EXPECTATIONS UNFULFILLED, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

By

Eldridge E. Fleming, Ph.D.

New Hope Presbyterian Church

Rienzi, Mississippi

February 13, 2000

Children's Message:

Do you like to see lightning? John, do you like to see lightning? There is something about lightning that is very, very special. It starts way up in the sky and then it comes down with a bang, and if it hits something it really gives it a big electric shock. It can even destroy a tree. It can blow things apart.

I remember seeing a tree once -- a big tree -- out in the middle of a pasture and it had a hole in the middle. Guess what goes in a hole in a tree? Squirrels go in the hole in the tree. A rabbit may go in sometimes if the hole is down close to the ground. In this instance, it was a big tree -- maybe this big around -- and the lightning came along in a thunderstorm in the springtime like we're about to go into. The lightning hit the tree and the tree went in every direction. Big hunks of wood went everywhere and the tree was left with just a stump about this high. It was just blown apart.

The thing is, lightning is very powerful and it hits at different places. We don't ever know where it is going to hit next. So I suppose the lesson that we have consists of these two things:

One is that God is in charge of the lightning; but we need to stay out of the reach of the lightning if we can. That is the smart thing to do. What is it that we don't do? We don't go under a single tree that is out in the middle of the pasture. Have you ever heard that before? Don't go under a tree if it's the only tree around, because that is the highest point and may be where the lightning is going to hit. I want you to always remember that and go somewhere else.

Now there's another thing that I always do. I always pray. I like to see the lightning. I like to stand inside the house and watch the lightning outside. I've been out in the lightning and when that happens, I am always afraid. So I pray. I pray so I won't be afraid. Prayers always help us not to be afraid.

Okay? Now let's bow our heads together and have our prayer.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us rainy days when you wet down the ground, wash off the trees, made the grass to grow, and make everything nice and green and colorful. Flowers bloom and blossom. We thank you for the lightning, too, because it is beautiful to see. But we do pray that we not get hit. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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Our Old Testament reading is from 2 Kings, the fifth chapter, verses one through fourteen. It is one of those classic reports from the Old Testament, one that you will be familiar with, I am sure, when you hear it. And it will be the basis for the sermon this morning. It is the story that tells us what happened to one person in the life Elisha, and we'll say more about Elisha in a few moments. The story shows you information about the economic situation, about the political arena, and about religious beliefs; so let us take a look at this passage.

Our New Testament reading from the epistle is from I Corinthians, the ninth chapter, beginning at verse twenty-four and reading through the twenty-seventh.

Our gospel reading for the morning is from the first chapter of Mark, verses forty through forty-five. And if you can, would you stand with me for the reading of the gospel?

God's word for God's people. Thanks be to God.
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This has been two weeks in one for me. Some of you know how you make one week into two; that is, you just divide the week. You have something special go on in the middle of the week and it seems like you live before and after, and that is two weeks. That is the way I did this week. Martha and I had an opportunity to go to Jackson for a day and it was one of those things where I could get a spiritual boost and one where she could do the same, really, by visiting with a friend; so that was on Wednesday and it split the week up nicely. We've had two weeks in one, or it seemed that way anyway. It is good to see everyone and to know that people are progressing. We will say some more about that in a few moments.

Traveling, though, is a thing that fascinates me. In one of our bathrooms there is a calendar that hangs on the wall and it is there, by the way, for convenience so we can review what is coming up when we need to. I looked at the calendar and there is a picture. It's one of those that may be a Currier and Ives print and it shows a scene from the city. There is the nice clean city with rails for a street car coming down through the middle, and there are horses and carriages and buggies along on the side. Perhaps you have one of those pictures in your place, too. As you look at the picture, you can tell that it is an 1800s picture -- nineteenth century -- before the automobile, and I got to thinking about the modes of travel before the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

