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It seems almost inevitable that people who experience the highs of life are also going to experience the lows in life. No one lives on a perpetual high. There are always peaks and valleys. The disciples accompanied Jesus to the mount to witness his transfiguration, but after that they descended into the valley below.

Have you ever noticed how often the low comes right after the peaks? As a Christian you aren't called upon to always be on a high. Rather, you are called on to look for the presence of God in both the highs and the lows of life. That is true for individual Christians and for Christian churches.

The story of Elijah is the faith biography for many of us. Elijah was one of the great prophets of the Bible. He lived in the time of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

Ahab had formed a political alliance with his marriage to Jezebel. When Jezebel moved into the palace, she wanted to bring her gods with her. You can imagine Ahab at first resisting. "That's just not the way things are done here, Jezebel."

Jezebel wasn't to be easily dissuaded, however, and she pleaded, "But Ahab, your God is so stern and demanding. My gods will add a little variety and spice to the people's lives."

Jezebel was urging Ahab and Israel to mellow out and not be so exclusive in their practice of faith. The Bible is a great book but there are lots of great books. Worship is a good thing to do on Sunday morning but there is nothing like a good game of golf on a sunny Sunday. Justice and mercy are great virtues but one must recognize the practical reality that money rules the world.

Faithfulness in marriage is important but the Bridges of Madison County is more entertaining.

Jezebel didn't reject Israel's God but simply wanted to balance life a little and have some fun as well. Elijah, the prophet, said, "No." "How long will you go limping with two different opinions?" (1 Kings 18:21). Choose this day who you will worship.

Then Elijah challenged the gods of Baal to a contest on Mount Carmel. And when they had all built altars to their gods -- sex, wealth, power, hate, selfishness -- Elijah also built an altar to his God. After the other priests had tried futilely to get their gods to show themselves, after all the other passions of life had failed to satisfy the hunger of the soul, Elijah called on God to accept his sacrifice and fire came down from heaven and consumed his sacrifice.

It was a great victory for Elijah, but then it happened. Jezebel was furious at Elijah for spoiling all the fun in life. She sent him a message and said, "You are not the only one who can play rough. I'm going to have your head."

"Don't you understand," responded Elijah, "I have demonstrated that there is only one true God."

Jezebel said, "I don't care what you have demonstrated. I'm going to have your head."

Elijah had won a great victory and yet the world was still full of the same temptations and evil. What good does it do to fight the battles if nothing ever changes? Elijah ran to the desert. Elijah fled to the desert of despair. Elijah found a solitary broom tree to provide shade, and he laid down and asked God to let him die.

We work hard for some good cause. We try to solve hunger by working for the CROP walk or serving the hungry at a soup kitchen but after all that work, people are still hungry. We gather our energies together to help build a Habitat house for a worthy person, but after they move in, there are thousands like them without a home. We become worried about the marriages that are falling apart, so we organize marriage enrichment seminars and premarital counseling. Then after all that effort, marriages still fall apart.

There comes a time when we want to run to the desert. We want to retire from doing good. We want to quit tilting against windmills. We want to say with Elijah, I have tried to be faithful but it isn't doing any good. I want to retire to Arizona and play in the sun. I want to quit working in the church and let someone else do it. I'm frustrated with church conflict, so I'm going to quit going to worship.

Then, if you are lucky, like Elijah, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You can imagine Elijah saying, "Go away, don't you see I'm trying to sleep? I don't care if I ever wake up. Stop bothering me." But the tap, tap, tap is persistent.

If you really pay attention to God at those points of despair, you realize that God is ready to provide you food for the journey. "Get up," said the angel to Elijah. "You must eat and drink or you won't have strength for the journey."

Now this is the first time Elijah knew that there was a journey ahead of him. He, you will remember, had planned to just die and everything would be over. When we are feeling sorry for ourselves, when we allow ourselves to be depressed, it is natural not to consider the future.

Like Elijah, when things don't go our way, we want to slink away and lick our wounds. Yet, for the faithful, even in our despair, there is that tap, tap, tap on our shoulder. God gently tries to awaken us from our self-absorbed slumber and open us to the greater journey ahead of us.

If we will awaken, God wants to provide us food for the journey. Elijah traveled forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai. This was where Moses was given the ten commandments that formed the community of Israel. Elijah had traveled back to the source.

When a church loses its vision, it begins to turn on itself, just like a depressed person turns anger inward, and we are robbed of the energy to go on. That is the time for a church to return to the source, to enter a time of prayer and to review the basic core of the faith.

When Elijah returned to the source, God asked that terrifying question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (v. 9). Why have you come back to the source if you are ready to crawl in a cave and feel sorry for yourself?

Elijah began to defend himself. "I have been the faithful one while everyone around me has been desecrating your commandments." I have been faithful while the church has been ignoring the clear commands of scripture. I've done my work, Lord; it's the others who have let you down.

God said to Elijah, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord" (v. 11).

Elijah went out. There came a great howling, screeching, rock shattering wind, but God was not in the wind. After the wind, there came a mountain-shaking, chasm-producing, earth-shattering earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was rock-melting, ore-purifying, searing fire, but God was not in the fire.

Then came a sheer, deafening, overwhelming silence, and in the silence, God gave Elijah his next assignment. God was not through with Elijah yet.

It is not in the winds of doctrine that we find our God. It is not in the earthquakes of dispute that we find our God. It is not in the hot fire of debate that we find our God. Churches and individuals, as they probe the depths of their souls, find in the silence, when all the egos are put aside and we are really listening, that God is not through with us yet.

For Elijah it was to anoint kings and ordain prophets to move the world forward according to God's agenda. We were meant for God like a deer longs for flowing streams. Our soul thirsts for God, for the living God (Psalm 42).

When we reflect back on our history, how we have continued in the procession with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving as a multitude feasting on the goodness of God, our memory drives us on. God has been faithful to this church for 2,000 years and invites us to listen for God's purpose in our life together, and we continue to move forward.

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night God's song is with us, a prayer to the God of our life. Whether we are elated or despairing about any given moment in church life, we are called to stand before God and listen to how God wants us to respond to this moment in our life together. Amen.