By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 29, 2025
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Luke 9:51–62 (ESV)
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village. 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Last week, we discussed Elijah. As I spoke about him I mentioned the historic tension between Israel and Judah. This tension did not go away. It remained present in the time of Jesus, it even remains today in some degree. When we read scripture it is important to remember that the passages we read are largely from the perspective of Judah. When David moved the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and when Solomon built the Temple, Judah centralized the Jewish faith. This centralization demanded that everyone must travel to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. This is a religious and political stance.
Today we may not recognize just how much this changed the climate in the kingdoms of Israel. We live in a culture that has freedom of religion. This means that the government cannot make a law dictating when, where, or how we worship. Our government cannot make a law demanding that we worship. It is legal for an atheist, a Muslim, someone of Jewish decent, or a variety of Christian churches to live within this nation and express their beliefs or lack there of freely. We should continue to support this freedom because it is important. Why you might be asking. Why would I as a pastor support the freedom of an atheist? I support this freedom because scripture supports it.
Judah, under David and Solomon, centralized the worship of God. Everyone was required to worship God in one way, in one place, at the same time. Everyone had to go to the capital of the nation, this is a breeding ground for corruption and spiritual abuse. And that is what occurred. Those that opposed this were deemed to be apostate and were forced to live outside of the civil society, and eventually these people rebelled against the government.
This happens throughout history. It is the story within our own nation. This week we will be celebrating Independence Day. We will celebrate by spending way too much money on things that go boom. But why do we celebrate and what are we celebrating?
If we were to look at our own history we would find that people, our ancestors, or even ourselves, came to this land seeking something that they could not have in the place they once lived. In the Bay colonies they sought to worship as they desired. In the Virginia colonies they sought financial independence. In Pennsylvanian our spiritual ancestors performed something Penn would call the Holy Experiment. We came for reasons, and we left a place where those things were not available.
What happened? Well the Bay colonies did establish a society where they could worship as they desired, but you could only worship as the leaders desired. In the south they did find financial independence for those that took a chance to make that trip, but that financial independence came with a great social cost, as that financial freedom was gained through the exploitation labor.
We often only see the positive side of history, we tend to overlook the negative aspects. But I want us to look deeper at the Bay colonies for a moment. The people that left Europe to settle around Plymouth wanted to religious freedom. They left England because they did not agree with the direction the Church of England was going. They first went to Holland where there was great liberty, but quickly these asylum seekers became nervous that the liberal culture would aversely influence their religious group. They then chartered a ship to sail across the Atlantic and eventually came to Plymouth. There they did establish a society where their faith could be fully lived. But soon the governmental leaders began to use their faith to make laws and to influence society. Well meaning individuals in their righteousness began to make laws forcing religious aberrance. Then one day a woman by the name of Mary came preaching.
It was not proper in their society for a woman to teach scripture or to teach men, so they arrested her, tried and convicted her, and led her out to Boston Commons to be executed. This woman had a rope around her neck when the judge came forward and stayed the execution. Instead of losing her life, the judge exiled Ms. Dyer. But she was compelled to minster as she was a Quaker, so she continued to pursue the ministry she was called to participate in, and she eventually found herself in the same situation again. This time the judge did not spare her life and she was executed for her religious beliefs.
Our history books teach us that our nation was founded on the ideas of liberty. This liberty came with a cost. It was the life of Mary Dyer that drove England and her colonies to adopt religious freedom, because society as a whole found the execution of a woman professing Christ to be distasteful.
The liberty that we celebrate this week was not only won by soldiers on the battle field. It was formed by the lives of many individuals: women, enslaved laborers, immigrants seeking asylum, and a desire to live our lives as think is best.
Judah sought to centralize political and religious life, and ten of the twelve tribes rejected that idea. Elijah the prophet of God, was from one of those rejecting tribes. We look at those ten tribes with disdain because they left God and sought foreign gods, but we often do not acknowledge the fact that society contributed to their fall. For centuries there was this elitism that surrounded these two cultural groups. Judah was the chosen line the line of David and they took that to mean that they had the divine right and mandate to rule every aspect of life. Yet Elijah did not worship in Jerusalem, the father of the prophets whose teachings were preserved in Judah’s scriptures rejected the notion that Judah owned God.
