The Rainbow Connection

Delivered February 26, 2012

Genesis 9:8-17

It is the most famous song ever sung by a frog. "The Rainbow Connection" was written for The Muppet Movie and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song in 1979. It was sung by Kermit the Frog as the movie's opening number of the film. Kermit is sitting on a log in a swamp playing a banjo; he sings:

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side
Rainbow's are visions
They're only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told and some chose to believe it
But I know they're wrong wait and see
Someday we'll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

What is it about rainbows that fascinate people? Whenever people see a rainbow, they stop what they are doing and contemplate it. They will point it out to other people. They will take photographs of it. When we see a double rainbow, then we feel we are doubly blessed. Why ARE there so many songs about rainbows and so many rainbow flags, decals and bumper stickers? The rainbow has become the symbol for many movements not only in this country, but around the world. The rainbow is most often used these days to represent diversity and inclusiveness, human rights and peace. But the rainbow has been used for centuries as a symbol. Today we are going to look at the earliest use of the rainbow as a symbol. It is at the end of the biblical story of the flood. In the Book of Genesis the rainbow is the sign of a covenant between God and his creation. Today we are going to look at the concept of covenant, and this rainbow covenant in particular and how it is fulfilled in the new covenant of Jesus Christ.

I. First we have to understand the concept of covenant. It is at the heart of biblical religion. Briefly a Covenant includes fourth aspects.

1. First in a covenant, there is a Relationship established. A covenant is another word for a contract, but the word contract sounds too formal and businesslike. A covenant is more personal than that. When I do weddings, I talk about the marriage covenant. There is a relationship between a husband and wife that is much more than just the legal contract of marriage. The relationship in a covenant is defined in terms what one party has done or will do for the other as the basis for the covenant. For example the Mosaic covenant established between God and Israel at Mount Sinai summed up on the famous Ten Commandments begins with God saying, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God states that he has demonstrated his love for Israel is freeing them from bondage in Egypt and that is the basis of the covenant. There is a relationship established.

2. The second aspect of a covenant is that there are Promises made. A covenant always involves a commitment. One side or usually both sides pledge to do certain things. Again a marriage is a good example. The bride and groom make pledges and take vows promising that they will be there for each other until death. Promises are made. On second thought, maybe marriage is not such a good analogy these days.  On this last Valentines Day, USA Today ran a front page story about dating websites. But this is not the typical dating website; this is for married people looking to have extramarital affairs! It is growing phenomenon. The article said that the day after Valentines Day is one of the busiest days of the year, as people decide that their spouses are not romantic enough any more, and they could do better. For such people, marriage vows do not mean so much. But in the biblical concept of covenant, the promises made are very important.

3. Third, the covenant is sealed with an offering or sacrifice. We say now that the wedding ceremony is sealed with a kiss, but it used to be sealed with a dowry. In ancient times covenants were sealed with money or goods. Often a sacrifice was a part of the covenant ceremony. Animal sacrifices are not part of our religious experience these days, but sacrifices were a common part of biblical religion – and indeed all religion – in centuries past. They are still a part of Islam for example. Sacrifice signifies the seriousness of the agreement. Sacrifice involves death, and death is serious business. So it is a way of emphasizing the deadly seriousness of the covenant.

In Genesis 31 there is a story of a covenant made between Jacob and his father-in-law Laban at Mizpah. In it Laban says these well known words that are often used as a benediction on churches today, “May the Lord watch between Me and thee me when we are absent one from another.”  And we think “how wonderful! God is watching over us.” But when you read it in the context, Laban is really saying, “You better treat my daughters right or I will find you and kill you. You will be as dead as this sacrifice we are killing here today!”

4. Fourth, in a covenant a sign is given. In marriage the sign of the covenant is the wedding ring. The sign represents and symbolizes the agreement that has been made between the two parties.  These are four aspects of a covenant. The heart of biblical religion is the covenant - that humans can have a real relationship with God. Religion is not just a matter of believing in God. It is not even having an experience of God or a sense of the presence of God when you look at the starry heavens or a view from a mountaintop. These are real religious experiences, but they are not covenants. The idea of the covenant is that we can have a relationship with the Creator of the universe. God is not just an impersonal cosmic force or energy. God is not a distant Deity who started the universe going billions of years ago but has nothing to do with it anymore. The concept of the covenant is that we can have a relationship with this Creator.

II. With this background, let look now at the Rainbow Covenant in our OT passage for today. In our story the whole world was covered by a flood which destroyed all life on the earth except for that which fit into Noah’s Ark. God saved representatives of all living creatures including human beings through the ark. Not only has he saved them, he establishes a relationship – a covenant – with them. He says to Noah in our passage (v. 9-11): “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹ Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

This Flood story tells us that God has established a covenant relationship with human beings and all living creatures on earth. It hearkens back to an even earlier covenant in the Garden of Eden when Man is instructed to care for the earth. The rainbow covenant is interesting among the covenants of the Bible because it groups us and our descendants with all other living creatures. “I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you.” I am not saying that Man does not have a special role and responsibility; he does. But here Mankind is grouped with all other species. Here God is not only as Creator but also Preserver. God promises to preserve life on earth. That is the promise part of the covenant here. Notice that it is an unconditional promise. God does not ask anything of human beings. Other others covenants, like in Moses covenant established on Mount Sinai God asks a lot of Man in the form of laws. But here God asks nothing. This is an act of pure love from God to man.

