COMMUNITY CHURCH OF THE MONTEREY PENINSULA
P. O. BOX 222811
CARMEL CA 93922
(831) 624-8595
www.ccmp.org
Rev. Paul Wrightman, Pastor
Independent and United Church of Christ
August 9, 2020
Dear Friends,
Immediately after sending this to you, I’ll be emailing you Heidi Quandt’s virtual altar flowers for the week. Another blue ribbon winner!
And after Heidi’s flowers, you’ll be receiving a very important message from George Brehmer, President of our Board of Directors, concerning our upcoming August Members & Friends meeting. Please read this carefully, as Covid19 dictates that we follow a different procedure this year.
Dolores Joblon wanted me to share some news about the men’s I Help program with you: This Wednesday CCMP will provide the meal for the 15 men who are sheltering in place at another church on the peninsula. We have a small group of dedicated volunteers who are providing the meal for the men and will continue to do so until they return to our facility. All is going well with the I Help program and we are looking forward to the men’s return to our church.
After several less-than-successful starts, I’ve had two Zoom tutorials with Helmut Schonwalder, the person who services the computers for CCMP. We’re finally set to go! We meet on Wednesday evenings from 6 through 7. The great thing about Zoom is that enables us to SEE and HEAR each other! If you would like to give this a try please email me at paulccmp@yahoo.com and I will be sure that you get a link.
We continue our sermon series on the most important texts in the Bible from Genesis through Revelation.
Always remember that Jesus Is Emmanuel – God WITH Us! Paul
WORSHIP SERVICE FOR AUGUST 9, 2020
INTRODUCTORY READING Leslie Weatherhead, 1883-1975
My mind is happy today in the thought that I am God’s child in God’s world to do God’s work within God’s will.
This is to be a day of joy and optimism and courage. From all negative thoughts my mind resolutely turns away.
The Spirit of God is working within my body to bring health, and in my mind to bring serenity, and I am one with that Spirit. I am not apart from, or disapproved of, or turned away by, God. No impostor-fears shall let me think I am.
I affirm the reality of health and peace and love within me because God dwells therein.
SUGGESTED MUSIC Peace My Friends Folk Mass Ray Repp 1966 You Tube
OPENING PRAYER St. Augustine, 354-430
God of our life,
there are days when the burdens we carry
chafe our shoulders and weigh us down;
when the road seems dreary and endless,
the skies gray and threatening;
when our lives have no music in them,
our hearts are lonely,
and our souls have lost their courage.
Flood the path with light, we beseech Thee;
turn our eyes to where the skies are full of promise;
tune our hearts to brave music;
give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age;
and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage
all who journey with us on the road to life.
Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING: 2 Kings 6:8-23, NRSV
Once when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he took counsel with his officers. He said, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” But the man of God [Elisha] sent word to the king of Israel, “Take care not to pass this place, because the Arameans are going down there.” The king of Israel sent word to the place of which the man of God spoke. More than once or twice he warned such a place so that it was on the alert.
The mind of the king of Aram was greatly perturbed because of this; he called his officers and said to them, “Now tell me who among us sides with the king of Israel?” Then one of his officers said, “No one, my lord king. It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber.” He said, “Go and find where he is; I will send and seize him.” He was told, “He is in Dothan.” So he sent horses and chariots there and a great army; they came by night, and surrounded the city.
When an attendant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. His servant said, “Alas, master! What shall we do?” He replied, “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.” Then Elisha prayed: “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. When the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, please, with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked. Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to [the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel] Samaria.
As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O Lord, open the eyes of these men so that they may see.” The Lord opened their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them he said to Elisha, “Father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?” He answered, “No! Did you capture with your sword and your bow those whom you want to kill? Set food and water before them
so that they may eat and drink, and let them go to their master.” So he prepared for them a great feast; after they ate and drank, he sent them on their way, and they went to their master. And the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of Israel.
