you is better than all of it.? Then his strategy succeeds so well – the argument between the two parties the Pharisees and Sadducees, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, progressives and traditionalists, gets so heated - that the Roman officer just pulls him out of there and places him in protective custody.

That night, the Bible tells us, the Master appeared to Paul: "It's going to be all right. Everything is going to turn out for the best. You've been a good witness for me here in Jerusalem. Now you're going to be my witness in Rome!"

So all this ruckus, this brouhaha, turmoil, strife is being used by God to spread the Gospel from one sacred center to another, from a city sacred to the Jews to a city sacred to the Romans, namely Rome itself.? Perhaps the most fundamental lesson of the Bible is that there is no misfortune so bad that God cannot work something good out of it.? God is sending Paul right into the heart of the empire; and of course we know how the story ends, Christianity transforms the empire, transforms the Mediterranean world, transforms Europe, and eventually the New World and the rest of the world as well.? It’s quite a story.? So here we are.?

Truth-telling, preaching the Gospel is not for the faint of heart.? And it is not for the angry, the prideful, the cruel.? Did Jesus come to bring peace or the sword?? Arguments could be made for both but the historical record is pretty clear that Jesus and the early church practiced non-violence.? There were many martyrdoms in the early church, but the church emphatically ruled that martyrdom could not be sought.? You had to tell the truth and preach the Gospel, but you could not deliberately provoke the authorities or your enemies.? Christians were urged to avoid conflict, not seek it.? So we do not believe that Paul provoked this mob in Jerusalem, and we do believe that God somehow worked good out of this conflict by using Saint Paul wherever his paths and travails took him.? So Paul ended up at the highest court in the land, in Rome and there met his end.? We wish there were a record his life and trail in Rome, but there is not.? According to legend he was executed, but there are no records.

As we ponder our lessons for today, as we read of so much conflict in this world, we do our best to to preach the Gospel as Paul did, to welcome the Prince of Peace and to practice peace within our families and amongst our friends and neighbors.

1 Kings 19:3-8

3?When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life to Beersheba, far in the south of Judah. He left his young servant there?

4?and then went on into the desert another day's journey. He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed in its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it all - to just die: "Enough of this, God! Take my life - I'm ready to join my ancestors in the grave!"?

5?Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush. Suddenly an angel shook him awake and said, "Get up and eat!"?

6?He looked around and, to his surprise, right by his head were a loaf of bread baked on some coals and a jug of water. He ate the meal and went back to sleep.?

7?The angel of God came back, shook him awake again, and said, "Get up and eat some more - you've got a long journey ahead of you."?

8?He got up, ate and drank his fill, and set out. Nourished by that meal, he walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb.

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Acts 23:6-11

6?Paul, knowing some of the council was made up of Sadducees and others of Pharisees and how they hated each other, decided to exploit their antagonism: "Friends, I am a stalwart Pharisee from a long line of Pharisees. It's because of my Pharisee convictions - the hope and resurrection of the dead - that I've been hauled into this court."?

7?The moment he said this, the council split right down the middle, Pharisees and Sadducees going at each other in heated argument.?

8?Sadducees have nothing to do with a resurrection or angels or even a spirit. If they can't see it, they don't believe it. Pharisees believe it all.?

9?And so a huge and noisy quarrel broke out. Then some of the religion scholars on the Pharisee side shouted down the others: "We don't find anything wrong with this man! And what if a spirit has spoken to him? Or maybe an angel? What if it turns out we're fighting against God?"?

10?That was fuel on the fire. The quarrel flamed up and became so violent the captain was afraid they would tear Paul apart, limb from limb. He ordered the soldiers to get him out of there and escort him back to the safety of the barracks.?

11?That night the Master appeared to Paul: "It's going to be all right. Everything is going to turn out for the best. You've been a good witness for me here in Jerusalem. Now you're going to be my witness in Rome!"

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