Only God Can Build a Fire
Many people today are convinced that there are many ways that lead to God, and that all of them are pretty much the same. In 1 Kings 18:16-45, the nation of Israel learned something on Mt. Carmel, and maybe we need to relearn what they learned. Only God Can Build a Fire. That anyone else can is laughable…that only God can is laudable. April 20, 2008.
Benedict XVI is in the United States of course, and the news media has been all over the papal visit. The pope visited a synagogue in New York on Friday. Our Jewish friends began their celebration of Passover that day, so it’s a big weekend for them. Benedict is a liturgical guy, and he knew what the readings would be in Christian churches this weekend. Do you think Benedict may have based his synagogue remarks on the Gospel that is read on the Fifth Sunday of Easter? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I don’t think so. If he would have said that, there would have been an international fire storm that would have kept CNN busy for weeks.
No one comes to the Father except through me. What Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel is the exclusivity of the Christian religion. The word exclusive doesn’t sound so bad to us. We use exclusive to describe high-priced condos or upscale housing divisions. But exclusive and exclusivity come from the same word, exclude, and you know what exclude means. Jesus knew very well what he was saying, but he said what he said anyway. What Jesus said in today’s Gospel is about the most politically incorrect thing an American Christian could say. To most people it’s preposterous to say or even think that Jesus is the only way to God or that Christianity is the only true religion. And that’s why most Christians don’t say it, at least not when the media is around. Or maybe not when their college friends are around or when their relatives or their co-workers are around. And maybe some Christians don’t even like saying it to themselves.
Elijah wasn’t nearly so hesitant. The people he preached to, the people of Israel in the Old Testament weren’t into religious exclusivity, not by a long shot. They could worship the Lord or they could worship Baal or half a dozen other idols and they were happy with all of them. The trouble was the Lord wasn’t happy with them. The Lord decided it was time to remind his people that he wasn’t content to be just one entrée on their spiritual menu or just one book in their religious library. God sent his prophet Elijah to set the demonstration up--well, you heard about it in the First Lesson. Two altars, two sacrifices, one challenge: You call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.
You and I live in an age of religious pluralism. Most people we know are convinced that there are many ways that lead to God, and that all of them are pretty much the same. But the nation of Israel learned something that day on Mt. Carmel, and maybe we need to relearn what they learned. You know what they learned, don’t you know that Only God Can Build a Fire. That anyone else can is laughable…that only God can is laudable.
Religious pluralism, the idea that there many gods can get you to the same place, is hardly an American idea. It’s been around from the moment the children and grandchildren of Adam and Eve took their eyes off the true God way back when the world was new. That’s one of the reasons God decided to adopt the descendents of Abraham and make them his own people. He wanted to get them away from pluralism. He wanted them to worship him and only him. Old Testament heroes like Abraham and Moses and David went to the wall to uphold the truth that there is only one God and that his name is the Lord.
But there was trouble, and the kings were the culprits as often as not. Solomon built the temple and had the reputation of being the wealthiest and wisest man in the world, but in his old age Solomon gave in to pressure from his political wives and allowed the worship of false gods. The Bible concludes the story of almost every king that came after Solomon like this: And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And then came King Ahab. Here’s what the Bible says about him: Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. God sent a drought to discipline the people of Israel, but that just teed Ahab off. He and his wife Jezebel went on a killing spree. Some of God’s people went into hiding, but most of them simply went with the flow and worshiped Ahab’s gods.
