What Are You Doing Here?

Anton DeWet

“No Other Plans” (W. J. Bausch) – 1 Kings 19:9-18

10 years ago, a year after I arrived here at Faith, we gathered for the very first to talk about Faith Church and our life here and to imagine what it was God might be calling us to be. There are a few veterans here who will remember the exercise we did with Ken Callahan’s 12 Keys to an Effective Church and how surprised we were.

One of the catchy phrases we discovered back then was:

“If you fail to plan—you plan to fail.”

If you fail to plan—you plan to fail.

Keeping that in mind let’s change focus for a moment. Our theme for today’s service as you see printed in the bulletin is; “What Are You Doing Here?”

I’d like to talk about a fictional story by W.J Bausch who tells it like this:

Upon Jesus’ arrival in heaven, a vast host of angels greeted him. After the formalities, they asked him whom he had left behind on earth to finish the work he had begun.

Jesus replied, “Just a small group of men and women who love me.”

“That’s all?” asked the angels, astonished. “What if this tiny group should fail?”

Jesus replied: “I have no other plans.” (W.J. Bausch)

“I have no other plans”.

If you have ever had any doubt as to whether you are called by God then I want to announce to you today without a shadow of a doubt, you are called! As a follower of Jesus he entrusts his work to you and me. We are it!

Hear it today, write it on the tablet of your heart, and believe it. God calls every person to fulfill some part of God’s dream for this world. But I cannot tell you what it is that God has called you to do. I can make suggestions. I can point you in the direction of resources that you might find helpful to determine your call. I can pray with you. I can support you. I can do all of these things but I cannot tell you what that calling is because that is between God and yourself.

The only thing we can say for sure is that God’s call, if taken seriously, will transform you. It will change you. And God has made God-self dependant on people like you and me to fulfill God’s dream for this world.

Elijah was an interesting figure in the Bible. Elijah was also called by God as we have all been called by God. In Elijah’s case his calling was a trifle dangerous and his times a trifle troubled. So, determined to figure out what he should do he sets off into the Sinai desert to Mount Horeb (remember, back then they always had these sacred mountains where they felt they were closer to God—think high mountain and God living in the blue expanse above us somewhere—stand on the top of the mountain and—“can you hear me now?”).

When he gets to what this writer calls, the “Mountain of God”, he crawls into a cave and falls asleep, obviously feeling safe and secure he can now relax, or so he thinks.

He is awakened by God asking; “So Elijah, what are you doing here.”

You remember those times when your mother or father opens the door of the closet, or shed, or comes around the corner finding you in a place you should not be and the first words are: “So, what are you doing here?” Ah-ha. Thought so.

“Oh I was working so hard for you, God, and its such a tough life, The people are nasty and do you know, they even kill your holy men (people like me), and now the only person worth anything to you is me!”—he whines before God.

God responds: “Get off your sorry behind and come stand before me.”

The next scene is interesting:

A string of very impressive things take place beginning with a hurricane wind that ripped up and shattered even the rocks; and then came a terrible earthquake and then fire, but interestingly enough, we are told—God was not in any of these powerful natural events.

God, we are told, is revealed in a whisper of a voice. Yet, that voice in so powerful that Elijah cannot bear it. It is so overpowering that he grabs his mantel—his cloak, and wraps it around his head to protect himself from it.

Again the quiet voice speaks:

“So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?”

And immediately the litany of whining begins again:

“Oh, I worked my heart out for you, O God, and I suffered threats to my life and these people are really, really nasty…”

And then the quite voice speaks again and I can imagine old Elijah now in sheer terror for he has not yet received the slightest recognition for his sacrifice and suffering and this time God tells him to go back to where his responsibilities lie and gives him a ten times harder task to fulfill and a much more dangerous mission, namely to anoint Hazael and make him king over Aram. Then to anoint Jehu and make him king over Israel. Finally, to anoint Elisha to succeed him, Elijah, as prophet.

So, for his act of desertion from his calling Elijah gets a task that will require that he anoint kings that will cause a great rebellion in the land—and you know how messy and dangerous rebellions can be—before he can anoint his successor and he can retire and start collecting social security. (Joke)

And then, as an after thought God says to him… “and O, by the way, you are not the only holy person in Israel—there are at least 7,000 more (code word for “many more”) of your type I can choose from.”

