Sermon Tone Analysis

I have never been to visit Isle Royale, one of this country’s national parks right here in Michigan.

It is an island up in Lake Superior.

In fact, Isle Royale is so far north in Lake Superior that it is much closer to the Canadian shoreline than it is to the Michigan side.

But apparently the Canadians must have said, “hey, do you guys want this?” or something like that.

The entire island is set aside as national park.

So, the only things there are ferry docks and some ranger outpost stations.

Other than that, the entire island is natural and undisturbed.

Visitors to the island bring backpacking equipment because backwoods camping is the only option.

But here is what makes Isle Royale unique and intriguing for visitors.

It has an ecosystem that thrives on two particular animal species on the island: moose and wolves.

The balance on the island is that there are enough moose to provide a source of food for the wolf packs; and there are enough wolves to keep the moose population in check.

Over the last decade or so, the DNR has noted that the wolves are dying out on Isle Royale.

The result has been that the moose population on the island has exploded because fewer predators are there to slow their expansion.

And now the island facing an ecological imbalance of losing its plantlike because the large moose population are eating away all of the tree saplings resulting in very little new tree growth.

It all started with the dwindling of the wolf population.

Biologists have studied what is happening there to find out why the number of wolves were in decline.

They did not find evidence of any particular disease that struck the wolf packs.

At one point within the last five years, park officials could only find two remaining wolves left on the island—one male and one female.

Any pups born to to these last two wolves were weak and did not survive.

Here is what biologists discovered.

The wolf population on Isle Royale weakened and died over the years because of genetic inbreeding.

In the past centuries, winter would get cold enough that Lake Superior would freeze over from the Canadian mainland to the island.

During the winter, new populations of Moses and wolves could get to and from the island.

Over the last century that has not happened because the climate has changed and the lake no longer freezes over like that.

Without mixing between wolf packs, the decades of inbreeding among the wolves genetically weakened them and they began dying off.

Every now and then you see an article in the Grand Rapids Press about the DNR’s efforts to bring in wolves from outside and repopulate the island with new wolves in order to bring the delicate ecosystem of Isle Royale back into balance.

Biologists realize that when the system is left to be completely cut off and closed from the outside, the inbreeding among their own pack will eventually destroy them.

Today we continue working our way through a short series on mission.

I started last week by noting that the mission statement here at Fellowship Church centers on three action words: love, grow, and serve.

Last week we talked about love; today we move on to talk about what it means grow.

I know that there is probably a whole lot we could say about the activity of growing in the mission of the church.

We could talk about growing in faith, growing in biblical knowledge, growing in experience and opportunities.

But we choose to focus our mission of growing on something else in particular.

We say that it is our mission to grow relationships.

And even more particularly than that we say that it is our mission to grow meaningful relationships.

That takes some explanation in order to understand what we mean by growing meaningful relationships as part of our mission in the church.

we connect in relationships the most naturally with people who are in many ways just like us

I imagine that we all might define meaningful relationships in slightly different ways.

Perhaps we immediately think of things like common interests and shared values.

I connect in relationships the most naturally with people who are in many ways just like me.

I recall in my first years out of high school the first time in life when I really had the freedom to choose who would be a part of my social circle of people.

I played guitar and and got into a bluegrass band and pretty quickly found myself in a circle of friends that were mostly all musicians; that was the common interest that brought us together.

I remember when my family lived in Kalamazoo, Laura and I got together in a small group through our church and one of the other couples had a son who played travel league hockey.

Aside from our connection together in church small group, it seems like every other relationship this couple had was with other hockey families; it was an interest that consumed their weekends along with these other families—of course relationships will form there.

our inner circle of friends is going to be people with whom we share similar life experience and similar interests and similar values

This seems natural, right?

Of course our inner circle of friends is going to be people with whom we share similar life experience and similar interests and similar values.

We all search for that; we all gravitate towards that; we all strive to have that.

But is that it?