This divide continued. It lasted through the years of exile, and remained in the days of Christ. In today’s passage we are told that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. This is an idiomatic way of saying that he was determined to go. Everyone knew what awaited him when he would get to that place, yet Jesus was determined and his disciples were willing to go with him even to death.
Jesus made his way to Jerusalem through Samaria. Remember there is a centuries long division between the people of Judah and those of Samaria. They no longer saw themselves as brothers and children of Israel, instead they see themselves as enemies. The mere fact that Jesus would go through Samaria to get to Jerusalem was bold. This was the most direct route to take, but old tensions remained. The people of Samaria would often take offense to people that were traveling through their lands to go to Jerusalem, if a traveler was lucky they would be denied hospitality, if they were not lucky they would find themselves in dire financial ruin. As a result most people that needed to travel from Galilee to Jerusalem, would revise their route to bypass Samaria completely. Jesus did not do this. Instead he walked directly in.
He sent his disciples ahead of him, to make preparations. This meant that they ran ahead into the village to secure lodging and food for the group. But the people of that community did not receive him. They inquired why they wanted to come into their community and once they heard that they were going through Samaria to go to Jerusalem, they refused hospitality. This angered the disciples of Jesus, James and John. They felt as if they were being canceled, judged, discriminated against. And they did not like it one bit.
I want us to think about this for a moment. It is true that they were being denied service. But why were they being denied service? A few years ago there was a story in the news that a baker was being sued for not baking a cake for a wedding for a same gendered couple. Many within the Christian community were greatly annoyed by this, they sent money to support this business’s legal fees and we went to our governments to petition laws based on freedom of religion. We were right in many ways, but we were also wrong. We were wrong because we were upset just as James and John were upset.
Jesus had set his face toward Jerusalem, he was traveling for religious reasons, and this Samaritan village did not receive him for the very same reasons. They had no desire to promote or accommodate a religious practice they did not agree with. Do you think our contemporary Evangelical legal defense ministries would go to take up the case of the Samaritan inn keeper? Would Christian radio come to the defense of of the Samaritan restaurant owners that refused to give service to individuals based on their preferences?
I am asking this with all seriousness. We can become blinded by our righteousness. We in our efforts to make our society follow our ideals can turn a blind eye to the reality around us. We defend a baker because we agree with them, yet we shun entire denominations because they see things differently. We are willing to hang Mary Dyer because she had the gall to preach, when we came to this land to worship freely.
James and John saw the lack of hospitality and they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
Why would they say this? I have spoken a great deal about Elijah. And we all know that Elijah once called fire from the heavens in a spiritual dual with the prophets of Baal. Although this story happened in the land of Samaria, that is not what the sons of thunder are referring to. They are making reference to an older story in the history of Israel. We know that place as Sodom. Most of us have heard about this place, we often hear reference of it in religious circles in opposition of certain lifestyle choices, but there is one aspect of the story that we often do not hear. Why was Sodom destroyed by fire from heaven? Most of us will say it is because they wanted to have their way with the visitors that came to Lot. But that is not the teaching of scripture. In the writings of the prophet Ezekiel, Sodom’s sin was a combination of arrogance, overindulgence, neglect of the poor and needy, their lack of compassion, and hospitality. Sodom was consumed by divine fire because they were inhospitable, not because of relational preferences. And this is what the Sons of Thunder are speaking of. This land, Samaria, in their eyes is as bad as Sodom and God should annihilate them for their selfishness and inhospitality.
It is true they are behaving in a way contrary to the teachings of scripture. Throughout the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus in the New, we are encouraged to give aide to the travelers, we are encouraged to make sure the widows and the orphans have food and lodging. We are to care for the less fortunate. And Samaria is neglecting this teaching. They, like in the days of Elijah, have sought after foreign ideas instead of holding to the teachings of God. James and John have justifiable anger. But Jesus does not encourage them in this. Instead he rebukes them.
The idea of rebuke here is one of severe chastisement. It is the same word that is used against unclean spirits and used to describe the Jesus’s statement to Peter when Peter objects to Jesus’ future trial and execution, “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus rebukes the righteous not the sinner.
I want us to just sit with that for a moment.
This entire community in Samaria rejected Jesus. They would not let him stay for a single night. When his disciples complained about the inhospitality, Jesus rebuked them and not the people of Samaria.
