The Writing on the Wall

If your name is Elijah—

If you were a member of a baptist church—

And religiously went to church every Sunday at its earliest service—

If your name is Elijah and you died after living a long and full life … then I can almost guarantee that someone at your funeral service, in their eulogy, will compare you to or make mention of Elijah the prophet of the Old Testament.

And that is exactly what happened this past Friday at Congressman Elijah Cummings’ funeral.

The biblical references were plentiful, beginning with Hillary Clinton speaking of Elijah Cummings standing up in the same way that Elijah, the prophet, stood up to King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

And then later, President Bill Clinton spoke of Elijah, the prophet’s, mountaintop experience.  The story is so familiar to us.  How Elijah, the prophet, stood on that mountaintop waiting for God.  First came the wind, but the Lord was not in the wind, and then came the earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  And then came the fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And here, President Clinton dramatically paused and looked into the audience and said, “And then, what does the scripture say?”

And the audience answered: “In a still small voice.”

I have to admit that I was not always a fan of Elijah Cummings.  Though I agreed with him on a number of issues, I honestly found his style a bit off-putting.  He seemed angry to me a lot.

But watching three hours of his funeral service the other day, showed me that I had been wrong.

Oh, Elijah was angry.

He was.

But it was a righteous anger.

It was a prophetic anger more than worthy of his namesake.

Elijah Cummings thought—what many of us have thought over the years whether we are Democrat or Republican—he thought … we can be better.  We can do better.

Let’s be clear.

No one likes prophets, right?

Prophets are never the bearer of … good news.

Jonah didn’t march into Ninevah and say, “Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know … good job … God’s pleased and in three days, He’s going to rain milk and honey.  So just, keep on doing what you’re doing.”

That’s not the job of the prophet.

The prophet’s job is to warn.

The prophet’s job is to give a head’s up.

The prophet’s job is to tell you that you can’t continue on the path you’re currently on because if you do, bad things are going to happen.

Nobody wants to hear these things.

But sometimes, like in today’s reading from Daniel 5:13-31, the writing is on the wall.  And we can’t ignore it.

In today’s reading, King Belshazzar calls in Daniel to interpret this literal writing on the wall and Daniel doesn’t hold back.

He tells the king, in verse 26, “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.”

And in verse 27, “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.”

And that very night, Belshazzar is killed.

Yeah, nobody likes a prophet.

Always the bearer of bad news.

One of the things I find interesting about the story of Belshazzar is that he is given no time to repent.  He is given no time to make amends.  Daniel tells him, “Look you’ve really been a horrible person and learned nothing from the horrible things that happened to your father Nebuchadnezzar when he too became proud and forgot to acknowledge God.  And now it’s the end for you.”

Period.  End of sentence.

Now take the story of Belshazzar and compare it to the parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 21:28-32.

In Jesus’ parable, there are two sons.

The father asks the first son to go work in the vineyard.  The son says no, but then later rethinks his decision and decides to go to work.

The second son says yes, but never goes to work.

Who has done the father’s will? Jesus asks.

The first son.

The one who ultimately did the right thing.

But unlike Belshazzar, the first son is given time to change his mind.  He is given a chance to make things right.

And no matter what bad decisions we may have made in our lives, we still have a chance to do what’s right.

We are not so far gone that we cannot be saved.

The people of Ninevah were awful, but when Jonah warned them that God was about to wipe them off the face of the earth, they repented and God spared them.

Jesus says in today’s reading that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God first—tax collectors and prostitutes—two groups of people considered by society at that time to be the worst of the worst—they would get into the kingdom of God first because they ultimately did the right thing.

They believed where others did not.

Toward the end of his eulogy on Elijah Cummings, President Obama said these words, “Two hundred years to 300 years from now, he [Elijah] would say, people will look back at this moment and they will ask the question ‘What did you do?’ And hearing him, we would be reminded that it falls upon each of us to give voice to the voiceless, and comfort to the sick, and opportunity to those not born to it, and to preserve and nurture our democracy.”

If some day in the future, we are asked, “What did you do?”

Let us hope, we can all say, “We did the right thing.”

Amen.