Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
The opening of Sunday's sermon was cut off due to technical difficulties. You can begin with the text below.
"The fear is palpable. We can all feel it. What if the gunman had succeeded? What if tension flares? What if the reaction is violent? What does it mean for our country? What does it mean for our families? What does it mean for our safety and security?
Where do we turn?
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When Jesus and John the Baptizer are compared to Elijah, it is not an offhand comparison. Elijah and the prophets of old conveyed a very specific message to the 1st-century Israelites.
Elijah was a miracle worker and prophet from the Book of Kings. His name meant “my God is Yahweh [the Lord],” which is significant since he often stood against and preached against the worship of a local deity called Baal. He served in the times of King Ahab, famously married to Queen Jezebel. To put it succinctly, and to quote one of my references, “Ahab is known for being the most wicked king in the history of Israel.”
Under the influence of Jezebel, Ahab was frequently led to encourage the worship of Baal over Yahweh.
Before proceeding, I want to name an issue I won’t delve into today. In our stories, we find the vilification of women as a source of evil. For whatever reason, Ahab and Herod are let off the hook for their choices, and instead, the women unfairly take the blame, even though the men held far more power at the time.
What does it mean that Ahab and Jezebel turned to Baal worship? Baal was a local deity, a storm god, seen as having power over fertility, including the sustenance of crops and animals. By extension, in an agricultural society, Baal had influence over prosperity, wealth, and thus power. Baal worship led to concentrations of power, injustice for the poor, and oppression of the weak."
