How many of you saw the movie Avatar?  This 2009 movie directed by James Cameron garnered instant box office success.  The story takes place in a far away planet called Pandora, which is inhabited by a race of seven feet tall peace loving natives known as the Navi.  Human beings from the earth have occupied parts of their planet in search of a rare and valuable mineral, which leads to skirmishes with the Navi, and ultimately to war.  Caught up in the middle of these machinations are Jake Sully, a marine, and Neytiri, a Navi princess.  These two characters fall in love and ultimately join forces to save Pandora.  The movie was released in December 2009, and in less than a month it raked in more than 1.3 billion dollars worldwide, which was amazing!

What was also amazing, however, is the way that this movie impacted so many of its viewers.  I don’t know if any of you experienced this, but within a week of its debut, websites dedicated to the movie were filled with comments from people lamenting the fact that Avatar’s people and places could not be reached in any real way.  One fan wrote, “When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed gray.  It was like my whole life, everything I’ve done and worked for, lost its meaning.”  Wow, that person is in need of some serious help, huh?  Another wrote something similar; “The day after I saw Avatar, I was completely depressed…I legitimately love all of Pandora and ‘waking up’ afterwards is extremely hard to do.” 

These comments are just a sample among thousands of posts that appeared on dozens of fan sites.  Most expressed a longing to somehow transport themselves into the world of Pandora, and most expressed an accompanying sense of depression because that is impossible.  For others, the movie seemed to intensify a deep dissatisfaction with their everyday lives – and a desire for a fresh start someplace new.  Responding to several fans’ plans to establish a Navi way of living on Earth, a forum moderator said “That’s the problem, even if you wanted to strive to be more like the Navi, you would be eaten alive in this world.  It really hurts thinking that, you know?  It really would take a complete new fresh start somewhere uncorrupted.”

Well, I think the prophet Elijah, who we have been looking at in my sermon series over the past few weeks, would understand what these fans were getting at, because in our first point today,

ELIJAH GETS DEPRESSED.

Elijah of course would be completely unfamiliar with the world of Avatar, but he too desired a different kind of world than the one he lived in.  He too longed for something, and that was a world where his nation, Israel, would be completely and totally devoted to their God, the one true God, his Lord.  What a different and better place that would be!  For one shining moment, Elijah thought that different world was actually in reach.  He had challenged the prophets of Baal, the pagan god that evil king Ahab and queen Jezebel had brought into Israel, to a contest on the top of Mt. Carmel in the center of Israel.  They and he and a large crowd of the people of Israel gathered there, and the prophets of Baal and Elijah both set up a sacrifice to their gods there, but they did not light them, and Elijah said that the prophets of Baal should call on their god, and Elijah would call on the Lord, and the one who responded with fire, that is the one true God of Israel.  So the prophets of Baal go on for hours calling on Baal to light their sacrifice, but nothing happens, and then Elijah calls on the name of the Lord, and immediately, fire from heaven comes down and burns up the sacrifice he had prepared for God.  All the people of Israel, which included King Ahab, fell down on their faces and said “The Lord is God!  The Lord alone is God!”  Elijah then ordered the prophets of Baal to be killed, so as to remove the temptation to go back to these other gods, and he was so excited as he went back to the capital of the country along with Ahab, expecting that at this moment, the nation would change course, that a different world was in reach, that he and the whole nation would have a fresh start as they centered their worship on the one true God. As the rain fell on him that day, ending the drought of over three years on the land, Elijah felt like a new man.   

Except, and aren’t there often the excepts in life, except one key person was not there at Mt. Carmel.  Queen Jezebel probably did not like the idea of this whole contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in the first place – after all she was the one who had killed all the other prophets of the Lord or forced them into hiding, and so she was not there on Mt. Carmel and did not witness the fire of God from heaven.  We might imagine that Ahab arrived home at the palace, and with a heart filled with the amazing work of the Lord on Mt. Carmel, and the joy of the rain falling on the kingdom once again, he excitedly shares with Jezebel everything that had been happening to him and the nation.  I’m sure Jezebel was listening with a guarded expression on her face.  However, Ahab’s story about the power of the living God and the fire from heaven that came after Elijah prayed all got forgotten when the king got around to the part about how Elijah eliminated all of her prophets of Baal.  At that point, the wrath of hell poured out of her mouth, and she swore to Ahab, and then sent a message to Elijah saying that I will kill you just like you killed the other prophets.

