There Is Never Enough

 Poem and Reflection for 11th Sunday after Pentecost                       August 13, 2023
St Andrew's By The Sea Episcopal Church, Nags Head, NC            Thomas E Wilson, Guest Celebrant
         1 Kings 19:9-18           Psalm 85:8-13            Romans 10:5-15              Matthew14:22-33
                                                           There Is Never Enough
 

Let’s start off with the story of Elijah in the Book of Kings. To fill you in, Elijah was filled with zeal and he challenged the Priests of Baal to a contest on whose God is more powerful. Elijah wins and in his victory he slaughters the Priests of Baal. Jezebel the Queen is ticked off at this blood thirsty act and swears that she will kill Elijah. Elijah runs for his life all the way to Mount Horeb, the Holy Mountain. 

Although God has provided the food on the way, Elijah is ticked with God because Elijah is not back at home with his feet up enjoying the good life of a prophet. But, heck, if you end up slaughtering a bunch of Priests, you are bound to have the authorities after you. He is now coming before God and the writer is setting Elijah up in how to approach God in Prayer:

At Horeb, the mount of God, Elijah came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the
Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous  for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars,and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.

Then the “Word”, “the Spirit” of God tells Elijah to go out of the cave and face God, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” But Elijah, in his hurt arrogance, does not leave the cave of his frustrations and bitterness. In his arrogance, he yells out to the entrance of the cave. Can you hear the anger in Elijah setting up the conversation? First he starts off with an angry blast of how he, Elijah, has been faithful as if God even cares. There is no answer from God's Great Wind to the angry blast of Elijah. (Angry Blast-Great Wind.) He continues to shout how everything was falling part; and there is no answer from God in the earthquake. (Falling apart- Earthquake). With the burning fear that he has and there is no answer from God in the fire. (Burning Fear- Fire.). You get what you bring. Approaching God in arrogance; you usually get you what you bring. Elijah then leaves his cave of resentment and stands before God and speaks quietly to the silence and in the silence, he hears God. (Silence-hears God). The writer tells us that if we want to hear God, we need to clear the deck and listen in silence.

This week I had a visit from my sister and a niece. They shared a story about another niece's child, named
Marlowe. Apparently my Great nephew was in a school classroom and the Teacher was facing an unruly class and she said in frustration: “Does anybody know how to listen?" Marlowe quietly replied. “I do, I know how to listen.” He then sat down in a chair and smiling, extended his hands face up and closed his eyes. The other children looked at him in puzzlement, for the standard response to a question to which there is no “right” answer is to look down at the floor in shame. But Marlowe's parents are influenced by Buddhist practice and he was showing how they listen to God in peace-filled silence. Marlowe was showing his class that if you want to hear, you need to pay attention.

Which bring us to the story from the Gospel for today. It is the story of Jesus walking on the water in the
middle of a storm and Peter is, in his arrogance, asking to join Jesus in stepping on the storm-tossed waves. Notice Peter does no listening at all, he just demands that he become the equal of Jesus. For him, God is a storehouse of all sorts of things that he wants for himself. Prayer in this case is a little like wishful thinking, and if you please the owner of the storehouse, then you get what you want for your own. It is a little like the old song Janis Joplin sang: “O Lord Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes Benz.”

This is what is going through the mind of Peter; he sees something that he desires and he asks for it when he asks Jesus to call him out of the boat. As he finds out, wishful thinking is not a prayer, but it is rather an ego gratification exercise. It is like when I find myself at a Lottery sales place and I think that God would really like me to have more money. Just think what I could do with more money than God. Or when I go to Duck Donuts and the thought goes through my mind that God would like to give me a reward for being so darn good, especially when I didn't want to. Or one of my favorites, from a line in the Musical, Finian's Rainbow, “to be delivered into the arms of a bouncing Babylonian Jezebel from Biloxi, Mississippi.” Or for me in this past year, for just one more year, one more month, one more week, one more day, one more hour with my wife. In wishful thinking there is never enough. 

My understanding of Prayer is not in the asking for things but in the participating of the nature of God, the
fountain of creating power for hope, love and faith. There is a prayer that I find most helpful: “God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. One day at a time, one moment at a time.”

This does not stop me from praying for peace among nations, but I begin with prayers for the strength to
change me into a person of peace. I continue to pray for healing, but my prayer means that I become an agent on the healing and care of the whole person. Prayers without commitment are like placebos; they don't hurt, but they don't help.

As Claudius says in Shakespeare's Hamlet: 

“My words fly up, My thoughts remain below,
Words without thoughts never to Heaven go.”

Does anyone here know how to listen?

There Is Never Enough
Asking, “Is there ever or never enough?”
Spouting it like there is no tomorrow.
“More!” So not having to face sorrow,
of having not enough of all that stuff.
Wanting those things to hold in a hand,
like money, food, more time or honors
justifying breath before becoming “goners”
caught in stormy sea or parched land.
But what is important is not handheld
but that which is given freely away;
hope, faith, love, are what has sway,
giving meaning to a good life upheld.
Giving and forgiving in life left behind
are signs of walking with God aligned.