watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5xwxuuwgMY&t=1624s
Sunday, August 23, 2020
We’re in this together. Every one of us is threatened by the
Coronavirus, affected when the economy slows down, and churches and schools
close or modify how things are done. We feel
the loss of sports on TV, going to the movies, or eating out with friends. My teenaged son laments, “I need some to hang
out with.”
We know the reality of bodily
sickness, economic pain, and death. Our
nation’s response has been politicized. One
says, “the media and politicians blow it all out of proportion. We should just get back to life as normal.” But someone else feels threatened by this virus;
he is scared and insulted when someone belittles it.
We’re all hit by this. We’re not all hit equally hard. By percentage, African Americans work in jobs
where (A) they can’t stay home, and (B) they can’t socially distance. I know of cases where African Americans’
concerns were dismissed by doctors. They
did not receive the same care white patients did. Poor people are more likely to live in food
deserts with little access to affordable nutritious foods, and thus are more
likely to have pre-existing conditions that leave them vulnerable to the virus.
Of
course, many African Americans can work from home, have good health coverage,
and are not overly vulnerable. Plenty of
white people have health conditions that render them vulnerable and cannot
avoid exposure because of their jobs. The
virus has punched us all in the gut.
We’re all reeling. Poorer folks have been hit harder. Due to generations of structural injustice
and systemic racism, a high of a percentage of the poor are black and brown
people. We’re God’s church, called to
care for everyone.
This gets thorny. The poor already have to deal with
poverty. The rich start the race several
laps ahead. Should they get sympathy and
care? Doesn’t their privilege exempt
them from the misery of the masses? What
does God say? What does God do? Consider the four short accounts in 2 Kings
chapter 4. The first two zoom in on
individuals suffering; the final two stories look at situations affecting the community.
In these stories, we see God at work. We all need him. Before him, we are all poor and lost in our
sin, in the fallen conditions of the world.
In 2 Kings 4, Elisha’s actions signal to us this crucial truth. God cares for all people, rich and poor,
individuals and groups. God meets us in
our individual experiences of suffering.
Consider
the woman who approaches Elisha. Her
husband was among that group we talked about last week, the company of
prophets. These were disciples of Elisha
learning to see the world as a prophet, to discern God’s word, and speak it
forcefully. This prophet’s wife found
herself in a dreadful, but legal dilemma.
Her
husband had died and a creditor took her two children as slaves. It sounds cruel, but it was normal practice
in ancient Israel, regulated in Mosaic law, Exodus 21:7. To get the children out of the slavery, the
woman had to pay her late husband’s debts.
All she had to her name was one jar of oil. She appealed to Elisha.
He
told the woman to borrow as many jars as she could get her hands on. She was to pour her oil into each jar, cup,
and bowl she had borrowed. Miraculously,
it flowed until every vessel was filled.
She sold all the oil, paid off all the debts, and lived off the money
that was left.
Through
his prophet, God gave the woman opportunity.
She had to find all those bowls, cups, and pots. She had to convince friends, neighbors, and
maybe strangers to loan the items to her.
She had to find buyers for the oil once she was ready to sell. Once she paid the creditor, she had to return
the pots and cups she borrowed, and then she had to manage the remaining money
wisely. If she ran through it, she’d
just become poor again.
God
empowered this poor woman in a time a distress.
We, God’s church, are called to see the suffering and use the resources
God has given us to empower people. God
responded to the needs of the dead prophet’s wife by working through
Elisha. Today, God works through the
church to respond to needs. We have to
be ready to be God’s instruments.
The
second account tells of a Shunamite woman who has become a benefactor for
Elisha, wealthy enough to give him space in her home. Elisha asked the poor dead prophet’s widow,
“What shall I do for you” (4:2), out of compassion. His gratitude leads him to ask this wealthy
supporter the same question. “What can I
do for you” (4:13)? She assures him she
needs nothing, but Elisha sees the gaping hole in her life. She is without a child, her husband is old
and frail, and no amount of money will get her pregnant.
Elisha
promises she will have a son within a year.
This sensible woman is grateful for this gift she never requested.