The sign of that unconditional love of God is the rainbow. Every time we see a rainbow in the sky it should reminds us of the unconditional love of the Creator for his Creation, including us. It is a sign that God is not against us or at war with us. The bow is a weapon –as in bow and arrow, hanging on the wall of the sky. Weapons can be used for or against you. Here God is clearly saying that he is for us. This bow is a sign of protection. God cares for us and will protect us and his creation.

What should our response be to this sign? I think it is only natural for us to want to do something in return for what God has done for us. I think we should want to cooperate in God’s plan to protect his creation. That is what the Rainbow covenant means to me. It is a sign of caring for God’s Creation. It fits right into our Lenten Series that we are doing Wednesday nights: 50 Ways we can Help to Save the Earth. God cares for all the earth and for all living creatures on this earth. We as his church can be partners with God in this rainbow covenant to use every means at our disposal to protect his Creation. That is what the rainbow represents.

III. I want to move beyond the rainbow now – somewhere over the rainbow, if you will – but I am not going to break into the Judy Garland song. This is Lent, the season where we look to the Cross of Jesus. The Cross is the sign of another covenant, a New Covenant that is greater than the old covenants of the Old Testament. The Cross is like the rainbow covenant in some ways and different in some ways.

The Cross covenant is a relationship between God and Humankind. It is universal insofar as it is offered to all. But it is different in that this new covenant must be accepted by us to be effective for us. The cross restores a relationship between God and man which has been broken by sin. I don’t know how many of you are reading through the Bible this year with me. But you can’t get very far in the Bible before you realize that there is a lot of sin in it. The people in Genesis are sinners – from Adam and Eve to Cain to every one of their descendants. The Bible is filled with sinners. But we don’t need to Bible to tell us that. Just read the newspaper or watch the evening news, or look around town, or better yet, look in the mirror. Human beings do wrong on a large scale and a small scale. We have broken our relationship each other and with God through sin. God has restored that relationship by the Cross, and we have the opportunity to accept God’s remedy or not. We accept that by faith; that is the promise part of this new covenant.

The Cross is the solution to human sinfulness. The Cross takes sin seriously. It purports to be the cure for sin. The Cross reestablishes the relationship between God and humans that has been broken by human sin. There are all sorts of theories about how the cross accomplished that restoration. Some theories resonate more with 21^st century humans than others. Biblically speaking the cross is seen as the fulfillment of the OT sacrificial system. Covenants are sealed with a sacrifice.  The cross is understood in the Scriptures, as the seal of the New Covenant.

The problem is that people don’t understand sacrifices today. Sacrifices don’t make sense to most people. It sounds so primitive – so bloody and even pagan. The idea is offensive to people. People don’t understand why Christ had to die as part of God’s plan to establish a covenant with us. Why couldn’t God love us, accept us and forgive without a bloody death on a cross? Let me just say in this regard that God could have established this new covenant with us any way he wanted to. God is God, and he can do anything. But this is the way he did it. We don’t get to chose how God does it; we just get to accept it or not, and try to understand it.

As I said when I was defining covenants, sacrifices were used to seal covenants because death imparts a sense of seriousness to the relationship being established. Death is serious. The death of an animal is serious, as any pet owner knows. The death of a person is extremely serious. There is nothing more devastating in our lives than the death of one close to us. So when Jesus, the only begotten Son of God died, this is God’s way of communicating that he takes our relationship to him and our sin very seriously. There is no other act that could have communicated this level of seriousness then the death of God’s Son. The reason why so many people have such a hard time with the Cross is because we don’t take our relationship to God that seriously nor the problem of sin that seriously. We think sin is no big deal and therefore salvation from sin should be no big deal. We think nothing more is needed than an apology and the apology accepted – if even that. A lot of people think that even that is unnecessary with God. They think forgiveness should be granted automatically by God to everyone whether or not there is any repentance or faith. But sin is much more serious than that and the solution to the sin problem is more serious – so serious that it required the Cross.

I do not purport to understand the Cross of Jesus. I have studied the theology of it extensively; but the more I study it, the less I understand it. But one thing for sure, I will not trivialize it. I will not dismiss it. It is not a stumbling block or offensive to me. I love the old rugged old. I see it as a sign of the great love that God has for us. He wants a relationship with us, and he has made a way to have that relationship. And that way is through the Cross of  his Son Jesus. Through Christ God opens a way to him; in return we pledge our lives to him. By faith in Christ and what he has done for us, we have an eternal relationship with God. That is the Cross Connection. We are connected not just as a creature with a Creator in the rainbow covenant. We are connected as redeemed human beings by a Savior in the Cross. I could paraphrase Kermit’s song and ask, Why are there so many songs about Jesus? Why are there so many more songs about the Cross than about rainbows? It is because the cross is a so much greater sign, and it should invoke in us a greater love.

