"ENOUGH, ALREADY!"
I Kings 21:1-21a
Rev. Gary Paterson
June 13, 2010
It’s a great story; juicy, full of scandal, violence, and a hint of sex; King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in yet another confrontation with the prophet Elijah, this time over a local land grab, where the faithful Naboth is killed, through the devious manipulation of a kangaroo court, which brings Elijah storming in to pronounce doom and gloom judgment.
It’s a story that cries out to be imagined cinematically:- first scene, a broody shot of Ahab gazing from his balcony, staring fondly at a neighbouring vineyard. Cut to Ahab and Naboth in the garden, soon yelling at each other, “Sell me the land! – “God forbid that I should sell the family farm!” Then move to Ahab back home in an adolescent sulk, kicking the furniture in a wimpy sort of way. Bang go the doors, opening wide, and the mighty Jezebel comes striding in; takes one look at the situation; yells loudly, “Are you a man or a mouse!”; declares, “Don’t think about it any more; I’ll take care of it for you!” Switch music to ominous, move to evening, lots of shadows and whispers, as Jezebel weaves her plot; you’d veer off the Biblical path here, a little… don’t want anyone to know the details of how Naboth is going to get his; keep suspense building; add music like the sound of a thousand vuvulezas; and depending on the director… either cut to stones being thrown in the distance, probably in a sudden silence; or if you’re more like Mel Gibson, showing every blessed detail, blood rolling out of the lower corner of the screen. Switch immediately to Jezebel watching avidly from her balcony, getting off on the whole affair, calling back to Ahab, “It’s all yours baby; enjoy!” Camera follows Ahab racing down the stairs, into the vineyard, and… well, dancing? gloating? simply walking around, with a child’s enjoyment, no guilt? You’d have to do some hard thinking for this scene, but you don’t have to arrive at an answer because suddenly, with a clash of cymbals, Elijah bursts onto the scene, crying out, “You’ve sold out – lost yourself, your soul, for a piece of real estate; doom and disaster and death!.” Thus says the Lord. Screen goes dark… play something like the theme from the film “The Mission.” It works, I tell you. Makes the conundrums of our royals look pretty tame!
Now, I want you to pause for a moment… keep the story to the side, and let me talk for a moment about the Jesuit tradition of praying with Scripture…. “Contemplation through Imagination” is what it’s sometimes called. The idea is to enter into the particular Biblical story at hand by letting your imagination slip loose, so that it begins to feel as if you are actually there. You can feel the breeze slipping across palace balcony; you can smell the vineyard; taste the wine at the feast, and then hear the angry, accusations; you can see Jezebel, Ahab, Naboth and Elijah, catch their conversations… you’re there; right in it, vividly, your imagination working overtime. The story rises off the page and you walk into it and take your place in the action. You let the Spirit draw you in, until you are there. Perhaps you will find yourself standing with, even identifying with a particular character; other times you are simply present as a bystander, an observer. Sometimes the Spirit takes you to a “when” – that particular moment in the story where you get caught, feel a pull… a moment of temptation, the buzz of power; the blind eye, the fear, the prophet’s “I have found you!” You let your Spirit-guided imagination take you into when, or where, or who you need to be. And then listen, watch… and breathe the Spirit in.
I want to invite us in a time of “contemplation through imagination”, to take a few minutes of silence, so that perhaps the Spirit might breathe on us, just a little. But before doing that, I want offer a few suggestions. If they seem to speak to you, great; if not, ignore them.
You might, perhaps, find your self standing with Ahab, close, or not quite so…; Ahab, a man who has everything – I mean, he was the King; but he wanted more. He’s anyone who has been grabbed and gripped by greed; it consumed him, even as he consumed as much as he could, all around – always to discover that it was never quite enough. There was always one more vineyard. I think Ahab would have found himself right at home in our culture, swimming in a river of advertising that is always enticing and entitling: “You deserve the best!” “Just go for it!” “It’s yours… for as little as….” Always more… the newest model, style, gadget, upgrade, larger, faster…. I wonder if there is an emptiness in Ahab’s heart, that he keeps trying to fill with stuff, his newest outfit or acquisition. But grabbing more vineyards isn’t going to help; the illusion, “Consuming more makes you happy.” - it’s seductive. But maybe the real question that comes is “What will fill your heart?”
Or maybe you might be drawn to the interaction between Ahab and Jezebel, caught by the painful willingness of Ahab to turn a blind eye while someone else does the dirty work. “Don’t blame me; I didn’t know,” – that’s always the Ahab protest. Our institutions do our sinning for us, no? Just fill up my plate, fridge, closet, house, bank account, and please don’t tell me what it really costs and who’s paying the price. How can we be responsible for global warming, oil gushing up in the Gulf of Mexico, sweatshops in India and land grabs in Guatemala? Where’s Jezebel when you need her; including those moments when you need someone to blame?
Or possibly you could end up watching Jezebel at work, as you think of all the terrible things that are done in this world in order to feed the greed of a few. Oil wars; oil spills; two cars in every garage. That’s a hard place to stand… a certain despair at what we humans can do; a certain suspicion about your own willingness to put self first – “après moi, le deluge.”
