Facing
Opposition
Last
week, Elijah fled for his life to Mt. Horeb. There he heard the voice of the
Lord not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, in the sound of
silence. The Lord called Elijah back to work, commanding him to anoint Elisha to
take his place. So, Elijah set out to find Elisha. When he found Elisha
plowing, he threw his mantle over him. Elisha understood, left his plowing, and
ran after Elijah. Then Elisha asked if he could take leave of his parents,
saying “Then I will follow you.” But
Elijah’s response challenged him to count the cost of discipleship and make a
clean break with anything that would prevent his undivided attention. Jesus
made the same response to the man who told him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Count the cost of discipleship
before you commit.
Elijah and
Elisha make a farewell journey to all the Holy places. Unlike Jesus’ disciples
who never seemed to understand that Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem would lead to
his crucifixion and death, all of Elijah’s disciples seemed to know that the
time had come for Elijah to be taken up into heaven. Then, as Elijah and Elisha
stood by the Jordan River, Elijah parted the waters with his mantle (like Moses
and Joshua before him), and the two men crossed to the other side. When Elijah
offered a last gift to Elisha, Elisha asked for a double share of Elijah’s
spirit. After the miracles which Elijah had performed, perhaps Elisha felt
he needed a double portion of Elijah’s prophetic spirit in order to be worthy
to succeed him. Do we feel the same
way? Do we wonder if we can live up to
the faithful witness of our predecessors? Do we doubt our
capacities to grow and sustain this church?
A double portion of his Spirit was not Elijah’s to give, but he told
Elisha that he would know God had granted his request if Elisha saw Elijah
being taken up. Elisha watched as a chariot and horses of fire took Elijah up
into heaven in a whirlwind. Then Elisha took Elijah’s mantel and stuck the
Jordan River and the waters parted for him just as they had parted for Elijah, and
Moses and Joshua before him.
Just as
Elisha was not on his own because the one who laid down the mantle had gone
before: So, we are never on our own. We have a rich heritage, as well as
memories of those who established this church, to sustain us. The mantle our
forefathers have passed down to us will not enable us to part waters, but it
does require and enable faithful discipleship. We are the recipients of the
cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. Let us resolve to stand firmly
on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.
There are
many similarities between Elijah and Jesus. Both Elijah and Jesus raised a
widow’s son from the dead. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, the
Lord has power over life and death, and the capacity to give life.
Both
Jesus and Elijah listened to the guidance of God and were totally obedient. Traveling
in obedience to God’s call is a central message throughout the Bible. Both
Elijah and Jesus were taken up into heaven. That must cause us to stop and
think. Apparently, God’s decision to take us up to heaven is not restricted
to Christians. All who hear God’s direction in their lives and follow it
with obedience, no matter what the cost are welcomed by God.
There
are also differences in the Biblical understanding of obedience. In the Old
Testament, up until the story of Job, disobedience to God is assumed to lead to
punishment. The book of Job teaches us that bad things can happen to good
people. The bad things that happen to us are not punishments from God. Then, in
the New Testament, it is the obedient one, Jesus, who is punished. And
that becomes the pattern for Christian disciples.
There are
also important differences between Elijah and Jesus. Elijah killed all the
prophets of Baal, and in the first chapter of 2 Kings (preceding our reading
for today), Elijah called down fire from heaven to destroy his enemies. When
James and John suggested calling down fire to consume a village that refused to
offer hospitality to Jesus, Jesus rebuked them and went on to another
village—in clear contrast to Elijah’s actions. For Jesus to attempt to find
hospitality in a Samaritan village was unusual. When he did this he was
extending a hand of friendship to a people who were enemies. In this case not
only was hospitality refused but the offer of friendship was spurned. No doubt,
therefore, James and John believed they were doing a praiseworthy thing when they
offered to call in divine aid to blot out the village. But Jesus would not permit it.
The
image of God we see in the story of Elijah is not the same as the image of God
we see in the life of Jesus. Jesus was considerably gentler with those who
opposed his ministry than Elijah but Jesus is considerably harder on his
disciples.
William Barclay suggests there is no
passage in which Jesus so directly teaches the duty of tolerance as this.[1] Tolerance has become a defect to many
Christians today. Barclay holds up John Wesley as a model of tolerance,
“I have no more right”, John Wesley
said, to object to a man for holding a
different opinion from mine than I have to differ with a man because he wears a
wig and I wear my own hair;” Wesley
wrote in his diary, “The thing which I
resolved to use every possible method of preventing was a narrowness of spirit,
a party zeal, . . .—that miserable bigotry which makes many so unready to
believe that there is any work of God but among themselves. . .We think and let
think.” When his nephew, Samuel, the son of his brother Charles, entered
the Roman Catholic Church, John Wesley wrote to him, “Whether in this Church or that I care not. You may be saved in either
or damned in either;”
Following
Jesus was too hard for several who saw Jesus and thought it would be a fine
thing to follow him. They want to
follow, but have conditions attached.
