Category: July 2016

“Rich”

Hosea 11:1-11            Luke 12:13-21

 

          About three years ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend.  Right after our hellos and how are yous my friend asked…”What do you do if forgiveness doesn’t work?”

Hosea…in today’s lesson…and in his own life story…gives us the answer.  But…first….

Let me tell you a little about my friend and why she asked the question.  In some ways you’ll find some similarities in her life to pieces of your life…or the lives of other people you know.  I did.

She is a widow and mother of four adult daughters.  Her husband’s business was quite successful… so she’s and her children are comfortable financially.  All of her children have married and divorced.  Some have married a second time.   There are a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  When we spoke there were some significant points of tension between her and her children…though everything I’ve seen suggests she raised them with great love…attention and devotion.

The details of those points of tension are not important.  They are not unique to this family.  They occur in many…if not most families…from time to time.  They result in actions that hurt…sometimes intentionally…sometimes just because the one doing the hurting is selfish…sometimes because the one doing the hurting is unaware….sometimes because the one who feels hurt doesn’t know the full circumstances…and sometimes because the one who hurts takes personally an action that was not at all meant to be personal.  They usually occur because the relationship between those involved is not as rich as it could be.

After she asked her question…I asked my friend why she had asked.  She told me.  Again…not unusual situations…though she made it clear that she had offered forgiveness…but the results weren’t there.  She was still feeling hurt and separation.

Instead of giving her an immediate answer I told her a part of my life story…and what I had learned from it.  My parents divorced when I was eight years old.  That was a long time ago…when divorce wasn’t the frequently accepted easy way out of fixing differences between a couple.  My mother took my sister with her.  They moved to South Carolina to live with my aunt…my mother’s sister.  I stayed in upstate New York with my dad.

I heard nothing from my mother and did not know how to contact her until she came to my wedding when I was twenty years old.  We shared a couple obligatory and unfeeling hugs at the wedding….but the tension was high and the amount of communication was low.  If it hadn’t been for a half-sister who came with mother to the wedding I wouldn’t have received any information that would allow me to contact my mother at a later time.

A few weeks after the wedding I sent a note…with no response returned.  I tried again a few weeks later with the same result.  There were no more communication attempts for nearly fourteen years…until that half-sister phoned me to tell me mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

The three of us talked on the phone a little bit that day…and a few times after that.  I was living in Dubuque, Iowa at the time.  During one of those conversations we agreed that I would visit them in South Carolina the next Christmas.

I did.  The time together was tense…but during the time I visited I also fell in love with the community and found a job here.  I moved to Greenville shortly after that.

My mother lived for another 19 years after I moved to Greenville…but during all of that time we could never establish a relationship.  Neither of us tried very hard to forgive…to put away all of our differences.  My mother died without that breach being repaired.

After I told my friend my story…I told her that the answer to her question was not that forgiveness doesn’t work.  The answer is another question… How effective…and active…and persistent… are you at showing the love that will build a rich relationship after giving the forgiveness?  Remember this Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive.  Jesus said seventy times seven.

Hosea demonstrated how that works.  He deeply loved his wife…Gomer.  However, she became a prostitute…giving herself to other men.  Hosea continued his love.  Hosea came to understand God’s great grace and forgiveness when he forgave his wife and took her back into their home.

Hosea was able to better preach God’s sermons…preach them with much greater passion…because Hosea had experienced the same hurt that God experienced when Israel had rejected God.

But…both Hosea and God forgave…and reached out…reached out with persistence to build a relationship rich in love…because of their love…love for those who had rejected and hurt them.

We should know…as Hosea and God know…that forgiveness is important…a beginning…but those words alone will not rebuild a rich relationship with God…or with those we love.  Reaching out to them…in love…is the work that often must follow forgiveness…reaching out with persistence every day…even when it results in more hurt.

Jesus told the disciples the same thing when he told them to be rich toward God.  Jesus was telling us…”Don’t be like the people to whom Hosea was prophesying…people whose relationship with God had become a one-way relationship of convenience …a relationship that was good only when it filled the barn with so much stuff that a bigger barn was seen as the solution.”