Maybe there’s a part of you that stands with Naboth, the little guy who gets it in the left ear… or worse. The person who stands up for what is right, for his or her rights; for other people’s rights; who seeks to be faithful…. Who says, “I cannot sell the land and still be true to myself.” Perhaps you discover in your imagination the vision of a dissident in China or Iran who ends up in prison; or a gay man in Malawi who takes the risk of getting married; or a Palestinian peasant whose vineyard has been taken over by Israeli settlers, and who cries out, “No, you can’t do that; that’s my land.” Perhaps you catch a glimpse of a Guatemalan farmer whose plot of land is expropriated by a multinational coffee conglomerate. Possibly your imagination might move closer to home, to a Downtown Eastsider, or a West End tenant, evicted from their room, their apartment, their home, in the name of gentrification, unnecessary renovations, skyrocketing rents, and greater profits. Or maybe you hear a First Nations person say quietly, “That’s my land you took,” even as they get tossed into Residential Schools.
Or maybe you think of yourself, of a friend, those times when you’ve been Naboth, and you know what it’s like to be hurt.
Then, of course, there’s Elijah; maybe the question of the whole imagined story is how you react when he comes striding into the story; how close are you going to get to this guy? What if it feels like he’s speaking to you, and you hear his scalding words, “I have found you!”; as if the carpet under which you have swept all those unpleasant memories gets suddenly lifted up and wind swirls all that dirt into the sunlight. To get too close to Elijah is to bump into our own misdeeds, half-truths, and comfortable avoidances. On the other hand, there are probably some times when you’ve felt some Elijah energy moving through you, and like any good Quaker, you find yourself speaking Truth to Power, willing to see things as they really are, willing to work for change in your own small way. Or maybe you end up shuddering as you hear Elijah’s predictions of doom; you realize there will be consequences… not that God is punishing us, but that God’s prophet is warning us, like any David Suzuki – “Wake up! Repent! Change your ways! If you living in such extravagant ways, pretending that the earth is your personal vineyard, available for the plundering, then destruction will come!” We know about that; we’ve seen pictures of pelicans covered in black oil, and northern ice caps melting away, Listening to Elijah can be a real downer; or a real wake-up call..
That’s enough from me. It’s time for quietness, time to invite you to let your imagination out, into the silence; time to listen to the story once again. Let the Spirit take you there and help you discover your place, your person, your moment… and then, who knows what might happen. So, listen to what the Spirit is saying to you:
1 Kings 21:1-21 (The Message)1-2And then, to top it off, came this: Naboth the Jezreelite owned a vineyard in Jezreel that bordered the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. One day Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard so I can use it as a kitchen garden; it's right next to my house—so convenient. In exchange I'll give you a far better vineyard, or if you'd prefer I'll pay you money for it."3-4 But Naboth told Ahab, "Not on your life! So help me GOD, I'd never sell the family farm to you!" Ahab went home in a black mood, sulking over Naboth the Jezreelite's words, "I'll never turn over my family inheritance to you." He went to bed, stuffed his face in his pillow, and refused to eat.5 Jezebel his wife came to him. She said, "What's going on? Why are you so out of sorts and refusing to eat?"6 He told her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite. I said, 'Give me your vineyard—I'll pay you for it or, if you'd rather, I'll give you another vineyard in exchange.' And he said, 'I'll never give you my vineyard.'"7 Jezebel said, "Is this any way for a king of Israel to act? Aren't you the boss? On your feet! Eat! Cheer up! I'll take care of this; I'll get the vineyard of this Naboth the Jezreelite for you."8-10 She wrote letters over Ahab's signature, stamped them with his official seal, and sent them to the elders in Naboth's city and to the civic leaders. She wrote "Call for a fast day and put Naboth at the head table. Then seat a couple of stool pigeons across from him who, in front of everybody will say, 'You! You blasphemed God and the king!' Then they'll throw him out and stone him to death."11-14 And they did it. The men of the city—the elders and civic leaders— followed Jezebel's instructions that she wrote in the letters sent to them. They called for a fast day and seated Naboth at the head table. Then they brought in two stool pigeons and seated them opposite Naboth. In front of everybody the two degenerates accused him, "He blasphemed God and the king!" The company threw him out in the street, stoned him mercilessly, and he died.15 When Jezebel got word that Naboth had been stoned to death, she told Ahab, "Go for it, Ahab—take the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for your own, the vineyard he refused to sell you. Naboth is no more; Naboth is dead."16 The minute Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he set out for the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite and claimed it for his own.17-19 Then GOD stepped in and spoke to Elijah the Tishbite, "On your feet; go down and confront Ahab of Samaria, king of Israel. You'll find him in the vineyard of Naboth; he's gone there to claim it as his own. Say this to him: 'GOD's word: What's going on here? First murder, then theft?' Then tell him, 'GOD's verdict: The very spot where the dogs lapped up Naboth's blood, they'll lap up your blood—that's right, your blood.'"20-22 Ahab answered Elijah, "My enemy! So, you've run me down!" "Yes, I've found you out," said Elijah. "And because you've bought into the business of evil, defying GOD. 'I will most certainly bring doom upon you….”******************** A Time of Silence *************************
I do not know where you have been, where the Spirit might have taken you. But still, let me add one more character to the story…. God. Not really a character… a voice in the background, an energy, a love… that in-spires Elijah, who is willing to breathe it in, and then to speak in words that are not totally his own. The Ahabs and Jezebels of the world are not unchallenged, are not the final word, no matter how great their power at any given moment. This universe is not a closed system; there is a Holy Presence that broods over the world, that arises from deep within… the cries of Naboth are heard and prophets speak of changes and dreams and determination; people and situations can be turned around, can be transformed. God is moving within this story, within our lives, throughout the world. And that’s why we keep praying, opening ourselves to the Spirit, trusting that the Holy One will take us where we need to go.