SPEAKER_00: One of the most dangerous places a Christian can live is not in outright rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: It is indecision.
SPEAKER_00: It is in trying to keep one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly the situation Elijah confronts in today's first reading.
SPEAKER_00: He stands before the people of Israel on Mount Carmel and asks one of the most important questions How long will you straddle the issue?
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord is God, follow him, if Baal, follow him.
SPEAKER_00: The people want both.
SPEAKER_00: They want God, but they also want Baal.
SPEAKER_00: They want faith, but they also want comfort.
SPEAKER_00: They want to worship, but they also want to fit into the surrounding culture.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah exposes the problem.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot serve two masters.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually a choice must be made.
SPEAKER_00: And what's fascinating is the response of the people.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture says the people, however, did not answer him.
SPEAKER_00: Silence, because deep down they knew he was right.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest spiritual battles are often not between good and evil, they are between total commitment and partial commitment.
SPEAKER_00: Most people in Israel had not formally rejected God.
SPEAKER_00: They had simply stopped putting him first.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, that temptation is still alive today.
SPEAKER_00: We can believe in God and yet structure our lives around something else.
SPEAKER_00: We can come to mass and say all of our prayers and still make success, things, achievements.
SPEAKER_00: That's our God, the real God.
SPEAKER_00: We can pray and still make money our security, our comfort.
SPEAKER_00: We can profess faith and still seek the approval of others more than the approval of God.
SPEAKER_00: Modern idols don't usually look like statues.
SPEAKER_00: They look like careers, popularity, possessions, politics, entertainment, control, or even ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Anything that takes God's place before an idol.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah's challenge is just as relevant today as it was three thousand years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Who's really first in your life?
SPEAKER_00: That comes down to a very dramatic showdown.
SPEAKER_00: Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal spend the entire day shouting, dancing, pleading, and even cutting themselves, and nothing happens.
SPEAKER_00: No fire, no voice, no answer.
SPEAKER_00: Why because Baal is not real?
SPEAKER_00: Then Elijah steps forward.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the contrast.
SPEAKER_00: There's no frenzy, no manipulation, no spectacle, just a simple prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Answer me, Lord, that this people may know that you are God.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately fire falls from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: What strikes me most about this story is that Elijah first repairs the broken altar.
SPEAKER_00: Before the fire comes, the altar must be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the lesson for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Many people want the fire of God.
SPEAKER_00: They want the passion, they want spiritual renewal, they want a deeper relationship with Christ, but they do not want to rebuild the altar.
SPEAKER_00: They do not want to return to prayer, to commitment, to structure.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to return a confession.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to forgive that impossible relationship.
SPEAKER_00: They do not want to reorder their priorities.
SPEAKER_00: Yet something that is throughout Scripture is that renewal always begins with rebuilding the altar.
SPEAKER_00: It begins with putting God back where he belongs.
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, the fire comes, it rains down.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we look at the gospel, it sheds even more light on this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I have come not to abolish, but to fulfill.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Jesus is not creating a new religion disconnected from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: No, everything that God began in Israel reaches its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The law, the prophets, the sacrifices, the covenant, all of it points towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says something that many people today need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that Jesus does not separate love from obedience.
SPEAKER_00: In our culture, people often say, I love God, but I don't want anyone telling me how to live.
SPEAKER_00: I think I know what I need to do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never speaks that way.
SPEAKER_00: For him, love and obedience belong together.
SPEAKER_00: Not because God wants to control us, but because God wants to save us.
SPEAKER_00: Every commandment is ultimately an expression of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Every commandment is a path towards freedom.
SPEAKER_00: The problem with idols is that they always promise freedom and eventually produce slavery.
SPEAKER_00: God's commandments sometimes feel demanding, but they always lead to life.
SPEAKER_00: So perhaps today, our readings invite us to ask two questions.
SPEAKER_00: First, what is competing with God for first place in our life?
SPEAKER_00: What is the Baal I am tempted to serve?
SPEAKER_00: And second, what altar needs rebuilding?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's my daily prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a deeper commitment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's returning to Sunday Mass faithfully every week.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's confession after being away for so long, or maybe even repairing a broken relationship.
SPEAKER_00: The people on Mount Carmel finally fell to their knees and cried out, The Lord is God.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is God.
SPEAKER_00: That is the decision every disciple must eventually make, not just with our lips, not just on Sundays, but with our whole lives.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christianity was never meant to be one commitment among a many.
SPEAKER_00: It is meant to be the very center for which everything else flows.
SPEAKER_00: And when God is truly first in your life, the fire will reign down.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.