Let us search our relationships…those that are earthly as well as our heavenly relationship… forgive where forgiveness is needed….even if you’ve done so many times…and ask Jesus…the one who sends the Spirit to walk with you daily…the one who reaches out with his love and forgiveness…to help you reach out in love… constantly reach out in love… to make every one of your relationships a rich relationship…within your family…within your community…at your place of work and business…within our nation and throughout God’s world…reach out…before it’s too late.

Here’s the rest of the story…about my friend and her family.  She took Jesus’ command to Peter to heart.  She constantly reached out to her children and grandchildren.  Today…three years later…she is 88 years old.  She is in reasonably good health but chooses not to travel very far from her home in Greenville.

Yet…every week…at least one of her daughters is joyfully visiting my friend…the daughters coming from points as far away as Walterboro.  And…every week…with great celebration…at least one of her grandchildren is visiting my friend…coming from as far away as Denver.

As Jesus said…it’s not the size of your barn that determines how rich you are…it’s the richness of your relationships…relationships based in love…and often filled with forgiveness…that matters.

“It Is I!”

2 Samuel 11:1-15                 John 6:1-21

 

          Often…when I hear any story about David…I am reminded of the story of his encounter with Goliath.  No one else ever faced a creature like Goliath.  He was huge.  He had killed many others.  He was intimidating.

Yet…no one ever attacked a problem with greater vigor than David attacked Goliath.  David responded to Goliath’s threat by telling the giant that he had come in the name of the true God.  As David ran toward the giant he put his hand into his bag…took out a stone…and let it fly.  The stone hit the Philistine right between the eyes…and it was over.

Have you ever wondered?  What was David’s secret?  Where did he get his courage?  How was he able to attack this gigantic problem with such vigor?  The answers can be seen in today’s passage from John.  It is the sufficiency and power that come from God…given to us through Jesus Christ…the one who told the disciples…”It is I.  Do not be afraid.”

John’s story begins with a problem that came from the success of Jesus’ ministry.  The disciples and Jesus drew huge crowds.  They got in a boat…crossed the sea to Bethsaida…hoping to find a time of rest.  The people saw where they were going and followed them.  In Mark’s gospel Jesus was described as having compassion for the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

In their anxiety to follow Jesus the people likely didn’t think to pack a lunch.  They, too, were tired and hungry.  Jesus knew what to do…but he asked the disciples a question…in order to test them and to expand their spiritual understanding.  Jesus wanted the disciples to learn how to gain his power and his sufficiency.

Philip didn’t really answer the Lord’s question.  Instead he responded with some statistics.  He basically said it would take more than eight months’ income to feed the crowd.  He acted like a bean counter.  In fact…other references to Philip suggest that he was one who wanted clear…verifiable… logical… evidence.  Just about every family has a person like this…the same can probably be said for every business and every church.

I wonder what it would have been like if David had needed a calculator and verifiable evidence that he could down Goliath.  His self-talk might have gone like this…”Now, let’s see…ten feet tall times a certain number of pounds per inch.  My goodness…he weighs at least 500 pounds….there’s no way I could do this.  God, you’ve got the wrong guy!”

Like Philip…some of us need to toss our calculators out and become more like David.

Then…Andrew brought the boy with five small barley loaves and two fishes to Jesus.  Andrew’s response seems to be an improvement.  At least he had been out in the crowd looking for resources.  But…he too…was calculating…when he asked how far those few resources would go.  He did not look past the resources he could actually see and touch…to the ultimate resource.

Then the others went to Jesus.  They suggested that the crowds be sent away to fend for themselves.  They felt the people could not possibly be fed with the five loaves and two fishes.  They felt that anyone with common sense…anyone who listened to the loudest critics and skeptics…could see that.  But…there are times in life when common sense…and following the loudest skeptics are very close to stupidity.   The disciples wanted to avoid the problem…ignore it…and let it just go away…or maybe just walk away and let the loud critics fix it.

