1 Kings 19:1-15a
Luke 8:26-39
“Talking about Mental Wellbeing”
When I read the Scripture stories that were set for this Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary, it was the mental anguish that stood out to me. Jesus met a man who was tormented by a legion of demons. In a Roman army at that time, a legion was 6000 soldiers – so we’re talking about thousands of demons tormenting this poor man – filling his mind with negative thoughts, taunting him with threats and misinformation, plaguing him with anxiety and fear, and keeping him from living a fruitful and happy life.
Although first century people described what they saw in this man as a legion of demons, in the millenia since that time, we’ve come to understand that not only our bodies, but also our minds can suffer illness and cause all kinds of mental anguish.
As a young adult, I had the opportunity to learn a little about mental health when I worked for a few years in a group home that supported folks living with these kinds of challenges. I learned a little about bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and OCD. And I started to recognize severe anxiety, depression, and manic episodes, as I worked to support the residents in maintaining a good level of mental wellbeing.
But that was over 25 years ago, and in the years since then the medical community has learned a lot more about mental health. It has become much more normal for people to talk about it openly in society, and we’ve started to recognize that many, many people struggle with their mental wellbeing – not just those with serious diagnoses that need the kind of supports that the group home I worked at was trying to provide.
Just think about how much we have learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – finally recognizing and responding to the mental impacts on soldiers, first responders, and people who have gone through traumatic experiences. Think about the developments in understanding and supporting kids with Attention Deficit Disorder – and how we now realize that adults can experience it as well.
At my particular stage of life, I’m hearing a lot about the symptoms of perimenopause, which can include anxiety and depression caused by fluctuating hormone levels. Earlier generations of women still had to deal with those symptoms, but most likely without them being recognized or acknowledged as real symptoms that can actually be treated.
The Commission on Faith and Witness of The Canadian Council of Churches recently published a resource on this topic that was the product of three years of theological study and ecumenical dialogue. It’s titled, “Towards Wellbeing: Mental Wholeness in Church, Person, and Community.”
They begin by noting that “Good mental health is broadly understood as a desirable goal for all people, an important dimension of good health, a criterion for peace (of mind, or of soul), and a significant component of a successful life.
“And yet, good mental health is elusive for so many. Not only is a state of good mental health often hard to achieve, it can also be hard to identify, especially in these challenging and stressful times.” (And they wrote these words BEFORE some of the most recent stress-inducing world events of the last year.)
I encourage you to check out the Canadian Council of Churches’ document if you’d like to explore some theological reflection on mental wellbeing, what it means to be human, and the value of community and church in supporting one another’s mental health. (There are a few printed copies in the narthex today, and you can also read it online at the link in the bulletin.)
But I also want to get into the first Scripture text that Taeyang read for us this morning about the Prophet Elijah. As a 21st Century Pastor, I’m not equipped to diagnose Elijah’s mental health, any more than I’m qualified to make medical pronouncements about people today. But whenever I read about Elijah’s time in the wilderness, it has seemed to me that the Prophet must have been experiencing something like depression.
After running for his life to escape Jezebel’s threats to kill him, Elijah finds a place to sit under a tree and starts praying for death. One might wonder why he’s asking to die after running so hard to get away from death. But it’s clear that he is scared, exhausted, and just wanting to give up.
All he wants to do is sleep – which is something I’ve felt on my saddest days too, and it’s an often-reported symptom of deep depression. People just don’t want to get up and face the world and all its struggles. Elijah says, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”
“I am no better than my ancestors,” the Prophet laments. And it makes me wonder if until recently Elijah may have thought that he WAS greater than his ancestors, than the prophets who came before him, than people like Moses who at times became overwhelmed by their responsibilities and the tasks God called them to do.
And that makes me wonder if Elijah might have just come down from a manic high. Yes, I know that I can’t accurately diagnose the mental illness of an Old Testament biblical character. But in the children’s message I did go back a little earlier in the story, and that was for your benefit also.
The reason that Queen Jezebel wanted to kill Elijah was because of the contest he had just had with the Prophets of Baal – how he had mocked and embarrassed them by demonstrating God’s power and showing that their gods were nothing in comparison to the One True God.
Did you notice that image I shared of Elijah with his arms raised to the sky, calling upon God to send down fire? I can only imagine that the Prophet felt courageous and powerful – perhaps even invincible, as His God triumphed over his enemies.
And that’s when things started to get out of control – not only did Elijah win the contest, but he showed no mercy on the Prophets of Baal, whose god had remained silent and inactive and unhelpful to them. Elijah proceeded to slaughter them all! (I didn’t show a picture of that to the children.)
