06 8th Sunday after Pentecost (Morning)

            My friends, I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Our text for today is recorded in the fourth chapter of 2 Kings. 

            What an amazing three verses we have here.  There is actually a lot more going on.  For example, there are a lot of people that we are dealing with in these verses.  There is a group of at least one hundred two people.  They include a crowd of one hundred people, Elisha, and the man from Baal-Shalishah.  How would this scene have appeared in the eyes of the man from Baal-Shalishah? 

            I bet he would have been telling this story to his grandchildren.  It may have even been one of those stories that they knew so well, they could have recited it. Perhaps, it went a little something like this. 

It was a bit of a hike.  To Gilgal that is.  Though Gilgal is closer to Baal-Shalishah than Jerusalem is, it was still a trek.  And without a trek or sneakers or hiking boots it wasn’t necessarily an easy walk.  But the package that was carried was a special one.  Maybe you don’t think that twenty loaves or barley bread and fresh ears of grain are really a special package, but these particular loaves and ears of grain were, because they were from the first fruits of my harvest.  Now it is true that this is what God requires, but I do it with a thankful and joyful heart.  For it is better to give to God out of my best, than it is to give out of what I have left.  So these particular loaves and ears of grain were quit special.

So I was taking my package to Elisha.  He was quite the man of God you know.  Do you remember Elisha?  I may have told you about him once or twice.  Elisha is the son of Shaphat.  When the prophet Elijah found him, Elisha was plowing in a field. But he went to Elisha and invited him to come with him.  And Elisha accepted the invitation.  Elisha saw Elijah taken up into heaven.  At one point, he was hanging out in Jerricho, and they were having some water issues.  Elisha asked for a bowl of salt.  He threw some of that salt into the well, and the water turned good.  Another time he was going up to Bethel and some kids came out and were mocking him and making fun of him.  Elisha cursed them, and two bears came upon them and mauled them. 

Then there was a widow who had nothing but a jar of oil.  The debts were large, and she was in danger of losing her children.  Elisha told her to borrow empty jars from he neighbors.  And not just a few, but as many as they could get their hands on, and she did.  Then he told her to close the door and pour the oil from her one jar into the empty jars.  And they were able to fill all of the empty jars.  So they sold the oil and not only did they have enough money to pay off the debts, but they even had some extra to live on.  And at another time, he even brought a dead child back to life.  Elisha was quite the man of God. 

So I was taking my offering to him.  And when I get there all these people were there too.  There must have been at least a hundred of them.  Well, get this, Elisha tells me to “Give it to the people and let them eat.”  I couldn’t believe it.  Did he just tell me to give this to the people?  I answered, “How can I set this before a hundred people?”  Twenty loaves of bread many sound like a lot.  But it really wasn’t.  Not by a long shot.  I mean it would have been enough to feed a few people, but not all of the ones there.  Not even close. 

But that Elisha.  He simply repeated his instructions.  “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’”  Wow.  I was beside myself.  For I was in the presence of a tremendous power.  Not Elisha, but the word of God.  God said that it would work, and Elisha he didn’t question it, he just shared with us what God had said.  And believed what God had said.  And so, at that moment I set my bread and fresh ears of grain before the people and they ate.  And not only did they eat, but they even had leftovers.  It all happened just as God had promised it would.  [PAUSE]

Now I can’t prove it, but I think the story of the man from Baal-Shalishah would have gone something like that.  And if that was what he said, he would have been right.  Elisha was quite the man of God.  And his miracles were not limited to water and bears, and oil and raising the dead.  He had a role in the healing of a leper.  He caused an iron axe head to float in a river.  And He carried the word of God to the people.  That’s pretty cool.

Elisha was quite the man of God, but the reason why he was quite the man of God had nothing to do with the miracles he performed.  Rather the reason why he was quite the man of God was because of the God who worked through him.  Elisha believed God, and his word, and he saw some pretty incredible things happen through him.  And as incredible as all of that was, it is not the most incredible thing to be recorded in the Scriptures. 

For the God who had worked through Elisha, the God who turned water good, who raised a boy from the dead, who fed 100 people, this same God became a man.  And he walked this earth too.  He turned water into wine.  He raised several people from the dead.  He fed more than 5,000 people at one time with a smaller amount of food than what Elisha had.  So where Elisha was quite the man of God.  Jesus, was, and still is, God and Man.  And he is still active and still working in this world. 

Hold up your hands.  Those are his hands.  He uses those hands to serve people.  Look at your feet.  They carry God’s message of love, and grace and forgiveness through Jesus.  Touch your lips.  They speak God’s word to this world.  As we do these things.  As we bear witness to God and his love for the world in Jesus,  As we bear witness to these things in our actions and in our words were are like Elisha.  And that makes you and me, quite the people of God.

So how does that sound to you?  Is it cool?  Yeah, Pastor.  Right on.  Or does it make you a little nervous?  Is your reaction more like this? I mean being God’s hands and feet, carrying his message.  That is quite the responsibility.  And things are so busy, and there is so much going on in life, I am not even sure that I am doing a good job of it.  I mean I don’t always have the right words to say, and sometimes I’m just trying to get from one moment to the next.  I just don’t think I can do it. 

If that is the case I have some good news for you.  Remember that Elisha was quite the man of God, not because of the things that he did, but because of the one who was working through him.  Elisha was a farmer.  And there is nothing wrong with farmers.  I have a great respect for farmers.  But that is not the first place you might think to look to find a prophet.  The same God is worked through him, works through you and me. 

He has sent Jesus to die on the cross and to be raised from the dead.  And through that death and resurrection we are restored to our God.  He bound us to himself, and made us his own in the waters of baptism.  He gives us his Spirit and that Spirit gives us our faith.  He also gives us the words to speak, when they need to be spoken.  And he works in our lives through God’s word, and through the sacraments of baptism and communion to make us more like Jesus.  So for those moments we find ourselves feeling nervous or uncomfortable about being God’s hands and feet, and carrying his message, for those moments when we feel guilty for having done a poor job at this, we go to our God, ask his forgiveness and he pours it out into our lives.

You are forgiven.  You have been given everything you need from him.  And though it is easy to doubt ourselves, we need not doubt the God who works in us.  Because if he can create the entire universe out of nothing.  If he can pay the price for the sins of the world on the cross, if he can defeat death through his resurrection, he can work through imperfect people, through sinners, and use them as his hands and his feet and to carry his message.  Not for our sake, or because of anything in us.  But simply because are God is so awesome, and he seeks to work through us. 

Elisha was quite the man of God.  Our Father Lutheran Church, you are quite the people of God.  Because the God who worked through Elisha, and who works through you is quite the God.  And may he bless you and give you all that you need as you are his hands and feet and as you carry his message into the world.  Amen.