The disciples had greatly under-estimated the resource they already possessed.  They had seen Jesus change water into wine…seen a nobleman’s son healed from a distance…seen Jesus heal the paralyzed man lying by the pool of Bethseda.  Yet…they couldn’t understand what Jesus could do in this situation.

The disciples had a defective view of Jesus Christ.  That was their problem.  Very often that is the root of our problem.

The solution for the disciples came in a miraculous display of Jesus’ power.  This was the most public of his miracles.  It is recorded in all four Gospels.

After they had sat down…Jesus gave thanks.  The loaves seemed to multiply as the disciples distributed the bread.  Thousands were fed.  There was so much food that there were leftovers to be gathered.  God provides for those with faith who serve him through loving service of others.

This note of interest…the loaves were made of barley…the cheapest of all breads.  In fact…it was a bread that was unpopular because it was the bread that was called for as part of the offering from a woman who had committed the sin of adultery.  Jesus used this food to show his disciples…with him then…and those disciples in the pews this morning…that no matter what they had…even the tiniest thing…if they really gave it to him…he could use it.  A little is a lot when God is in it.  Jesus wanted us to see that truth.

We should admit it.  Sometimes we feel like saying, “Lord, you don’t understand my problem.  If you knew how I feel…I have calculated it all out…I have thought it through…I have consulted the authorities…and there is nothing I can do.”  You see…we find it harder to give God our weaknesses than it is to give God our strengths.

But the Lord says…”Give me whatever you have…including your weaknesses.”  Many people have missed the great miracles that God wanted to give us because we have been unwilling to do that because of our pride…our logic…acceptance of what’s tangible and known.  When you have calculated all of the angles of your difficult situation…just want to run away and hide…here is the solution.

First…realize that God wants to help you.  He wants to pour his grace upon you.  He wanted to help the disciples on the hillside that day…just as he did help the people on the hillside.  From Isaiah 30:18 we receive the promise…”The Lord longs to be gracious to you….”

Next…we have to realize that God is big enough to help.  Nothing much will happen if you don’t.

The Belgian Christian author…Elisabeth Elliott…in her book….World Wide Challenge…beautifully tells us this truth.   She wrote…

“If the only thing you have to offer is a broken heart, you offer a broken heart.  So in a time of grief, the recognition that this is material for sacrifice has been a very great strength for me.  Realizing that nothing I have, nothing I am will be refused on the part of Christ, I simply give it to him as the little boy gave Jesus his five loaves and two fishes—with the same feeling of the disciples when they said, “What is the good of that for such a crowd?

Naturally in almost anything I offer to Christ, my reaction would be, “What is the good of that?”  The point is, the use he makes of it is none of my business; it is his business, it is his blessing.  So this grief, this loss, this suffering, this pain—whatever it is, which at the moment is God’s means of testing my faith and bringing me to the recognition of who he is—that is the thing I can offer.”

What do you have to offer?

Is it more…or less…than five loaves and two fishes?

The size of the offering…or the challenge… doesn’t matter to the one who told the disciples…”It is I.  Do not be afraid.”

You are what matters to the one who says to us today…”It is I.  Do not be afraid.”

“Finding the Better Part”

Amos 8:1-12               Luke 10:38-42

 

 

            Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part. In light of the current news chatter it might be good to ask, “What is the better part?”  Before I do that…let me share with you some of my real life experiences.

I only knew the man as Ace.  He was the dishwasher and busboy in the small restaurant in Syracuse, New York.  I was the server and counter person while I was in high school.  It was a very small restaurant tucked between a number of tall buildings a block off the main street.  It was busy at lunch time, but the rest of the day Ace and I had time to talk.  We talked about the news events of the day as we read the newspaper.  I had learned great reading skills in the public schools.  Ace had learned average reading skills from his single mom as she and he read their Bible together.

Ace had also learned how to play the trumpet…actually taught himself.  He played in a jazz club on weekend evenings.  Occasionally he would sneak me in the back door to listen to the music and talk with his friends.

Ace invited me to his home church…a small congregation that met in his basement…and I attended a number of Sundays.  I didn’t fully understand what was being said or done, but it sparked my curiosity about God and Christianity.  You see…at that time…at best…I could probably be described as an apathetic agnostic.

