Sermon: "The Last Verse" (1 Kings 18: 20-39)

As you know, I have – as a Christian pastor –  defended Islam from accusations that it is a religion that promotes violence and terror. Christians often say, “If Islam claims to be a religion of peace, why are so many acts of terror carried out in the name of Islam?”

Well, I’m not going to talk about Islam today. I’m not going to talk about the speck we see in the eye of our Muslim neighbor. I’m going to talk about Christianity. I’m going to talk about the log that’s in our own eye.

So instead of asking, “How can Islam claim to be a religion of peace?” I’m going to ask, “How can Christianity claim to be a religion of peace?”

The Christian Bible has verses like Psalm 137, verse 9, which reads: “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them agains the rock!”

The Christian Bible has a story about a prophet who, acting in God’s name, single-handedly massacres 450 prophets of another religion.

And throughout the centuries, Christians have shown themselves to be violent and destructive. It was Christians who all but wiped out the Native Americans. It was Christians who enslaved millions of African Americans. It was Christians who built the concentration camps in the 1930s and 1940s.

I’ve heard the question over and over again: How can a religion of peace be so violent and have so many terrorists?

Many Christians – especially evangelicals – support unlimited, unregulated access to guns. For them, God and guns go together. However, Rob Schenck sees things differently.

Rob Schenck is the chairman of the Evangelical Church Alliance. He is a staunch conservative. He’s marched against abortion. He values what he calls the sanctity of life. And now, because he values the sanctity of life, he’s questioning how Christians can be such strong supporters of unlimited access to guns. It doesn’t make sense to him; but it does to many evangelicals, and his organization is losing support.

And about the prophet who single-handedly massacred 450 prophets of another religion…

Let’s talk about that.

The prophet I’m talking about is Elijah. Our scripture today included a scene from Elijah’s story. And it’s a great one, isn’t it? It’s fun! It’s a story I’ve acted out with the children at Vacation Bible School. In that room upstairs that we only use one week out of the year, we built the altar, we poured the water on it, and we talked about how God made the fire come down and consume the offering and even dry up all the water. It’s an exciting demonstration of God’s power.

But here’s the thing: when we tell that story, we always leave off the last verse. Always.

We ignored the last verse when we acted this story out in Vacation Bible School.

And we didn’t read the last verse today.

The scripture today is exactly as it appears in the lectionary. If you don’t know, the lectionary is a calendar of readings for every Sunday of the church year, used in many churches… Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples… even Catholic.

And for every Sunday, there are four readings; normally there is one reading from the Old Testament, a psalm, a reading from one of the New Testament epistles, and a reading from one of the gospels.

Some churches use all four readings in their worship service. We usually choose just one.

What we heard today was the Old Testament reading exactly as it appeared in the lectionary, ending at verse 39. Even the lectionary didn’t want to include the last verse of the story, verse 40. Because what happens in verse 40 displays a part of our Judeo-Christian tradition that we wish wasn’t there. It shows something that we like to pretend only exists in other religions.

After the exciting duel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, after Elijah proved the power of God and all the people bowed down and worshiped God, we have verse 40, which reads:

“Elijah said to them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal.’” (We know from earlier in the story that there are a lot of them – 450.) “’Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.’ Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them.”

He killed them all.

In the Jewish faith, going back many centuries, stories from scripture are treated a little differently than we Christians treat them. We Christians like to assume that there is one simple, definitive answer for all time, made plain in any verse of scripture that you read.

But Jews will read a story from scripture, and then they will have a conversation about what the story means. It’s a conversation that never ends, a conversation that lasts from generation to generation. They’ll talk about the story, including its problems. One teacher will present his or her idea; eventually another teacher will respond, agreeing with parts of the first teacher’s interpretation, and adding new – perhaps different – insights.  Then another teacher enters the conversation… and so on.

What I find interesting and fascinating about this way of interpreting scripture is that different scriptures do this with each other! This is how the Bible interprets the Bible. You can read one scripture which tells a story, and based on that story you could conclude that “this is the way things are.” But then you read a different scripture from another part of the Bible, and that second story refines or challenges the conclusions of that first story!

For example: stories of Abraham – and other patriarchs and matriarchs in Genesis – suggest that God blesses those who are faithful… But flip over to Ecclesiastes and you have a writer who basically says, “Yeah, I’ve read those stories, but what I’ve seen in the world suggests to me that those who are faithful often suffer, and fools often prosper.”

Suddenly these two seemingly contradictory scriptures are in conversation with each other, they’re in a debate, and it’s up to the reader to discern where the truth lies.

