"The Contest"

I like the show “Lost.” It’s creatively written. It’s got lots of surprises. And most of all, it’s just a good story. There’s really nothing better than a good story. Today’s Word from God is a story. But the thing about stories is we can only tell a little portion of them at a time. And if you come into the middle of a good story you’re going to have a hard time figuring out exactly what’s going on. If you try to watch the show Lost without going back and watching some previous episodes you’re going to be, well, completely lost. So before I read you the story for this morning, let’s do a little background.

At the moment our story opens a struggle for the soul of Israel is taking place. You remember that the Israelites first became a nation when the Lord God rescued them from slavery in Egypt. The Lord brought this motley bunch of slaves out from under Pharaoh’s thumb and into the Wilderness. There the Lord made a covenant, an agreement with them. They would be his people and worship only him. The Lord then led this new people into Canaan, the Promised Land, where they settled down and lived.

But they didn’t live happily ever after. You see, there were already people living there and these people worshipped different gods. Now we, as good and open minded Americans, might not think that this would be a problem. We live in a society where people worship all kinds of things and we agree to live and let live. But the people who lived in Canaan worshiped a god called Baal. They worshiped him by celebrating, um, “fertility rites” with priestesses in his temple and by giving him their firstborn children to be burned to death. And from the moment the Israelites first entered the land they had trouble refraining from worshiping Baal and turning their backs on the Lord who had done so much for them.

As we read the stories we might be tempted to say to ourselves, “How could they have been so unfaithful to God? Look at all the things the Lord had done for them! I would never have done what those Israelites did.” But that’s easy to say. When everyone else lives and thinks in a certain way, is it easy for you to be the only one who is different? When you went to that new school and everybody believed that you could not be cool unless you were sleeping with your girlfriend, was it easy for you to be different? When you transferred to that new company was it easy for you to criticize management policies you felt to be wrong? It’s easier to do what everyone else is doing, isn’t it? Well, Baal was the god you worshipped if you wanted to be a farmer in Canaan. If you wanted rain on your crops and your livestock to multiply you “worshipped” with the priestesses in the fertility temple. If you wanted lots of children to help you on the farm and to ensure you were taken care of when you were old, you gave the first one back to Baal to show you trusted him to give you lots more. It’s just what everyone did.

To make matters worse, the Israelites were not getting good leadership. Good King David, who had worshipped only the Lord, was long since dead. Semi-good King Solomon who had built the Temple in Jerusalem was dead. The later kings began to worship Baal. In our story the present king is a man named Ahab and he’s not worth much. His wife is named Jezebel and she is a devout Baal worshipper. The prophets of Baal are her favorite subjects. They eat at her table which is a mark of privilege. In fact, Jezebel is so devoted to Baal that she has begun killing off the people who worship the Lord. She has murdered most of the Lord’s prophets. The only one left of any consequence is a man named Elijah.

King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are not very happy with Elijah as our story opens because for the past three years there has been no rain in Israel. Through Elijah, the Lord has said there would be a drought. God’s thinking was that a drought should prove to people that it’s not Baal who gives the rain that provides their food – it’s the Lord. But after three years it hasn’t worked. The people continue to worship Baal and King Ahab is put out with Elijah who he thinks is a rabble-rouser and an all around pain in the neck. Now, as our story begins God tells Elijah to meet with Ahab and tell him that even though nothing has changed, the Lord is going to send rain. But Elijah is less patient than God and decides to make King Ahab and the Israelites choose once and for all between Baal and the Lord. Listen now to the Word of God.

(Read 1 Kings 18: 17-40)

My favorite part of that story is when the prophets of Baal are jumping around the altar, trying to get Baal to light the fire and Elijah is making fun of them. “Woo! Shout a little louder, guys! I don’t think Baal can hear you! Maybe he fell asleep or maybe he had to go to the bathroom! Maybe he wandered off and got lost! I hear that happens to him sometimes! Ha ha!” I guess Elijah could be a little obnoxious from time to time but the taunting reminds us of something very important. This is not a contest between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal. It is a contest between Baal and the Lord God of Israel. Which god sends the rain? Which god controls this world? Which god really has the power to help and protect us? Which god has the right to our loyalty and our worship? The contest, Elijah thought, would settle things once and for all.