Sometimes…after church…I would eat lunch with Ace, his wife, their six children and some of his friends from the worship service.

Did I mention that Ace was Black…as were his wife and children, all of the people in his church and most of the people in the jazz club?

Once I invited Ace to go to a local coffee shop with me after work.  He said he couldn’t…couldn’t go to that coffee shop because it was in a neighborhood where his appearance meant that he didn’t belong…and would have people in it who didn’t want him around…simply because of the color of his skin.   I understood.  I hurt.  I never invited him again.

About three years later I went to the third of the three high schools I attended.  You might recall that I told you I graduated from a predominantly Jewish public high school just down the hill from a Christian private high school…both heavily populated with children of wealthy families.  You might also recall that the religious intolerance in the two schools was blamed for the burnings of students’ cars and the beatings of students.  That was the second high school I attended.

It was different in the third high school…Central High…just one block off the main street, and four blocks from the center of downtown Syracuse, New York.  It was an inner city school.  Most of the students and their families had no cars…they walked or rode a bus or bicycle to school.  My friend Tony and I were the entire white student population in that school at the time.  We found many of the students to be friendly and they invited us to their homes and events…but when we tried to return the favor they gave us the same reason for saying no as did Ace.  They would not go to areas where they were made to feel they didn’t belong and they felt threatened.

However….I was able to convince some to come to my wedding a few months later.  It was in a church that was on the edge of the so-called inner city.  A number of the guys brought along some of the girls…including those that Tony and I had dated. Tony was the best man in that ceremony.

About a year later many of them came to a double funeral in that church also…my friends Tony and Michael…classmates at Central High…a young white man and a young black man who was Muslim…buddies who joined the army together to serve the same nation together had been killed in combat in Viet Nam.

When I hear the pundits…the talking heads…talking on television…the President’s comments during a televised town hall…I am reminded of Ace and my high school classmates. When I hear some of the black commentators talking about instructions they had given their children…to go only where their appearance was welcome and where they felt safe…I have to ask, “In the past 50 years, have we made all the progress we need to make?”

I hear the President’s description of people who feel all black males…not just those who might be hoodlums…are feared.  I hear our black U. S. Senator tell of being stopped by police simply because he’s a big black man.  My friends, that’s not old history. That’s this past week.

Until thirteen years ago I worked part time… evenings and weekends…the high traffic times…in a top name department store in Greenville.   Part of our training was on ways to act like we’re tidying up but really watching suspicious persons…people who might be shoplifters.  We were also told to pass on our suspicions by phone to clerks in other areas of the store where we saw these people heading.  From time to time the uniformed police officer working in the store would pass on heads up to us, also.   Most of the alerts came from my white colleagues…alerting me to groups of Black males.  Yet in my nearly seven years with that store…working during peak hours…I only saw two people arrested for shoplifting…both were white females.

Nearly every weekday morning I eat breakfast in a restaurant that’s on the top floor of a building in downtown Greenville.  One of the long time employees of that restaurant is a black male in his 40s.  The timing of our arrival in the building lobby is such that about once a week he and I end up riding the elevator together.  So we exchange greetings and converse…largely about sports and news events.  On other days other people ride the elevator with me.  Many of them are women who work in the building but don’t dine in the restaurant.  Many of them carry purses or bags of some sort…usually held by the strap in one hand…quite loosely…some almost touching the floor.  A number of those women…when they enter the elevator and ride with the man who works in the restaurant hold their purses and bags close to their chests or abdomens.

Indeed…we have come a long way since the days of slavery….the days of Jim Crow…the days of Civil Rights marches in our streets and people being attacked with dogs on a bridge in Alabama…the assassination of a highly visible Black minister…but we…all of us…Black and White…male and female…native born and immigrants…young and old…aren’t there yet.  We…all of us…aren’t there yet.

Since the verdict was announced in the George Zimmerman trial…three years ago…there have been those crying for a conversation on civil rights in the United States.  That…my friends… is just what Jesus would have us do…converse civilly and peacefully after listening at his feet…as Mary did.