Now Jezebel was clever, because she knew that if she seized Elijah and killed him immediately, she might make all those people who had witnessed God’s power on Mt. Carmel angry at her.  But by threatening Elijah in this way, she was I’m sure hoping that he would flee the country, as he had done earlier when his life was in danger.  And if he did that, what God did on Mt. Carmel would not matter that much, because without Elijah, the whole movement to center Israel’s worship on the Lord would just collapse.  Now you and I might think that Elijah couldn’t be stupid enough, after everything that had happened, after seeing God feed him during a drought and raise a boy from death to life and bring fire down from heaven, Elijah couldn’t be stupid enough to be intimidated by Queen Jezebel, could he?  Well, let’s read about what Elijah did actually do, from I Kings 19:3-4 (GN):  “Elijah was afraid and fled for his life; he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah.  Leaving the servant there, Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness.  He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die.  ‘It’s too much, Lord’, he prayed.  ‘Take away my life; I might as well be dead!’”  Elijah is obviously depressed in this passage, as the wonderful new world that he thought was going to come about was dashed.  And instead of trusting God to help him face up to this threat from Jezebel, he ran away.  And this great champion of God, who had won that amazing contest with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, was left sitting alone in the wilderness, praying that he would die, knowing that he was running away from danger and despising himself for it.  “Take my life Lord: I am no better than my ancestors,” he prayed.  Elijah’s road to depression was gradually paved with a great moment in his life that was followed by a very difficult time in his life.  It was aided by lack of proper nutrition and sleep and by his disappointment in God and fear for his life.  Have you ever felt depressed in your life?  Ever felt like you have faced some tough times, or that you have gotten so anxious about things in your life that you are not eating properly or sleeping properly, or that there has been a time when you got disappointed in God?  Well, if you have ever felt any of those emotions, then you understand what Elijah was feeling.

Obviously, our nation has a real problem with depression – I read recently that America is swimming in a sea of antidepressant drugs like Prozac and Zoloft – over 190 million prescriptions were given for these antidepressant drugs in 2006 alone.  Elijah was suicidal, and yet he didn’t just kill himself – he cried out to God – it was a plea for attention, a plea for reassurance.  And here in our second point is

You might think that God would be upset with Elijah for running like this, but let’s read together God’s response to him in vs. 5-6 (GN): “He lay down under the tree and fell asleep.  Suddenly an angel touched him and said, ‘Wake up and eat.’  He looked around and saw a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head.  He ate and drank, and lay down again.”  What a loving picture this is of how God is so good to us at our lowest moments.  God doesn’t rebuke him for running away from his assignment, or condemn him for being depressed nor does God tell him to do anything, rather, God just lets him be.  God provides for his physical needs, giving food to him, the bread and water that he also had from the widow during the time of draught, and then allowing him to go back to sleep again.  Then we are told that Elijah did it again – he ate and drank some more after he woke up, and suddenly he felt recharged and ready to go again.

You know, Elijah did get depressed, but he was better able to handle it because of his faith in God, and because of God’s love shown to him in his life.  And that reminds us in our last point that

Time magazine actually did an article on this, and they reported that people of faith “are less depressed, less anxious and less suicidal than nonreligious people.  And they are better able to cope with such crises as illness, divorce and bereavement.  Even if you compare two people who have symptoms of depression, says Professor psychology Michael McCullough from the University of Miami, the more religious person will be a little less sad.”  The reality is that the person of faith will also be happier.  Other studies show that the more a believer incorporates faith into their daily life, doing things like coming to church, reading the Bible, praying, joining a small group and serving others in Jesus’ name, the more that they have a sense of satisfaction with life and more positive emotions.   That is what Paul was getting at in Philippians 4:12-13 (GN), and let’s say his words together, “I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little.  I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.”

It was because Elijah was refreshed by his encounter with God that he then traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God, the mountain on the Sinai peninsula where God encountered Moses, a place where he probably felt that God would give him direction for the future.  There he went into a cave and spent the night.

So it is my prayer that this meal this morning would be a gift of refreshment for you.  God don’t want you to do anything today, just to be refreshed in His presence, and to know His healing in your life.  We give Him the thanks and the praise today, Amen.