Is that all there is to meaningful relationships?

Are there other things besides common interests and experiences which can make relationships meaningful?

Are we missing something more meaningful if the only people we ever surround ourselves with are exclusively people just like us?

what relationships around Naaman were meaningful?

Today I want us to take a look in the Bible at a name named Naaman.

And here is what I want us to consider in this story: what relationships around Naaman were meaningful? and what made those relationships meaningful for Naaman?

story begins by telling us about Naaman’s slave girl who was taken as from Israel

Alright, let’s talk about Naaman and relationships.

This story begins by telling us about Naaman’s slave girl who was taken as from Israel.

Even though Naaman is stricken with leprosy and he gets a word of hope from a captured slave, look at how his first inclination is to go right to the top.

Naaman goes to his master—the king of Aram—who in turn reaches out to the king of Israel.

And so Naaman goes to see the king of Israel with this astounding display of wealth and treasure in his arsenal.

his first inclination is to go right to the top

everything up to this point in the story is about leveraging power and influence with the right people

Now then, let’s stop right there and examine for a moment what we see here in the way Naaman views the meaning of relationships.

Everything up to this point in the story is about leveraging power and influence with the right people—in particular, powerful people like Naaman.

He is dealing within a circle of people who are just like him; people who are powerful and influential and use other people to get what they want.

Even though this whole thing began with information provided by a slave girl, immediately the slave girl is pushed right out of the story.

The king of Israel does not know what to do when Naaman shows up looking for a cure.

The king of Israel at that time was a man named Joram.

This is where the prophet Elisha steps into the story.

But not really; Elisha never actually enters the scene.

All of Elisha’s activity in this story is sent through messengers; Elisha himself never appears in the story.

So, the king of Israel is freaking out and doesn’t know what to do when suddenly his phone dings and it’s a text message from Elisha — Joram, chill out, send the guy over.

Okay, how did he know?

But, whatever, maybe he can take care of this — thumbs up emoji.

On goes Naaman then with all his Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis and he rolls up to Elisha’s house.

Naaman rings the doorbell and this time it’s Naaman’s phone that dings — Naaman, go take seven baths in the Jordan River and you good.

But it’s no thumbs up for Naaman; it’s the opposite.

The Jordan River?

Poop emoji, angry guy emoji.

This is not how Naaman is used to being treated by other people.

Naaman is a powerful and important guy who is used to just being able to take whatever he wants.

He has traveled all this way.

He is standing right at Elisha’s front door and all Elisha can do is send him a text message?

This is not how relationships work in Naaman’s world, and his response is to say, “forget this!” and he stomps away ticked off.

simple lowly people step in to give Naaman exactly the perspective he is lacking

Here is the point in the story in which Elisha has set up the scene for the unlikeliest of all relationships to once again enter the story.

This time it is Naaman’s servants who are along with him on this journey.

These simple lowly people step in to give Naaman exactly the perspective he is lacking.

Naaman expects relationships to revolve around grandiose displays of power and influence.

His simple and lowly servants call him out on that and ask him, why not listen to the prophet and do something simple and lowly instead of powerful and grandiose?

the most meaningful relationships in this story end up being the relationships Naaman has with the people who are the most different from him

Do you catch this?

The simple and lowly servants are able to give Naaman the perspective of seeing things from their point of view, from the kind of world that they live in, from the way that their world works.

As it turns out in the story of Naaman, the most meaningful relationships in this story end up being the relationships Naaman has with the people who are the most different from him.

The two people in the story who are the most like Naaman—the two kings—are of no help at all in this story.

And it is only because Naaman ended up listening to the most unlikely relationships that he found healing in the end.

Those relationships ended up being the most meaningful in this story.

when we live in completely closed circles in which every relationship we cultivate ends up being exclusively with other people from our own tribe—people who are just like us—the outcome is unhealthy for everybody

I cannot help but wondering about the ways in which the lesson of the wolves on Isle Royale apply to our world today.