When we moved from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century, it was right at the time when automobiles came in; but as I looked at this picture I was astonished by something else. They, too, the civilizations before us -- our forefathers -- went through a great transition in the cities when they went from walking or harnessing the horses to walking out to the streetcar and getting on board and riding through the city. Think of the change that happened from taking care of an animal -- feeding it, providing for it, going in the cold and harnessing it up, getting the buggy and all of that -- and going out to go somewhere to get food or whatever. Change from that scene to leaving your apartment or your home, walking a short way to the rail line, getting on the streetcar, going to get what you need and coming back.
That was a big change in the way people did things, and then we changed from that -- streetcars in the big cities and some of them still have them -- to the automobile. That was a big change. Of course, street cars didn't go everywhere people wanted to go, but we have unlimited versatility and variance with our automobile -- even can get them nowadays on top of water tanks. I don't know how they get them up there unless it's with the help of helicopters; but they are trying to tell you that that SUV will go places that you wouldn't believe, like climbing mountains too steep to climb and water towers with steps too narrow. Anyway, it's a big change.

So what happened? Street cars gradually became fewer in number, horses and buggies were gone, and we went by car, and we traveled fast. I can remember when there were no such thing as an interstate highway. Today we can't go anywhere without being on one of those smooth surfaces, and I complain that I can't sail along at seventy miles an hour on 78 without bumping every once in a while between here and Memphis. Travel has changed. We now go to an airport and get on an airplane and we fly somewhere; we go thousands of miles in a few hours. Quick travel.

Well, if you go back with me now, back through the centuries to the time of Naaman, you'll find that he didn't travel that way. He didn't even have springs on his surrey, but he did have a chariot. Now if you think about how Naaman traveled to get down to where he could see the king of Israel -- the northern kingdom -- and try to find that prophet man, he traveled -- probably -- in a chariot.

I've never driven a chariot, but we refer to our cars that way sometimes; but that's not really the real thing. I've never really driven a buggy, but I have driven a lot of farm animals. Perhaps you've had the smell of the sweat of the animals as they worked for you, you've had the strict discipline of controlling the animal under all circumstances, and making the animals obey. You've had all the other smells that go with animals and you know something of what Naaman would have experienced.

Naaman was going to travel some distance -- fifty or sixty miles, maybe a hundred or a hundred and fifty. I don't know how far it is from Damascus down to Samaria, but it is a long way. So he sets out in this chariot. That was his means of traveling. Martha and I went from Tupelo to Jackson in an hour and twenty minutes, but we weren't on the highway. It took Naaman a long time to get there, several days perhaps, because all of you know that a horse can only go so far before they have to stop and rest. Can you imagine standing in a chariot -- maybe even if he had a driver? It was not a fast way to get there, but it was faster than walking and a lot easier.
Naaman was somebody special. He was the commander of the armed forces. He was the chief of staff. He had some power, some clout. He was one of those persons who knew how to swing a sword. No doubt he had killed many people in his day. He had power in his muscles, favor from the king; but something was happening to him that was special and unique. He had a spot on his skin. That spot was growing, and the word in the Hebrew for that spot could mean something any skin disease. But could get to be fatal if not treat. But it can be fatal. Leprosy can be fatal, certain types, and Naaman had a serious illness. Into that life of his that seemed to be going so well came this bombshell.

In Israel as time passed he would have been an outcast. He would have been socially ostracized and would have had to live by himself away from others and could have only associated with other lepers. But in Syria he was important to his king and maybe the king didn't have that attitude. Into that mix of authority and power and dangerousness -- all of that -- came this disease.

No doubt he discussed it with his wife and his wife, being a general's wife, had some privileges and prerogatives and she had a maid, someone to help her with the housework. Now don't get the image of housework like we think of housework, for this was a different sort -- cooking and gathering and all of that, mending, and so on -- and in a house that wouldn't be like yours at all.

This girl was there. Her life was messed up as well, because there was a peace treaty between the northern kingdom of Israel -- as it was called -- and Syria. The border between them had bands of marauders that would go back and forth. The army had come and conquered Israel and Israel was a vassal state to Syria, so the king at Damascus could say to the king of Israel, "I want this done," and the king of Israel would do his best to do it. In this way they had peace and could communicate with one another in a relatively peaceful manner.

But this girl had been taken and made a slave, and in her mistress's presence she could hear and understand this discussion about Naaman's skin spots. She said, "O, that my master could see the prophet in Samaria." Samaria was the capital of Israel. No doubt Naaman's wife told him about this and he went to his king and told him he'd like to go down and check this out, and the king said, "By all means, go." So Naaman lined up a cadre of soldiers and chariots and other people to go with him and to take presents.