Mt. Carmel was the meeting place. 450 priests of the idol called Baal versus Elijah. They built their altars and prepared their sacrifices. The big question was: who could get his God to build the fire. The priests of Baal give it their best shot. They prayed and danced around the altar, and they shouted and slashed themselves with their swords and spears until they bled. By noon they were frantic and wild-eyed. And Elijah sat nearby, probably with his legs crossed and his arms folded, and he just laughed at them: “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
If it weren’t so sad, it would almost be funny. You watch your four-year old kid try to get that big basketball up to the ten-foot basket, and every shot is six feet short. At first you feel sorry for him but after awhile you just have to laugh. There’s simply enough of him to get the ball through the hoop. That’s how God feels about religions that insist they can offer what only he can give. The one enthroned in heaven laughs, the psalm writer wrote in Psalm 2; the Lord scoffs at them. With just about every stroke of his Old Testament pen God pointed his people ahead to a Messiah, and yet some people still insist the Messiah hasn’t arrived and maybe he’s not coming at all but exists in the form of a nation rather than a man. Really? God laid his choice squarely on the miracle child Isaac and sent the illegitimate half brother into the desert, but a nomad comes out of Arabia not only claiming descent from Ishmael but also the status as God’s only true prophet. Really? In word after word and sentence after sentence in Scripture God makes it perfectly clear that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins, and yet someone sits in the temple of God insisting that Jesus has to be sacrificed again and again to make up for sin. Really? In those same Scriptures God tells us the sad story that our natural minds are at war with him and powerless to choose good over evil, but the main message in a thousand mega-churches is: Make your decision for Christ. Really?
Maybe I should make this more personal. The truth is, we all have our idols. God says that lasting happiness comes from him. But some people chase after money and toys and leisure as though it were they the best things in life. Really? God says that believing in him is the beginning of wisdom, but some people figure they’re smarter than God when it comes to making decisions in life. Really? Like I said, if it weren’t so sad, it would almost be funny. You know what? It’s sad and it’s funny at the same time. It is ridiculous, it is tragically ridiculous to think that someone or something other than God, the true God, the Lord God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says himself that no one comes to the Father except through him--it is tragically ridiculous to think that anyone or anything besides this God should or could or would ever give us what we need in this life or in the life to come. This is the truth--and Israel learned it on Mt. Carmel: Only God Can Build a Fire. Say it in another way: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Nobody was going to accuse Elijah of using matches or mirrors. He built the altar, built a trench around it, arranged the wood, and put the animal on top of the wood. Then he told the people to pour four jugs of water over everything, then four more jugs, then four more jugs. Then Elijah prayed: “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” And as they say, the rest is history: Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
I’m only guessing, but I have this feeling that nobody said a word for 30 seconds or so. A thousand emotions must have raced through the minds of every man, woman, and child on that mountain. Terror that the fire would hit them next, shame over worshiping Baal, sadness that they had sinned against God. First they dropped to their knees; then they fell on their faces. And then a shout broke the silence: The Lord, he is God! The Lord, he is God! But this wasn’t only praise from the lips. They put their praise into action. Elijah gave the command, and they obeyed. They slaughtered the 450 priests of Baal according to God’s own will, and they didn’t care if Ahab was watching. If God could bring down fire from heaven, they were ready to follow him. They roared their loyalty to God and then they lived their loyalty to God.
It was on another mountain that another prophet from God prepared a sacrifice. The mountain was called Calvary, not Carmel, and the prophet was Jesus, not Elijah. He arranged the wood in the form of a cross, and he placed the sacrifice on the wood--he mounted the cross himself. And he drenched the wood and the ground with own blood. And when he gave his life into death, God the Father rained fire down from heaven, fire that destroyed the devil and death, fire that burned away the record of our sins, fire that inscribed on steel the everlasting decree: There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!
Only God could build that fire, and the reality that he did deserves our highest praise. Not only praise from our lips, either; not just a hymn here or a praise chorus there. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a tribute far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all. This love compels my obedience to live as God wants me to live. This love begs for my confession to admit that I am helpless with Jesus. This love invites my confidence to trust that Jesus is indeed the way, the truth, and the life. This love insists that I believe that Jesus is the only way to God.
And this love calls me to tell the story of Jesus wherever I go. Is Jesus exclusively the Savior? Yes, he is. He said so himself in the Gospel for today. Is Jesus inclusively the Savior of the world? He is that, too. Come to me, he says, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. And because Jesus is the only Savior for every person, you and I reach out to every person and tell them about the only Savior. And then the fire of Jesus’ love will blaze across our neighborhoods and our nation and our world and it will burn away the darkness and it will light the world with faith and warm the hearts of people everywhere. And that’s a fire only we can build. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on April 20, 2008
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