DAY 9

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A GREETING
On the day I called, you answered me,
you increased my strength of soul.
(Psalm 138:3)

A READING
Then [Elijah] was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. He himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
(1 Kings 19:3)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.
(Psalm 3:5)

A PRAYER
Dear God....At times I have felt a great intimacy with You.
It is clear, warm and all encompassing. But this sensation dissipates
like a dream that fades the longer I am awake. I try to recapture
that feeling but only a memory remains and it grows dim. I am
seeking renewal. Fill my soul with the breath of Your magnificence.
Surround me with Your goodness and love. Rejuvenate me so that
I may have the strength to reach out to others and revitalize them.
This is my prayer now and forevermore.
- from "Dear God" by Randee Rosenberg Friedman
found in The Flowering of the Soul: A Book of Prayers by Women, edited by Lucinda Vardey

VERSE OF THE DAY
God is the strength of our hearts and our portion forever.
(Psalm 73:26 Var)

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Image by Susanne Nilsson

Being awake involves being fully conscious to the world around us. When we go to sleep at night and wake up the next day, we resume an awareness of our life and the events and obligations we have that were suspended while we slept. Dreaming, waking states, visions and apparitions in the biblical story form some of the ways that we hear about awakening. Over these weeks we will explore some of these stories. A recurring narrative element is the appearance of figures in dreams. These figures help to illuminate the path ahead for the prophet who is at a crossroads.

In the story of Elijah, we find him at his most vulnerable. This great prophet, who stood up to kings and queens and who raised a widow’s son from the dead, is in this moment an ordinary soul, whose capacity and strength have begun to fail him. Banished by Jezebel, Elijah believes his time is done. The last act of Elijah before coming into the wilderness was to demonstrate God’s power by summoning fire. But Elijah has no time or energy to build a fire in the desert, or to summon one from God. Instead, he settles under a tree, ready to die. He believes that he has completely failed in the work God called him to. He no longer sees a reason to stay awake to messages from God, because it doesn’t seem to go well when he does.

What awaits Elijah once he has been roused by the angel is not news from God, but food. A cake baked on hot stones is offered to strengthen him. (In his earlier time in the Cherith Valley, Elijah was fed by ravens.) He is encouraged to eat, so that he will be fortified for his journey. Elijah does not ask “what journey?, where am I going?” nor does the angel give him direction. But eventually Elijah does get up and walk. His walking takes him to Mount Horeb where he will once again confront a corrupt king.

Many of us have had times in our lives when we have experienced a devastating change, whether from a health scare, a loss of someone, a broken relationship or something else. In these moments, we have times when we want to withdraw and simply fall asleep to the world around us. The care and loving attention of friends and family members prevents us from completely subsiding. These ministrations remind us that we live in community, that we exist in relationships.

Despite how often prophets and sages go into solitude to find enlightenment, the Christian story wants us to know that we have to rely on each other in order to be fully awake to what our lives can be. Sometimes as we transition from the time of hardship back into a time of wellness, we have dreams. Or perhaps we read or watch something that feels transformative in this time of vulnerability. This is part of how the human imagination continues to sustain itself in times of crisis. We imagine our ways out of things, and then also God holds us in God's unique ways. The angel messengers are not meant to be read as figments of Elijah's imagination, but as spirits sent specifically by God to him. What sustains him and revives him is the fruits of the earth. The fruits of the earth are always how we become grounded again in our own realities. The land, the soil, the hummus out of which humans were made, is always associated with our own transformation. God is often referred to as the ground of our being. We and God and the and the earth we walk on, are all inextricably related.

When have you been given important signs or direction from God in a time of vulnerability? How do you describe those times now, and how do they continue to enrich your life of faith?

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A STORY OF ENDURANCE
The Wollemi pines are among the oldest living trees in the world — dating back sixty-five million years. They predate the dinosaurs. During the 2019-2020 wildfires that swept Australia, a small stand of these ancient trees, the only ones still growing in the wild, appeared to be directly threatened. Firefighters pro-actively moved to protect these trees by spraying them with water and fire retardant in advance. They succeeded: while the fires singed and circled the edge of the forest, the trees were preserved, a small swath of pre-historic creation, surrounded by charred debris. After surviving for millions of years, the trees were only very recently discovered, in 1994. Twenty-five years later, they almost vanished. In this tiny fraction of the time they have been alive, we confronted a situation where we were also able to preserve them. The exact location of these trees is kept secret — to protect them from contamination through illegal tourism. Thus human beings are the biggest threat to Creation and also our biggest hope.

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LC† Awakened by the Spirit is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!