SERMON: GOD’S ALTERNATIVE VISION OF REALITY
2 Kings 6:8-23
Rev. Paul Wrightman
(The underlinings simply indicate what I would emphasize if delivered orally.)
Since one of our themes today is “Do not be afraid,” I’d like to begin by sharing a story from the book Spot of Grace, edited by Dawna Markova, co-creator of the movement “Random Acts of Kindness.”
In this book, Paul Houston writes:
“About ten years ago, I was on a plane going west, and a young woman boarded and sat across the aisle from me. …She was holding a teddy bear about half her size. After she sat down, I teased her by asking if she had a ticket for the bear. She laughed and said no, and we settled into the hermetically sealed bubbles that airline passengers adopt to create privacy around themselves.
About halfway through the flight she popped the bubble by leaning over and saying, ‘I just told that man sitting by the window a lie. He asked me why I was going to Tucson, and I told him to visit relatives, but I am really going to enter rehab.’ She proceeded to share her life story with me, which included family issues, abuse, and drug use. She had been working as an exotic dancer. . .that lifestyle had led her down a dark path to drugs, alcohol, and offers of prostitution and pornography.
As I listened to her story, I marveled at all she had gone through. . . In spite of all this, there was a sweet resilience to her, a clarity about what had gone wrong in her life, and a determination to turn it around.
I listened to all she shared and told her I was sure she was going to make it, based on her story and demeanor. At the end of the flight, she thanked me for listening to her and told me I had saved her life. I smiled at her exuberance and wished her well.
A few years later, I got a note in the mail saying, “Wow, it’s been five years since we met on that plane taking me to rehab. I thought you might like to know how I am doing. It is amazing how you touched my life. I will never forget you.’
She went on to tell me that she had managed to stay away from drugs, had been working for a radio station, and had recently gotten engaged. She felt she had achieved things she could not have imagined that day on the plane.
It turned out that I was going to be traveling to the city to which she had moved, and we agreed to set up a time to get together. When I saw her, she was still the attractive young woman I remembered, but this time she dressed elegantly, with a poise and confidence found in few twenty-five-year-olds.
She hugged me and told me I was her guardian angel and that little conversation we had had turned her life around. She had boarded the plane doubting anything would work in her life, and my affirmation of her as a person and of her possibilities had given her the last bit of strength she needed to work through her problems.
While that exchange had proved to be a spot of grace for her, I think it was an even greater one for me. I am quite sure that I said nothing profound or meaningful on that flight. What made all the difference was taking the time to connect to her, one spirit to another. It reminded me that we are all here to act as angels to each other. . .”
This simple yet powerful story of one person profoundly affecting the life of another for good without even being aware of it at the time could not help but echo for me Elisha’s words to his servant, “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.”
Elisha, of course, was talking about more unseen soldiers – horses and chariots of fire – on his side than on the side of his enemy. But using the interpretive principle that we are challenged to apply biblical texts to ourselves, we can retranslate “enemies” to “fears” and celebrate the fact that just as God provided for Elisha and his servant “horses and chariots of fire,” God will provide us with the often unseen forces that we need to make it through our impossible times, and that God may very well call us to serve as a positive intervening force in the lives of others.
Last Sunday, looking at the prophet Elijah’s slaughter of the 450 priests of Baal, we saw God calling Elijah to Mt. Sinai – basically for a “dressing-down.” God demonstrated to Elijah how God was not to be found in the violence of a mountain-shattering wind; not to be found in the violence of an earthquake; and not to be found in the violence of a consuming fire. Instead, God’[s presence was to be found in the nonviolent possibilities of a “still, small voice.”
Last week, as well, we talked about the interpretive principle of biblical topography, and how, if we were to compare different biblical texts with the different elevations represented on the topographical maps used for backpacking and mountain climbing, the “still, small voice” text would be right up there with Mt. Whitney and Mt. Shasta.
