This is the Word of the Lord. (Thanks be to God.) Really? Those are some pretty harsh words—Ahab and Jezebel! “Champions of evil,” and “Made God angrier than anyone else?” We say, “Thanks be to God” for that?

This is my second sermon in three weeks from I Kings, about Elijah—which was the subject two weeks ago—and from these interesting words about Ahab and Jezebel.

It might be tempting to dismiss these words as less than pertinent to our lives as we follow Jesus. But I think that even these harsh words about harsh people might inform our lives and inspire our living.

Our focus today is Jezebel—Who is this Jezebel? Do you have a sense about her? For many of us, she comes to mind much like the mean witch in the Wizard of Oz, or some other evil character who engenders bad dreams, and fears.

If you type “Jezebel” into a search engine, you will find many references and negative images. Here are the adjectives that describe her: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. What does that bumper sticker say? “Well behaved women rarely make history”? Jezebel certainly has a reputation, even if few people really know the details of her life.

So just what did Jezebel do to make history? The text says she married Ahab; Ahab had his own problems: “He did more open evil than all who went before him,” it says. Is Jezebel just guilty by association? Or is there something more? Or, does she have something to teach us? Is she all devious and deceitful, or also part diva—a woman of power and class and some importance? Let’s give it a look.

Any discussion of Jezebel relates to two prominent subjects in the book of First Kings: Baal and Elijah. The prophet, Elijah, you recall, was appointed by God to call the people back to righteous living. Elijah appears on the scene in I Kings 17. His primary job: to help the Israelites move away from worship of Baal, and to lives of faithfulness serving Yahweh, not Baal.

Now, Baal faith was quite complex: while Baal was indeed the name of a god; there tended to be many gods in Baal—gods of rain and weather, gods of fertility and the farming seasons, gods of love and abundance. And this complex cult of Baal was widespread in the ancient world across many centuries, especially in the land of Canaan where God’s people lived.

But let’s be honest. In a farming culture, it would be tempting to worship the fertility gods. In a culture where life depended on rains, it would be easy to worship the gods of rain and weather.

Perhaps it is not unlike the consumer culture that we know. If we step back and look at our lives, what do we worship? Whom do we really serve? It is not so easy to tell, is it? Yes, we are in the sanctuary singing and worshipping God, but we are all dealing with other issues and things that we may well worship. How do we prioritize our lives? Do you think God is happy with the way we live? There are certainly a few things—the oil spill, the disparity between rich and poor in the world, the opulence of our culture, the violence of our world—these things might make God less than pleased with us. Here is something to think about: What might Elijah, or even Jesus, actually say to us today about our culture, our priorities, our lives?!

See, it is quite easy to be enthralled, not so much with God, but with all that is around us? It is easy to be caught up in various pursuits. You have to agree that it is never as clear as we might think—our lives, our worship, our faithfulness can get entangled with many things other than God. Perhaps we should not be so hard on those lured into Baal worship.

There are some great stories here about Elijah and Ahab and Baal and God. Amidst these stories, Jezebel emerges—along with Ahab—who did more evil in God’s sight—as a primary antagonists of Elijah.

Jezebel, remember, is married to Ahab, the king of Israel. Their marriage is the result of an alliance between Israel and Sidon. But Jezebel is part of the Baal cult. This is her faith and her culture. She is from Sidon, not part of the Israelite tribe. She married Ahab in an effort to unite countries; but that uniting brings other challenges. Moreover, Jezebel is a strong and formidable woman, a real politico!

By I Kings 21, Jezebel emerges as the real villain. The scene shifts to a vineyard, which is owned by a man named Naboth. One day, Ahab the king spoke to Naboth saying, “Give me your vineyard, so I can use it as a kitchen garden; it is my right; I am the king; and it is also convenient to my house; I will pay you money for it.” But Naboth told Ahab, “Not on your life. As God lives, I would never sell the family farm!” This left King Ahab sad and sulking in his house.

So Jezebel saw her husband sulking. She said, “What is going on, Ahab? Why are you sulking around the house?” When Ahab told Jezebel what had happened, Jezebel chided the king: “Is this any way for a king to act? Aren’t you the boss around here? Cheer up, man! I will take care of this for you.”

So Jezebel sent letters over Ahab’s signature; sent them to the elders in Naboth’s city and to civic leaders. She urged them to accuse Naboth of this and that. She went behind the scenes and around everyone to get this vineyard for her husband. And it worked. In fact, Naboth was accused of blasphemy and stoned to death. He was in the way of the king and was killed. And Ahab claimed the vineyard.

But as the story continues, it says this is when God stepped in. God sent Elijah the prophet to confront Ahab and Jezebel about this scheming plan that included lying, and stealing, and even killing, all for selfish gain for the king. Elijah tells Ahab that because of all this business of evil, his reign would be doomed. Everyone connected with Ahab had a limited future. God would not be mocked! God would not tolerate this kind of lying and cheating.

