Sermon: "R.O.I.", 1 Kings 18:20-39 (November 5, 2023)

Today’s scripture reading may be a new story to some of you, but regardless of how well you know it, we can all tell right away that we’re supposed to take a side here. The obvious choice, of course, is Elijah, right? He’s depicted as such a cool guy, the paradigm of a self-assured protagonist: sassing back to King Ahab, calling out the people on their indecisiveness, taking on 450 of Baal’s prophets singlehandedly, then making fun of them when they’re unsuccessful…you start to understand why he’s such a big deal, scripturally speaking, even without a book of prophesy named after him. He’s a wise-cracking, no-nonsense biblical superhero!