The disciples have walked with Jesus, they had listened to his words, observed his actions, participated in his lifestyle every day for nearly three years. He showed them a different type of lifestyle than the lifestyle of the world. The world seeks power and influence. They want wealth, and recognition. Jesus goes on to teach, “the sinners lord it, their power, over others.” and tell his disciples, “that is not so among you.” Meaning the world seeks power so they can force others to do what they think is right, but the true follower of Jesus does what is right with the hope that others will choose to join them. James and John were resorting back to the ways of the world. They were wanting to force Samaria to do what was right, instead of showing them a better way. That is not the ways, or the teachings of the Kingdom.
They continue to walk toward another village, and as they walk people come out of the surrounding comminutes. Samaria is not opposed to Jesus, they are opposed to Jerusalem. Just as it is today. People reject what we make religion, yet many embrace the ideas Jesus taught. Someone says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” This shows us that there is a desire even in this seemingly unrighteous nation of Samaria that people wanted to follow Jesus.
Jesus answers this individual saying, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus is saying here that no matter where we are, the ways of Jesus will be rejected. The Samaritan village rejected him because he set his face toward Jerusalem. His own disciples rejected him because they wanted to call fire down from heaven to force the acceptance of God’s teachings. We will always find ourselves on the wrong side of society when we follow Jesus.
Ninety percent of what I have said in the sermon has probably made you squirm a bit. When I say David was wrong, we squirm because we love David. He was a man after God’s own heart, but David was a man, he was not perfect. He did things in his life that were sinful and I am not only talking about his lust. I have said that Sodom was judged not because they practiced homosexuality but instead because they were inhospitable, and we squirm. We squirm, even though scripture itself says they were judged for that reason and not what our contemporary religious narrative claims. I even say that our freedom was not achieved by the sacrifice of soldiers but include women and the enslaved in our quest for liberty. And we squirm because we have ideas in our mind that there are certain things that are right. A true follower of Jesus does not fit nicely in a box, because to follow Jesus means we must live our faith every moment of every day. We cannot just rest and say I have attended a Meeting for Worship so I am good. We must instead take what we learn today and live that out in our community.
Another individual is among those that came to Jesus as he walked, and Jesus says to them, “Follow me.” That man is excited, and says to Jesus, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Let me first take care of my business. Let me first get my life in order. Let me first… there are many things in life that we would like to accomplish. Jesus is not going to wait on us to finish what we think is important. He wants us to live for him now. I became a pastor before I went to school to become a pastor. I do not necessarily recommend this, but when we put things off we may never get to it. We need to live for Jesus now in this moment, as well as tomorrow and the day after. We cannot wait, because the kingdom is now.
And another says, “I will follow you Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Let me first make sure those around me know I am doing this. Let me first get acceptance and recognition. Jesus says to this individual, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
This last statement is the one that hits me the hardest. I have worked a field and I know how hard it is to keep the lines straight. My dad would often tell me to make sure the lines are straight because everyone in the entire county would be judging me and him if I had crooked lines in the field. I took this to heart growing up. I did everything in my power to keep the lines straight and I rarely did. As recently as last summer my dad got after me about my lines in the field.
There is only one way to keep the lines straight. It is to look ahead and to not worry about what is behind you. You have to look at the goal not where you are. And as you are looking forward you make adjustments based on your desired end not your current situation. This man wants to say farewell, his focus is short sighted, instead of on the desired goal.
Each of these interactions are focused on the same thing. The rebuke of James and John, and the three interactions with people along the road. Each of the people have their attention diverted. James and John are averted because of righteousness, another is diverted because of acceptance, another accomplishment, and the last recognition from others. Jesus rebukes each of these. And yet there are profound teachings in the commanding verbs that are used. Follow, let, leave, proclaim, and again let.
Let is the one that occurs twice. Jesus did not uses these verbs but they were the verbs that the people he encountered used. Permit me to do this. Give me permission to do this or that. So we can take these away. Let me first go and bury my father. Let me first say farewell. This is our desire to control God. But Jesus does not accept this. This leaves us with three words of teaching: Follow, Leave, and Proclaim.
The first is to follow Jesus. This is to behave as Jesus would behave, to take on his lifestyle. The second is to leave. In this instance Jesus says leave the dead to bury the dead. This means to permit, and is similar to let, but in this case Jesus is telling us to follow him, and to permit the rest of the world to do what they want. You might think that is a terrible thing to say, but we are to leave that behind and continue straight ahead following him. And the last teaching is to proclaim. This means to announce broadly. As we follow Jesus, as we leave the ways of the world behind us we should boldly proclaim in all that we do where our hope is found.