Are they ready to drop what they’re doing and come right away? The obligation to bury one’s father was
regarded by many Jews of the time as the most holy and binding duty of a son’;
but Jesus says that that, too, is secondary to the call to follow him and
announce God’s kingdom.
What
kinds of resistances does Jesus’ call stir up in us? I would venture to guess that we are all
resisting Jesus’ call in one way or another.
Placing our priorities, our needs, our efforts above the call to be
still and listen to discern God’s will and then to be obedient no matter where
it takes us. How we resist Jesus says much
about what we actually consider more important.
It identifies our allegiances.
And it gives us a basis to confess, repent, and learn to grow, if we
will. Our resistance, our self-will is what Paul means by “sins of the flesh”. Of the 15 sins Paul lists, only one is a sexual
sin, “fornication” (Galatians 5:19-22).
The rest refer to behaviors that arise out of our self-indulgence.
If we
seek to follow Jesus we will surely encounter opposition. It may be obvious
or hidden, mild or severe. But opposition is sure to come. Not all the
opposition we will face will come from the world. The opposition may come from
within us—what God is asking us to do may seem way too hard, way too risky, or
even impossible. We’re old, we’re tired, we’ve done our share. But did you ever
notice how many of the people in the Bible God calls are really old! Not
all—David was certainly young when he slew Goliath. But Abraham and Sarah,
Moses, and Joshua were well past mid-life.
The
opposition may come from our church members or other Christians. “The conviction that our beliefs and our
methods ALONE are correct has been the cause of more tragedy and distress in
the Church than almost any other thing.” [2]There
are many ways to God. He has his own secret way into every heart. He
accomplishes his will for good in many ways; and no individual or church has
a monopoly on his truth.
The
United Methodist church is currently struggling with this issue. The official
position of the international church is that homosexuality is a sin and,
therefore, no United Methodist minister can marry a homosexual couple and no
United Methodist bishop can ordain or appoint a homosexual as pastor of a
church. Yet the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church (along with
the New England Conference and the Indiana Conference) has affirmed a statement
of “Gospel Disobedience” which asserts that the United Methodist Church is in
error on the subject of “homosexuality’s
incompatibility with Christian teaching” and therefore, bishops, clergy,
local churches and ministry settings should operate as if the statement does
not exist. Cases can still be brought to the judicial counsel, but bishops are seeking
to mediate rather than judge pastors on this issue.
At our
recent Pacific Northwest Conference, by an overwhelming vote, we
·
reaffirmed our previous position to work for full
civil and ecclesiastical rights and privileges of all persons and to declare
our opposition to restrictions of church laws on the participation of LGBTQ
people in the UMC.
·
affirmed and embraced the concept of “Gospel
Disobedience” which was adopted by the 2012 Western Jurisdictional Conference.
·
Affirmed and embraced the 2012 Western Jurisdiction
Conference resolution that the penalty for those convicted of the offense of
ordaining or appointing a self-avowed practicing homosexual is a suspension of
24 consecutive hours and that those clergy found guilty of performing or using
a UMC building for a same sex marriage receive the same suspension.
I wanted
to share with you my most important experience of the pain of the church’s
opposition to homosexuality. It speaks not
to the pain of homosexuals or their children or parents or brothers or sisters.
I’ve had several experiences, but this one
was the most painful and speaks to a pain which has so far gone unmentioned. I share it partly to suggest that hate always hurts
far more than we ever recognize.
My best
friend married a homosexual. She was a beautiful person both inside and out.
She and her husband deeply loved each other, they raised two children and
remained together until she died. But throughout her married life, she lived
with the pain of knowing that she was not sexually attractive to her husband.
This pain caused her to put on more and more weight, perhaps she was eating for
comfort, perhaps she was seeking to ensure she was not sexually attractive to any
other man, perhaps she was legitimating her husband’s lack of sexual desire. But,
of course, after a certain point, the body metabolism changes and the normal
processes for losing weight (more exercise and less food) no longer operate. She
became grossly obese and died a premature death because of her obesity.
Through
the years, I experienced her pain. And, perhaps, it was particularly intense
for me because sexuality had been such a rewarding part of my marriage, brief
as it was. After my husband was gone, I realized I could not bring another man
into a household with two teenage boys and chose celibacy. With God’s help,
this was a surprisingly easy choice. But
I still remember the pleasures of sex in marriage!
Following
Jesus is not easy. Following Jesus takes perseverance. The kind of perseverance
this congregation showed when you refused to close this church. Since the backlash
against the civil rights and women’s movements, I have clung to the belief that
God does not require us to be successful, only to be faithful, and to rely on
Him to enable whatever result he sees as best fulfilling his purposes. May we
continue to show such perseverance as we seek to follow faithfully our United
Methodist mission “to make disciples
for the transformation of the world.”
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