I Kings 17:8-12; Galatians 1:11-24

Into unknown parts

Our son Andrew posted the following on facebook last week.  He found it on you.tube. “Hello, I am currently 17 years old and I want to become a walrus. I know there’s a million people out there just like me, but I promise you I’m different. On December 14th, I’m moving to Antarctica; home of the greatest walruses. I’ve already cut off my arms, and now slide on my stomach everywhere I go as training. I may not be a walrus yet, but I promise you if you give me a chance and the support I need, I will become the greatest walrus ever. Thank you all so much”

Friends, are you walrus yet?  Are you that thing or person you have always wanted to be? Have you acquired the skills you need to do that great new thing, to succeed in that great feat? Our message today is about going into unknown parts and unknown roles to do the Lord’s work.  Listen to this story:” Let me share this imaginary scene with you: a writer dies and due to a bureaucratic snafu in the afterworld she is allowed to choose her own fate: heaven or hell for all eternity.  Being a very shrewd dead person, she asks St. Peter for a tour of both. The first is hell where she sees rows and rows of writers sitting chained to desks in a room as hot as a thousand suns (after yesterday’s spaghetti dinner you can probably relate.  Fire licks the writer’s fingers as they try to work, demons whip their backs with chains. Your general hell scene.  “Wow,” this is ghastly,” the writer blurts out. “Let’s see some heaven.” In a moment they were whisked to heaven and the writer saw rows and rows of writers chained to desks  as hot as a thousand suns. Fire licks the writer’s fingers as they try to work, demons whip their backs with chains. It looks and sells even worse than hell. “What gives , Pete,” the writer asked. “This is even worse than hell. “yes,” St. Peter,” replied, “but here your work gets published.” (source: Homiletics)

Friends, the 17 year old and the writer go to a place they have never been to before.  They set foot or want to set foots in parts unknown.  This desire for parts unknown drove the crew of the Bounty who found Tahiti and then split off into those left on the ship, those returning to Tahiti and those banishing themselves to Pitcairn island.  They set foot in parts unknown with unforeseen circumstances.  This is what drove Columbus. This is what drove Captain Cook. This is what drove east Asians  moving across the frozen Aleutian islands hundreds of thousands  of years ago to become Eskimos, Inuits and Native Americans. This is what drove the Tahitians discovering Hawaii. This is what drove, if we can believe Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, Captain of the Kontiki, the Peruvian Indians as they set sail for Polynesia.  Humankind has always gone to parts unknown, even as far as the moon.  David Livingstone and other missionaries did so.  Today’s texts are about mission, about going into parts unknown,  for God or for service to God.  Elijah goes to Zarephath which he is told is in the region of Sidon and there he meets a poor widow with a terribly ill son. Both of them are very hungry.  She has just a little bit of flour and olive oil left and this strange holy man asks for something to eat. . The widow comments that her flour is meant just to put enough in the stomach of her and her son “before they die.” The widow, the son and Elijah are transformed by the encounter made possible because God’s GPS has brought them together.  It is Elijah obedience to God that makes this transforming encounter possible.

Paul’s story is different, but he admits he is spiritually motivated but geographically adrift.  He is the persecutor who does not join the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.  He decides not to go to Jerusalem. He decides to go to Arabia.  What a strange thing to do!  The Book of Acts doesn’t even mention it. Why is Paul going into that huge desert. What is to make and sell tents, for that was his profession and trade? Was to seek solitude and rest? Or was it as one commentator (the Interpreter’s Bible) says because  “…obviously there is in the desert an awayness, an apartness rarely equaled anywhere else. There social influences are reduced to minimum; there it is easier to cultivate the vertical  awareness of God without hindrance from the horizontal affaires of men(and women). “ It is possible Paul’s  going into parts unknown   completed  his journey of transformation from persecution to apostle.  Friends, perhaps Paul could not change so quickly. Perhaps he had to go to the desert from transformation.   Friends, perhaps we need to go to Zarephath, perhaps we need to go to Arabia, not literally, but in her heads and hearts.  Perhaps we always fall back on the familiar pattern. Perhaps also in our exploration of the future of this congregation, we should not make the same assumption as before. The question, will allow the Holy Spirit to take us into new territory? Friends, let us learn from Paul and Elijah who allowed themselves to be transformed and renewed for the journey onward. Thanks be to God.