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Gummy bear candy on a hike is a lot like a broom tree in the desert, let me explain. This past week, I finally carved out a window of time to do what I love most, go for a hike in the mountains. I took the kids and we drove east on I-90 for a while, stopping at the trail head that leads to Talapus, Olallie, and Pratt lakes. The moderate hike I had planned turned into an 8.5-mile trek on a lollipop trail that climbed more than 2200 feet in elevation. It was not a walk in the park.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I started conditioning my children to love what I love when they were very small. I have always bribed them on hikes with candy – usually gummy bears-a small burst of sugar and sweetness to lure them up the steepest switchbacks. And, it has worked! When nerves are beginning to fray and enthusiasm waning, I pull out the gummy bears and a smile, and they keep walking.
As we continued our upward march, it started to sound like the Israelites in the wilderness. “Why? Oh why, have you brought us out into the wilderness to DIE. We would rather go back to slavery in Egypt than endure 25 more switchbacks with the mosquitos!” More gummy bears.
The wilderness metaphor works well – both literally and figuratively. The wilderness is a place of giving and testing. In the wilderness, we experience provision and the need for obedience.
It can be a time of physical weakness and even despair. And – it can be an occasion of spiritual strengthening and personal redefinition.
In today’s reading from 1 Kings, Elijah longs for death. But why? To help jog your memory: Elijah is God’s prophet living in Israel in the 9th century BCE. Historically, this was a time of relative peace and prosperity for the Israelites. The tension lies between the worshipers of God and the royally-patronized worship of Baal. Queen Jezebel, married to King Ahab, is a fierce follower of Baal and violently persecutes Elijah and others who worship God.
Elijah also represents the new Moses because he withstands royal oppression and preserves the faith. And for this, he is tyrannized. Elijah is running away from Jezebel and flees to the desert.
This is the first night in what will become a 40-day journey into the wilderness before reaching Mt. Horeb and seeing God. He goes a full day’s journey into the wilderness, sits down under a solitary broom tree, and asks to die. Instead of death, Elijah finds God, the gentle touch of an angel, and divine provision.
To quote Thomas R. Steagald, “There is gracious provision even when the beneficiaries neither ask nor understand.” “There is gracious provision even when the beneficiaries neither ask nor understand.” This is God’s grace.
GRACE
This is the sure and certain knowledge that God cares for us and God sustains us when we ask AND when we don’t. We are recipients of God’s grace even when we are unawareor uncomprehending.
I would say that it is God’s grace that has led me back to Epiphany. When I left seven years ago, never in my wildest dreams, could I have imagined being a candidate for bishop in this diocese, losing an election, and ending up back here with you. By the grace of God, I have returned to Epiphany, eager to serve Christ and his church here in your midst.
I bet each of you can think of a time in your life in which you have been the recipient of God’s grace. It may have taken you a while to even figure it out. And that’s okay.
Elijah receives God’s grace in the desert. He is in despair, running for his life. He journeys into the wilderness to escape the pressure. Elijah is fleeing the anxieties of his socio-political world and its power plays. He is running from Jezebel and he runs and runs and runs. He runs until he flings himself under the patchy shade of a broom tree, broken and afraid. And it is here that he meets God once more.
A broom tree is a desert shrub found in the Middle East. It has deep, deep roots to draw in moisture in a barren place. In the Bible, broom trees appear in moments of despair and times of divine encounter.
Job encounters a broom tree and describes it as a place of desolation, ruin, and abandonment. A broom tree appears in the psalms, described as a place for mourning and distress. And here, under a broom tree, Elijah finds God and meets an angel.
That is why gummy bear candy on a hike is a lot like a broom tree in the desert. I’m definitely NOT equating gummy bears to God. But I am saying that the gummy bear on a hike is a moment of provision and care. It strengthens a weary hiker for the journey, just as the patchy shade of the broom tree strengthens Elijah.
It’s a summer Sunday morning in August. It’s warm outside. I imagine some of you may be longing for a broom tree right about now. You want to rest in its shade and are perhaps dreaming of a hot cake delivered by an angel. Coffee Hour might do the trick and if not, I have a solution. I have a few gummy bears to get you through the rest of this sermon.
PASS OUT GUMMY BEARS
May these gummy bears represent God’s grace. May they be a reminder of God’s tremendous provision and care just like the hot cakes and water delivered by an angel to Elijah in that desert! Go ahead and eat a few gummy bears and we’ll wrap this up.
The wilderness metaphor works well – both literally and figuratively. The wilderness is a place of giving and testing. In the wilderness, we experience provision and the need for obedience. It can be a Kme of physical weakness and even despair. And – it can be an occasion of spiritual strengthening and personal redefiniKon.
Throughout the Old Testament, people experience God in a myriad of ways. In the early days of Genesis, it is a voice. Then, people experience God in fire or wind. And finally, experiences of God become a little bit more elusive or ethereal. It is the feeling of God’s presence.
Or, as Elijah finds God at Mt. Horeb in the verses immediately following what we heard today, “Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splifng mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
The Saint John’s Bible illumination for this passage shows this moment. It is a vibrant and stunning image of Elijah, teeny tiny and in green at the bottom, being overcome by the presence of God in the silence – depicted in gold, sliver, and an array of warm colors.
Along the bottom of the illumination it says, “and after the fire, a sound of sheer silence.”
Sometimes, we need a few gummy bears or a broom tree in the desert, to help us settle our souls enough to see God. Let us learn from Elijah and his histrionics and accept that God’s grace, God’s provision and care, are ever with us.
Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) . Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. ,