The Long Goodbye

Delivered February 19, 2012

2 Kings 2:1-14

The text we have before us this morning is one of the most dramatic stories in the Bible. It takes place about 850 years before Christ. It is the prophet Elijah’s ascension into heaven in a fiery chariot in the midst of a whirlwind. It is dramatic exit for a very colorful OT character. It made Elijah into one of the most popular characters in the Bible. Elijah, according to this story, is one of only two persons in the Bible who did not die. The other is Enoch. But Enoch’s whole life is described in just four verses in the Book of Genesis, and we know almost nothing about him. But we have a lot of stories about Elijah.  Elijah became the subject of much speculation. It came to be believed that Elijah was going to return to earth one day. To this very day, Jews at their Seder meal every spring open the door of their homes for the prophet Elijah and set out a cup of wine for him, just in case he shows up for dinner. It was believed that Elijah was going to return before the Messiah appeared.

That belief was prominent in Jesus’ day. Jesus said that John the Baptist was in some way the fulfillment of that expectation. At the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain, there is a vision where Elijah and Moses show up and speak with Jesus. So Elijah became a very important character in Jewish thought and consequently in Christian thought. Elijah’s chariot became a symbol for going to heaven. We sang the song: “Swing low, sweet chariot, comin for to carry me home. If you get there before I do, Tell all my friends I'm comin' too, Comin' for to carry me home.” But when we actually read the story of Elijah’s ascension to heaven, that part of the story is just two verses  long. Most of the story is the preparation for his departure and how Elijah and his friend and protégée Elisha handle the fact that God was going to take Elijah from this earth. That is what the story is about, and that is what I am going to focus on this morning.

Billy Joel sings that life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. The goodbyes are harder. When you say hello, you never know what that relationship will turn out to be. But when you say goodbye, you know exactly whom you are losing. If we have lived long enough, we have said goodbye many times in our lifetime. When you move from place to place you have to say goodbye to people and places. When you graduate from high school and college you have to say goodbye to teachers and friends. When you change jobs you have to say goodbye. If you are divorced, you have had to say goodbye. Then there is the big goodbye that comes at death. When someone we love dies, we have to say goodbye; when we are approaching death, we have to say goodbye.  Life is a series of goodbyes. Today we are looking at how Elisha says goodbye to his friend and mentor Elijah. There are five parts of this long goodbye.

I. The first part is Elisha’s refusal to say goodbye. He did not want to admit that lifelong friend was really going to be taken from him. Elijah seemed to know his earthly life was coming to an end, and Elisha suspected that this was happening. It seems like Elijah wanted to leave this earth privately. He keeps trying to get away from Elisha to be by himself. It seems like a lot of people like to die in private. My mom died nine years ago now. Jude and I visited her at the nursing home in Danvers, Massachusetts. She was sitting in a wheelchair in her room. We visited with her and said goodbye, and then went to have lunch, planning to return right after the meal. But while we were at the restaurant we got a call from the nursing home that she had died. People said she had waited to die until she saw me and could say goodbye, and then waited for me to leave to die.

Elijah tried to get off by himself to die. He told Elisha to say in Gilgal while he went to Bethel. Elisha suspected that Elijah might not return, and replied, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!”  At Bethel Elisha ran into some of his colleagues – some prophets. They said, “Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?” And Elisha responded, “Yes, I know; keep silent!” This pattern repeats in the story. At Bethel Elijah tells Elisha to stay there while he goes on to Jericho. Elisha responds again, “No way. I am not leaving you!” They go to Jericho and Elisha meets some more of his prophet friends, who again say to him, “You know that God is going to take away your master today?” And Elisha responds again, “Be quiet! I don’t want to hear about it.”

This is the way many people respond to the news that someone they love is going to die. Grief counselors call this denial. When we don’t like an idea we try not to think about it. It doesn’t work. The inevitable happens anyway, but it is our way of giving ourselves some time to slowly come to grips with reality. This is not a bad thing. We should not be hard on ourselves or others for doing this. It is natural to react to bad news initially by not wanting to accept it – even to pretend it isn’t true – while knowing all the time deep down that it is true. People do not want to say goodbye, and so they don’t.

II. The second part of this long goodbye is Elisha and Elijah revisiting important places. They take a final road trip together. They start at Gilgal and go on to Bethel and Jericho and finally the Jordan River. These places are not accidental. They were important places in the lives of these prophets. They were places where groups of prophets (called in the passage “the sons of the prophets”) had banded together into religious communities. They were people important to Elijah and Elisha. Furthermore these were sacred places to the Hebrew faith. Bethel was the place where Jacob (later to be known as Israel) had his dream of the ladder between heaven and earth and angels ascending and descending upon it – a pretty important theme for what was about to happen to Elijah. Gilgal was where the Hebrews first arrived in the Promised Land. Jericho was the place of the first victory over the Canaanites. The Jordan River is the boundary of the Promised land. Crossing the Jordan later became a symbol for death. These were not just random places they were visiting; these are holy places with deep personal and spiritual meaning. Elijah and Elisha were really on a final pilgrimage together.

