(Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.)
In the time of Elijah, the prophet, Baal was a pagan god, supposedly the god of water, rain and fertility. For Elijah there was only one God and Baal was not it. There was drought in the land of Israel and Baal could do nothing about it. Elijah could take some of Baal’s water and drench God’s altar with it, but Baal could not keep God from consuming this water of Baal’s and accepting Elijah’s Sacrifice.
The life of a pagan god must have been easy, sleeping late and taking naps, dining out with friends or the other gods, and acting like a politician shaking hands and engaging in conversation with friends. It was an easy life that demanded no office hours or relationships with people. Baal’s life was one that the prophet Elijah found easy to ridicule.
The true God has simpler style of living. He feeds the people and finds joy being among them. He does not demand or need long, wild prayers, but responds to the simple prayer. God delights to be among the children of people with no fancy dwelling places.
So, Elijah assembled all the hundreds prophets of Baal to the top of the mountain for a contest, whether four hundred fifty prophets of Baal could get Baal to do something marvelous over the one prophet of the Lord. There followed hours of dancing, ritualized drawing of blood to wake up the sleeping god, but nothing worked, and nothing happened. The prophet Elijah stepped forward, made a simple prayer to the God and soaked the altar and sacrifice with Baal’s impotent water and with that the Lord sent fire to consume the sacrifice and dry up the pagan god’s water. Elijah’s God had won the contest, and the people acknowledged this fact. With defeat of Baal, God readily sent rain upon the earth.
God will win every contest we arrange between God and our pagan gods. Silver, gold, new car, huge house, prestige, and all the other gods with which we try to displace the real God are as powerless as Baal to intervene in our lives. Whatever other gods we worship, we have give them up and worship only the living God of the prophet Elijah..