St Stephen's13th August 2000

Year B 19th week

Elijah was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. It was he, you will remember, who appeared with Moses on the Mountain of the Transfiguration, as they talked with Jesus about his forthcoming death.

St James tells us that Elijah was a man who had feelings just like we do: and since today’s first reading describes how he fell into a state of deep depression, this seemed a good opportunity to talk about feeling depressed. For if one thing is certain about life besides death and taxes, it is that all of us from time to time, young and old, men and women, good and bad, experience depression in one form or another.

Today’s first reading says: "Elijah went into the wilderness a day's journey, and sitting under a Furze Bush, wished he were dead ‘Lord’, he said ‘I have had enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ then he laid down and went to sleep."

Why do people get depressed? Well, it’s important to know that there are some medical conditions which bring on a depression of their own accord: influenza, a malfunctioning thyroid gland, or a hormonal imbalance after having a baby are three common examples. If you suspect that your depression may be due to one of these, then the person to turn to is the doctor – though it may be useful to discuss with a friend beforehand what you were going to tell your doctor as it may save a lot of valuable surgery-time. About this sort of depression we need say no more this morning since its cause and its cure are obvious.

But this leaves the question of the much more common sort of depression which does not have any obvious medical cause – although many people rush straight along to the doctor to compain about their unwanted feelings, the root of the trouble in these cases is usually not a physical one (like flu) but an emotional one.

That was what Elijah was suffering from. Just before the depression hit him he had experienced one of the greatest triumphs of his ministry. Single-handed on Mount Carmel he had managed to bring about a mass-conversion of the Children of Israel back to the worship of the One True God, and persuaded them to turn their backs on the false gods they had been following, the Baalim as they were known, and to show that they were never going to be unfaithful to God again. It was asif some preacher were to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Lewisham in such a way that the next Sunday and every Sunday afterwards we had to have ten Masses a day to accommodate everyone who had been saved.

So why was Elijah depressed? Well the two people who, in a sense, mattered most because they were in the best position of influence either to firm-up his triumph or else to undo all the good that it had done were King Ahab and Queen Jezebel – and they remained stubbornly unconverted. To rub this fact in, Jezebel had even sent a note to Elijah telling him that she’d given an order to one of her henchmen before the day was out.

"How silly of Elijah", you may think. "with a real thumping triumph just behind him, how could he get so upset by the threat, probably an empty one, of some nasty woman?"

Well there are two things to say about that: one is that good feelings, feelings of triumph, success or fulfilment seldom last very long before they're forgotten; secondly it's fatally easy for us to imagine setbacks, and the bad feelings they give rise to, out of all proportion to their true size. How often has someone, mother-in-law perhaps, said something, perhaps without thinking how their words might be misunderstood, which makes us feel terribly hurt, although that wasn't necessarily their intention? Or when that letter from the Bank Manager or Building Society comes reminding us that we are overdrawn, or behindhand with our mortgage payments: how often do we imagine, even before we open the envelope, that it spells our financial ruin and a sleeping on the streets for us? Or the disappointment we feel when a carefully planned holiday has been ruined by the weather? In the case of Elijah he was completely thrown off-balance by Jezebel's threatening letter. Even the greatest of God’s prophets, whose faith had been proved by that ordeal on Mount Carmel, was suffering from depression!

But now look what happened: God's messenger, in the form of an Angel (for that’s what "angel" means) came and joined him and provided a meal for him to eat.

The action of the Angel suggests two things. Firstly that two heads are better than one when it comes to dealing with Bad Feelings and Fears and Depressions; and we should take note that the "other head" doesn't necessarily have to be an expert on the thing that’s worrying us – angels probably don't even know what mortgages or depressions or overdrafts or mothers-in-law are.

But the second (and more important) truth is that by just sitting down over a cup of tea and a biscuit we may find that things begin to look very different. Might it be, one wonders, that Jesus actually knew exactly what he was doing when he told us to come together to share his life over a meal, coming to join him and each other at a table furnished with bread and wine?

Elijah, we are told, got up, ate and drank, and strengthened by that food he walked for 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mount of Almighty God himself.

Now think carefully what that tells us. It doesn’t say that Elijah’s problems had gone away as if by magic – he was still a hunted man with a price on his head – but after listening to the angel, and having a square meal, he felt, and indeed was, in a much better position to face up to them.

It’s the same when we come together to eat the Lord's Supper, to feed on the Bread of Life as Jesus told us to: our problems remain just the same as they were before we did so – the overdraft, the late payment, the in-laws, the parents, the children – those problems haven't gone away, nor should we expect them to have. That’s one of the big mistakes which Christians sometimes make when they suggest to their friends that "Religion" is somehow the solution to all life's problems. It isn’t, at least not in the way that people are sometimes led suppose. No wonder so many who have been told this end up by becoming disillusioned with the whole business. "Overselling" is never a good idea.

What "religion", or more precisely faith in Jesus Christ will do for us, however, is to bring us together every week with a number of other people, few or many as the case may be, who have just two things in common with each other. The first is that they have problems; the second is the willingness to admit both to themselves and to others that this is so. Outside the fellowship of the Church many people are in what is called a "state of denial" – which is to say that they will admit neither to others, nor to themselves that there’s something wrong with them.

But because most churchgoers have grown out of this state of denial we can be reasonably sure that amongst our fellow-Christians at St Stephens there is at least one person, probably several people who will be prepared to listen, patiently and sympathetically to whatever it is that’s getting us down; and we can be equally sure that there’s at least one person in this building today who needs us, who is wanting an ear like yours or mine to listen to their woes and help to shoulder some of their burdens.

One more point. Some people are tempted to think that the Church of God is meant to be nothing more than a therapeutic discussion-group of like-minded people whohappen to find "religion" is a help to them in the way that others find acupuncture or aromatherapy. So-called "counselling" is comes to be looked upon as the answer to all life's problems.

Well, it isn't. And if you want to know why, think again of Elijah. His depression, and his counselling session with the Angel were only a necessary prelude to his real encounter with the living God on Mount Horeb. If you want to know what happened there you must read the Book, because there's not time for me to tell you this morning.

What we need to understand in the case of Elijah is that everything that had gone before his face-to-face encounter with the living God, his triumph on Mount Carmel, his failure with Ahab and Jezebel, the threats, danger, his depression and its relief, even the heavenly food which he ate were not ends in themselves but means to an end – they were part of the necessary preparation for his meeting face-to-face with the living God.

As one ancient Christian writer, St Irenaeus, so clearly put it:

The glory of God is the living man; the end of man is the vision of God.