Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the OT lesson read a few moments
ago.
“It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no
better than my fathers.”
Burn-out is a terrible feeling. Burnout happens when you work
and work and work at something and you start to feel like a hamster on the
wheel…you’re tired but you can’t stop…so you go some more. You start to
question whether you are accomplishing anything, or just wasting your time. You
start to feel like your work is in vain, that your efforts are being wasted, that
you aren’t making any difference or gaining any headway.
It’s a feeling people can know all too well. In a
recent FORBES magazine article, 95% of human resource leaders say that burnout
is a major problem in their company.[1]
What the survey showed is that it doesn’t matter what the job is, or the task
being undertaken, or the individual’s position, anyone can reach that burn out
stage at some point. Burn-out has a way of sneaking up on us. Psychologytoday.com
describes what can happen under burnout.[2]
Burn-out can be dangerous. It makes us feel alone, and like no one
understands. It makes us feel like we’re the only ones doing
anything. It makes us feel like all our tireless efforts have earned us
the right to lash out. Burn-out wears us down and overwhelms. It
really brings out the worst in us. Sometimes, a change of pace – changing
jobs, changing projects, moving to a new city – can recharge and invigorate us
again and give us a new sense of purpose and direction. But, in a serious,
severe burnout completely consumes to the point that it feels like there’s
nothing left to give.
If you have experienced burnout before, you have a sense of
Elijah’s life. He has just done battle with Baal and it’s prophets. The altars
were built, the cattle slaughtered, the priests and prophets worked themselves
into tizzy while praying up a storm all to no avail. Not a peep was heard from
Baal. Elijah got into the game as well, heckling the prophets and mocking Baal
– “He’s in the bathroom, or taking a hike, or asleep at the switch. Better work
harder!” So the prophets of Baal went from a tizzy to a frenzy throughout the
afternoon, culminating in a conniption fit, even cutting themselves to get
Baal’s attention. Still nothing.
Then it was Elijah’s turn. His instructions were followed: twelve
stones, stacked; trench, dug; wood, arranged; bull, slaughtered, cut and
placed; water, poured. And when he prayed, God sent fire from heaven and
consumed it all – stones, dust, wood, bull and water – and at the command of
Elijah, the prophets were seized, and they were slaughtered at that very site.
He may not have been on top of the world, but he was certainly on the top of
Mt. Caramel.
Then comes word that he was now public enemy number one.
Jezebel hung his photo on the wall of every post office in ancient Israel and,
like an old western, he had to get out of Dodge by this time tomorrow. What good was he? He had done what the Lord
asked; he had done battle against Baal in the Word of the Lord; he had stood
against Jezebel and Ahab with the name of the Lord. Now, he was to be hunted
down and executed. What was the use? If this was all there was to life… He
parked himself under a bush and prayed, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away
my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
And our Lord, Elijah’s Lord, He heard the cries of this
faithful man of God, this prophet of God who was burned up and burned out, who
had nothing left to give. The Lord heard his prayer and the Lord answered. And
the Lord took Elijah’s life, but not as Elijah had hoped.
Elijah’s life had gotten turned in on itself. All he could
see was his himself. Thinking he was done, a waste of air, water and food, he
prayed to die. “Take my life…” The Lord takes Elijah’s life and turns it back
in the right direction – towards the Lord. An angel of the Lord appears to strengthen
Elijah in his body with food from heaven. Once, twice, the angel wakes Elijah
to eat and drink; once, twice Elijah rises and eats at the angel’s urging. And,
with that simple food, the Lord takes Elijah’s life and restores it.
You know how the rest of the narrative plays out: the Lord
leads Elijah to the cave and after the wind blows past, and the earthquake
makes the ground shake, and the firestorm sweeps through the canyon, but the Lord
was in none of those forces of creation. They are all under God’s control, but
He didn’t use any of them to project His authority. Then the still, small voice
of the Lord appears. With that still, small voice the Lord Almighty takes
Elijah’s life for His service, re-instituting Elijah as prophet. The Lord gives
Elijah a prophetic word of how He will rescue and save Israel. And with his
life taken, and with life given, Elijah continues to speak “Thus saith the
Lord,” both to Israel and to her enemies.
“It is enough, O Lord; take my life.” I think we have all had
those moments in the life – again, not suicidal, but take this life of hurt,
and pain, and concern, and being consumed. It happens to Christians in all
vocations: teachers, lawyers, truck drivers, construction workers, engineers,
farmers, ranchers, machinists, seamstresses, cooks, bakers, plumbers, students,
coaches and parents. It happens to pastors, too. Ask people why they feel
burned out and you get a myriad of reasons: low pay, poor job satisfaction, high
stress, insurmountable expectations, feeling inadequately prepared, a boss that
turned against an employee add fuel to the fire. Depression, loneliness, and
anger rare their ugly heads. And as mental and physical health suffers, families
and marriages suffer as well.
Here’s why this is important for Christians. Burn out is bad
enough, but then the devil takes all of those feelings and emotions and whatever
else he can to lead a child of God to fear, despair and other great shame or
vice. He makes you doubt the promises of God for you, that if you were a good
enough Christian, this wouldn’t be happening to you. He makes you doubt your
faithfulness in your vocation, in your home, and even in your relationship to
Jesus. Satan means “father of lies,” remember, and he’ll lie however he can to
make you take your eyes off of Jesus. Maybe this was you, or this may even be
you right now, where you sit and pray, “It’s enough, O Lord…take my life.”
So, the Lord does. He takes your life from you. Your Lord
takes your life from you and drowns it in the font, burying your life with
Christ and raising it to life in Christ as well. Your Lord Jesus, who loves you
more than He loved Himself, took all of your life’s frustrations and anger and
shame and guilt and peeled them all away from your life and attached them to
Himself. He doesn’t shake you with an earthquake, He doesn’t knock you down
with a windstorm, He doesn’t burn you up in fire. Instead, He takes each and
every one of your doubts and disbeliefs and moments of despair and He turns to
you and lovingly says, with a still small voice, “Let me take that from you.”
He takes your life away and gives you His: His life, His perfection, His
holiness, His sinlessness is imparted to you.
And, in that moment, you can join Paul in saying, “it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for
me,” (Gal 2:20).
Again, today, your life was taken from you; again, today, His
life is given for you. He strengthens you to leave this place and return to
your own place of life and service to your neighbor in the name of Christ.
And, to you, the one from whom the Lord has taken life and to
whom the Lord has given life, so you don’t leave here wanting, still hungering
and thirsting for righteousness, to you He speaks again, through the still
small voice, speaking to you His love and mercy, reminding you that indeed all
of your sins have been washed away in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2017/02/01/the-biggest-workplace-challenge-employee-burnout/#15f3ee8c3549
[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/burnout
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