I understand why Jezebel was angry. And I wonder what was going on inside the mind and heart of the Prophet of our Loving God who went wild and did such a thing.
“I am no better than my ancestors. Please, let me die, God,” Elijah would soon pray. And I wonder… Even if Elijah believed that God would want him to wipe out those heretics and worshippers of false gods… wouldn’t there also have been that spark of divine goodness and love in Elijah’s human heart that would be telling him that the violence and bloodshed was deeply, deeply wrong?
So Elijah ran, and then he crashed, and then he hoped to die. I expect that many of us, and many people we know have experienced that complicated mix of emotions including fear, shame, regret, anger, self-loathing, and loneliness that Elijah might have been feeling at that time. We can’t take back our stupid, unthinking mistakes, our harsh words and actions, or our pompous declarations made without considering the consequences. And we can get stuck, much longer than Elijah was in the wilderness, wallowing in those awful feelings and accepting the hopelessness.
But friends, that’s when God came to Elijah. God deeply cared about his troubled state of mind – just as Jesus cared for the man who was tormented by a legion of demons. God had compassion on Elijah who was similarly tortured.
First, God sent an angel to wake Elijah from sleep and get him to eat. Perhaps that sounds familiar if you’ve ever cared for someone who was suffering from either a mental or physical illness, or if someone has cared for you. “Wake up!” your caregiver says to you, “You need to drink some tea. Here, have some chicken soup. At least drink a bit of water.” And then, like the angel, they probably let you sleep a bit more.
In Elijah’s case, he needed to take in enough nourishment so that he could continue his journey and get himself to a safe place – out of the harsh environment of the wilderness to a cave where he could be sheltered from the elements and safe from his enemies.
For those who suffer from mental anguish today, safe places are critical also. Stepping away from stress-producing situations, toxic relationships, or destructive coping strategies may be necessary. Finding safe and loving confidantes and communities of care may become a lifeline.
Certainly, as people of faith, today’s Scripture text invites us to hear the good news that God will be there for us – no matter what has happened, no matter what we have done, no matter what we may be feeling. But I also want us to pay attention to HOW God is present for Elijah, because I think it’s a good model for how we are called to be present for each other.
First, God asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?” I think that’s God’s way of asking “How are you? What’s going on? What do you need?” And those are questions that we can ask each other.
Elijah replies by talking about all the great things he has done. He’s been a great prophet for God – a zealous one, an enthusiastic and committed one – but everything has gone wrong. The People of Israel that Elijah was supposed to be guiding have gone running in a different direction – worshipping false gods, doing terrible things, rejecting the One True God. Elijah despairs, “I alone am left, and people are trying to kill me!”
And God neither confirms nor denies what Elijah has said. God just listens.
Then comes the famous bit of this passage in which God invites the Prophet to come out of the cave and stand on the mountain before God. I can imagine him standing there in hope and expectation – waiting for God to display divine power like the fire that had come down from heaven to light the wood for the sacrifice.
And yes, the wind begins to blow – a wind so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
The Lord was not in the fire, just as the Lord was not in the slaughter of the Prophets of Baal.
No, it was in the sound of sheer silence that God came to Elijah on the mountain. It was in the sound of God speaking to the Prophet once more and asking him, “What are you doing here? How are you, really? What can I do to help? I’m here to listen.”
And Elijah told God about his feelings again, repeating himself, as is perfectly reasonable for a struggling person to do. Perhaps knowing this time, that God was listening to nothing else, but to Elijah.
“I alone am left,” Elijah lamented. And God didn’t say, “No, you’re wrong, Elijah.” But God did tell him to get up and go back to Damascus.
Our lectionary text ends there, but the journey isn’t over for Elijah. God sends him to anoint new kings over Aram and Israel, and then to anoint another Prophet (Elisha) who will follow in Elijah’s footsteps and continue his work.
God didn’t literally say, “Come on, Elijah, you’re not alone!” But in time, God showed him that he didn’t need to be alone, that he didn’t need to be the greatest prophet of all time, that God didn’t abandon him when he lost control and messed up and almost gave up, and that God would show up for him in gentle, quiet, listening care rather than powerful spectacles.
That is the kind of God, made known to us in Jesus Christ, come to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we are called to follow and to embody in the world today. We don’t need to diagnose biblical characters or each other, but we are invited to show up for each other – to care, to feed, to listen – and to demonstrate by our presence and our friendship that not one of us is alone.