Proper 7C – Sunday, June 22, 2025
In one of her most popular songs, Taylor Swift croons:
”There’s nothing I do better than revenge.”
Film director Alfred Hitchcock once quipped:
“Revenge is sweet and not fattening.”
Do you remember those old Nancy Sinatra lyrics:
”These boots are made for walking
And that’s just what they’ll do.
One of these days,
these boots are going to walk all over you.”
As country songs, horror movies and newspaper headlines remind us, it is so very satisfying to get revenge.
It feels good to make that person, business or organization pay for hurting us. That’s why most murders are, in fact, crimes of passion.
Retribution is also characteristic of the geo-political realm.
Consider:
America’s War on Afghanistan after 911;
Israel’s War in Gaza after October 7;
The January 6th attack on Congress; and
The international tariff war.
This morning, many around the world are wondering about the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Revenge and retribution seem to be our natural inclination. And these days, there are a lot of boots walking over the most vulnerable among us.
But there is an old Chinese proverb that says,
“When you begin a journey of revenge, dig two graves, one for your enemy and one for yourself.”
In the end, revenge becomes a vicious cycle for which all of us pay the price.
The ancient prophet Elijah is a great example of revenge getting out of control and getting the better of someone.
The prophet had been very zealous for God – perhaps, too zealous.
He craved retaliation and revenge in the name of the Lord.
Initially, he was successful in his retaliatory efforts,
but ultimately, Elijah’s over-zealous behavior almost cost him his life and definitely ended his prophetic career.
The story goes like this:
There was a very serious drought in the land, which according to Elijah, was caused by the unfaithfulness and selfishness of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.
It was so serious that crops, animals and people were dying.
It was so serious that King Ahab sent out servants to find grass to keep the horses and mules alive.
In the third year of the drought, God instructed the prophet Elijah to go and tell King Ahab that God would send rain upon the land.
When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab baited him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’
Instead of doing what God has asked him to do, Elijah swallowed the bait and responded: ‘I haven’t troubled Israel; but you have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the way of foreign gods and goddesses.”
The prophet then told the king to assemble all Israel at Mt. Carmel, and bring along the 450 prophets of the god Baal and the 450 prophets of the goddess Asherah.
So King Ahab, desperate for the drought to end, did as Elijah instructed.
In the presence of all, Elijah challenged the crowd saying: ‘How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If [Adonai,] the Lord is God, follow him; but if it is Baal, then follow him.’
The people did not answer.
Then Elijah got even more riled up and challenged the prophets of Baal to a duel with fire: telling them to take a bull, cut it in pieces, lay it on wood, and barbecue it. And he, Elijah, would do the same.
Then they both would call upon the name of their respective gods, and the god who answered by fire would be declared the sovereign God.
Everybody agreed to the contest.
The prophets of Baal took a bull, prepared it, and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon.
But there was no voice, no answer, and no fire.
At noon Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”
Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them.
As midday passed, they raved on, but there was still no voice, no answer, no response, and no fire.
Then it was Elijah’s turn.
He said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’; and all the people came closer to him.
First, he repaired the altar of Adonai that had been destroyed.
Then he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood.
Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt-offering and on the wood.’ And they did it.
Then he said, ‘Do it a second time’; and they did it a second time.
Again he said, ‘Do it a third time’; and they did it a third time, so that the water ran all over the altar, and filled the trench around the altar. Everything was soaked.
Then Elijah prayed to God that the people might know, remember, and turn back their hearts on Baal.
The fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.
When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘Adonai indeed is God; The Lord indeed is God.’
But, Elijah going yet another step not asked for by God, said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.’”
The people followed his commands, seized the prophets of Baal; and Elijah killed them.Why did Elijah go to such extremes?
Were all these prophets deserving of death?
Who ordered their executions?
Not God….
God didn’t tell Elijah to kill the prophets of Baal.
God didn’t tell Elijah to gather all the people and put the prophets to any test.
God simply told Elijah to “present yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain on the earth.” (18.1)
Elijah’s task was simply to declare an end to the drought.
But, Elijah got carried away with uncalled for revenge and unnecessary, ego-driven retaliation.
In response to Elijah’s actions, the people got upset, and Elijah had to run for his life.
All by himself in the wilderness, Elijah prayed, “O Lord, take away my life.”
Thankfully, God was not revengeful.
Rather, as the psalmist reminds us,
“God [was and] is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Instead of punishing Elijah, God sent an angel with food and water to the despairing prophet hiding on Mt. Horeb.
Then God showed up – not in rain, wind, or fire, not in thunder and lightning, but in the sound of silence – sheer and utter silence.
And it was the silence and stillness of the Holy One that finally hushed Elijah’s passion for revenge and fury for retaliation.
Robert Frost once captured this truth about biblical silence in a poem entitled, Desert Places:
“They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars – on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
In the sacred, desert silence, Elijah “scared himself” of his ego-directed zealousness, and somewhat demonic sense of self-righteousness.
In this morning’s gospel lesson, Jesus scared, silenced, disempowered and dismissed a demonic legion of noise (misinformation, if you will) that kept a decent man isolated and removed from family, friends and society.
It’s the kind of noise and misinformation that we hear in conspiracy theories that fuel school shootings, suicide bombings, mob violence and political assassinations.
Jesus had to rebuke and silence such noise in even his well-meaning and sometimes self-righteous disciples, including our patron James and his brother John, affectionately known as the Sons of Thunder. For this demonic noise and misinformation can feed the ego in all kinds of unhealthy ways – even those with good intentions.
That’s what happened to the prophet Elijah.
Following his encounter with the Holy One in the stillness of silence, God retired Elijah from his prophetic office and instructed him to anoint a successor.
Our God, who is steadfast in love, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, doesn’t appear to have much use for bullying, revenge and retaliation as a leadership strategy.
Friends, this is a really important lesson for this morning – not one I really wanted to preach on my first Sunday of the Chapel’s summer season. But so much is happening so quickly:
The scapegoating and deportation of immigrants
The deployment of military forces to city streets
The repression of the free press
The oppression and erasure of trans-people
The dismantling of environmental protection
The defunding of healthcare and food assistance for the poor
The revoking of equal employment and educational opportunity
The suppression of voter rights
The negation of constitutional due process
Starvation in Gaza
Escalating wars across the globe
The increased threat of nuclear annihilation
Political corruption and bullying around the world
And the list goes on and on and on…
How does God want us – people of faith – to react?
In a recent pastoral letter to The Episcopal Church, our Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe has called us to moral clarity, resolute commitment to justice, and resistance “rooted not in partisan allegiance, but in Christian conviction, insisting that, “this is not a role we sought – but rather, one to which we are called.” Bishop Rowe reminds us that we are commissioned individually and collectively to live by our baptismal promises: to persevere in resisting evil, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.
When addressing President Trump from the pulpit of the National Cathedral the day after his inauguration, Bishop Marianne Budde of Washington did just that when she said, “In the name of God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” This is brave and prophetic leadership.
Friends – we are called to speak and act on behalf of the most vulnerable among us. We are called to show up and be counted. We are called to safeguard the values and principles of our democracy. We are called to speak truth in the face of lies. We are called to name the misinformation as the demonic noise that it is and the strategy of revenge and retaliation as dangerous and unacceptable.
Each of us has to discern our particular role at this moment in time. However, as we react to the daily news, let us keep God in the forefront of our words and actions, and let us remember that all who take the sword will perish by the sword, and those who seek revenge will make their own graves and the graves of the people they supposedly love and serve.
The Very Rev. Tracey Lind
St. James the Fisherman, Wellfleet, MA