The time may be getting shorter, but Christ is delaying his return. In today’s other readings there is Revelations 10:5, in which an angel says there will be no delay. But at present, the return is delayed. regardless, during this time those who are pagan, who are evil, are becoming more bold and the cost of discipleship is becoming clearer. We are in a time when the mutilations practiced by the followers of Baal are honoured, and the idea of obedience, of following, is shunned. We are told to tolerate evil: for the world no longer tolerates good.
And if you say repent you will not be popular. So we turn to Elijah, who records the first use of the scientific method. He sets up an experiment to see if the God of Israel will intervene, and is real.
The second reading relates very specifically to the ideology of the age, and I will come back to that.
1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39
20So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel. 21Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people did not answer him a word. 22Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred and fifty. 23Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. 24Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.” All the people answered, “Well spoken!” 25Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” 26So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. 27At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. 29As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.
30Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; 31Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; 32with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. 33Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time. Again he said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it a third time, 35so that the water ran all round the altar, and filled the trench also with water.
36At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. 37Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. 39When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”
1After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, 5for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” 6And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. 8For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” 9When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
Now the ideology of this ae is individual independence. Everyone must be empowered, be self fulfilled, and the idea that one most submit to anyone or follow anyone is seen as frankly weird.
Because submission is much more about being ordered to manage a certain area, and having responsibility. Vanessa, commenting on her own post, wrote this aiming at a female audience, and as this is a place where women should teach women, I’m going to repeat it.
Nobody wants to believe that Old Testament wives were anything other than doormats (and, yes, there are perverts who yearn for a doormat), but you have to remember a few things:
1) Many of those wives had a bunch of kids. Like, a whole herd. And they had servants to help them raise the herd. The men were not telling the servants what to do, the wives were.
2) Some of those men had multiple wives, or wives and concubines. Abraham did not go from tent-to-tent, dictating the colors of the pillows on the floor and demanding that lamb stew with mint be served for supper. It’s obvious from the OT stories that the men didn’t even know what was going on half the time. This is not a model we want to recreate, as I don’t think men should be oblivious and indifferent to their home life, I’m just pointing out what it was like.
3) The guys were gone a lot. A whole lot. Sometimes for years at a time. Between their business dealings and warrings and whatnot, they were constantly out of the house and they expected their wife to just keep doing whatever she was doing and make decisions on his behalf.
4) The women had a community and wives tended to keep house the way older women instructed them to. Our husbands are not a replacement for Titus 2, and it’s unnatural for them to try to take over this role because they are not women. Men and women are different. Men and women are different. Let me repeat that: Men and women are different.
5) Men had friends, comrades, and allies. Men talked amongst themselves sometimes. Everytime my husband starts taking an unnatural interest in how I run the house or in my more feminine hobbies, I tell him to go out for a beer with his coworkers, or take his son and meet up with my dad for a soccer game, or whatnot. Sometimes men just get bored and they try to conjure up interactions and intimacy with their wives by just getting all up in her business. They don’t actually care about this stuff, but they know we care about it, so they try to get involved so that they can get our attention. Common sense tells us that a man who hangs out with women too much will either end up too effeminate (trying to fit in) or too macho (trying to differentiate himself). Do not do this to your husband.
Do not monopolize their attentions. Men need friends. They need hobbies. You are not a substitute for male camaraderie, anymore than he is a substitute for chatting with your girlfriends. He should not be following you around the house, micromanaging and pestering you, and he should not be cowing in the basement or hiding out in the garage. He should be chilling with his buddies or hanging out with his brother playing video games. He should be fishing or reading a good book. He should be tossing a ball in the backyard with his kids. He should have some emotional distance to the housekeeping, except for those things he really and genuinely cares about (like whether you dress in something attractive and special dietary considerations).
Now, in the church, We can choose. Like Israel, we can choose.
We can preach the churchian gospel of self fulfilment. We can praise women who leave their husband to attend cooking school, their guru’s ashram, or traditional healers (even if they end up with another lover) because that is allowing them to grow — ignoring the fact the author did not want children, and children force you to grow.
We can compromise with the demands of the feminists, and let women into leadership, but the world will double down, and require us to preach heresy.
Or we can choose to follow Christ. I did not think that we would be at the point where we need a confessing church again, but the Barmen Declaration, made at that times, has direct application now.
Scripture tells us that by divine appointment the State, in this still unredeemed world in which also the Church is situated, has the task of maintaining justice and peace, so far as human discernment and human ability make this possible, by means of the threat and use of force. The Church acknowledges with gratitude and reverence toward God the benefit of this, his appointment. It draws attention to God’s Dominion [Reich], God’s commandment and justice, and with these the responsibility of those who rule and those who are ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word, by which God upholds all things.
We reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission the State should and could become the sole and total order of human life and so fulfil the vocation of the Church as well.
We reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission the Church should and could take on the nature, tasks and dignity which belong to the State and thus become itself an organ of the State.
The consequences of feminism and individuality are written large in our dysfunctional and broken families, our increasse dusicid rate, the institutionalised lack of justice and equity in this world, and non of these need to be there. It is time to throw Baal out and ignore ideology. It is time to return to the God who we claim to confess.
