HIDING FROM LIFE
June 25, 1989
8:30 and 11:00 a.m. Worship Services

John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
Luke 9:18-24
I Kings 19:9-14

",.-he came to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of
the Lord came to him, and he said to him, ‘What are you doing
here, Elijah?'" I Kings 19:9 (RSV)

I have always been intrigued by the advice a poet, Ranier
Maria Rilke, offered to a young man wondering what to do with his
life and considering writing poetry. Rilke's famous advice was
to avoid writing poetry unless he simply had to...unless the
poetry demanded to be written.

The assumption is that your destiny pursues you; the
purpose of your life keeps knocking on the door until you open
it. And that a good portion of human life is invested in the
ultimately futile, if not tragic, attempt to avoid it, escape it,
hide from it. Or, if you prefer a theological perspective - and
I do - God is a relentless pursuer, who keeps on our trail,
tracks us down and shows up not only in unlikely places, but
precisely in those places we go in order to get away from Him.

In preparation for his recent visit, I skimmed through
William Sloane Coffin's memoir, Once to Every Man, and read the
passages I had under-lined ten years ago. One of them that got
my attention then and still does, describes his decision to enter
theological seminary. He had served in Army intelligence at the
end of World War II, was completing his work at Yale and because
he knew Russian language and culture was considering an
invitation from the CIA to continue in government intelligence.

He describes his feelings about religion at the time:

"J was put off by the churches which were just then
beginning to desert the city in droves, fleeing to the suburbs in
search of their middle-class constituents. For another thing, I
was unimpressed by many of the Christian students I met. Their
answers seemed too pat, their submission to God too ready. It
seemed to me that as with parents, so with God; too easy a
submission is but a facade for repressed rebellion."

And then, partly because his uncle, Henry Sloane Coffin,
had just retired as President of Union Theological Seminary in

1

New York, he accepted an invitation to college seniors to attend
a conference at the seminary for students mildly interested in,
but far from committéd to the Christian faith. The first speaker
was Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the great American thinkers of this
century. And what he said to the one hundred idealistic young
people was all it took. He said, "Go into the ministry only if
you lose the battle to stay out." Coffin sent a note of apology
to the CIA and signed a seminary application form. [p. 87, 88]

There it is again. The idea of our vocation, our calling
pursuing us, God tracking us down, and our trying to hide.

It is the theme of one of our oldest and best stories...
the story of Elijah.

One of the difficulties we preachers have with the text is
' that the whole story of Elijah is a big one, almost too big to
serve aS a sermon text. But dividing it into more manageable
chunks is not satisfactory either because it is one story. So
sit back and relax and let me tell it to you. It has probably
been a long time since you heard it in its entirety. It is a
story that contains very contemporary truth. The time is the 9th
century B.C. Ahab is the King of Israel, remembered among other
things, because he married a foreigner, a Phoenician by the name
of Jezebel. Now, there was an interesting woman!

Jezebel was the daughter of a Phoenician priest and a very
devout woman. Her religion was Baalism, the primary religion of
the land of Canaan, before the Israelites invaded and occupied
it. It is a nature religion, essentially, focusing on the life
force in the natural order, fertility and sexuality. There are
two primary deities in Baalism: Baal and Asherah, a mother-
goddess.

Jezebel was such an enthusiastic adherent of Baalism that
when Ahab brought her home to Israel as his new queen, her royal
entourage included an eyebrow-raising 450 Baal priests and 400
prophets.

Now Ahab obviously has a problem. His people worship the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Yahweh is the name of the God of
Israel, noted for being one, not many. There is no room in the
religion of Israel for other gods. Ahab not only has a mixed
marriage to a very strong woman, he also has all these priests
and prophets to feed, house and keep occupied; priests and
prophets who slowly but surely do what they were brought to do -
practice their religion. Not surprisingly, because it was the
queen's religion and King Ahab seemed to be agnostic and
tolerant, Baalism began to look pretty good to the movers and
shakers in Israel. And before you knew it, prophets of Yahweh
were persona-non-grata... and then they began to be persecuted,
and some were actually executed.

