Elijah’s Angel

I wanted to explore the harder bits of faith in this project, the bits where you don’t know how you are going to keep going, the bits where you begin questioning everything, the bits where you begin to wonder what is really true, the bits where you just want to lay down and die. The story of Elijah, particularly the part immediately after he defeats the priest of Baal and Jezebel issues a command that Elijah be murdered, and then he runs into the wilderness, lays down and asks God to kill him, has always been something I wrestle with. In modern times, its fun to make light of the story and say that sometimes all we need is a nap and a snack to get going again. But to me, this story has always been darker. Elijah had a difficult, serious and dangerous job- calling Israel out of apostacy and the worship of false gods. Elijah was called to go up against a wicked king and queen. Elijah was called to do battle with the priests of Baal. It was a lonely, harsh calling, that ended up putting Elijah at odds with very powerful people. And all of the heaviness, all of the loneliness, all of the violence gets the best of him, and he falls into despair, begging the Almighty to let him die. Elijah’s angel gives him bread and water twice and then he goes on his way to Mount Horab… broken, scared, and without any strength, other than that of the Lord. Many see this feeding of Elijah as an act of Communion, and the Lord meeting him at his lowest, and in that Bread, he found strength to keep going. I have always felt that there was a bit of accountability in this as well. The accountability in the fact that the Lord said to him, something to the effect of “get up man of God!” get up and carry on… or an expectation that Elijah, because of his faith and calling should not be in the spiritual place he is in. Is this an act of someone loosing his faith? Is this God’s mercy? No matter how you feel about this, there is no doubt that it is hard and difficult and brutally honest.

I also wondered about Elijah’s angel- having to minister to him through all of the trials, violence and fear. Not the easiest assignment… watching your charge suffer and struggle and despair.

So the project focuses on the angel, and not Elijah.

I chose two locations: an abandoned church that has been partially torn down. I love the old church, it rotting and decayed, someone has harvested much of the old growth lumber from it, but somehow it stills feels holy and in that, a heavy space. It feels hopeful, even though it is almost gone. It still seems to preach the gospel. So, I found it to be perfect for this shoot.

The other location is beneath the interstate underpass in downtown Laurel. Underpasses have a way of being places of despair- whether drug abusers (think Red Hot Chili Pepper’s- Under the Bridge), homeless folks trying to get out of the elements, or people with mental illness trying to get away from people. And with Elijahs running to the wilderness to die, I thought that if he were doing so in our own day, an underpass might be the perfect place.