It would be right up there with these mountains because it shows us something of God’s deepest heart, it shows us something of God’s own profound yearning for peace.
On the other hand, the rousing story of Elijah’s slaughter of the 450 priests of Baal, reflecting the opposite of God’s longing for love toward one’s enemy, would be right down there in terms of elevation, right down there with Death Valley.
Our Scripture reading for today is another high-elevation text. I would give it an even higher elevation than last week’s reading – let’s compare it to Mt. McKinley in Denali National Park in Alaska. Why? --Because it is so entirely out-of-sync with the politics of Elisha’s day, or, for that matter, so entirely out-of-sync with the politics of our day.
For me today’s text is a key example of how God subverts the violence ascribed to and projected onto God in the Bible.
God does this by sharing with us an alternative to the reigning violence of Elisha’s time – and ours.
Part of the subversiveness of this story is the fact that it never happened.
In the midst of the historical books of the Hebrew Scriptures, where violence reigned supreme – and where we have plenty of archaeological evidence and historical records attesting to this violence – we have today’s provocative story of an enemy army that was captured by the prophet Elisha, brought into the city of Samaria, and instead of being slaughtered there, was treated to a feast and sent home in peace.
In addition to there being no historical evidence that this story really happened, we have clues to this effect in the text itself. Notice how the two opposing kings, the king of Aram and the king of Israel, are not named, but simply generically called “the king of Aram” and “the king of Israel.” This is highly unusual, given the fact that kings, then as well as now, insist on hearing their names mentioned as often as possible.
What I want to suggest is that God is providing us, through the prophet Elisha, with an alternative vision of reality, a nonviolent vision of reality which God would like to see become standard operating procedure for us humans, instead of the various forms of violence which we are so skilled at creating and enacting.
I would like to suggest that this is a teaching story sent to us by God through the prophet Elisha, a teaching story which gives us an “inside view,” so to speak, of God’s own heart, and of God’s deep desire for us to make peace, not war.
The gist of the story goes like this:
The king of Aram and the king of Israel are at war. Nothing unusual about this -- war was the normal state of things between the king of Israel and the king of Aram.
The king of Aram is angry because the prophet Elisha is clairvoyant, able to see the troop movements of his army, and reports them to the king of Israel who is then able to ward off any surprise attack.
So the king of Aram decides to go after the prophet Elisha, surrounding him in the city of Dothan with his vast army.
Then we have the account of Elisha’s servant arising early in the morning, seeing the army surrounding the city, and shrieking to Elisha, “Alas, master! What shall we do?”
It is at this point that Elisha tells his servant not to be afraid, asks God to open his eyes, which God does, and the servant is able to see that he and Elisha are protected by an army of “horses and chariots of fire” that vastly outnumbers the army of their enemy.
The story continues with a bit of playful dark humor, having Elisha asking God to temporarily blind the enemy forces, which God dutifully does. Elisha then leads the army of the king of Aram straight into the fortified city of Samaria, the capital of the king of Israel, the king of Aram’s mortal enemy.
The soldiers’ eyes are opened – and we can imagine their astonishment and fear at finding themselves snugly within the walls of the capital city of their greatest enemy.
The king of Israel, amazed at his good fortune, wants, of course, to slaughter the enemy army within his walls. But Elisha talks him into throwing a feast for them instead, and they wind up leaving the city in peace.
Our story ends with the idyllic statement “And the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of Israel.”
How sad that this story was never able to be played out in the realm of history.
How wonderful, however, that God plays out this story in God’s mind and heart, and shares it with Elisha, who, in turn, shares it with us.
How wonderful that through the vehicle of this story, we get, as it were, a glimpse into the inner workings of God, and that glimpse reveals to us a God who is just as deeply into creative nonviolence as Jesus.