St. Francis is credited with this statement. “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” This is what Jesus is teaching us. Live the life and lifestyle of Jesus wherever we are. Take the discrimination and inhospitably of the world and move forward. Let go of the accomplishments and recognition that give us position within our world’s societies, and instead move straight ahead toward Jesus. Showing those people around us what life with Jesus is, not just with our words but in our actions. How we interact with those around us, and how we love.
We live in a society that likes to proclaim liberty. Yet we so often hinder. We like to proclaim freedom, yet we bind. We have liberty and freedom because we live it, not for ourselves but for those around us. We have religious freedom, because Mary Dyer died so others could have it. We have labor laws because people opposed exploitive practices not only for themselves but for others. We have these things because people in the past sacrificed themselves for us. And that is what Jesus is calling us to do. We are to proclaim the kingdom, give hospitality, feed the poor, welcome immigrant, and help those in need in our lives here and now. We are to sacrifice ourselves for others as we walk straight ahead to Jesus. Are we willing?
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church July 19, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 8:12–25 (ESV) So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church July 5, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Hebrews 12:1–3, 12-17 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 28,2026 Click to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 6:12–23 (ESV) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 22, 2025
Click here to join our Meeting for Worship
1 Kings 19:1–15 (ESV)
1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. 9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks 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. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 15 And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.
The past month or so has been rough. I want to thank Pastor Mwenitanda and Bilengana for their help as well as Tony and Stacey. I also want to express my family’s appreciation to everyone in this Meeting.
It has been hard to focus the past few days. But for some reason my attention was drawn to today’s passage. I was drawn to it because of the humanity of Elijah. When most of us think of this father of the prophets we are drawn to certain stories. Most of us think of him calling fire down from the heavens to prove the might of Yahweh over Baal. Some of us might fixate on his exit from this earth in the fiery chariot. For me this passage is where I really meet Elijah.
Elijah was the father of the prophets. When all the world seemed to be turning away from the one true God, Elijah remained faithful. He inspired, encouraged, and taught many. Yet often he did not see the massive influence he had within the community.
Let us look back at the history. Elijah lived in the northern kingdom, know as Israel or Samaria, which was its capital. The people of this northern kingdom, scripture often regard as apostate. They were apostate in many ways, but I think we often judge them a bit unfairly. These were the descendants ten of the tribes of Israel that broke away from the other two. Benjamin and Judah formed the southern kingdom, and they remained under the rule of David. The ten other tribes were smaller. Most of these tribes were descendants of the sons Jacob had with the servants of his wives. So it may have been that they always felt as if they were not fully part of the family.
Benjamin was the son of the favorite wife Rachel, we can understand his place. But there is something else, Judah was not a son of Rachel but the son of Leah. He was not the oldest of the sons, in fact he was the fourth son. The oldest Reuben lost his birthright because he forced himself on one of Jacob’s concubines. Then Simeon and Levi, Jacob deemed unworthy of the birthright because of the violent tendencies. So the birthright went to the fourth son of Leah, Judah. Benjamin and Judah were sons of Jacob’s wives. The other ten tribes were descendants of the rejected sons, the sons of the servants, or the sons of Joseph.
When David became king, he was called a man after God’s heart. He was from the tribe of Judah, he was from the tribe the had the birthright. David was a righteous man in many ways, but he was also a man. He was known too take advantage of his position, but he over all he sought only to please his God. This is where things became a bit twisted. He wanted to move the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, he wanted to build a house for God that was as great as his own palace. We see this a a great things, we often assume that this was done according to some decree from God himself, because David was a man after God’s own heart. But scripture does not ever say that God commanded that David do this. Scripture even states that God did not want David to build a temple. Yet David did it anyway.
David moved the Ark of the Lord away from the tent. He moved it away from the tribes into the capital of Judah. Why did he do this? Some might say it was to bring all people into one centralized form of worship, other have argued that he did this for political power. He was righteous, yes, but he was a man. In his religious zeal he opened a door that would eventually divide the kingdom. The tabernacle was set up among the tribes. It moved with them as they traveled through the wilderness. It was a sign that God was with the people of Israel. When David moved the Ark from among the people some saw that as God turning his back on them. He was no longer with them, instead he was the God of Judah.
