The voting is over: we are elated … or super sad … or still anxiously awaiting an answer. But whatever we are and however we feel, John Falcone reminds us in today’s reflection that there is grace in community, healing in generosity, and prophetic witness in being together.

November 10, 2024: Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B
1 Kings 17:10-16
Psalm 146:7-10
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

Surviving Together: Prophetic Action When the Stakes Are High

A reflection by John Falcone

It’s hard to write a reflection on “this Sunday’s” readings, when my attention – and perhaps everyone else’s – is fixed on what will happen the Tuesday before. Indeed, as you read this reflection, the election will already have happened. As one commentator has remarked, “If Trump wins, we will live in one kind of America. If Harris wins, we will live in another kind of America.” These are the crisis times that we live in.

But this Sunday’s readings have something to say about facing a crisis. I invite you to join me for a deep dive into our first reading, the story of Elijah and the poor widow, to see what it might suggest about how to move forward when the stakes are so high.

To understand this story, we need to understand Elijah’s political and religious context. Elijah lived about sixty years after the Kingdom of David and Solomon broke into two different nations: “Israel” in the north, with its capital at Samaria; and “Judah” in the south, with its capital at Jerusalem. (Sidebar – the history of these kingdoms resonates to this day: the northern kingdom was eventually destroyed by Assyria, resulting in the “lost tribes of Israel” and the “Samaritan” people; the southern kingdom was eventually destroyed by Babylon, resulting in the “Babylonian Captivity” and the “Judahite” people, whom English speakers now call “Jews.”)

Elijah was a citizen of Israel, whose rulers were deep into regional politics. At this time, politics and religion were even more strongly linked than today. For example, to cement his dominant position, the Israelite king Ahab had married Jezebel, a princess of “Sidon and Tyre” (coastal Lebanon). Jezebel’s name signals her religio-political affiliation: she is a worshiper of Baal, the Canaanite god of storms, warfare, and royal power. Ahab and Jezebel worked hard to strengthen Israel’s armies and trade routes, in short, to consolidate their governing power. Elijah’s name also signals a religio-political affiliation. In Hebrew, his name is “El-i-yahu,” which means “My God is Yah(weh).” Elijah is the ultimate Yahweh worshipper, committed to following the Law and keeping the Covenant. “I don’t know who your god is, but my God is Yahweh.”

This conflict between Baal-religion (centralized government) and Yahweh-religion (keeping the Covenant and following the Law) dominates the second half of 1st Kings. The main protagonists are Ahab and Jezebel on one side, and the Prophet Elijah on the other. The ups and downs of this story can offer some important insights about how best to cope with a crisis. (Thanks to my colleague Laurie Garrett-Cobbina, professor of pastoral care at San Francisco Theological Seminary, who introduced me to this trauma-informed, womanist angle on the story of Elijah.)

We first meet Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1, at a confrontation with Ahab: “Now Elijah the Tishbite … said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’” There’s something extraordinary about this confrontation: Elijah makes this pronouncement on his own authority – “except by my word” – not on the authority of God! However, because Elijah is a prophet of Yahweh, God obliges and drought overtakes the land. God directs Elijah to flee to the desert, where ravens are sent to feed him; but eventually the rivers dry up. Next, God sends him to Zarephath (in the territory of Sidon, Jezebel’s homeland!), so that a non-Jewish widow can keep him alive. That’s where this Sunday’s story takes place.

After three years of drought, God tells Elijah, “Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth” (1 Kings 18:1). Elijah goes, and then he goes one step even further: he challenges Ahab, Jezebel, and the prophets of Baal to a public duel. With the whole nation of Israel watching, Elijah proclaims: “I am the only prophet of Yahweh here, but there are 450 prophets of Baal. So bring us two bulls. Let the prophets of Baal have one bull. Let them kill it, cut it into pieces, and then put the meat on the wood. But don’t start the fire. I will do the same with the other bull, and I will not start the fire either.  Prophets of Baal, pray to your god, and I will pray to Yahweh. Whichever god answers the prayer and starts the fire is the true God!” (1 Kings 18: 22-24). Elijah wins, and he has Baal’s prophets slaughtered; Jezebel puts a price on his head.

The story continues. Elijah’s on the run, depressed and exhausted. God feeds him and sends him running even farther, all the way down to Mt. Sinai (about 260 miles south). God makes Elijah a political operative, instructing him through a “still, small” voice. Ahab becomes more unhinged and tyrannical. Finally, Elijah anoints a successor. God throws him a retirement party for the ages, taking Elijah up to heaven in a chariot of fire.
Some people see these as stories of heroism: Elijah is the truth-telling champion who stands up against incredible evil and in the face of incredible odds. But what if these stories are a cautionary tale? More than once, Elijah’s “Lone Ranger” activism gets him in serious trouble. He proclaims a drought, and he runs out of food and water. God sends him to declare rain, and he instigates political violence. It’s not that Elijah is wrong: Ahab’s government really is cruel and oppressive; Yahweh really is interested in the justice and freedom, in the Covenant and the Law. It’s that Elijah keeps undermining his own work and well-being, and keeps needing someone to bail him out. Thank God for poor foreigners, unexpected black birds, and next gen leaders, because Elijah’s not doing himself any favors!

We too face a time of stark choices. Whoever wins this election, huge challenges will still lie before us: bitterness, rivalry, income inequality, industrial transformation, ecological crisis, war, and genocide – not to mention – for too many in our world – the basic challenge of making ends meet. For queer Christians and allies who may be prone to act like Elijah (to go it alone, get stuck in depression, burn ourselves out), this Sunday’s first reading might remind us that God can indeed “make a way out of no way;” that Love will always be with us to keep hope alive. For those who possess power or resources (who still have a bit flour and oil left in our jars), the first reading might challenge us to share what we have; however much or little that may be. Our ostensibly meager sharing might make a world of difference to a tired prophet, or to a fellow human in desperate need.  

We live in high stakes times in the midst of great crises. Together is the only way we survive.

John P. Falcone is a practical theologian religious educator and a practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed (PhD Boston College). He has been a Dignity member for more than 20 years with close links to Dignity NY where he met his husband Matias Wibowo in 2005. He is currently Theologian-in-Residence at St. Matthews Bethnal Green (Church of England) in London's East End.