Was Elijah faking great piety by running to God hoping for a reprieve from the hard and dangerous work God had called him to? In exchange for this initiative he gets something much more meaningful than early retirement.

I don’t know about you, but I have often hid from responsibilities that are hard or even dangerous. When intimidated and scared it is so much more comfortable to slink away and fall asleep in a safe place where there is no risk. Some of us come hide in the church (for us it God’s holy mountain), but God is calling all of us with a quiet, irresistible voice. Its time to wake from our spiritual napping and stand before God and hear what it is God has in mind for us.

My life and your life is the one chance we get to make a difference in this world. Jesus has no other plan for this world. He has no other plan B if we fail. But he does have a plan—and we are it.

I am looking at you and I am looking at myself this morning and I know that we know that God is calling us to this community of Faith to fulfill our tasks, don’t we?

What are you doing here?

This is what God is asking us this morning.

A small, gentle voice is asking that question of us today. But that gentle voice is more powerful than earthquakes and hurricanes, more powerful than our brokenness and our uncertainty, more powerful than our suffering and more powerful than our fear of fully embracing Jesus Christ’s call for us to be his disciples in word and deed.

I stand here this morning to tell you that I am more convinced than ever that God is calling us into the future and it will not be easy. But you and I and this church has a future!

I do not think for a moment that Elijah caught the Red Eye back to Damascus. I think he reluctantly took the long road back…mumbling and complaining and shaking in his boots (or is it sandals he wore back then).

I can just imagine how he struggled to focus on this new mission as he anticipated the danger and the hardships, but we know he endured and we know he remained faithful to his calling and his life ends with that beautiful passage that tells us how, after fulfilling his mission, he was swept up into the heavens on a chariot of fire with that same mantle of his falling to the earth so his successor, Elisha could pick it up and accept the leadership and responsibilities as the new prophet of God.

I heard the story of a congregation in Massachusetts this week at the seminar I attended. A young women, small of stature, very shy and pretty introverted was assigned to a church where they did not appear to know what to do with her. As an ordained  priest she did not fit the profile.

She began, during lunch, to make a few sandwiches and share them with the homeless people a few blocks away. And while there she would conduct a short service when all of these homeless folks would join hands and be offered the bread of life by a priest deemed too inferior to amount to much.

After a while her stuff began to get in the way of those at church and the rector asked her to make a plan and get another place for it so she moved it out of the church.

Seeing that it often rained in those first months she invited the homeless to congregate on the church property where there was some protection from the rain and sun until she received a letter from the bishop saying that people at church were complaining that it made their church look bad, so she moved back to the square and bought a bunch of umbrellas so people could eat and worship together.

In all this time the church refused to spend a dime on this ministry because it would only encourage the homeless to congregate at their church until the Ford Foundation became interested and gave her a grant after which time the church wanted to take over the ministry and control it.

She resisted them and went on to start these communities of worship in 250 other cities everywhere in the world.

If you fail to plan—you plan to fail. Jesus planned and his plan includes you and me. He has no other plan. Let’s accept the mantle of responsibility and step forward and be the people God is calling us to become. And know, Jesus is calling you by name. Still wondering what you are doing here today?

God Is Still Speaking…Amen.

SCRIPTURE 1 Kings 19:9-18

Elijah got up, ate and drank his fill, and set out. Nourished by that meal, he walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb. When he got there, he crawled into a cave and went to sleep. Then the word of God came to him: “So Elijah, what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been working my heart out for the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,” said Elijah.

“The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed the places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”

Then he was told, “Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by.”

A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t to be found in the wind;
after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake;
and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn’t in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.

When Elijah heard the quiet voice, he muffled his face with his prophet-cloak, went to the mouth of the cave, and stood there.

A quiet voice asked, “So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?”

Elijah said it again, “I’ve been working my heart out for God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed your places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”

God said, “Go back the way you came through the desert to Damascus. When you get there anoint Hazael; make him king over Aram. Then anoint Jehu son of Nimshi; make him king over Israel.

Finally, anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Anyone who escapes death by Hazael will be killed by Jehu; and anyone who escapes death by Jehu will be killed by Elisha.

Meanwhile, I’m preserving for myself seven thousand souls: the knees that haven’t bowed to the god Baal, the mouths that haven’t kissed his image.”