Fellow Travelers: What Are You Doing Here?

Please join me in prayer. Almighty God, in you

are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of

your word and give us grace that we may clearly

understand and freely choose the way of your

wisdom. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Our second

reading this morning comes to us from 1 Kings

1 Kings 19:1–13

chapter 19 verses 1 through 13. Let us now listen

to God's word. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah

had done and how he had killed all the prophets

with the sword. 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 like the

life of one of them by this time tomorrow. Then

he was afraid. He got up and fled for his life

and he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah.

and there he left his servant. But he himself

went a day's journey into the wilderness and

came and sat under a solitary broom tree. He

asked that he may die. It is enough now, O Lord,

take away my life, for I am no better than my

ancestors. Then he lay down under the broom tree

and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him

and said to him, Get up and eat. He looked, and

there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones

and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay

down again. The angel of the Lord came a second

time, touched him, and said, Get up and eat,

or the journey will be too much for you. He got

up and ate and drank. Then he went in the strength

of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb,

the mount of God. At that place he came to a

cave and spent the night there. Then the word

of the Lord came to him saying, What are you

doing here, Elijah? He answered, I have been

very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts,

for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant,

thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets

with the sword. I alone am left, and they are

seeking my life to take it away. He said, Go

out and stand on the mountain before the Lord,

for the Lord is about to pass by. Now there was

a great wind, so strong that it was splitting

mountains and breaking rocks and 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. When

Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle.

went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Then there came a voice to him that said, What

are you doing here, Elijah? The word of God for

the people of God. Thanks be to God. So this

morning, I was on my way here at what my father

used to call Zero Dark Thirty, and a little sleepy.

And I drove all the way here, no traffic obviously,

got here, got here, parked in the parking lot,

and realized I didn't remember anything about

the journey. Didn't remember anything about the

ride here at all. Not a single thing. Just that

I left there and I got here. Have you experienced

things like that when you do things by rote?

You do them so often that you don't even know

what happened along the journey. You just know

you got from point A to point B and that was

what was most important. And that can happen

sometimes when we're so focused on where we're

going that we don't pay any attention to what

we're going through. Sometimes, I leave one room,

go into another room to do something, and for

the life of me, can't remember what I went into

that room to do. Now, some people out there will

go, well, yeah, that's because you're older.

No, it's happened to me since I was 12 years

old. And I know that it can happen because of

aging, and that is true. But it also happens

to people who are younger, and it may happen

maybe because we're distracted or stressed out

or because we've lost our focus, but it does

happen to us. We forget our goal or we totally

miss what happens along our journey. So I do

have a question for all of you. What are you

doing here? No, really, what are you doing here?

Have you thought about it? Have you thought about

what got you here to this point in your life's

journey? Do you remember the people and the moments

that helped you and directed you? What are you

doing here? in this place at this time with these

people at the beginning of Lent. Have you thought

about it? This is the first Sunday of Lent and

we now begin a journey that's going to be both

taken together and individually. And yes, it

is truly a journey. I grew up going to church

and actually sometimes being dragged to church.

And that means that I've gone through Lent a

whole bunch of times. Don't try figuring out

how many times I've gone through Lent. But growing

up, Lent didn't mean a lot to me when I was little.

You know, it was a journey I went through, but

it wasn't something that I really knew a lot

about. And I was young. I knew that Lent did

something, though. It was a waiting period. It

was a time when we went along and that at the

end was going to be Easter. And what I knew as

a young kid about Easter was two things. One,

I was going to have to dress up and wear a tie.

And two, there'd be candy. That's the only thing

that mattered. I was getting there and that was

it. Only when I got older did I realize and pay

any attention at all to the actual journey and

realize what Lent was about. And Lent, as I got

through Lent and looked at it, I looked at Easter

as something more deeply meaningful than I had

when I was young. Now, no matter how many times

you and I have repeated this journey, we now

begin again. We begin anew. with another opportunity

to reflect on our faith and practice spiritual

discipline, to take stock along the way and even

take time to do some soul searching, to ask ourselves

if we are now who God has called us to be. During

the Sundays leading up to Easter, we will be

focusing on fellow travelers in the Bible, people

who have walked the road before us and for whom

the road was not always easy. It's an opportunity

for us to learn from their journeys. Elijah,

in today's story, is one such traveler. Poor

Elijah. He gets asked twice by God, what are

you doing here? And the question's posed to him.