Jude and I watch the television reality show Survivor. I know some people don’t like Survivor and others do. We like it. One of the practices that they normally do near the end of the show, after all but three have been voted off the island, is to go back and remember each person who was part of the tribes. They would say their name, recall some things about them, say some good things about them (like a eulogy), and then move on to the next person. That is what Elijah and Elisha are doing. We do it. We remember the good times; we share memories. When I left here as pastor in 1994, we had a meal and a reception and people shared memories. I actually learned some things at that gathering I did not know. For example, apparently my son Ernie (who was a teenager at the time) had a reputation for jumping off the bridge at the Potholes in North Sandwich, even though we told him not to – that it was too dangerous. One time is alright, just so you can say you did it, but you don’t repeatedly tempt fate. We found out that our son had a reputation for tempting fate on a regular basis.

Revisiting memories is one of the purposes of memorial services of the one who has departed. This is a good thing also, and Elijah and Elisha were doing this – revisiting people and places that had significance for both of them and for their faith, even though Elijah wasn’t telling Elisha that was what he was doing.

III. This third part of this long goodbye was Elisha’s Request. He asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. They had gotten to the Jordan River, and Elijah rolled up his mantle (which is a cloak) and he hit the river, and the waters separated. It was a reenactment of the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea and later crossing the Jordan on their entrance into the Promised Land. The act had symbolic significance; it was another remembering of an important event in Israel’s history. The two prophets walked across the Jordan on dry ground. Then verse 9 says, “And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

First of all, notice that Elisha had come to grips with Elijah’s imminent departure. He did not argue with Elijah; he didn’t say he did not want to hear about him leaving and didn’t want to talk about it. He had accepted the inevitable. Elijah wanted to give him some parting gift before he left. So Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit. He was asking for the Spirit of God, who inspired and empowered Elijah’s life. By asking for a double portion, he was not asking for twice as much spiritual power as Elijah had. The “double portion” is a reference to the inheritance laws of the day. In Hebrew society the eldest son got a double portion of the inheritance of the father, and the second son got one portion. Elijah was asking to be Elijah’s spiritual heir. Elijah’s answer was very good. He basically said that was not up to him but up to God. He actual words were: “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”

In some ways it sounds a lot like Jesus’ answer to James sand John. They asked Jesus if they could sit on his right and left in his Kingdom. They did not know what they were asking. Jesus replied, “to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."  This discussion about the Spirit also sounds a lot like what Jesus said to his disciples about the Holy Spirit shortly before his death. Jesus said that he had to depart from this earth so that the Holy Spirit could come and indwell his disciples. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

Elisha is asking for the Spirit of God, whom we know as the Holy Spirit. We also need the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The whole Christian life can be summed up as being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God entering into us through faith, and living in us and through us. We live not by our own power but by the power of God. This is what Elisha saw in Elijah’s life. He saw the prophet empowered by the Spirit of God, and that is what he wanted in his life. He wanted not just to be like Elijah, he wanted to be filled with the same Spirit as Elijah. That is what he asked for at the end. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is ours for the asking. Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

IV. The next part of this long goodbye is the actual departure of Elijah in the fiery chariot. There are a couple of elements in this I want to point out. One is that God had to physically separate Elisha from Elijah. Verse 11 “Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” The chariot actually had to force the two men apart. That is how close the attachment was between these two;  the only way that God could take Elijah from Elisha was to actually place a chariot of fire between them. Apparently there were angels involved also, for Elisha exclaimed in verse 12, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more.” The other aspect of this scene is Elisha’s show of grief. Verse 12 goes on to say, “ And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.” To rend one’s garment was the traditional sign of grief in that culture.

V. The final part of this long goodbye is the Recovery of the mantle. Verses 13-14 say, “ He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴ Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over.” This shows that Elijah was moving on, and he was doing so with the Spirit of God empowering him. Elisha picked up Elijah’s mantle, which was the symbol of his prophetic office, and used it the same way that Elijah had used it. He struck the river, and he had the same results as Elijah; the waters parted. The words that he says at that moment are interesting. As he strikes the Jordan with the mantle of Elijah, he shouts, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?”

The implied answer is that the Lord God of Elijah is still there, empowering Elisha and his ministry. The Spirit did not leave with the prophet when he went to heaven. The same is true of us. The Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, but the Spirit of Jesus is still here. Jesus had said, “I will be with you always, even until the end of the age.” He meant that his Spirit would be here. As I said previously, Jesus had promised that even though he was leaving that the Holy Spirit would come to be present with them and in them. So in a very real sense there was no final goodbye. Elijah was gone, but the Spirit or Elijah remained. Jesus is physically gone, but spiritually he is present. He is present in us, his church, which is called the body of Christ. We are now his physical body indwelled by his Spirit. “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” asked Elisha. The answer is that He is here. He is in us as believers. He is in his church. That connection between us and God is a permanent one. In that sense we never have to say goodbye.