Another example: We read in Deuteronomy that foreigners, and those who are sexually abnormal (like eunuchs, for example), are not welcome in God’s temple. But flip over to Isaiah, and we read that foreigners and eunuchs ARE welcome, because God’s house is a house for ALL people.

This particular conversation even continues in the book of Acts, when a man who is both a foreigner AND a eunuch comes to Philip and asks to be baptized, and Philip has to decide which teaching to follow: Deuteronomy, or Isaiah? Philip draws upon the Spirit, and draws upon what he learned from following Jesus, and decides to welcome and baptize the eunuch.

I actually find this back and forth conversation between different scriptures to be wonderfully fascinating. It used to frustrate me, but now I love it. The Bible truly is a living text, the living Word of God. It is alive, and the conversation that takes place in its pages continues in the life of the church today.

But here’s the thing: in order for the conversation to be genuine, authentic, and true, we must include those verses and passages that we just don’t like. If we don’t hear Deuteronomy forbidding foreigners and eunuchs, for example, then we miss how radical Isaiah was in saying something different.

And, in the case of Elijah who killed 450 prophets: it’s ok to read that and say, “That’s not an example for us to follow today. The scripture implies that it’s ok to kill prophets of other religions, but I disagree with that…”

Now of course, anytime you disagree with scripture, you must do so carefully. It must be based on more than just a feeling you have, right? You can’t just pick and choose based on what you like and don’t like.

In this case, we know from other scripture stories and passages that God is a God of compassion, a God of love. It’s almost a mantra that is repeated: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…” (Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:8; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 103:8; Jeremiah 32:18; Jonah 4:2).

We know from other scriptures that mercy and forgiveness are two of the most important values to have.

We also know from the stories of Jesus that even those who worshiped differently than he did were accepted and loved.

And one time some religious leaders brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in adultery. They reminded Jesus (as if Jesus needed reminding) that according to the law, Moses commanded them to stone such women.

How did Jesus respond? He said: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” At which point, they all left.

Why did Jesus do this? Because he knew that the most important command, the most important law of all, was love. “Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor.” All other laws and teachings should be evaluated based on the law of love.

How would Jesus have treated the prophets of Baal? Probably differently than Elijah did. That’s my guess. Moses commanded violent punishment. Elijah carried out violent punishment. Jesus did not deny that those stories exist, but he said, “Let’s try something different. Let’s try love. Let’s try forgiveness. Let’s try compassion.”

It’s not that love and forgiveness and compassion were brand new ideas. They are there, in Genesis, in Deuteronomy, in 1 Kings, alongside the ideas of violent retribution. Both ideas are there. You can pick any number of verses, from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, to justify just about anything you want, including violence. Slavery, the holocaust, the genocide against Native Americans, all were justified using scripture.

But Jesus tells us how we are to evaluate scriptures, how we are to judge them and discern the truth, and that is by comparing them to the rule of love.

Love of God, and love of neighbor. On these two hang all the other laws and commands of scripture. That is, as Jesus says, the most important thing for us to remember.

Killing prophets of Baal may be in the Bible, but it doesn’t belong on a door held in place by love of God and love of neighbor.

Stoning a woman for her sin may be commanded in scripture, but it doesn’t belong on a door held in place by love of God and love of neighbor.

Casting out foreigners and eunuchs, condemning homosexuals, committing violence against people of other religions – all that can be found in scripture! But these things do not belong on a door held in place by love of God and love of neighbor.

So why are such things even in our Bible? Why do we need verse 40, that last verse? Why not just get rid of it or keep ignoring it?

Maybe because that verse is a reminder to us, to not judge or condemn other religions simply because some have found in their scriptures images of violence. Maybe we need that verse to keep us from being hypocrites in our relations with other faiths. Maybe it’s there to prevent us from finding specks in the eyes of Muslims, while ignoring the logs in our own eyes.

There is violence in our holy book. There is violence in our history. There are genocides and crusades and salvery and world wars… horrible events, all justified by what the Bible says. Why are there so many homeless LGBT youth in America? Because their Christian parents saw in the Bible justification for their hatred and homophobia. We need to acknowledge that and confess that.

Only by knowing and confessing the history of violence in our scripture and in our tradition can we be a religion of peace. We need to read the Bible, to know that, yes, these things are in there. And we need to keep reading the Bible, to know that these things are not the final word.

The temptation to use violence and to justify its use is an ever present temptation. It is the temptation Jesus had in mind when he taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Lead us not into the temptation to do violence. Lead us instead to a deeper understanding. Lead us instead to compassion, forgiveness, and peace. Lead us to always follow the two most important commands: love for God, and love for neighbor.