The Gift of Being Thunderstruck

Let’s start with a little bit of context to the scripture from the book of Job. Job is a good and Godly man, and then experiences a whole lot of horrible stuff. Eventually, he speaks up wondering what’s going on. Three friends come up with some less than great responses. Job responds to them, and demands an answer from God. And then Elihu, the youngest of the group, speaks. This towards the end of Elihu’s part. When God reprimands Job and his friends, Elihu is not listed. Indicating that this might be a voice we can trust, especially here. Elihu is reminding Job and therefore us just who God is.

Our God who thunders and flashes lightning, literally and in our lives. Our God who does wondrous things we cannot comprehend. This is our awesome God! Job, understandably, couldn’t fully see it in his moment of darkness. He needed a word from God. And he will get that word in the very next chapter. But I'd like to focus on the language that Elihu uses here; specifically all of the thunder and lightning imagery. 

It’s referenced today. There’s a show on Netflix called Crazy Delicious which is a fantasy-themed cooking competition from 2020. The judges are called the food gods in this show (it works well with the show’s premise). Anyway, when they descend to announce the winner at the end, there’s thunder and lightning (on the sound stage) to signify gods descending. 

Thunder and lightning imagery for the head god was typical in the Middle East. I’m less familiar with the Canaanite mythology surrounding Baal, but I’ve been reading Greek mythology since I was about ten. Zeus was king of the gods and god of the thunderbolt. Thor, while not king of the gods, was considered the strongest of the Norse gods, and was the god of thunder and lightning.

This was a common ancient practice. But in Gifts of the Dark Wood, Eric Elnes pointed out something I had never thought of: the myths describing lightning and thunder as from the greatest god weren’t explaining how thunder and lightning happened; they were describing how we experience the divine. 

Have you ever had a sudden flash of insight that rocked your world? That “A-ha” lightbulb moment. Ancient cultures would describe these moments when life aligned as God moments, and we might feel similarly- when things align for an instant, we talk about a light bulb turning on, or call it an epiphany. Epiphany actually means “a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being.” Which means that we connect these insights and moments when everything lines up… with God. So it’s no wonder that so many prophets and authors describe God with the language we heard from Job. We heard it in Exodus: God descended on the Mountain with thunder and lightning and in a cloud. We didn’t hear verse 19, but it says “As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.” 

Can you think of a moment that felt like being “thunderstruck”- when you experienced God. “It might have been a time when you felt resolve about a decision, an ‘a-ha!’ or it may have been simply a time when you were awed by God’s presence through nature, through a person or an incident and you experienced peace and joy, if only momentary.”

Sometimes these moments culminate in a vocation choice. A few years ago, there was a cooking show on Netflix called Nadiya Bakes, and in every episode the host Nadiya Hussein included a segment with an admired baker. One that stood out was King of Sourdough Dan Nemoth. Dan described how he made his beetroot sourdough and his passion for making bread was palpable, even  through the screen. He talked about how you never stop learning, and that he wouldn’t be happy if he wasn’t baking. Towards the end he even commented, “The key to making great bread is just passion.” I never learned more about his story, but listening to him talk about making bread it was obvious that he’s doing what God called him to.

We can be thunderstruck when we experience awe of our Awesome God’s presence in the world. Other times, being thunderstruck involves that moment of epiphany or a lightbulb, when we feel resolve about a decision. Just because we experience this amazing moment of clarity doesn’t mean that we are then done with difficult times. Elnes notes in his book that following a passion or a dream might involve lots of small moments that feel right so that when we do take a leap of faith, we’ve taken so many small steps toward the goal, and had so many affirmations, that it doesn’t feel like a leap.

My previous church was working on a building renovation project while I was there. They had been discussing and voting on this project for nearly twenty years. They knew they needed to be more wheelchair accessible, but every time they put a plan forward for a vote, the congregation voted no. Finally, after 2 years of talking to an architect and getting plans, discussing the church’s needs, and holding multiple informational meetings for the congregation, the congregation voted to move forward with the project. I led a breaking ground ceremony on my last Sunday with them. And they fully completed the project a few months ago- three and a half years after breaking ground. While the congregational vote may have been a leap of faith for some, there were so many small steps along the way. So many had poured time and money into it that for many it was just another step forward in a series of many steps that had happened. I’m sure there were still difficulties and sacrifices along the way, but they were following those flashes of lightning. 

But maybe you can’t think of a flash of lightning in your life, where you experienced that epiphany that you needed to go a certain way. In his book, Elnes also notes how thunder continues to reverberate long after the lightning is gone. See, “even if you overlook or forget the inner realization that triggers your inner thunder, the ongoing reverberations caused by the lightning sometimes last for years.” He notes that he couldn’t “remember the specific moment when [he] first realized [he] wanted to marry [his wife]..., but the reverberations have continued to thunder for twenty-six years.”

As Worship Design Studio creator Rev. Dr. Marcia McFee notes in her worship series: “Storms of life can make way for moments of insight, like the sun radiating in a clearing in the woods, that can offer us direction, helping us to negotiate life’s path and see our unique place in the world. Our Lenten journeys of discernment and introspection invite us to open our senses in the midst of the storm.” May we take time to notice these times of sunshine or lightning, as well as the thunder that continues to reinforce how God is calling us: as individuals, as well as a church. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Resources for this sermon include: Marcia McFee, Gifts of the Dark Wood, “The Gift of Being Thunderstruck Script: Lent 3” from the Worship Design Studio with Dr. Marcia McFee. 2018.

Eric Elnes, Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics (and Other Wanderers), (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 2015), Chapter 4: The Gift of Being Thunderstruck.

Eric Elnes, “Series: The Gifts of the Dark Wood, Episode 4” on darkwoodbrew.org