A Winter Dip in a Cold River

Delivered February 12, 2012

2 Kings 5:1-15

A couple of weeks ago a teenager came to my door asking for donations for the 2012 High School Plunge. This is an event where high school kids (and faculty if they want) take a dip in the ocean at Hampton Beach on February 4 to raise money for Special Olympics. I gave him some money to do it, thinking, “Better him than me!” Today I will tell the OT story of a man who took a cold dip in the Jordan River. Going into Jordan is not unusual in the Bible. Most of the baptisms we see in the NT are in the Jordan. John the Baptist baptized in the Jordan, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, and his disciples baptized people in the Jordan. I baptized my daughter Sarah in the Jordan in 1991 when she was ten years old! It was a memorable event. In fact she just ran across the t-shirt that she bought at traditional baptismal site twenty years ago that says “I was baptized in the Jordan River” in about a dozen different languages.

But the story I am telling today is not a baptism, and the man going into the water is not a convert. This happened in OT times 800 years before Jesus.  The man who took a dip in the Jordan was a Syrian General named Naaman. As we explore this story we are going to look not only at him, but also some other characters. As we look at the tale from the perspective of the different characters, we will see that it teaches us some truths about how God works in the world.

I. The first truth is that God is Sovereign over nations –including thier kings and generals. This dip in the Jordan was arranged by the kings of two different nations: Israel and Syria. This story does not even give us their names because they aren’t important. They are simply referred to in our passage as the king of Israel and the king of Syria. At this time the two nations were not at war, but they were not friends either. It was a time of uneasy peace and border skirmishes. Syria definitely had the upper hand at this time. In the story the king of Syria asks the king of Israel to do him a favor. He had a favorite general who had leprosy, and he had heard that there was a prophet in Israel who was known as a healer. So the king of Syria sent a letter to the king of Israel quoted in verse 6: “Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.” With the letter the Syrian king sent money and gifts to sweeten the deal.

The king of Israel’s reaction to getting the letter is in verse 7 “And it happened, when the king of Israel read the letter, that he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore please consider, and see how he seeks a quarrel with me.” It turns out that the prophet Elisha heard about the letter and agreed to heal the man. But the point I want to make is that it was all part of God’s a plan to heal this Syrian general, and he uses these two kings to accomplish his will. The theme that runs throughout this story is the Sovereignty of God over all nations and peoples, and kings and generals. This story is all about God healing a Syrian general. Not a Jewish general, but a Syrian general, at a time when Syria and Israel were at odds.

It is an important theme to hear today. God still is in control of nations and kings. Daniel 2:21 says that God “deposes kings and raises up others.” Syria and the king of Syria are still in the news these days. It is amazing that Syria has survived since biblical times. And it is still at odds with Israel. Other nations mentioned in the Bible are also still in the news today – Lebanon, Egypt, Greece. God is still in control of events in the nations. When we read the newspapers and watch the evening news, let us remember that the news is not just about the works of humans; God is in control. The very first verses in our story says, “Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria.” Do you hear that? The Lord God of Israel had given victory to Syria. The God of the Bible isn’t a nationalistic God who only gives victory to Israel. That is the way some would like to portray God, but that is not the God of the Bible. God is the God of all the nations. He might have a special plan for Israel – as his chosen people, especially to bring the Messiah through them – but he is the Ruler of all nations and all history. God is not just a spectator to the events of world history today.

He even cares about American presidential primaries and general elections. I am not so foolish to think that the United States is God’s chosen nation, or that God sides with either Republicans or Democrats. But that does not mean that God doesn’t care who is president of the United States. God still guides history. Proverbs 16:9 says, “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.” God works out history according to his purpose.

II. The second lesson of this story is that God uses ordinary people. Verses 2-5 “² And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife. ³ Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.” ⁴ And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.” ⁵ Then the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” It was a servant girl who got this whole process going.

Think about this girl for a moment. She was a Jewish girl captured in a raid that the Syrian army made into Israel, and now she was a slave in a foreign country. Yet she is concerned about the general. She could have been angry, resentful and vengeful and not want to help the Syrian general who was responsible for her captivity. But she wasn’t! God worked in this girl’s heart to show compassion even to Israel’s enemy. She could see that God was at work even in her circumstances. Because of that, God could use her to accomplish his purpose of healing Naaman.

God is at work in our lives no matter what our circumstances. God brings good out of evil. In another OT story in Genesis Joseph is betrayed and sold into slavery by his brothers. Yet in the end when Joseph is finally reunited with his father and brothers he says, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." (Gen. 50:20) This is the way we need to view our lives. Too many people go too quickly to the “Woe is me” option. “Why is this happening to me? What have I done to deserve this?” Too many people jump to the conclusion that something is wrong with the universe when our lives do not work out according to our plans. We think maybe God does not care about us or has abandoned us, or worst of all that our circumstances mean that there is no God.