By the way, as an aside, when you arrive in heaven,

the last thing you want to hear God say is, what

are you doing here? And certainly, And I could

pick a few out, like Russ. And certainly, you

don't want to hear, what are you doing here?

Right? That would be worse. Russ has been picking

on me today, so I just let him go over there.

So back to Elijah. He's on the road. He's on

the run from Jezebel. He's completely stressed

out. He's longing for relief. He believes he's

a failed prophet, and he believes he can't go

on. He is at a very low point in his life. Can

you relate? It can be so hard to focus on much

of anything when you're stressed out or just

plain exhausted. The demands of daily life can

be overwhelming and we all know that. Elijah

turns to God asking for one thing, for it all

to end. Instead, God provides a different response.

God sends an angel to bring him sustenance through

bread and water. Not only did the angel bring

the food and water once, but he did it twice

and encouraged him both times to eat and build

up his strength. for the journey ahead. The angel

is persistent, and Elijah is not easily convinced.

But he does finally give in, and he continues

on his journey, making his way to Horeb, the

mount of the Lord. Once there, he finds a cave

that he can rest in, and he hears the word of

the Lord ask him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

Is that question supposed to be a wake -up call

for Elijah? Is it God's way of trying to get

Elijah back on track? Is God making a point with

that question? Is Elijah being called out by

God? Now there are times when we all, same as

Elijah, we all need to be called out. Whether

we ask ourselves, what am I doing here? Or whether

the wake -up call comes from someone else. We

need that wake -up call to get our journey and

our life back on track. It's an opportunity for

us to look inward and take stock. to be reminded

of who we are called to be and how we are called

to live. We all need those moments, those markers

along our journey to keep us on the path. Now,

you could think of them as cairns. I don't know

how many of you are familiar with cairns, but

it's spelled C -A -I -R -N -S. Cairns are piles

of rocks. They are literally piles of rocks that

people stack up. Cairns were our ancestors' way

and their first foray into building structures.

Pile some rocks on top of each other and they

would have the beginnings of a shelter or a place

to store some food. In Tibet, Buddhists used

them in ceremonies to call in good fortune and

balance conflicting energies. Before the intervention

of lighthouses, cairns warned sailors away from

Norway's jagged fjords. They also became markers,

markers to help travelers find their way and

not get lost. In the midst of a wilderness area,

where the scenery all looks the same, they can

keep you on the path when the trail is hard to

see. Now at times, we lose our path, and we find

ourselves wandering in the wilderness. A spiritual

cairn can get us back moving in the right direction.

Cairns are markers left by others to help us

and to guide us, to make our journey a little

easier. We just need to take the time to look

for them. And I want to share a story which will

illustrate, at least has illustrated to me, a

little bit about my faith journey and about finding

my way. Years ago, before we had GPS, before

we had, you know, any way of finding our way

places, before we had cell phones, my wife Maureen

and I went on our first trip to Europe. We rented

a car. We drove through I don't know how many

countries with a map, with a map. So it's the

two of us, the little car, you don't get big

cars, you get little cars, and going through.

And of course, not knowing what we're doing,

we drive into Paris during rush hour. Now those

of you who have ever been in Paris know you don't

even want to drive into Paris when it's not rush

hour, but we drove in during rush hour. And we

were completely lost. We needed to find our lodging.

It was in another part of the city and we didn't

know how to get there. And we came to an intersection.

And it was 16 lanes of traffic, all for every

way, coming at each other. And there were two

police out there directing traffic, stopping

it, moving it. And my very smart wife said, we

should ask directions. And I figured there were

two choices, get divorced in France or ask for

directions. So I chose the directions. And I

waved over the one gendarme. And he came over,

which surprised me. He made us pull up a little

bit onto the center island. And I realized he

spoke no English whatsoever. I pointed out where

I wanted to go. This is where we need to go.

