Proper 7c June 19, 2022

Get up!! Pentecost 2C Proper 7

+Elijah’s toast. He’s done. He dared to disagree with Jezebel and neither she nor King Ahab were amused. You see, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were worshippers of Baal, a pagan God and Elijah was a folower of Yahweh, whom we know as God.It didn’t go well and Elijah’s running for his life. He knew there was nowhere to hide, he knew eventually the King’s guards would find him and that would be that. So, exhausted and disgusted with himself Elijah collapses under the broom tree—begging death to overtake him.
But God had other plans.
A divine messenger awakens Elijah and says, “Get up! Eat something!”
Elijah opened his eyes and saw bread and water right by his head. He ate and drank, and then went back to sleep.
A second time the messenger awakens him, saying, “Get up!”
“Eat something, you have a difficult road ahead of you.” Get up!
Elijah got up, ate, drank, and refreshed by that food, carried on.
Because God had other plans.

Several years ago I heard former Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preach a wonderful sermon on the gospel story of  Jairus’ daughter. Remember the story? Jairus comes to Jesus, begging him to heal his daughter. Jesus dilly dailies and when he finally reaches the girl, everyone says she is dead. Jesus clears the room, takes the girl’s hand and says, “Talitha Cum” which means, Little Girl, Arise, but which Bishop Katharine translated as “Get Up, Girl!”
This girl was as good as dead, but God?
God had other plans.
Through messengers, prophets, apostles, the Holy and Undivided Trinity calls to us all the time, telling us to
“Get up girl, get up boy, get up man, get up woman, get up church, get up world, there’s work to do!”
And my friends WE’RE  just the people to do it.
God has plans for us:
Get up, man!
That’s what the Holy Spirit is saying to——
Get up, woman!
That’s what God is saying to —-
Get up, prophet!
That’s what the messenger was saying to Elijah, “your work’s not yet done.”
And that is the message God gives us as we embark on the long green growing season known as ordinary time. We are no longer waiting for a birth in the manger,  no longer marching through the days of trial in Lent, no longer waiting for the tomb to be empty….no, we are now in the time known as ordinary—not because it’s boring, but because it’s a time for the steady drumbeat of doing the work we’ve been given to do—-picking up the mantle of God, inspired and enflamed by the Holy Spirit to continue the work Jesus did. The work he left for us, the work he gave to us. The work of getting up and being the light of love to the whole world. The work of saying no to injustice, the work of saying no to hate, the work of saying no to inequality. The work of saying yes— all are welcome, of saying yes to respecting the dignity of every single human being, of saying yes to the work of Love.
My friends, the arc of justice may bend somewhat slowly, the road may seem long, the journey tough, but those impediments are no excuse, for God is saying loud and clear: “GET UP, I need you---yes YOU---to do this work and to do it now.”
So, as  we enter into the fullness of summer, as the days stay long and the nights are cooled by a soft summer breeze may we never ever forget that giving up may always be an option for us, but that God in God’s persistent, loving and yes at times annoying fashion will always pull us out of ourselves, shake us up and move us toward doing exactly what it is we need to do.
Get up folks, the world needs us…right here and right now.
Amen.