At the time for offering sacrifice, the prophet Elijah came forward and said, “LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things by your command. Answer me, LORD! Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to their senses.” The LORD’s fire came down and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench. Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!” (1 Kgs 18:36-39)
Every generation seems to have its defining moment (for my mother’s generation it was the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). For others it was the attacks of September 11, 2001). For my generation there were three, and all three were assassinations: President John F Kennedy (November 22, 1963), Martin Luther King (April 4, 1968), and Robert F Kennedy (June 6, 1968). In the Hebrew Scriptures Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal is one such defining moment. It is also one of the most colorful and bloody stories of the Bible. Fortunately, our lectionary omits most of the gore. The question, of course: "Whom will you serve?" And the people answer: “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”