It’s almost as if God reluctantly allows the historical books of the Hebrew Scriptures to tell us the tragic story of what was, while through today’s text – and a significant number of other texts scattered like lone mountain peaks throughout the Hebrew Scriptures -- God graces us with an alternative vision, a vision of what could have been, a vision of what God is still hoping and waiting will become real in historical reality, and not just in God’s dreams.
You can see how the mere inclusion of this story within the Hebrew Scriptures is deeply subversive of all the violence contained therein, violence often attributed to God.
In essence, God is telling us yet again: “Stop projecting your own violence onto me. If you really want to find me, the real me, you can find me in the form of a “still, small voice;” you can find me in this tall tale of my prophet leading an army into the citadel of their arch enemy, and having their arch enemy throw a feast of food for them, instead of feasting on their slaughter.”
Two hugely significant things are taking place in today’s Scripture reading:
First, we get a glimpse into the very heart of God, and see there not violence, but a profound yearning for peace.
Second, we are invited to take Elisha’s statement to his servant that “There are more with us than there are with them,” and apply it to ourselves, affirming the fact that God’s often unseen forces of resurrection, truth, goodness, beauty, faith, hope, grace, and love are surrounding us and delivering us from all sorts of seemingly impossible situations in our lives.
The implication is that if God is constantly providing us with all these good things, then we are challenged to share these same realities with others.
I’d like to end this sermon in the same way that it began, with another story from the book Spot of Grace, this one from Nancy Margules, who writes:
“In August of 1998, boarding a Greyhound bus heading from Boulder to Denver, I noticed a young. . .woman standing in line. . .
As we climbed on, she noticed the silver bracelet I was wearing. ‘I like your bracelet,” she said. ‘Thanks. I bought it in Mexico recently,’ I explained.
She told me that this thin silver chain was just the type of bracelet she’d been looking for. I offered to give her mine.
‘Oh, no, I couldn’t,’ was her immediate response. ‘Maybe I can buy it from you,’ she suggested. ‘Look,’ I said, ‘What would be more fun – buying a bracelet from a total stranger or receiving a gift from a total stranger?’
She admitted that the gift would be much better. I took the bracelet off my wrist and put it on hers. It looked great.
We found seats, one behind the other, and there was no more conversation.
Leaving the bus, the young woman handed me a piece of notebook paper folded several times into a neat square. I thanked her and stuck it in my back pocket. A few hours later I remembered the paper and read it. In pencil she had written:
Dear Miss: Today was an important day for me. You see, I am going out into the world without the protection of my family to see what it is like. Soon I will be going off to college, and today I am trying out being on my own away from home. Thank you so much for being the first person I was to meet. God bless. A stranger.
Nancy Margules continues: I have her note framed on my wall. [It’s] one of my favorite possessions. Perhaps I was born to welcome that young woman into the world of strangers. I may have been sent to Denver that day not to see my sister but to meet that one person on the bus. I’ll never know. But from that meeting on, I was clear that the best way for me to live is to treat every event, each stranger, as a potential opportunity to act as an agent of the divine.”
Wow – “To act as an agent of the divine,” sharing with others something of God’s acceptance and affirmation, something of God’s goodness and peace, something of God’s grace and love and beauty.
Isn’t this what it’s all about?
--God sure seems to think so.
Amen.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
What additional texts do you know from the Hebrew Scriptures that you would consider to be “mountaintop” texts?
What is the “enemy army” that you are facing in your life right now? How can you defeat that “army” with God’s help?
CLOSING PRAYER Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179
Translated by Stephen Mitchell
Holy Spirit,
giving life to all life,
moving all creatures,
root of all things,
washing them clean,
wiping out their mistakes,
healing their wounds,
you are our true life,
luminous, wonderful,
awakening the heart
from its ancient sleep.
SUGGESTED MUSIC Joan Baez – We Shall Overcome
(BBC Television Theatre, London – June 5, 1965) You Tube
BENEDICTION
Patiently and persistently, God loves.
Relentlessly and unconditionally, God loves.
Now and forever, God loves.
AMEN.