Sermon Blog
Sermon on Subjects of the Day, n. 26. Elijah the Prophet of the Latter Days
April 5, 2025
Elijah, a prophet and a miracle worker, Gračanica monastery, By Gmihail at Serbian Wikipedia
Sometimes Newman is hard to read. Of course it is impossible to write like him. It is nearly as impossible to summarize a Newman sermon in a few minutes. You must pick and choose and hopefully entice the reader to conduct a deeper examination.
In Sermon 24 “Elijah the Prophet of the Latter Days, Newman makes the following points.
In Kings 19: 11,12, he assesses that God is not in the strong wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire. He is “a still small voice.”
God used the great, perhaps the greatest, prophet Elijah to call the tribes of Israel back. And he continues to move people through the lives of God’s saints. John the Baptist who called Herod to account for his illicit marriage to his brother’s wife Herodotus, moved in the “spirit and power” of Elijah. And so do his saints through the ages. In my book, “John Fisher and Thomas More: Keeping Their Souls While Losing their Heads,” I note Fisher’s devotion to John the Baptist, a model of whose skull Fisher kept on the altar when he said Mass. Fisher compared King Henry VIII to Herod. The enraged King would hastily execute Fisher on June 22, to avoid doing it on June 24th, The Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Catholic England of that day would have drawn their own comparison between Fisher and John the Baptist knowing that they moved in the spirit and power of Elijah.
The life history of Elijah shows us moderns the way to live in a dark and dreary age. He was a harbinger of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and a type for His doctrine. Gospel-like grace attended his great works: the loaves were multiplied, the oil faded not, the fire came down from heaven. Lepers were healed, the dead were raised, and one was taken to heaven without death.
Elijah performed great works for God and God is not yet done with Elijah. Newman notices it was the prophet Elijah talking with Moses on another Mount about their transfigured Savior’s imminent passion.
And perhaps Newman’s finest point, which he comes back to again and again in his writing is – that God had a unique vocation for Elijah (and for us), something given to him that was not given to another.
He raised up Elijah for a certain definite work, and for that alone, neither more nor less. First, the Prophet executed the Divine sentence upon Baal’s priests, in his own person; next, he was bidden to anoint Jehu for the same work, – a purpose which Elisha brought to effect. But he did no more; to this his mission was limited.
God speaks in a small voice; he conveys a particular vocation, a great work, if we do but listen, and like Elijah, we do but obey.
Newman, like Cardinal Fisher before him, and John the Baptist before Fisher, lived in the spirit and power of Elijah. And so we are blessed, strengthened, and animated by his faithful witness, to live our faith courageously today.
I will make one last observation. Like Newman, Elijah seemed to encounter more failure than success in his prophetic mission. Newman’s great enterprises – the Oxford Movement, the University in Ireland ended ultimately in rejection. He was sued successfully for libel; and his leadership of the Oratory was often marked with friction. But as a result the world was given “Apologia Pro Vita Sua,” and “The Idea of a University,” and the Birmingham and Brompton Road Oratories, and these glorious sermons.
Elijah too encountered more failure than success:
And therefore when, at the season of which the text speaks, the Prophet had to flee for his life for fear of Jezebel, and in his heart thought that his mission had failed…he passed by Jerusalem, he passed on, along a forlorn and barren way into that old dessert in which the children of Israel did wander…He went in weariness and despondency, for ‘the children of Israel had forsaken God’s covenant, thrown down His altars and slain His prophets’ and Elijah alone was left; and he wished to die.
Newman preached this sermon in 1841, when he was considering his membership in the Anglican communion. Still, his words regarding God’s grace can be applied to all Christians.
And yet, like unto us today, the spirit and power of Elijah should now especially be with us, because the notes of his day are among us…Let us in like manner, feel certain, as well we may, that however great are the disorders of this present age, and though the unbelieving see and find not, yet that to the humble and lowly, the earnest-minded and pure in heart, the Lord God of Elijah still reveals Himself. The presence of Christ is still among us, in spite of our many sins and the sins of our people.
Newman quotes the prophets Isaiah and Habakkuk “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation.“ (Is 26: 8,9; Hab 3: 17,18).
There is much more here, but this much is worthy of our meditation today.
