Sermon. 9 August 2020, St Michael and
All Angels. Little Ilford
Trinity 9
1 Kings 19.9-18
Matthew 14.22-33
A reminder that on Sundays the first
reading is chosen with the gospel reading in mind.[1]
That doesn’t mean that the story from the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is one
that is fulfilled in the gospel. It is not the prototype or model or promise
that only becomes fully itself in the gospel reading. That’s an oversimplification,
at best. But the first reading does anticipate, or echo, or mirror, or deepen,
or augment or enrich the Gospel reading.
You can think of the first reading
and the gospel as being he “book ends” of the theme of the day.
That said, we are never told by the
people that came up with our order of readings what the theme of the day
is. Sometimes we have to work at it. Sometimes there is quite a string of
themes to choose from. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If we see whole
range of links between the first reading and the gospel, rejoice! [BSL: Alleluia,
indeed.]
What links are suggested for us
today? Feel free to have a think, and even have a look.
*
In the first reading, Elijah has a dramatic encounter with Gd, and comes to a new understanding. In the gospel, the disciples (and especially Peter) have a dramatic encounter with Jesus, and come to a new understanding.
Another link, harder to spot… mountains.
Elijah is alone at Horeb, the mountain of Gd. And Jesus himself spends a fair
bit of the night, alone, on a mountain (though that’s easy to overlook). So really
there’s a whole other encounter with Gd, right there: Jesus enjoying time
and recuperation and solitude with his Heavenly Father. We know this was his
habit, and it can be ours.
Perhaps the most obvious link is… let’s
say “extremes of forces of nature”. (That feels better than saying they
all have “wind” in common.) Elijah experiences wind, earthquake and fire.
The disciples experience a bad storm, pushing their boat well off course.
And all of these forces of nature
come to a dramatic end. So indeed, yet another link is calm.
Elijah and the disciples experience calm after extremes, a calm willed by Gd. I
for one take great comfort in that and I invite you to, too. Gd wills calm, calm
for us.
How did Elijah experience calm, the calm
that gave him his encounter with Gd? Our reading today refers to “a sound
of sheer silence”. But many of us will be familiar with the older translation
(all the way back to King James): “a still small voice”. If you
look at the plethora of modern English translations you will find a great
variation of expressions. So let us look at the Hebrew.
The Hebrew is qol demamah daqqah. Just those
three words. Qol demamah daqqah.
Qol means both “sound” and “voice”. This gives
us our first problem as translators. Did Elijah first hear just a sound, or was
that already the voice of Gd, about to question Elijah? I am afraid the text refuses
to tell us.
Damamah comes from d.m.m, which means “to
be silent, dumb, or still, or to become silent, dumb or still”. So it can mean
both “be quiet (moderate your tone)” or “shut up”. So this gives us our second problem.
Are we talking about a quiet sound or a quiet voice – in other words, a whisper
– or about “the sound of silence”? The text refuses to tell us.
Daqqah comes from the verb d.q.q. which
means to crush, thresh or to be crushed, be fine. That gives us
our third problem. Are we talking about something unique – a sound that is
crushed – or something common-or-garden - a thin/faint sound? The text, you will have realised, refuses to
tell us.
So three unexceptional Hebrew words,
but they yield radically different translations, depending solely on the choices
the translator makes.
We might have the dramatic and
paradoxical:
“a sound crushed to silence”
or we might have something perfectly
natural:
“a soft murmuring sound” [NJPS].
Some even see the underlying meaning
to be:
“a soft gentle breeze”.
Chief Rabbi Emeritus Jonathan Sacks
has suggested it means:
a sound you only hear if you’re
listening out for it.
It’s difficult. But then, this is
about Elijah, and with Elijah, things are difficult. If I ask you
to think of an “Old Testament Prophet”, I’d be willing to bet you think
of Elijah.
Fierce.
Uncompromising.
Challenger of rulers.
Ridiculer of false prophets, prophets
of Ba’al.
He’s wonder-worker and…
threat.
Elijah is a threat to the status quo,
and the powers-that-be set out to
kill him.
And by the way, for all this experience
with Gd, and Gd’s whisper (or whatsoever it was), that encounter does not
change much if anything for Elijah. He goes on being a troubler of Israel,
meddling in the affairs of state.
*
A soft gentle breeze.
A quiet whisper.
A sound crushed to silence.
We can defend all these translations.
But probably most of us will think
most naturally of
“a still small voice”,
and I say there’s nothing wrong in
that.
A “still small voice” is something many
of us can relate to.
We are mostly Elijahs.
We meet with Gd not in the great
dramas of wind, earthquake or fire.
We don’t go through life with
a pillar of fire in front of us, directing us, taking away all dilemmas.
We don’t regularly hear a Commanding Voice,
commanding us.
But we do know - or maybe just intimate
- that
if we pray,
and if in prayer we can become still,
and if we can stay in the calm,
then a still small voice may well
speak, and may well
at least from time to time
nudge us in one direction more than another.
I have said that Elijah’s encounter
with the whisper of Gd did not change who he was or how he lived. It might be truer
to say it didn’t change him at the time. Why do I say this?
Well, remember that Elijah, rather
than dying a natural death, ascends into heaven. So it became natural to think
of Elijah as one who will return at the end of days, when the messianic
kingdom comes. We know this from the New Testament, but it’s already found
in the Old Testament.
The Prophet Malachi [Mal 4.5f] tells us
that Elijah will come “before the great and terrible day of the LORD”
and…
do what?
It may well not be what you think.
What Elijah does before the great and
terrible day of the LORD is…
“turn the hearts of parents to
their children and the hearts of children to their parents”.
Yes, the great fiery, feisty, fearsome
one, Elijah, becomes the great reconciler, the one who can bring about healing
from estrangement, indeed, healing from the most painful estrangements
of all, those within a family.
So if we are to live in the spirit
of Elijah, we mustn’t oversimplify things. It may indeed mean telling
the powers-that-be that they are wrong, very wrong, and stand under the
judgement of Gd. (We will continue to have to do this, in our days.) And it
may also be that we have to do unseen acts of reconciliation, simple gestures
of kindness, that themselves make kindness possible.
Which, when?
I cannot tell you.
But there is – and you already know it
– a calm, and a still small voice, which can.
Amen.
[1]
The Church of England also allows for a different pattern in the Ordinary Time
after Trinity. It is possible to read various Old Testament books through, “continuously”
(although it’s only edited highlights). This is the same as with the Second
Reading, from the New Testament. But this Church has never – as yet – taken that
route.
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