I think it is important for us to recognize this, because it can give us a glimpse into our own culture. In our righteous zeal, in our desires to be good and upright people of God, we can at times become a hindrance. We can turn people away from the truth, with our misplaced zeal.
The northern tribes felt rejected. They were the descendants of the lesser sons, the sons of the concubines. They were the descendants of Joseph’s sons born to an Egyptian. They were the descendants of the tribes that had lost their birthright. And now the God they once followed is not with them, but is in Jerusalem. They felt as if God had left them, so they began to seek others.
This is the culture Elijah was born into. A culture where a people felt rejected and taken advantage of. I am not saying that they were right, I just want us to understand who they were. These were the people Elijah encouraged, and he understood something the rest of his culture did not quite get. God is not controlled by mankind.
David moved the Ark to Jerusalem. David’s son Solomon built the temple of God in Jerusalem. The tribe of Judah wanted to control the civil and religious lives of Israel, and the tribes in the north rejected their zeal. Elijah the father of the prophets lived in the north. This man of God live among people that did not worship God properly and scripture does not say one time that Elijah ever went to worship God in Jerusalem.
God is not controlled by mankind. Everyone was to worship in Jerusalem, yet the father of the prophets had not been there, and we have his story in scripture. I find this fascinating.
Elijah lives in this kingdom rejected by God, rejected by the religious elites, and yet he knows who God is. How did he learn? He participated in, in my opinion the most dramatic event in the Old Testament, when he challenges the prophets and priest of Baal to a spiritual dual. Then after he proves that God is the true God, he runs away.
Elijah is real, he is raw and authentic. When I read scripture, I understand David, I get why he wrote his psalms and I know he faced challenges, but to me David’s challenges seemed like what we might call first world problems today. Elijah is different. He saw and experienced things we could not imagine. David was hunted by the Saul, but David had an army with him. Elijah was hunted by the queen of Israel because she sought revenge for the killing of the priest of Baal, and Elijah was alone.
We often feel alone. We often feel as if we are the only one that knows the struggle. And often we run. Elijah ran from his home country, he ran for his life to foreign land. He ran to Beersheba in Judah. He ran from Mount Carmel, which was in the northern region of Israel to Beersheba on the southern boarder of Judah. He was a refugee, an immigrant. He ran to Beersheba left his servant and he went off by himself walking for another day. He walked and collapsed by a broom tree, and he prayed, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
Elijah had witnessed, no he had been in the center of one of the most spectacular signs of God to this point in history, and he cries out to God I have had enough. I cannot take it any more. I am no better than my ancestors who we buried in the desert sands of the exodus. Elijah feels as if he is a man without a nation and a man without a God. He is wondering in the wilderness alone.
As he is siting under a broom tree, or curled up under a desert shrub, an angel comes to him and touches him saying, “Arise and eat.” He opens his eyes and sees before him bread and a jar of water so he eats and drinks, and he then goes back to sleep in his shrubby refuge. And the angel of the Lord comes again a second time and touches him saying, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” This second visitation is a bit different than the first. It says, “the angel of the Lord” instead of a mere angel. This statement is used often in the Old Testament, and many Christian scholars argue that when this specific term it is used it is not only an angel, but a manifestation of Jesus prior to his incarnation. Oddly though in this instance the commentators do not make too much about this second visit, only that Elijah recognizes that it is a messenger or angel sent from the true God, and not just some random spiritual being. He listens to this messenger, and after he eats he gets out from under the tree, and goes on a journey for forty days and nights to Horeb.
Early in the history of Israel there is a mountain that has great significance. A place called Sinai. It is on this mountain that God gave Israel the commandments, the teachings, or Torah through Moses. In the book of Exodus the mountain is called Sinai, but is in other places when they talk about the mountain it is called Horeb. Some think that there were different mountains, while others think one was speaking of a region or mountain range where the other is speaking of one particular mountain. But both speak of a similar event. The law was given on Horeb or Sinai. The angel of the Lord encourages Elijah to continue his journey further south. And after Elijah eats bread and drinks water from heaven, walks forty days and nights to the place everything began.
Elijah arrives to the mountain, finds a cave, and he goes inside. He is exhausted, and just as he gets his camp set up, and he hears the word of the Lord saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
What are you doing here?
This is why this passage struck me this week. What am I doing here? Why are we here at this time and place? What are we experiencing the things we are experiencing?