So who is this Jezebel? She is the driving, evil force, the conniving and scheming one. While the king pouts, Jezebel acts. While the king moans and sulks, Jezebel secures the desired land for her husband. She is the one who does the dirty work, which leads to Naboth’s death, so that Ahab could get what he wanted, a garden next to his castle. The story depicts this about Jezebel: she is ruthless and forthright, powerful and intimidating, formidable, someone to be feared.

And this is exactly why she has been vilified in tradition and history. She is the enemy of Elijah, the prophet. She carries out the dirty work for the king. In that sense, she has to go the way of Ahab, condemned to death for the evil. All of that completes the storyline which seeks to affirm faithfulness to Yahweh, faithfulness to the covenant. Jezebel, along with Ahab, represents improper worship and improper concern for others. Her reputation through the ages follows from those vicious acts. She is devious, scheming, difficult, destructive to many of God’s intentions and purposes.

But, as with all good stories, especially Scripture, we have to keep listening for what else we might learn for our lives and our times. In these days where we find ourselves wondering how to live with people of other traditions, other faiths, Jezebel is someone who possesses devotion and passion to her gods, to her culture. Perhaps we should not be so quick to condemn her. She may be the antagonist to Elijah in the story, but we might respect her for her commitments, her fortitude, her convictions. She deserves, no doubt, condemnation for her evil treatment of Naboth. But she might be commended for stepping up in defense of her husband, the king. She was a person of strength, of devotion.

Perhaps one of our challenges in the present world, too, is our tendency to simplify everything, when rarely are things so simple. Even as we learn about faithfulness to God and God’s covenant, we also have to learn that simplistic answers may not be the best answers. Life is often more complex. Too many other places in the Bible call us to love our enemies, to work together, to help the needy, to feed the poor.

Rather than simply vilify Jezebel, we might recognize that she also represents us—our worst selves, scheming and deceiving to get our way. We know about this, when we are honest. This is not what God wants. When have we recently been about scheming and deceiving to get our own way? We, as individuals, as a congregation, as a nation, have indeed acted, maybe squashed others in our path, to get our way, maybe been more deceitful than decent. Have you seen the movie Avatar? That reminds us how scheming we can be to squash others, to get our way. It is easy to vilify Jezebel and leave her as a nasty woman in the story. It is harder to let her be a lens to our own lives, to challenge us to deal better with others, especially others who disagree with us, who are from another faith. When we can see Jezebel in all her complexities, we might find ways to move toward a more wholesome future, where we strive to build a better world, make space for those different from us, then really live as God’s intends—with compassion, care, commitment, joy, and hope.

So, who is this Jezebel? She is the villain in I Kings, the enemy of Elijah. She does evil deeds for selfish gain for herself and her husband. It is easy to see her in the worst light—someone to be feared, someone to condemn. But she also might be part of each of us—sometimes scheming and selfish, sometimes mean and hateful, sometimes arrogant and rude. And we think about Jezebel in hopes that we never become complacent:

• There is no life without a task; there is no person without a talent;
• There is no place without a fragment of God’s light waiting to be discovered and redeemed;
• There is no situation without its possibility of hope;
• There is no moment without a call to live and act as God’s loving, caring, servant people. (see J. Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World, p. 262)

I wonder if you saw the story of Jim Joyce, the baseball umpire who recently made the incorrect call on what would have been the last out of a perfect game in Major League baseball by pitcher Armando Galarraga. Perfect games—no walks, no hits, no errors—are 27 straight outs. That is almost impossible. In 135 seasons, in tens of thousands of games, it has only happened 20 times. A perfect game: that is what Galarraga had done for the Detroit Tigers. But the twenty-seventh batter was called “safe,” by umpire Jim Joyce, when replays said he was clearly out. So much for a perfect game for Galarraga.

“Vilify the umpire.” He blew it. How could he miss that call?

But the umpire, Jim Joyce, once he saw his mistake, went straight to the pitcher after the game and apologized. And the pitcher hugged the umpire and told him to forget it, “Everybody’s human,” he said.

So instead of the sports world steaming with venom and anger, condemning the blind umpire, yelling for his head, the story emerged about a better, more perfect depiction of human life—accepting responsibility, grace under pressure, forgiveness, patience, kindness, and dignity.

We love to vilify people. Maybe we need to learn from one another. We love to condemn others, especially if we can point to “evil.” Certainly there is too much evil around, and Jezebel shows us plenty of it.

But what if we were really intentional—all of us—at living with grace, accepting responsibility, at growing in God’s ways, seeking to become what God calls us to be—people who, like Jesus, seek to love God and love others, seek to be peacemakers and instruments of hope in all times, people who mend fragments of an all too broken world. This is where Jesus keeps calling us to go. May we go there together. Alleluia. Amen.

Prayer: May your love and mercy fill our hearts and lives. We commit ourselves to trusting, serving, following your way in Jesus. Amen