Now you might say that while this has been a very interesting lesson in ancient history, what does it have to do with you? Obviously, you are not going to start worshipping an ancient Canaanite god, right? Well, actually very little has changed. It would be a difficult thing to prove by looking around us that the Lord won that contest. There is still a struggle going on for the souls of God’s people and the Baals of our world often seem to have the upper hand. The ancient god Baal was a prosperity god that demanded his followers demean themselves if they wanted to survive and get ahead. We are constantly pressured to demean ourselves and others – to see ourselves as less than what we were created to be: You are a productive worker to be used and discarded when you are no longer needed. Ever felt like that? You are a consumer to be manipulated and squeezed dry. How about that one? And what about other people? If you want to get ahead and survive, how are we pressured to treat other people? They are competitors, markets, labor pools. What god do we worship?

Baal was a god who demanded the deaths of his worshippers’ children. The average child in this nation sees something like 100,000 acts of murder on television before she is eight years old. Girls are conditioned to value themselves only if they fit a certain scrawny hollow-cheeked beauty. Who cares about their souls, their spirits, their hearts? Which god do we worship?
And just like in ancient Israel, our leaders are not much good. I’m not even going to talk about our politicians. They often seem to belong to whoever gives them the most money. What about television executives? What about the people who are responsible for the fact that children’s shows average more acts of violence in any given half-hour than any other kind of program? When questioned about the content of the shows and asked if they thought it had an effect on kids, television executives regularly say that watching things on television does not affect people’s behavior. Who really believes that? Then why do advertisers spend billions of dollars every year in commercials which are designed to do one thing – change your behavior. Buy my product. The leaders in our society seem to worship the great Baal of I’ve-got-mine-who-cares-how-many-children-I’ve-got-to-throw-on-the-fire-to-get-it. Who won that contest on Mount Carmel 3000 years ago? It’s hard to tell.

We can go on and on about how this culture does not worship the God of Scripture but let’s get down to brass tacks. Worshipping Baal meant people no longer gave their full allegiance to the Lord. Their loyalty was divided. Elijah said that the people hobbled between two different opinions. What keeps you from fully committing yourself to the Lord, wholly and fully? Whatever it is, that is your Baal. Each and every day there is a struggle for your soul. Who is God of your life?

What does it take for God to finally prove himself to us so that we will full accept and commit ourselves to him? “Well,” we say, “it would be nice if God would do what he did for Elijah and work some nice obvious miracles on demand. If God would make fire fall from the sky or just appear and speak in plain English to us rather than make us operate on faith, then we could accept him and do whatever he wanted. Give us a clear proof – a miracle captured on camera – then we would believe.” Well, maybe. But then again maybe not. God worked a miracle in this story in front of King Ahab and all the people of Israel. Did that work? Did Ahab suddenly become a good king and follow the Lord? Nope. The people of Israel, having seen once and for all that the Lord had the power to save them and Baal did not, did they stop worshipping Baal. Nope. As the story continues, Ahab goes right on being a rat most of the time and the people go back to their idols. The miracle didn’t bring faith.

Have you ever noticed that in the New Testament Jesus always refuses to show forth the power of God for those who have no faith? Those he heals and helps always believe in him first. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “if you don’t believe, no supernatural sound and light show is going to change things.” If you were healed after someone prayed for you, you would say it was coincidence. If you asked God to avert a great tragedy, later you would say it probably wouldn’t have happened anyway. If you don’t want to believe then it probably wouldn’t matter if Jesus in all his glory were to meet with you face to face and tell you all the secrets of the universe. You could just say you had hallucinated the whole thing.

Elijah tried to force people to believe and worship by getting God to prove himself to them. It didn’t work and Elijah should have known better. The people should have needed any proof. The great long story of their lives and all their history was full of God’s loving care – as they were rescued from Egypt, as they were brought to the Promised Land, as again and again they were rescued and taken care of and led. They should have known who to give their hearts to. No further proof should have been necessary for them. Or for us. God has loved us and provided for each of us since before we were born, shown us forgiveness and love through his Son Jesus.

It really was no contest at all, that duel on Mount Carmel. We are not called to choose between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It wasn’t even a choice between the Lord God of Israel and the god Baal. Baal wasn’t a real god. Neither are all the little Baals in our hearts. The choice for us is between worshipping the Lord God and emptiness in this life. Choose the God who loves you.

Amen