The Sound of a Whisper

1 Kings 19:9b-21

Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 8)

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen.  The sermon text for the third Sunday after Pentecost is the Old Testament reading 1 Kings 19.  Every year in the summer my family traveled to Montana for our vacation.  We would load up the car and drive from Cottage Grove, Minnesota to Laurel, Montana.  My mom’s side of the family lived in Montana so we would go there every year to visit grandma, and our aunts, uncles and cousins.  I remember my uncle taking us hiking up into the mountains one year.  It was an amazing experience.  On the top of one of the mountains was a lake named Mystic.  We decided to go fishing on this mountain lake.  The lake was filled with rainbow trout.  I remember putting my fishing pole in the lake and catching a fish within twenty seconds.  Very few people hiked up the mountain to get to this lake and so there was an abundance of fish. I can still picture it in my mind.  I was sitting in a boat on a beautiful lake looking up at the mountains all around while breathing in the clear air.  I remember marveling at God’s creation.  It was quite the experience.  I am guessing all of us have had those sorts of experiences.  The kind of experience that make you marvel at the power and majesty of God. 

Elijah the prophet was given many amazing moments from God.  Elijah had experienced many “wow” moments in his life.  I am sure you can remember many of them from the Bible. During a drought God provided for Elijah in the wasteland by sending ravens to bring him bread and meat.  Pretty impressive.  Then the Lord sent Elijah to a foreign land to live with a widow. About to starve the poor woman baked her last meal.  But as she shared with Elijah, day after day her cooking oil and flour never ran out. Pretty amazing.  When the woman’s son died, Elijah brought the boy to the upper room and prayed to God to restore him.  God then brought the boy back to life.  Pretty miraculous.  My favorite Elijah “wow” moment was the trial by fire.  All of Israel’s people gathered at Mount Carmel.  Elijah alone challenges the prophets of Baal.    Two altars were built.  The prophets of Baal were to call upon their god and Elijah would call upon the Lord, the one who would answer by sending fire would be the one true God.  The false prophets called upon their false god to send fire and burn the bull on the first altar.  These prophets of Baal danced around all day, but nothing happened. Elijah starts to mock them and wonders if their gods are asleep.  Elijah then places a bull on the second altar and drenches the altar with water, not once or twice, but three times. He then calls upon the one true God.  The fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and stone and licked up the water in the trench around it. The One true God was revealed in a dramatic way.              

Elijah had several of these “wow” moments throughout his life.  There are moments in our own life when we experience the awesome power of God. It can happen when see the wonders of his creation, the birth of our children or grandchildren, or the time when we safely came out of a near death experience.  We certainly thank God for those “wow” moments.  But as we look at our text for today we see how God normally deals with His people.  In our reading for today we don’t see a triumphant Elijah, but we see him in a state of depression.  He thought God’s wonderful works were done. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were trying to kill him.  Elijah got tired of living.  He got tired of running for his life.  He got tired of the people not listening to him.  Elijah was so tired of living that he wanted to die. So the Lord came to restore Elijah once again.

But notice that this time He does not come in a dramatic way.  A strong wind came that tore the mountains and broke the rock but God was not in the wind.  After the wind, an earthquake came but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake, a large fire came but the Lord was not in the fire.  The Lord did not come in the wind, earthquake and fire.  No, the Lord came to Elijah in the sound of a low whisper.  It was the Word of the Lord that restored Elijah and gave to him peace and comfort. 

We often want God to give to us a “wow” experience to strengthen us and restore us and sometimes He does.  But as we look at our text for today we see that the “wow” experience is not how He normally works.  As we look at our text we see that the Lord likes to come to us in the sound of a low whisper.  He gives us strength and He restores us in very simple and ordinary means. 

We often like the “wow” moments in our lives, but the truth of the matter is that God often comes to us with the sound of a whisper.  He likes to come to us in very ordinary means.  It was in the simple means of Baptism that the Lord brought you into His eternal family.  The Lord comes to you in the simple means of His Word and yet does powerful and amazing things with it.  It is in God’s Word that you hear the message of Jesus Christ.  It is the glorious message that God’s love for you is so great that He sent His Son into the world to be your Savior.  God’s Word tells you that the death and resurrection of Jesus means your sins have been forgiven.  It is God’s Word that comes to you to give you strength, restoration, peace and comfort. It is the Lord who comes to you in very simple and ordinary means.  Jesus comes to you in the Lord’s Supper.  He gives to you His body and blood in with and under bread and wine. 

God loves coming to people in a whisper.  He loves coming to people through simple means and He does so through His church. He works through Sunday school to bring God’s grace to young people.  He works through Christian parents to raise their children in the faith. He works through the mother changing a diaper and through the father praying with his family.  He works through us as we invite another person to church.  He works through our simple offerings.  He works through acts of service, acts of kindness, and acts of love.   

I remember hearing about a woman who was in the hospital.  She did not believe in Jesus.  The doctor told her that she only had days to live.  She called her friend to her bedside.  Her friend was a Christian.  She asked her Christian friend this question.  “Can your God heal me with some miracle?”  “Yes”, said the Christian.  “Jesus can cast out this cancer.  He can lengthen any life in this world.  Just like you, I am praying for that.  Jesus has also done something far, far harder.  He gave all He had.  He sacrificed Himself on the cross to win forgiveness for me and for you.”  With tears in her eyes and a smile on her face she whispered to her dying friend.  “To you, the same as to me, Jesus is giving the life that never ends.” 

Do you hear the whisper? God worked through this Christian woman to share the Gospel with her friend.  The Lord likes to work through simple means, in this case a conversation between a Christian and her friend, to bring the Gospel to another person.         

We often like the “wow” moments in our lives especially when it comes to God.  We want God to come to us in the wind, earthquake and fire.  But as we look at our text for today we see that God does not usually work in that way.  God instead comes to us in a whisper.  But what God accomplishes through that whisper, through the simple means of Word and Sacrament is amazing.  For in those simple means God brings strength, restoration, forgiveness, joy, peace, hope and eternal salvation.  The Lord comes to you this day and reveals His compassion, grace and love and He does so with a whisper.  Amen