A
few years pass and the boy is in the field with his father, when he is struck
by a great pain in his head, possibly a rare brain aneurysm. The boy dies in his mother’s lap. She lays
him on the bed reserved for Elisha. Then
she rides as fast her donkey will travel to confront the prophet. It was not the customary time for seeing the
prophet, but she did not care. She
wasn’t waiting for the acceptable time. She
pushed past Elisha’s servant and got in his face.
Privileged
people do things like that. Her story is
not about privilege, per se. She is a
desperate mother who sees her son the way we should all see our children, as a
gift from God. She’s hurting and she
goes to the prophet with whom she has a relationship. But then, how did she get that
relationship? She was his benefactor.
How
would her actions look to another woman, a poor mother of sick child who waited
for new moon or the sabbath, the customary time for the prophet to receive
requests. The Shunamites husband
suggested she do it that way (4:23). Waiting
for the appointed time doesn’t apply to privileged people. It’s not that they intentionally ignore
boundaries; they just assume the right to go around them.
When my wife and I were looking into adoption we
received a promotional video from an agency. The video included the story
of a famous singer's wife. They were in the process of adopting a little
girl from China when the SARs outbreak occurred. She and her well-known husband were waiting for word
from China that they could go bring their daughter home. But
privileged people don’t wait.
In the video, the wife/mom, travels
to China before getting an appointment or approval. She gets a
hotel and visits the baby every day until she is approved to bring the child
home. The adoption agency presented this as a testament to her
fierce love for her adopted baby. It was that, but to me, it was also a
blatant example that not everyone waits the same way. Who can afford the
time and cost of traveling to China and getting a hotel room for as long as
necessary? I am glad this couple adopted children needing a home. A
lot of us who have gone through the process had the same aching wait,
but not the financial wherewithal to do what she did.
The
Shunamite woman, a person of wealth, did not wait. She demanded Elisha, not his servant, but the
prophet himself, go with her. Why does
his comply? He tells his servant, “She
is in bitter distress” (4:27). Her
prestige did not lessen her pain 1 iota.
Rich or poor, God sees when we hurt.
The prophet revived the deceased child and restored him to his
mother.
She
would still have to be a good parent to this boy and every parent knows that
raising a child involves heartbreak. Parents
can commiserate in their suffering, but each parent’s struggle, with all the big
and small losses is unique to that family.
The famous couple I referenced who traveled to China before the appointed
time are loving parents who have been hit with the worst of heartbreaks. Just as God carried them through the trials
of adoption, God comforted them when one of their five children died in an
accident.
God
is not selective with compassion, but rather gives it to the rich and poor in
abundance. We, the people of God’s
church, must name the inequities that separate rich and poor people. That gap is condemned by the prophets and
must be called out by us as well. We can
also be God’s voice of compassion for all people, recognizing that everyone
hurts and needs comfort; the haves, the have-nots, everyone. God has enough love for all and has put that
love in the church. We don’t need to dole it out selectively.
Second
Kings 4 closes with an account of famine.
The company of prophets gather around a stewpot, but one of them
inadvertently drops a poisonous weed into the pot. Elisha, miraculously cleanses the stew and
hungry people are able to eat.
We
had a mishap with our food pantry.
During the week, an entire freezer full of meat went bad. So, we threw it all out. We want to help people, not give them
salmonella. Then we shopped. On the food distribution day we passed out
what we had. And somehow, the ground
beef that had not spoiled never ran out.
We did our part. We hosted the pantry and welcomed all. God made sure there was enough.
In
the final story of 2 Kings 4, Elisha has to feed 100 people with 20
loaves. Impossible, obviously, but
Elisha tells his servant to keep passing out the food. His servant objects, but keeps on
distributing as Elisha instructed, and the bread never runs out. Like in the miracle of Jesus feeding 5000,
there are leftovers.
God
confronts injustice. God sees that all people hurt. All need Him and He has plenty of compassion
for the suffering rich person and the struggling poor person. We join together as one people in
Christ. We are united in our need for
God. And at the cross, we are all the
same in this sense. When you or I give
our hearts to Jesus, we are born again. We become new creations.
We
become the voice telling the Coronavirus, politically divided, racially fraught
world that God cares, and in Christ there is hope, there is love, and there is
peace. In 2 Kings, this message is lived
out in the actions of the prophet. We
see the same truth when the church is the church and people come to salvation
by meeting God in our words and actions.
AMEN
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