Elijah answers. He rants actually. “I have been very jealous for the Lord. For the people have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets, and I, even I only, am left.”
Notice his words. I have been. I, even I only am left.
I have done all of this, I called fire down from heaven, I killed the false prophets, and what have I received? My life is threatened, and I am alone.
God tells him to go out and stand on the mountain. A wind comes, a wind that tears at the mountain and breaks pieces of rock away. But as Elijah stands in the wind he knows that God is not in the wind. Then there is an earthquake. The ground beneath his feet, the foundation of all he knows to be true is shaken, and Elijah knows that God is not in the earthquake. Then a fire rushes through the land around him. Each of these things were signs, or were thought to have been signs from God. Even today we call these things acts of God. But in each of these three events Elijah does not sense the Lord within them.
I have sat contemplating these words. I sit with them often because I love Elijah. I have thought about the amazing fire from heaven that consumed the sacrifice. What amazing power and how could anyone deny God after that? And I then thought about these three natural events. A mighty wind so strong it can rip a mountain apart. I have been in storms I know the power. I have sat in a combine during harvest in wind that felt as if it blow that massive machine over. I have watched fires sweep across the prairies, and have been terrified and in awe of the destruction and new life that emerges in their wake. I have not been in an earthquake, but the thought of it terrifies me.
I think about these things. And I have come to realize that they represent every struggle we have in life. They are the things that are out of our control. They can devastate us and yet there is little we can do except maybe minimize risk. But where is God? Where is God when we suffer? Where is God when things do not go our way and why after we have done so much does God seem to disappear?
Elijah sees all of this before him, and then shortly after the fire passes by there is the sound of a low whisper. Or more accurately a calm or a sound of silence.
It is at this point that Elijah wrapped his face in his cloak and stands at the entrance of the cave. What they are describing here is the act of prayer, in ancient times and still practice in Hebrew culture when one begins to pray they cover their head with their cloak so that they are free from distraction. Jesus, in the gospels would describe it as entering the prayer closet. It was not a room set aside for prayer, although that is not a bad thing, it was a posture or discipline where one would physically prepare themselves to pray.
Elijah enters this prayer closet. And as he enters this time of prayer in the silence, God asks him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah again rants about his accomplishments and how they have come back to nothing.
What are you doing here?
Elijah rants, about all the things he has done. He laments about the lack of return. He does this as he stand in the very spot where Israel began. In that very spot Israel became a people, a nation. Nation not in a political sense, but culturally. They became God’s people, and he become their God. And why were they there? Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt? Why did God call Israel, Isaac and Abraham? It was so they would become a light to the nations calling all people back to God.
God took Elijah out of Israel to a land foreign to him so that He could remind Elijah of the whole point. God wants to be with his people. God took Elijah to the mountain it all started and he asks him, “What are you doing here?
Are we here because we want something from God? Are we here because we expect God to do amazing things for us because we are such good people? No. We are just like Elijah no better than our fathers, our ancestors, if not worse. But that is not the point. We are not here because we are supposed to be righteous and perfect. That is good do not get me wrong. But that is not the point. We are here because God wants to be with us.
After Elijah’s rant, God gives him a command. He says, “Go, return.” But he does not send him right back to Israel, he sends him to Damascus and tells Elijah to anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, and then to go to Israel and to the prophets. He sends Elijah, the father of the prophets to Syria. Not to Jerusalem, but Syria. He sent Elijah to the heart of Baal worship.
What does that mean?
We are not here for ourselves, we are hear so that we can go out to the world around us. We are here so that we can anoint the world with the love of Christ. We are here to Love God, Embrace the Holy Spirit, and to Live the Love of Christ with others.
We are here in this place at this time for God’s glory. We endure amazing spiritual highs, where it seems as if the world is going to turn and God is praised. Followed by times of traumatic suffering. Where is God? What are we doing here? We are here so we can go. We are here because there is hope, there is a calming whisper that will carry us through the strongest winds and the most ferocious fires. And that whisper is urging us to take the teachings of God to the world, to show them that God is with us. Winds will rage, fires will consume, and the earth will shake, and when the dust settles God is right there with us, encouraging us to go, return, anoint, and hope in the new life that is in Christ.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 14, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:1–8 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church June 07, 2026 Click here to join our meeting for worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 4:13–25 (ESV) 13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 31, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 2 Corinthians 13:11–14 (ESV) 11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace…
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