I believe that those who make the most noise on both sides of the argument are…pardon the seeming pun…in the minority.  It’s my belief that most Americans want a civil…prosperous…loving population of responsible…productive…contributing people….the entire population.   However…in the hype, anger and hate so common today…we often miss the better part…that better part…is as Mary did…sitting at Jesus’ feet and learning…learning  the word of God.

Would God have us spread urban legends that do nothing more than harm individuals and groups that might have a different skin color or ethnicity?  More than once during the trial three years ago I received a photo via e-mail of a large, muscular black male with a number of wounds and an explanation that it was Trayvon Martin and we were all being misled by the media.   The photo was a picture of a rap singer…not Trayvon Martin.   Why?  Where’s the love and trust we’d learn sitting at Jesus’ feet?

Would God have us use data…a good portion of which is accurate as far as it goes…in such a way or so often that it makes all of a group of people seem like hoodlums…thieves…or culprits…or vigilantes…of some sort?  Why?  Where’s the love and trust we’d learn sitting at the feet of Jesus.  This piece of data:  There are more males in America…of all races…who are not in jail than those who are in jail.

Would God have us decry and belittle those who are single parents…simply because there are a few single parents…of all genders and all races… who are trying to beat the system?  I was raised by a single parent who worked hard…but…no matter how hard he worked that government assistance made the difference between eating and not eating some days.   Isn’t that part of the love we’d learn sitting and listening at Jesus’ feet?

Would God have us do nothing when others are acting and speaking in ways that harm others?

In the past two weeks seven families lost their husbands… fathers…and sons in senseless shootings that made the news.  More were lost in similar senseless ways that didn’t make the news.

Across this great nation…there are many more just like them…of all races and nationalities.

Jesus grieves with all of them…equally.

Mary chose the better part.  She chose to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to the word of God.  As we look at what’s happening in our nation…let us also do the better thing.  Let us sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to the word of God…a word of love…not of tolerance alone…not a word that says stay in your neighborhood and I’ll stay in mine…a word of love for all of God’s creation…for all of God’s creation.

And…just like Mary…if that word tells us action is needed…let us do so.

If that word tells us action is needed in our own hearts…let us know that the Holy Spirit will give us the strength to take that action…and take it.

If that word tells us we need to take action…out there… in our part of the world…that same Holy Spirit will give us the strength to take that action.

We are not called to simply listen to the word and live in our own little private monasteries… we are called to action rooted in God’s word.

Action based on love…not fear…anger…and hate.

That’s the better part.

“Tests”

Amos 7:7-17               Luke 10:25-37

 

          In Amos’ day God talked about using a plumb line…as a metaphor for testing His people.  Do you sometimes wonder whether God might today….use a laser plumb line?  It doesn’t matter whether we think of the old device or the new device as the metaphor….the metaphor still holds.  There are tests…tests for each of us.

Jesus made it clear in his response to the lawyer.  Clearly the lawyer was a learned man…one who knew the laws.  It wasn’t his knowledge of the law that was most important to Jesus.  Most important was the relationship that the man had with God and with the people around him.  Those relationships are the testing points.

In 1992 Paul Johnson wrote a book called Intellectuals.  It was a collection of stories about highly intelligent people who had become thought leaders in their times.  It told of the contradictions in their life relationships.

People like Karl Marx…who proclaimed himself the defender of the working class proletariat.  Marx never truly knew or had a friendship with a single member of the working class.  When he and Friedrich Engels created the Communist League they made sure that none of the positions of influence were held by working-class socialists.

There are preachers who can write and preach beautiful sermons…but don’t spend any time with people outside the worship center…Sunday school teachers whose lessons are provoking…but who are not themselves provoked to relationship with those in need.

The learned lawyer seemed like one of these people…also.  He was sure he had the truth…but he didn’t have the childlike openness that Jesus so highly prized.  He had the answer in his head…and probably in one of the slips of paper in the phylactery he wore every waking moment.