 When bad things happen, it does not mean any of that. It means that God is using bad circumstances for a good purpose. One of my favorite Bible verses is Romans 8:28 which says that “All things work together for good for those who love God, who are the called according to his purpose.” Not only does God use all things, but he also uses all people. We can either cooperate with him or not, but his will is going to be done one way or another. Even if we fight against God, his purpose will be accomplished. The betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot is the prime example. God did not lead Judas to betray Jesus, but God used his evil deed to accomplish the greatest good of all history. God uses all types of people; God uses kings and prophets and servant girls. God uses ordinary people for extraordinary things.

III. Third, God humbles the proud and mighty. Now we get to the central figure of the story, the Syrian general Naaman. Naaman is described as “a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master” and “also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.” His king has arranged for him to go to Israel in order to be healed by the prophet Elisha. Verses 9-10 say, “⁹ Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” And verse 11 says, “¹¹ But Naaman became furious…”  He is furious for a number of reasons. One is that Naaman comes personally to Elisha’s house and Elisha does not even bother to come to the door to greet this great general. He sends a servant to answer the door and give the general a message. This general is not accustomed to being treated that way!  Furthermore, Naaman was expecting some dramatic healing ceremony, something in keeping with his social status. Verse 11 “¹¹ But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’” But Elisha just tells him to go bathe in the Jordan.

Namaan says in verse 12 “Are not the Abanah^[a] and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.” Here is a man who is a true nationalist, as we would expect a general to be. He thinks his nation is the greatest on earth. Even his rivers are better than any river in Israel. And the truth is the rivers in Syria might be greater. I remember the first time I saw the Jordan river in 1983. I had studied the Bible about the mighty Jordan River and sung hymns that glorify it. For example the hymn “I walked today where Jesus walked says, “I saw the mighty Jordan roll, As in the days of yore.” Well I walked where Jesus walked and I will tell you that the Jordan isn’t so mighty. It is not very wide or very deep or very impressive. In fact it was a disappointment. I have lived a lot of my life near the Ohio River. The Jordan can not compare to the Ohio and certainly not rivers like the Mississippi. So I am not at all surprised at the attitude of the Syrian general for he certainly had seen the Jordan River also.

But the point is that this great general was being humbled, and he did not like it at all. The same with us. Life has a way of humbling us. If you haven’t been humbled by life yet, just wait; you will be. Setbacks in one’s career and job humble you. Health problems can humble you. If you have ever been in the hospital then you know that those hospital gowns are designed to humble you! When health problems are serious enough that you are in a position of not being able to do things for yourself, that humbles you. Nursing homes are humbling experiences for patients. Unemployment humbles you. Serious financial problems humble you. Mental health issues humble you. I can go on and on, but you get the point. If you live long enough, life will humble you. It feels like a bad thing when it is happening, but if it does its job then the end product of humility is a good thing. As the apostle James says, “Humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up.” The apostle Peter says, “⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

This mighty Syrian general had not even been humbled by the dreaded disease of leprosy, and he wasn’t going to let a Hebrew prophet do it. He was not going to be treated like this - to be told by a servant to wash in the Jordan. But his own servants intervened. Verse 13 says “¹³ And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” And the next verse says, ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, then the Lord will lift us up.

IV. Fourth, God is at work in a special way in Israel. This last point focuses on the prophet Elisha, who strangely hardly appears very little in the story, even though he was the healer. At the beginning of the story Elisha is the one who convinces the king of Israel to let the Syrian general come, saying in verse 8 “Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman confesses qt the end of our passage: “There is no God in all the earth except in Israel.” That is what this story is all about. It is about the nations knowing that there is a prophet in Israel and that the God is Israel is God. My first point in this message what that God is sovereign over all nations and peoples. And that is true, but as I also said, Israel has a special role to play in God’s sovereign plan for the nations. Naaman learned that. His homeland of Syria might have more impressive looking rivers, but there was no prophet of the Lord there. If there was, then he would not have had to make the trip to Israel to he healed.

In the Gospel of John Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well. She perceives by what he says that he is a prophet. “¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”  Part of Naaman’s need to swallow his pride is to admit that salvation is of the Jews. From our perspective God worked through Israel in a supreme fashion in Jesus Christ. God became man not in a Syrian or an Egyptian or an Indian or an Englishman or an American, but in a Jew named Jesus. God became man one time in history to accomplish salvation for all people. Human religious pride wishes it were otherwise, wishes there were many ways, and many paths and many saviors. Just like Naaman wished he could have found a Syrian prophet of a Syrian God to heal him in a Syrian river, but he couldn’t. He learned that there is a prophet in Israel and that there is a God in Israel. And we have learned that there is a Savior in Israel – Jesus Christ.

