Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time: Baptized as a Prophet

Today’s reading from the First Book of Kings gives us one of the great stories of the prophet Elijah, who lived about 900 years before the birth of Jesus, generally considered the greatest of the Jewish prophets. Now to be clear: while some think of a prophet as one who predicts the future, it is more correctly and broadly understood as one who is a mouthpiece for God, one who God gives the task of proclaiming His message. Elijah lived during the reign of a foolish and weak king named Ahab, who time and time again, led the people of his kingdom away from God. And so in the Bible’s first mention of Elijah, he prophetically declares God’s word, bitter news to the foolish King Ahab: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives….there will be no dew or rain except at my word”.

And so it was: everything began drying up and a three-year drought ensued. As we hear in today’s reading, the drought bore devastating effects. There had been no rain, and therefore no crops, and therefore no food. God sent Elijah far north, to a town called Zarephath. The people there did not know the God of Israel, but instead worshipped various pagan gods.

Elijah arrived there and encountered a widow and her son. The widow was gathering sticks to make a fire, so that she and her son could eat one last meal before their deaths. Approached by the stranger, Elijah, he greeted her not with the standard pleasantries, but instead with an instruction: “Please stop what you’re doing and get me some water. And while you’re at it, bring me some bread.”

Given her situation, having seen everything, including life itself, dry up, I can imagine how that would have sounded to her. But she told Elijah, “Look at our situation. I have almost nothing. We are going to eat these last few crumbs and then we will die”. This mysterious and demanding stranger replied with God’s message: “Do not be afraid….just do it and the God of Israel will provide. Do it…trust.”  And today's reading gives us the rest of the story: the food did not run out, nor did she and her son die.

I remind you that at baptism, as you were being anointed with fragrant Sacred Chrism, the minister declared: "As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live...." So it is for each of us. At our baptism, you were anointed, calling you to the office of prophet. And not all that different from Elijah, God has placed His truths and His laws in your heart, so that you might be His mouthpiece.

In fact, He made your heart to be an ‘inbox’ where He can speak to you and to be a place where those truths are nurtured and protected within you. So in what manner and how often do you look within your heart and examine God’s truths within? Even more: When was the last time you honestly spoke those truths to others and to whom were those truths proclaimed?

I remember years ago, a friend telling me about her niece, who was preparing for her First Holy Communion. Excited and confident from the year of preparation, she had become quite the prophetic witness and had begun letting everybody know that Jesus was her best friend. Without a speck of the apprehension that most of us would have, she proudly wore a t-shirt that proclaimed that truth: Jesus is my best friend!

She was told by her teacher said that she can’t wear that shirt because it might make other children feel sad. Well, this is nonsense of course, but resistance of this sort makes us afraid and causes us to pull back, because we too don’t want to offend. Elijah would tell us, “Don’t be afraid”. I believe the world needs to hear those truths. If it doesn’t hear them from you, then from whom will it?

And like Zarephath, ours is a culture of many gods: comfort, power, pleasure, wealth. And if you don’t regard any of those things to be your personal gods, consider whether or not in the course of a given week, they occupy more of your consciousness than the God who gave you life.

But also, ours is a culture so driven by fear and power struggles. In this fear, movements seek to eradicate anything they believe would challenge what they have determined as truth. With that, it’s a culture that tends toward being overly reactive, so quick to declare its truth—what’s right-what’s wrong….what’s will be permitted and what will not be tolerated—that seemingly, all but gone, is the capacity for discerning and dialoging through the nuances and complexities of our shared realities.

While we must avoid becoming just another loud and denouncing voice in the mix, there must be prophetic voices that confidently—yet gently—avoid the polarizing extremes. While we must wordlessly witness by how we live, there also has to be the witness that discerns, and then courageously declares truth, doing so with love.

Further, ours is a culture that is utterly fearful of letting God be God of our lives. At your baptism, God did something real within you; He gave you a share in the life of Jesus, as priest, prophet and king. The world needs to see in you and to hear from you, that it need not fear letting God be the God of our lives. Don’t stifle that voice within you. Don’t smother that truth. Don’t be afraid.