Week 3 | Sunday, June 19, 2022
I Kings 19:1-15a
Week 3 PDF version
1 | begin
Recite Psalm 62:1–2 as a meditative prayer.
Read the verses once, then observe a short period of silence (like 30 seconds).
Read the verses again, followed by another brief silence.
Conclude the prayer with a third reading of the verses.
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
Psalm 62:1-2 (NRSVUE)
from [God] comes my salvation.
God alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
2 | explore
Journal on your own about your experiences or share your stories with a group:
Describe a time when you believed God was with you or guiding you.
Describe a time when you sought God’s guidance but received no clear direction.
How did you respond to these experiences at the time? How do you understand them now?
3 | read
Read I Kings 19:1-18. If you are not familiar with the stories of Ahab and Elijah, you may want to read I Kings 16:29–18:46 as well.
4 | engage
What do you do when you get nothing but silence from God? When things are dire and you find no sign of God anywhere, what do you do? What can you do?
You might be tempted to walk away. You might think, “What’s the point of staying if God isn’t going to be there when I need God most?” Holding onto the relationship can feel like adding insult to injury.
You might start blaming yourself. “It’s all my fault; if only I had . . .” Potential error after error can get tallied on the self-judgment board of shortcomings until you’re certain that God has tallied up this board too—and then some.
You might go back to where you or your community first met God. If God were somewhere to be found, surely God would be at that sacred birthplace. Everything changed there once; maybe everything can change there again for you.
Many faithful people have ventured down these paths. A silent God can be so difficult to reckon with, especially when stakes are high. It can feel personal. Lonely. Like being lost for longer than you realized.
This week’s lectionary lesson from I Kings 19 may have something to say to these struggles. In this story, the prophet Elijah receives a death threat from the queen because he put to death the prophets of another god (see I Kgs 18:40). He leaves home and ends up taking an unplanned trip all the way to “the mount of God” (19:8) where he experiences three powerful events, the kind that are commonly theophanies, according to biblical scholars: mighty “wind,” “earthquake,” and “fire” (19:11–12). [1] After these events are over, Elijah goes out of his cave in the mountain to encounter God in the “sound of sheer silence” (19:12).
The narrator tells us that “the Lord was not in the wind,” “the earthquake,” or “the fire” (19:11–12) but does not tell us if Elijah knows this or how Elijah responds to these events. We are only privy to Elijah’s actions when silence descends upon the mountain. Elijah may have gone to the mouth of the cave during the wind, then the earthquake, then the fire, expecting God to appear each time. It would make sense for Elijah to look for God in those. In the great exodus from Egypt, the Israelites witnessed YHWH parting the sea with a powerful wind so that they could cross in safety (Ex 14:21), and when they awaited God’s appearance on Mount Sinai, fire, earthquake, and smoke announced YHWH’s presence (Ex 19:18–19). Where it would make less sense to look for God is in silence—particularly for a prophet.
Yet Elijah seeks to meet God in the silence. He doesn’t stop seeking God after not finding God three times. He has no way of knowing if God is there. The cloth concealing his face keeps him from seeing God. The silence conceals any audible sign of God. The air is not moving. The ground is not shaking. Smoke and fiery heat are absent. All Elijah can do is stand on that mountain and hope that silence can be a divine abode too.
Whatever transpires in this moment does not dissolve Elijah’s desperation. His words convey “I have nowhere else to go” as the question “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (19:13) addresses him for a second time (19:14). But God has found him, covered face and all.
What would it be like for God to find you, whether or not you found God? Instead of focusing on trying to figure out where God is and is not when silence is all that surrounds you, what if you let silence be a place for God to find you?
5 | respond
Journal on your own or talk with a group about these questions:
1. What does silence feel like for you? Expansive? Unnerving? Boring?
2. In what places and situations do you look for God most? In what places and situations do you look for God least? Why?
3. What stands out to you in I Kings 19:1-18? What part of the story resonates most with you?
4. What might letting God find you look like in your life this week?
6 | practice
Take a few minutes this week to do one of these activities:
Make Music
Sing or play a song with an instrument. If you don’t enjoy singing or have an instrument, try turning a table, floor, or another surface into an impromptu percussion instrument.
Practice Silence
Make time and space to be silent with God. Just bring your whole self in silence to God. Your surroundings can be quiet or noisy, and the practice can be as short or as long as you need.
Updated June 20, 2022
References & Credits
1. See, for example, Carol Meyers’s discussion of “theophany” in Exodus 19 in Carol Meyers, Exodus, The New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 155-156.
Header image of “Sunset at Mount Sinai” is by Raimond Clavins on the Unsplash website
Image of “Piano” is by Anne Nygard on the Unsplash website
Image of “Bench” is by Ann on the Unsplash website
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The scripture reading comes from the Revised Common Lectionary lessons for the Second Sunday after Pentecost in Year C, which can be found at the Episcopal Church Lectionary Page here
