Sermon Archive

Wealth, fame, power, success, honor- you name it, Namaan had it. Unfortunately, he had one other thing too- leprosy. When a young slave girls suggests he go to his enemies God for relief, Namaan is desperate enough to try it. After learning some hard lessons about humility and how God works, Namaan finds healing- and the reality of the one, true God. Namaan’s desperation, healing, and eventual return to his home teach us much about God, our own story, and our suffering.

Sometimes stories in the Bible can leave us scratching our heads and asking, “What just happened?” The end of Elijah’s ministry and the beginning of Elisha’s ministry is full of stories that can seem flat-out strange. Some of those stories give us no explanation or means of understanding what is going one, but some give us an insight to how God works and what he intends to do through Elisha. From both Elijah and Elisha’s ministries, we must see that God is not limited by what makes sense to us or even how we might have done it. Instead, we must learn from a God that does things on his own terms for his own purposes in his own way.

There are two different, often conflicting views of life. One believes that we can write our own story and decide what our “verse” will be that we contribute to the world (see Walt Whitman). The other says we have no control of “who lives, who dies, who tells our story.” (See Lin Manuel Miranda). Who is right? What would you want your contribution to be? What story do you want your life to tell? What happens if your story is forgotten or told differently than you’d want? All these questions are at the heart of a bible story about truth, injustice, oppression, and the sovereignty of God- and some of the stories might just surprise you.

Oftentimes in life we don’t recognize the things that we need the most. We go through our lives thinking about the temporary, the urgent, and the things we “feel” like we need. The things that are truly most important are left in the background or completely unnoticed. Fortunately, God did not wait on us to realize our need before he sought to meet it. We may not even know what a priest did in the Kingdom of God, but it’s exactly what we needed and God provided it at exactly the right time- when we weren’t even asking for one.

Jesus almost never lives up to our expectations. That tells us more about our shortcomings than it does about his mission. Time and time again in the gospels, Jesus does things the disciples simply never saw coming. The story of the Good Samaritan is a story that makes a Samaritan the hero when just a few verses before, the disciples wanted to destroy a Samaritan village with fire from Heaven. Like the disciples, and like Elijah before them, we simply don’t/can’t understand all that God is doing. That’s true in our own lives, but it was revealed most clearly as Jesus made his way to the cross. It’s there that we learn to live our lives according to the way of the cross, a path we’d never choose for ourselves.

Micaiah comes and goes in the Biblical story so fast he’s easy to miss. But while we don’t know that much about the prophet, his time in the limelight of 1 Kings 22 leaves a lasting impression. Caught between a hard truth and the notorious Ahab, King of Israel, it’s impossible not to put ourselves in Micaiah’s shoes when we read his story. Will we choose the truth or what is popular? The stakes are just as high today as they were then.

There are few things that hurt more than when someone else is chosen over you. No matter the ways we try to rationalize or minimize the sting, it’s never fun to be that person. It’s made even worse when you’ve done everything right, and you should be the right choice. How do we handle it when God is the one that moves on to the next guy; when someone else’s life seems to get all the blessings and we get little if anything? It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but a necessary lesson for us all to learn.

Sometimes life can drive us to a breaking point. We can give, and strive, and work, and scheme, only to feel like we’re going nowhere. It can be enough to make us ask the question, “What’s the point?” Elijah was there. He had done everything right, yet no one seemed to listen. When Elijah was ready to quit, God didn’t walk away. In fact, God pursued him. Not only that, God spoke to him. Not only that, God spoke to him in a tender, intimate way. It may not have been what Elijah was looking for, but it was exactly what Elijah needed.

Rain, fire, dueling gods, kings, and prophets. This story has it all. At its essence though, it’s a picture of the very same battle we all have raging in our own hearts. We dance to appease our false gods only to hear silence. Elijah’s challenge is pointed squarely at us- will we choose a God that hears us or gods that respond in silence? Will we follow gods that demand our performance? Or taste and see that God is good? Whichever we choose, Elijah is clear, we must choose.

God’s provision often comes from places we would never expect. And while we may not no where to look for it, we do know what he looks for in us. The Widow at Zarephath was an unexpected source of provision for Elijah, just as Elijah was an unexpected source for the widow. But for both of them, God made it clear, He wanted them to show their complete faith in Him. When they had given all of themselves, God gave them everything they needed.

A nobody from nowhere. That’s the man that would become the most significant prophet since Moses and until Jesus. What is it about this guy Elijah that would prompt God to use him as a figure for hope during centuries of silence? We get a peak of what he is all about in the very first verse that introduces him. We see this nobody from nowhere is ready to draw battle lines with anyone- so long as he can stand on the word of God.

Big moments capture our attention and our emotion. We spend our lives fretting over these big moments, but it’s only when we reflect back on our lives that we realize it’s the moments we didn’t even know were happening that really set the tone for what our lives become. We would do well to examine those moments mindfully. However, an examined life is not the sum total of the Christian life- God’s faithfulness insures our lives are more than just a sum total of our moments.