And he thought about it for a second. He goes...

So we figured, okay, that way, two blocks. Figured

that seemed sensible. And then he went... So

that way, three blocks. So we're trying to memorize

this because we don't have anything to write

it down with. Memorizing how we're going to get

where we're going. But he went through the whole

thing with us. So now we figure, now we know

where we're going and we just have to figure

out how to get our car off the median and back

into the traffic and we'd move on. He walks over

and talks to the other gendarme and they're talking

to each other and the other one goes, okay. They

walk to the middle of the intersection and they

go. And they stop all of the traffic in every

direction. And he goes, and away we go. We got

lost again later on. But it really is an example,

right, of a faith journey. We get somewhere and

we feel a little bit lost. And then we find a

way. to figure out what we're going to do to

get ourselves back on track. With our faith,

it may be talking to someone who's very special

and being able to share with them. It may be

reading the Bible. It may be a devotion. It may

be praying. It may be any of those things, but

it helps to clear the way. And sure, we're going

to get off track and get lost again, but then

we just need to do the process all over again,

right? That's the way that it works. Now, being

open to direction, Being willing to persevere

and having a way ahead cleared and trusting God

in helping you through your journey really is

the way to move forward. The second time Elijah

is asked, what are you doing here? It follows

all that drama of the ferocious wind, mighty

earthquake, raging fire. We're told that God

was not in those dramatic moments, not this time.

This time, God is in the silence. The scripture

calls it the sound of sheer silence. It could

be thought of as a whisper. or in that moment,

the calm after the storm. Our lives don't usually

have a lot of times of silence. We've gotten

so used to being busy and having noise all around

us. It's constant noise, constant motion, often

chaos, so much so that sometimes sitting in...

Does that work? There we go. Okay, so sitting

in silence can be sometimes uncomfortable for

us. If you don't believe that, think about this

for a moment. When we have the moment of silence

during the confession, we do the prayer, and

then there's that moment of silence. It usually

goes about to a count of 1 ,008, and then we

say amen. What if we went 10 minutes? You'd all

be in the seats going, did they forget? And poor

Kathy would be back there with her fingers like

this waiting to play something while we're having

all of this silence going on. Silence can, in

fact, make us uncomfortable. But perhaps silence

is actually the gift that we can give ourselves

during this Lenten journey. Finding moments to

move out of the chaos, to spend time calming

our minds, meditating, reading the Bible, praying,

whatever allows us to pause in our journey. I

find it hard to be comfortable in long periods

of silence. However, I also know that some of

the most profound moments in my faith life and

in my life in general have come in moments of

silence. Perhaps you've experienced the same.

Being open to hearing and feeling the Spirit

and taking to heart what you hear and feel in

those quiet moments of reflection can be life

-changing. Although I didn't read the next part

of the story this morning, God does provide Elijah

with direction. It occurs after the sound of

silence when Elijah emerges from the cave, humble

and ready to hear what God would reveal. And

God does give him direction as to where to go

next and what to do next. In one perspective

by a theologian on this moment, they said, in

other words, God tells Elijah to go back to work.

Elijah does not have to give up being frustrated.

God just will not let him give in to it. God

won't let him go. He doesn't have to stop being

frustrated. But he's not allowed to give in to

it. He needs to move forward and to move on.

Elijah had to be open to listen in order to hear

the direction God was ready to give him. Isn't

that the same for us? We need to be ready to

hear God's word in the silence as well in the

chaos of life. Lent is a journey. It's our journey

together and individually over these coming weeks.

We know how it ends. We know we're headed to

Easter and all that it promises to us. Maybe,

just maybe, the best way to travel through Lent

is to forget that we know where the journey will

lead and instead take time to focus on the journey

itself, looking for cairns along the way, maybe

even stopping for directions, making time to

listen for God's voice in moments of silence,

and being willing to sincerely ask ourselves,

what am I doing here? Let us pray. O God, as

we walk this Lenten path, grant us the grace

to be receptive to your guidance and teachings.

May your word take root within us, transforming

our lives and drawing us ever closer to you.

Strengthen our resolve to live in faith and love,

reflecting your light in our every step. Amen.