Jesus knew the lawyer knew the answer.  So…he responded with a question.  “How do you read the law?”  The lawyer gave the correct answer. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…and…Love your neighbor as yourself.”

But…to justify himself…the lawyer asked Jesus to tell him who was his neighbor.   Basically he said, “C’mon…Jesus…I can’t love everyone…all the ne’er do wells as well as all the righteous.  Tell me where I draw the line.”

Jesus told him a story…the kind of story we might take from today’s newscast or newspaper.  The characters included a priest who didn’t want to become ceremonially unclean…a Levite who would not take a risk to help someone else…and a Samaritan.

Before I go further let me tell you about one of my high schools.  The high school from which I graduated was a predominantly Jewish public high school.  It was just down the hill…about two blocks…from a private Christian high school.  Both were populated mostly by highly intelligent children of very privileged families.  As competitions approached students’ cars would be ransacked and burned…students would be captured by groups of thugs…beaten and held until the competition was ended.  The rivalries that existed on the sports fields and arenas were intense…more because of religious intolerance than the strong tradition of the sports programs at the two schools.

In Jesus’ days the hatred for the Samaritans was just as great.  While the Jews had worked hard to keep their ethnic purity the Samaritans had lost theirs by intermarrying with the Assyrians who had invaded their land.  And, the Samaritans had built a competing temple on Mount Gerizem.

But…when the Samaritan saw the injured Jew lying on the roadside…without hesitation…he provided an ancient form of first aid…humbly placed the man on his donkey…took him to an inn and paid the innkeeper to care for him.  Instead of being the worst thing that could have happened to the battered Jew…unlike his two fellow Jews…the priest and the Levite…the Samaritan was a great help…perhaps a physical savior…who saved the man’s life.

The great power of the message of Jesus’ parable is found in the Shema…basic to the Jewish faith… worn in the phylactery of every Jew in Jesus’ day…and every orthodox Jew who lives today.  (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.

7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.

9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  (NLT)

Jesus knew that.  Jesus knew the lawyer knew that.  Jesus knew the lawyer…and many of those around them that day…did not live it. That’s why he told the story.

How might we react to the same story if Jesus applied it to the world in which we live today?  Our nation is engaged in great debate on a number of issues.  Jesus’ story and God’s test apply to all of them.

For many of us this was a routine week.  We went about our normal activities and we are here in church this morning.  One way that I consider appalling it was a normal week across America.  Several hundred people died as a result of gunshot violence.

Today, as we leave church and go to lunch with our friends and family let us remind ourselves that many families who would have done the same are instead grieving and mourning.  Seven of those people’s deaths made the national news….five law enforcement officers in Dallas…and two young black men one in Baton Rogues and the other in St. Paul.

Some say police did not have to shoot the victims….that there are other ways to subdue suspects.

Some say the black man who killed the law enforcement officers was motivated by police killings of black men.  That’s no way to solve a problem that is throughout our nation.

In every group there are some bad apples.  You and I know and interact with young black men who wouldn’t think of shooting another person.  You and I know police officers of all races and genders who are among the most gentle people we know.

You and I have a role to play in solving this problem.  We cannot use the racial stereotypes that are part of the national conversation.  We cannot suggest police officers are violent.  And, when we hear others doing so we have a responsibility to speak the truth to them…not accept their unfounded allegations.

You and I also have a responsibility to tell our leaders in the community….state and national level…that this new normal is not acceptable…in our neighborhood…in our nation.

Suppose in Jesus’s story instead of the beaten Jew in the ditch there lies an undocumented alien also known as an illegal immigrant….or a highly skilled foreigner who can’t stay in the U. S. because the current laws deny him admission though he could add significantly to the country’s economy…or the very legal immigrant just outside our door who is simply looking for a church home?

God would test and ask, “Who’s your neighbor?”

Or, perhaps instead of the beaten Jew in the ditch…it’s a woman victimized by a rapist…who can’t get an abortion because of the state’s restrictive laws…or another similarly challenged woman who has chosen to give birth to the child and raise it as a single parent…or a woman in the same circumstance who has chosen to give birth to the child and offer it for adoption…or a woman in the same situation who has already had an abortion.