Elijah enters the story at this point, travels from his

2

home in Gilead, makes an appointment to see the King and bluntly
announces that because of Ahab's infidelity there will be a
drought in the land. For two years the drought continues. Ahab
is beginning to get the point apparently, because he summons
Elijah back to the palace for a follow-up consultation. Elijah
repeats his prophetic indictment and then challenges Jezebel's
priests and prophets to a test of strength on Mt. Carmel. A
crowed of people come to watch. Two bulls are slaughtered. The
priests are challenged to call on their god, Baal, to send down
fire. Elijah will call on Yahweh, God of Israel. The contest
begins. The Baal priests try and try, becoming more and more
frenzied, but nothing happens. In a remarkable sequence, when
you consider that it's fully 2,800 years old, Elijah can't resist
poking a little fun. "Perhaps your God is taking a nap ~ out to
lunch...." Incredibly what the Hebrew really says, although no
one has the nerve to translate it accurately, is “perhaps your
God is taking a comfort break." Elijah prevails. Yahweh sends
down fire - the people shout, "Yahweh is God" and slaughter all
the Baal priests and prophets on the spot... And the rain begins
to fall, ending the drought. Ahab, chastened, but pleased,
actually, gratefully drives his chariot home through the rain
storm with Elijah ecstatically running before him.

When Ahab arrives home he has some good news and bad news
to share with his wife... The good news is that the drought is
over. The bad news is that she no longer has any spiritual
advisers, and that Elijah has done away with her personal
chaplain staff. Jezebel is furious. She sends Elijah a message:
In twenty-four hours you'll be as dead as my priests and
prophets.

Sometimes one word can stop us in our tracks... That word
from the Queen turns Elijah around. And the prophet, ecstatic
the day before because of his victorious vindication is a
fugitive again, running for his life.

On the way out of town Elijah stops long enough to consider
simply giving up. “It is enough: Now, O Lord, take away my
life," he says; but after an encounter with an angel gets back up
and heads for a secret cave he knows about on Mt. Horeb, where
some strange things happen. Wind, earthquakes, fire - none of
which contain much of God, for a terrified prophet. But
afterward “a still, small voice of calm," or more accurately "the
sound of a gentle silence" and God's voice asking a question:
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" What kind of a question is
that? He's doing what anyone whose life was threatened ought to
do... He's hiding.

There is a lot of truth in that old story... Jezebel is
whatever can send you running for your life... And the cave is
where you go. It is still a pretty popular spot. In fact it's
getting crowded in the cave these days.

In a recent address at the General Assembly of the

3

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on the future, Roger Heyns, former
Chancellor of the University of California at Berkley, predicted
a general, wide-spread increase in anxiety because of the
uncertainty and instability which have become so much a part of
our world. All we can be certain of, it seems, is that things
will be different tomorrow from what they are today. Change,
ironically, is the only thing we can be sure of. That situation,
in which we will have to live our lives, says Dr. Heyns, will
often result in people turning to a myriad of escape devices.
Those escape devices will include religious fundamentalism and
political zealotry - authoritarian structures which impose the
comfort of predictability, simplicity, stability and order.

It will be a long time before we comprehend the full
meaning of what has transpired in China and we should not presume
too much. And yet, it is abundantly clear that it is not
difficult to persuade people that authoritarianism is safer than
individual freedom... that stability and order are preferable to
the wild unpredictability of liberty.

Latin American theologian, Don Helder, Camara warned long
ago that after the enthusiasm, the commitment, the dedication
without limits are crushed, the danger is that people will settle
for safety and security and idealism will die. And that, it
appears, is what is occurring in China. Life may be boring in
the cave, but at least it is secure. It is a theme brilliantly
and movingly explored in the motion picture "The Dead Poets
Seciety."

If anxiety, which is simply unfocused fear, is a result of
change and uncertainty, then you and I have plenty of reasons to
be anxious.

There were three oil spills yesterday, dramatic reminders
that the ecological clock is ticking. No one argues that the
rain forests are not absolutely essential to the continuation of
life on the planet. There is no way to survive without the
oxygen they put back into the system. No one argues that it has
not taken fifteen million years for the earth's rain forests to
develop to the current ecological efficiency. And no one argues
that they are not currently being burned down, cut down,
destroyed at the rate of one acre per second. That is so
unsettling that I'm happier not knowing about it, and when I hear
it, I look for a cave to jump into it. I don't want to be
accountable for that. So we look for a place to hide...

