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Release into Rest

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“Release into Rest”

January 26, 2025 Cobleskill United Methodist Church, 

Pastor Anna Blinn Cole

1 Kings 19:1-9a

Third Sunday after Epiphany


We read this book because it tells us the stories of humans who live real lives, stumble and fall, and get back up again.  We revere this Word because it is infused with God working in the lives of those humans so that they can put their own lives into perspective.  The stories collected in the Bible remind us that we are not alone, that God is with us.  


The first section of our Bible is what is called the Hebrew Bible, sometimes referred to as the Old Testament.  It’s the story of the Hebrew people and their walk with God in the centuries before Jesus arrived.  

And there is this curious place in the history of our people of faith around the 9th century BC when, after depending on God to release them out of exile and guide them to a new homeland and they had gotten settled in their land, they joined together and said something like this to God:

Hey God, we would like a king to rule us, to judge us, to protect us. 

And God said: no you don’t

The people said:  yep, we want a king.

God said: nope, no you don’t.  

And back and forth and back and forth until finally God said: 

Fine.  You want a king, I’ll give you a king.  But don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Because human power is corruptible.  When you follow a king whose power has been corrupted, you’re more likely forget me, your God.  

And…. spoiler alert, that exact thing happened.  Over the course of hundreds of years of kings and multiple books of the Bible devoted to their mistakes, in the end God was right.  King after king after king succumbed to corruption and jealousy and selfishness.  


I tell you this story because there’s a timeless nature to it.  Human power is corruptible.  And yet in the midst of that unrelenting corruption, God leaves a trail of breadcrumbs.  Today’s trail of bread crumbs is quite literal.  

Let’s pick up today’s scripture, where it finds us in the middle of the kings saga.  We’re in the book of the Bible called 1 Kings.

Our story is about Elijah, and what you need to know about Elijah is that he was not a king, he was a prophet of God. And where he got into trouble with his country and his king, is that he called the king and the king’s wife out for worshipping a god that was not God, despite proclaiming to be the Jewish king. Elijah tries to speak the truth to power and change the ways of the king and his wife.  He isn’t perfect and he resorts to violence to make his point and for all of these reasons Elijah is chased away from the city.  He runs for his life and this is where we find him now. 


1 Kings 19: 4-9

19 4 But [Elijah] 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, or the journey will be too much for you.” He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave and spent the night there.

Elijah was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. He was running for his life, and in his exhaustion, he collapsed and in a vulnerable moment with God he says this should be the end for him.  He feels like he has nowhere else to turn. 

In 2019 there was a Tweet that went viral about this scripture. It said: “This is your gentle reminder that one time in the Bible Elijah was like ‘God, I’m so mad! I want to die!’ so God said ‘Here’s some food. Why don’t you have a nap?’ So, Elijah slept, ate, & decided things weren't so bad.” 


In other words, sometimes when you’re at the end of your rope, God reminds us that we cannot be our full selves without taking care of our basic needs.  Elijah was in a desperate state of mind and jumping to desperate conclusions. And God listens and replies: when was the last time you ate something?  Take a nap.  Get some rest.  And try again tomorrow.  


The bread crumbs for surviving tyranny are literally …bread crumbs.  

A nap and snack.  It’s the magic combination every parent pulls out of their back pocket when it feels like the world is falling apart. 

This week it truly has felt like the world is falling apart.  I’ll be honest.  I dreaded today.  Standing in front of you as a pastor who’s supposed to know what to say.  Because I don’t know.  And my natural response would literally be to pull a blanket over my head.  


But coming to church with a blanket over my head would have been… awkward.  And so last night when I was sitting in my own despair, I took the blanket off and did some things for myself that my physical body needed.  I took a walk.  I drank some water.  And then I picked up the pages of the Annual Report and I looked at the people and I read the stories again.  That got me through the night and it got me here this morning.  I can’t really see past today, but I’m here.  You’re here.  And the next steps don’t have to be clear to know we must take care of ourselves and each other.


Do you know the science behind snowflakes?


Snowflakes are, by essence, created by what is cold and harsh.  They are tiny molecules of moisture that band together when the air is cold.  It’s the harshness of the environment that brings them together.  And yet it’s in these conditions that little community of molecules forms something staggeringly beautiful and strong.  Different in each configuration.  

Sometimes it feels like nothing good will come out of the cold, harsh seasons of our life.  And yet the beautiful structures of snowflakes aren’t built by God in heaven and then dropped.  They start as one small speck that falls through the cold air, picking up other bits as it goes.  


We aren’t that different.  We live real lives.  We journey through cold seasons and it’s tempting sometimes to let it overwhelm us.  But if we stop the journey, cold as the air may be, what change, what growth, what community will we miss being part of?  


God knew that Elijah needed to take care of himself because there was more to Elijah’s story to be written.  And so the bread crumbs God leaves for Elijah to rest are what his body needed to take care of itself.  He eats his snack.  He sleeps some more.  He eats more snacks and sleeps some more.  And after his body felt cared for and rested, he was ready to keep going.   I don’t know what kind of superfood Elijah had in his snack, but he ends up having the strength to travel 40 days and 40 nights to a sacred place called Mt. Horeb. It's a place he needed to go because he hopes to meet God there.  And he makes it because his rest, his nourishment, it had all given him what he needed to go this next leg.  


Katherine May, in her book Wintering, speaks from the experience of enduring many winters and learning its lessons along the way.  She says:

“I recognized winter. I saw it coming (a mile off, since you ask), and I looked it in the eye. I greeted it and let it in. I had some tricks up my sleeve, you see. I've learned them the hard way. When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favored child: with kindness and love. I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important. I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep. I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me. I asked myself: What is this winter all about? I asked myself: What change is coming?”

I don’t mean to insult you with the forwardness of this question: but are you taking care of yourself?  When everything else around you seems like a fog, I mean to remind you and me, that God-- through the Bible-- has the most basic of wisdom.  If we don’t take care of ourselves now we won’t be ready to keep going when that time arrives.   We won’t be ready for the change that’s inevitably coming.


Embrace your inner snowflake-ness and keep going through the cold.  Find your unique way of building an inner strength.  

  • Maybe for you that means eating food that gives you life.  

  • Maybe for you that means going to bed when you’re tired, not when you’ve scrolled until your eyes close.

  • Maybe for you that means taking in only the news you need.  A friend this week recommended the BBC newscast as a way of putting American news in perspective with the wider world.  The big headlines come through, the minutia does not. 

  • Maybe, what you really need is a conversation with a friend.  An angel, who helps center you.  

  • Or maybe what your body needs is a walk and a drink of water. 


This is not a prescription, these are bread crumbs.  Small pieces of Biblical wisdom for taking care of ourselves when the air around us feels too harsh to continue.  


Grace and Peace, Pastor Anna


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