10 June: Homily on 1 Kings 18:20-39

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(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)

You have already met Elijah.  At times he felt very much alone.  He lived in a culture that thought of Baal as God, not the One God of Abraham.  Baal was the so-called god of storm, water and fertility.

Let us have a contest.  “You four hundred fifty prophets of this Baal creature, you go first.  Take a bull and offer it in sacrifice to this Ball.  I will take the other bull and offer it to the Lord God.  The god who answers with fire and thunder will be the god we choose to honor: agreed?”

So those other prophets went to work sacrificing their bull and doing their dances and cutting themselves with their knives.  All the while it seemed that their god was on vacation, taking a nap or using the bathroom, or on an Internet conference call, or otherwise occupied.  Ball seemed to ignore them.

Then Elijah got his bull ready.  To heighten the ordeal, Elijah even soaked the sacrifice and wood in some of Baal’s precious water.  Would Baal’s water drown the Lord’s fire; would Baal be more powerful than the true God?  “Bam! Ka-bam!”  The lightning swooped down on target, disintegrated the water, and squelched every vestige of Baal’s claim over the elements.  Elijah’s God won the contest.

Did we expect any other outcome?  What is the Baal in our lives that we hop around serving, first on one foot, then on the other?  What do we put forward in our lives to replace God?  We may not be so blatant as to invoke our false god in public to fill our wants, but we do it in more subtle ways.

We have a culture like that of Elijah’s day.  We live with power, money, prestige, and wealth.   We use these things; we want these things; we are enamored by these.  We seem to need these things.  Elijah likewise had access to these, but he served God, not them.  We likewise have to serve God when we are using things of our culture.  Our culture becomes Christian when our lives become Christian.

So, today we have a contest between the 450 prophets of Baal and ourselves, the lone prophet of the Lord.  How will the Lord accept our service today and show his power over Baal?  “Bam! Ka-bam!”  God’s fire will strike and destroy every vestige of Baal.