Professor Davie Napier, an Old Testament scholar, has
written an excellent little book on the Elijah stories in which
he comments on the currently popular hiding places:

"The range of caves runs from the old standards of sex and
alcohol and other drugs to TA (Transactional Analysis), TM
(Transcendental Meditation), TV (before whom, on an average we
stand, sit, lie, eat and drink an unconscionable and unbelievable

4

amount of adult hours per week), TF (touchy-feely in dual or
group encounter), TZ {Try Zen), TS (Take Sominex) or even, in
some circles TJ (Take Jesus) - in this sense an icon distantly
derived from Jesus Christ, and literally scores of others... and
one more cave in the "T" series, TB, turn back, turn back to the
past." (Word of God ~ Word of Earth, p. 65]

Sometimes the most convenient cave is nostalgia, the
attempt to turn back the clock to simpler, safer days. Sometimes
it is the temptation of ignorance: stop watching the news,
reading the paper.

And sometimes the escape mechanism that presents itself to
us is religion. We live six days a week with problems hammering
away at our consciousness - the environment, international
relations, nuclear proliferation, toxic waste, public education,
crime, violence, not to mention the anxiety produced by the kind
of life we live... pressure at work, pressure to succeed, to
keep moving up the ladder, to earn more, do more, be more... and
anxiety produced by stressful relationships, or no
relationships... So on Sunday morning we're eager for a little
respite. We come looking very specifically for a retreat from
the moral ambiguity of our world and the harshness of our common
life. Who can blame us - and who hasn't experienced it?

The cave, says Davie Napier, is where we all go when we are
tired of trying to "cope with the uncopeable." That's what the
Elijah story is about... A man weary of coping with the
uncopeable... A man who is devastated, discouraged. A man who
simply wants out. But God tracks him down.

When Elijah finally reaches his destination, a place safe
from the dangers of life - Jezebel's threat, the hatred of his
people, the nagging sense of responsibility to be faithful - just
when he finds a place completely safe, what he finds is God. And
what he is told there is remarkable: "go back - go back the way
you came... go back to the very life from which you are trying to
escape."

It is a very human dynamic to look for a way out of the
challenges and dangers of life. It is as old as this ancient
story. And it is as contemporary as Sunday, June 25, 1989. My
guess is that all of us know about it personally. And my guess
is that some of us are very specif-
ically running away from God. The word of faith is that the God
who created us follows us, pursues us, even as we attempt to find
the cave, the retreat, the safe sanctuary. The word of faith is
that when we try to get away from God's call to life - to live
faithfully and courageously in the midst of life - God continues
the search, dogs our steps, follows like Francis Thompson's Hound
of Heaven, will never abandon us, or give up on us.

That's the truth and promise of this old, old story. And
it is the deepest truth of the Christian Religion. We believe

5

God comes to us. We believe God comes and is always coming to
us. We believe that 850 years or so after Elijah, the promise
was sealed. A life began in a cow stall, was lived in small
towns and dusty roads and teeming cities, a life radically lived
in the world.

The Good News of the Gospel - which is anticipated by
Elijah and his adventure - is that God will come to you, be there
for you, love you, not just in the retreat center, the cave, the
church on Sunday morning, but where you are in your life: in
your kitchen, office, board room, laboratory.

God's summons is not to be faithful by retreating from
life, but by living it fully, honestly, faithfully,
compassionately and courageously in the world. Jesus said one
time: "Whoever would save life will lose it: and whoever will
lose life for my sake will find it."

The temptation to hide from life is universal and
understandable and as old as Elijah. But the blessed promise of
the Gospel is that life is where we will be searched for, and
found, and loved and saved.

O God of life and love, we do get tired trying to cope with
the uncopeable. We feel weary from the sheer weight of living in
such a fearful world. When we try to hide, find us, call us
back, give us strength and courage to live fully in the world and
help us to know that you are always with us, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.