Anti-Aging Formula

Delivered February 5, 2012

Isaiah 40:21-31

You have seen it advertised on television, on line, or in magazines – some product with an anti-aging formula. Often it is skin cream or hair coloring. Guaranteed to take years off your appearance. There are the products that promise more than just the appearance of youthfulness – but actually promise keep you alive longer. You can buy herbal formulas in capsules that are supposed to slow down the aging process. There are more radical approaches to looking young - like plastic surgery. There are also all types of advice about how to stay younger longer or at least look younger longer naturally – advice like staying out of the sun, not smoking, good diet and exercise. This actually seems to work for some people. It is amazing how some people do not seem to age hardly at all for decades. They look much younger than their chronological age, whereas others look old beyond their years.

Some focus on feeling younger – the old saying: “You are only as old as you feel.” Some folks look old, but they don’t act it. We have all known people in their nineties who act and feel younger than others in their seventies. There was a story on the front page of USA Today recently about seniors who chose not to retire, but to work into their eighties and nineties. The story and photos highlighted Edward Gerjouy, a physics professor at the University of Pittsburgh who is still working at the age of 93. He says that working keeps him youthful.

Today I am not going to hawk any snake oil that promises to be the fountain of youth. I am not going to preach a health and wealth gospel that says if you are a Christian then you will live longer. It ain’t true. The Bible never promises us such things. But I am going to talk about a spiritual anti-aging formula described in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. The prophet says in these famous words of Isaiah 40:

       ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
      And the young men shall utterly fall,
       ³¹ But those who wait on the LORD
      Shall renew their strength;
      They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
      They shall run and not be weary,
      They shall walk and not faint.

He is saying that we can have the ageless power of God in our lives at any physical age; we can receive from God a spiritual strength beyond our natural ability. There are two aspects of this anti-aging formula described by Isaiah. The first is the key element; the second is three examples of how it works.

I. The first element is Waiting on the Lord. In fact this seems to be the only major ingredient in this passage. You know how a product will list a bunch of ingredients on the label, but only one active ingredient. Well, the active ingredient in this formula is Waiting on the Lord. Verse 31 says, “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength.” What does it mean to wait on the Lord? It means three things

The phrase comes from the world of masters and servants. A servant waits on his/her master or mistress. Their job is to be available at all times. The image is of a servant waiting outside the door of the master’s chambers, waiting to be called to perform some service. As soon as the master calls, the servant responds. Jude and I have just begun watching the PBS Masterpiece Classic “Downton Abbey.” It takes places in England at the beginning of the twentieth century, right now during WWI. It is all about the relationships between the aristocracy and the servant class in England. There are the lords and there are the servants who wait on them. The servants are literally at the beckon call of the lord and lady of the mansion. That is the image that Isaiah is using, although he is from the age of ancient monarchs and servants. To wait on the Lord means to serve the Lord, and specifically it means to be available. To drop whatever you are doing when the Lord calls.

That is very different model than the dominant modern understanding of the relationship between God and humans. We tend to speak more in terms of friends (What a Friend we have in Jesus) and having a personal relationship with God. Servants in the ancient Near East did not have a personal relationship with their lords. In chapter 6 when the prophet Isaiah has a vision of seeing the Lord in thetemple, he does not put his arm around him and say, “Hi, buddy. How you doing?” He falls down and says, “Woe is me for I am undone. For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.” I am not saying that there is not a role for friendship in our relationship with God. Jesus calls us friends. Even Moses talked to God as a friend. I like the hymn “What a friend we have in Jesus” But I am saying that it has to be balanced with the concept of the reverence of a servant for his/her master. That sense of reverential awe is missing from much of Christianity today. We do not wait on the Lord. In fact it seems to me that many people expect the Lord or wait on us. And when God doesn’t do what we think he ought to do when we think he ought to do it, we get upset.

Waiting on the Lord also means being silent before. God says in the psalm, “Be still and know that I am God.” If you have ever waited for anything – such as waiting in the “waiting room” to see a doctor, you know that waiting is a quiet time. Waiting rooms tend to be quiet places. If you have ever waited at the bedside of a seriously ill or dying person, you know that waiting is a solitary state of being. A servant waiting outside the door of his master is just sits quietly. That is part of what it means for us to wait on the Lord. The spiritual life demands time of silence and solitude. If we aren’t quiet, we will not be able to hear when the Lord calls.

I saw a news report about the danger of wearing and listening to music on ipods when walking on city streets. When people wear plugs in their ears listening to music or even using cell phones, then they don’t hear the traffic. Pedestrians using such devices get hit by cars more often because they are paying attention to their music or conversations instead of the traffic. We do this with God. We pay attention to things other than God, and then wonder why we get run over by life. We tend to fill the silence of life with noise – keeping the radio on or the TV on or the computer on.