Now I want you that are good at math to do a little calculating for me. I calculated this and had the figures all ready, but found out that I had reversed silver and gold and you just can't do that. The price isn't right when you do it that way. One talent is seventy-five pounds, and seventy-five pounds has twelve hundred ounces. The king sent ten talents and that is seven hundred and fifty of silver. Silver, this morning on the New York Stock Exchange was listed at $5.28 an ounce. Did you get all that? That's a lot of silver. And he sent one hundred fifty pounds of gold at $310.00 an ounce. Besides that, he sent ten changes of clothing for the king. Quite a dowry, if he was going to put it in that category.

So here Naaman goes, looking for the prophet in Samaria, and he goes to the king. Naaman gets to the king, the king reads the letter, he tears his clothes off and asks, "Why is he trying to pick a fight with me? Does he think I'm God?" You see, they knew that only God could heal such a disease -- if it was cancer, certainly the case; if it was leprosy, certainly the case -- and the king is very upset.

Now I don't know about you, but I always think of Elijah as being the big guy. After all, he called down from heaven the fire and burned the altars on Mt. Carmel. He took a sword and by himself, whacked off four hundred prophets on his own. So I think of Elijah as being the tough one; but history seems to think that Elisha was even tougher. Elisha was quite cool about this whole thing. He just sent word up to the king, "Send him to me." Now here's the general, the conquering general, of this country and Elisha said, "Send him to me. I'll take care of him. Let me show him that there is a prophet in Israel."

So here we go. You can just see it. Naaman riding in his chariot, standing in his chariot, and all of this entourage is with him. The king of Israel didn't take any of the money. He was upset. Naaman's going on. He's got all of this good stuff with him. He finds Elisha's house. Elisha is not intimidated by Naaman. He doesn't even show his face. He just sends one of his prophet-students out to tell Naaman to go wash -- go get a bath -- and don't do it just once, do it seven times and you'll be okay.

But that is not what Naaman expected. Naaman's expectations were quite different. As you read that, it becomes quite obvious that Naaman had his own list of expectations and his expectations were unfulfilled. Look at it. "I thought that for me," me, the general, "I thought for me, he would surely come out of his house and he would stand and call the Lord to come down. At least, I thought that he would call on the name of his God and would wave his hand over the spot." You know, if it was on his arm, on his neck, on his chest -- wherever it was -- at least he would wave his hand over the spot, and thereby would cure the leprosy. That is what Naaman expected.

How many of us have our expectations of how God is supposed to work? "I expect this." Well, Elisha was not intimidated. When the messenger told him what he was to do, he came back in. Naaman's left out there standing in his chariot, standing on the ground -- wherever he is -- and you can just see his color changing. I mean, he is getting fumed. He wants to know why he has to go down there and dip in the Jordan.

The Jordan was not exactly a spring branch running clear. In the springtime it was very muddy. It would flood. It was not a nice river to get into; it had contamination in it and everything else. So Naaman says, "I've got to go down to that dirty river. Why can't I take a bath in the beautiful, crystal clear rivers in Damascus? Why the Jordan?" And he, in a rage, turned to leave. Oh, friends, please get the implication. When God doesn't do things the way we sometimes want them done, we give up and turn and leave in a rage. Naaman left in a rage.

But some of his servants, some of those people around him -- perhaps the chariot driver in there with him -- said, "Father, if he had asked you to do something difficult, would you have done it?" Well, he got Naaman's attention. The next verse says, "He went down to the Jordan and immersed himself seven times." He got in the river and ducked under seven times, and then he stood up and walked out. When he walked out and he looked at the spot, the spot was as clean as a little boy's skin. His mission was accomplished, but his expectations were unfulfilled.

The rest of the story is that Naaman was so impressed and so grateful that he went back to Elisha and apologized and offered him all kinds of stuff. But Elisha didn't take any of it. Expectations unfulfilled, mission accomplished. Sometimes it is so hard for us to keep our eyes on what we are here to do, to stay focused on our mission, and if our expectations aren't met, we get distracted. Let us not ever do that; let us stay focused on what God has for each of us to do in our days and in our nights. In the name of Christ. Amen.