God’s plumb line question would be, “Who’s your neighbor?”

Or, perhaps it’s a homosexual person lying in the ditch… a homosexual person who is legally married to a person of the same sex…or a person who is part of a homosexual couple that wants to adopt and raise a child.

God would let His plumb line down and ask, “Who’s your neighbor?”

God’s plumb line test in Dallas, St. Paul, Baton Rouge and Travelers Rest is not solely your position on the issues being debated and how you debate them…it’s more about remembering in daily life…who truly is your neighbor…and how do you relate with that person.

How straight is your plumb line?

“Restored”

2 Kings 5:1-14            Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

 

Naaman was restored.

The successful commander of the army was restored.

The man who did not believe in Israel’s God was restored.

Did you pay attention to the details?

It was his servant…with him on the trip to see the prophet…who convinced him to do as the prophet said.  We don’t know the name of that servant.

It was the mighty and powerful king of Israel who said he could NOT cure Naaman.

Do we know the name of the person who got Naaman started on his quest for a cure?  We do not.

All we know is that it was a servant girl…who had become a captive during one of Naaman’s military ventures.  Think about that. Why should she help Naaman?

            She had no support group of her own.  She was in a household that had contempt for her religious beliefs.  She was in the lowest possible social status.  She had no right to express any of her own opinions and could expect serious consequences for doing so.  However, she could not be silent.  In voicing her faith, she put in motion a chain of events that brought about an entire change of life.

Naaman was restored…all because of a servant girl whose name we will never know.

Paul wrote this in his letter to the Corinthians: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are….” (NIV 1 Cor 1:27-28)

We’ve read our Bibles enough to know that there are a number of chapters with long lists of names.  Second chapter of Ezra is a list of names of those patriarchs who returned to re-build the Temple.  First Matthew….that’s the chapter with all of those begats in it.  Did you notice what’s missing from this chapter of Luke?

Not one of the seventy two men that Jesus sent out that day is named.  Nowhere in our Bible is a single one of them identified by name as being a part of this discipleship journey.

We do know their instructions.

They were not to be burdened with stuff.  They were to travel light.  Jesus knew that it was easy to get caught up in the things of life.

They were to concentrate on their  task; greet no man on the way.  Jesus knew that the person of God must not turn aside or linger on the lesser things while the great things call him.

They were not to be in the work for what they could get out of it.  The laborer for Jesus is worthy of their pay, but the servant of that crucified master should not be a seeker for luxury.

They understood that to have heard God’s word is a great responsibility.  Jesus knew that a person will be judged according to what that person has had the chance to know and how that person responds to it.  Responsibility is the other side of privilege.

They followed the master’s instructions.  They came back restored.

Each returned to the master with stories of  others who had also been restored.  They were filled with joy.

Let us…as we come to the Lord’s Table today…to be restored…to be with the master…to be with our brothers and sisters…recall what our Lord told his disciples in their joyous celebration.

Don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey.  Rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.

That was not the choice of some other person.  It was God’s sovereign choice.  We are children of God by God’s choice.

We rejoice because we know that we will see Jesus in the end…that’s really a restoration and new beginning.

We rejoice because of the glory that awaits us.

We rejoice because we are co-heirs with Christ.

Just like the un-named servant girl…the un-named seventy two…though our names may not be written in the history books…we are restored…we can rejoice that they are written in Heaven.

If you are rich…do not rejoice in your wealth…because your riches will fly away.  Instead rejoice that you are restored and your name is written in Heaven.

If you are a person of great learning…thank God for it and use it for his glory.  But…do not make it the source of your joy.   Rejoice that you are restored and your name is written in Heaven.

Do you have a position of leadership in Christ’s church?  Thank God and glorify him in it.  But first rejoice that you are restored and your name is written in Heaven.

Has God used you?  Is God using you now?  That’s fine.

But first and foremost rejoice that you are restored and your name is written in Heaven.

Like the servant girl…the seventy two…with the Spirit as our guide and strength…let us rejoice and be unafraid to share that good news with all.