There is a phenomenon now of Christians taking an electronic Sabbath. The idea was raised at a retreat I attended last fall. The idea is for one day each week being unplugged from all media – cell phones, computers, television, radios, ipads and blackberrys - everything - and just have silence before God. Senator Joe Lieberman, and observant Jews, has a book out advocating just that. It is entitled “The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath.” He encourages all people “to stop one day and disconnect all the electronics and just focus in on yourself, your relationship with your family, and God.” If a US senator can do it with his busy schedule, can’t we? President Obama’s new chief of staff, Jacob Lew is an observant Jew who keeps the Sabbath and does not use electricity, including a phone on Saturday. He is inaccessible to the President so he can be accessible to God. If a man who coordinates the activities of the most powerful political leader in the world, can do that, why not us? I am not suggesting that Christians keep the Jewish Sabbath legalistically, but I think it would be good if we unplugged from electronic media once in a while and put a little silence into our lives to wait on God. Then maybe we could hear the Lord when he speaks. If we wait on the Lord, then he will renew our strength. That is the whole purpose of a Sabbath.

Waiting on the Lord also means following God’s timing. It means to be in sync with God. Another way of phrasing these three points is that Waiting on the Lord means to Serve, Be Silent, and Be in Sync.  I keep my calendar on a Blackberry. I found a used Blackberry on ebay for under $20, including shipping. It is not the most recent version, but it is a lot better than the antique Palm Pilot I had been using. Just so I don’t lose my information, I back it up the Blackberry on my laptop, and I sync it with Microsoft Outlook. So the calendar on my Blackbarry and the calendar on my computer are in sync. We need to sync our calendars with God. In fact we need to sync our lives with God. The problem is that most of us have one calendar and God has another, and the two are never synced. To sync with God means you have to connect with God. You have to share information with God. Most importantly you have to let his calendar overwrite ours. It will change our days and our weeks and our lives.

This also means to walk in step with him. You don’t get ahead of God or behind God. A lot of times we think God ought to do something, and when he doesn’t in what we think is a timely fashion, we step in and ruin the whole thing. We should be waiting for God’s timing. The NT talks about our relationship with God as one of walking with the Lord. That means to walk in step. He is the one who sets the pace. A lot of churches decide to do things when God is not in them. Boards, committees and pastors decide on their own and then expect God to bless their decisions. That is not the way it works. We wait on God. God decides and God acts in his time and we obey.

II. I want to move on now to the rest of this verse 31. It says that “those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength” and then it gives us three examples of this renewed strength. The first is: “They shall mount up with wings like eagles.” What does this mean? It means that we will gain a bird’s eye perspective on life. Eagles are known for soaring high above the ground and being able to spot things on the ground. As Christians, if we wait on the Lord, then we will soar high and gain a heavenly perspective on life. Paul says in Ephesians “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  He is saying that our spiritual position is being seated with Christ in the heavenly places. He says in Colossians 3 “¹ If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” 

If our minds are preoccupied with earthly things, then we will get pulled down and sucked in. It will sap us of our strength. This is especially true of church work. People get tired out, worn out and burned out in ministry. It is important to pace yourself; that is part of what it means to wait on the Lord. If we keep our minds on Christ, we have a heavenly perspective on earthly matters. People can get very wrapped up in earthly matters. They can lose themselves in it and lose perspective. Mounting up with wings as eagles is about gaining some altitude, getting a higher perspective on things. When we get a heavenly perspective, then we don’t take things quite so personally or seriously. Most churches and most pastors could benefit from the eagles perspective. G. K. Chesterton said, “Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.” Perhaps Christians need to do the same.

The verse goes on to say “They shall run and not be weary.”  I think he is using the metaphor of running to mean being busy. It is one thing to soar on the air currents like an eagle, but at some point you have to come down to earth. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” We can’t spend our lives in the spiritual stratosphere. We have to come to earth and work. When we work, we get busy. When we are busy, we get tired. Isaiah says that they that wait on the Lord “shall run and not be weary.”  There seems to be a way to work for God that does not tire us out so much. There are two ways to work. We can work out of our own strength and resources or out of God’s strength and resources. The first part of this passage speaks about God’s power. “The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.” God shares his power with us when we wait on him.

Finally Isaiah says, “They shall walk and not faint.”  The progression of this verse is interesting. It goes from flying on eagles wings to running and now to walking. The person here is slowing down! It is all right to slow down. We live in a fast paced society. Technology speeds up every year and we are expected to keep up with it. But it is alright if you are not flying or even running. Even eagles don’t fly all the time. Even runners stop running. It is alright to walk. And when we walk with the Lord, we will not faint. This is speaking about perseverance – spiritual perseverance. That is one of the lessons of this passage. The one who waits on the Lord perseveres to the end, because God gives us the power and strength to endure. 

This is important. Not everyone perseveres to the end. This is one of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith called the perseverance of the saints. It is not enough to start the race; we are also required to finish it. It seems to me that many Christians do not make it to the end. Many drop out. Many get tired. Some get bored. Some get distracted. The spiritual life used to interest them, but no longer. Some get discouraged. In fact this passage is directed toward those folks. Verse 27 says, “²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? Some people get upset and angry with God and think that God does not hear them or does not care. They used to soar and to run, but now they have stopped completely. That is why Isaiah ends the metaphor with walking. There is nothing wrong with walking as long as you keep walking with the Lord – as long as you persevere to the end of our pilgrimage here on earth.

²⁸ Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
³¹ But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.