Sweet Water

Sermon for Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists

February 15, 2020

Texts: 2 Kings 2:19-22 1-22 NLT.  Luke 10:1-3, 8-9 NLT 

The Prophet Elijah shows up in the Bible without any introduction, seemingly out of nowhere.

Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!”

Boom.

The prophet showed up unannounced. Delivered his message, then disappeared. Three years later—three years of devastating drought—three years later Elijah showed up again. This time he summoned King Ahab to a dramatic confrontation on Mt. Carmel.

Some years later, King Ahab used his royal power in a grossly unjust way for his own personal advantage. He had someone framed and executed so Ahab can expropriate the man’s property. Again, Elijah showed up and delivered a stern message of doom.

Then we come to the end of Elijah’s story. By now he had an associate, a man named Elisha. Elijah, the old man, and Elisha, the young man walked down to the Jordan River together. The old man pulled off his mantle, rolled it up and slapped the water. The river stopped flowing and the two men walked across.

On the other side, the old man, Elijah, said to the young man, Elisha, “I’m old. It’s time for me to go. What I can do for you before I am taken away."

Elisha said, "What I want more than anything else is a double share of your spirit and to become your successor."

"You have asked a difficult thing," the old prophet replied. "But, if you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won't."

As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It rushed between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!" And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress.

Elisha picked up Elijah's mantle, which had fallen when he was taken up. He walked back to the edge of the Jordan River. “Here goes,” I imagine him saying to himself. “Let’s see what happens.”

He hit the water with Elijah's mantle just like Elijah had done and cried out, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?"

The river divided, and Elisha walked across. It was a great start to his work as the successor of the great prophet Elijah.

Not long afterward, the elders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. "We have a problem, my lord," they told him. "This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive." Elisha said, "Bring me a new bowl with salt in it." So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, "This is what the LORD says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility." And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said.

Note the contrast between the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah appeared out of nowhere announcing doom. “The sky is going to be closed. There will be no rain until I say so.” And there was drought for three years.

When Elisha moved into the role of prophet of the nation, he was already well known. They knew him as the kid, as the assistant. Now he was The Prophet. The national spiritual leader. So they brought to him a giant problem, a problem so big only divine power could solve it.

And Elisha did solve it. He brought sweet water to a place haunted by bitter water.

Jericho was in a desert. Nothing grew there without irrigation. But the springs which supplied the available water were bitter. I’m guessing the water had alkali or salt in it. When you irrigate with water like that after awhile the ground itself becomes toxic to plants and you can’t grow anything in it. The water was miserable for drinking.

Then Elisha worked his miracle and the water became pure.

It is easy to get infatuated with Elijah. We can imagine ourselves denouncing evil, rebuking wicked people and oppressive systems and structure. Sometimes denouncing evils makes feel good.

But God calls us to something much higher, much more noble, and much more difficult. God calls us to heal the waters. Healing the waters is partnering with God in his grand mission. 

Adventists have historically focused on the Second Coming of Jesus. We have painted the picture of all God’s people being swept up to heaven at the end of time. The fiery chariot will come for us all and we’ll fly away to a place of sweetness and light, justice and truth, peace and love.

We have developed pet theories about just how it is going to happen and when it is going to happen. We have studied the Bible and the newspaper looking for signs that that glorious day was just around the corner.

It’s time for us to quit looking at the sky and turn our attention to the city that needs our help. Let’s leave the wilderness and the vision of the heavenly chariot and come back to Jericho and heal the waters. 

On February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil sat down at a lunch counter in Woolworths Drugstore in Greensboro, SC. Four college students sitting at a lunch counter would hardly be remarkable--except that these four young men were black and Woolworths--following the custom through the South at that time, had a strict policy of serving only white people at their lunch counters. 

The young men asked for coffee and were refused service. They stayed sitting at the lunch counter until closing time. The next day they were back and other students joined them. By February 5, some 300 students showed up, paralyzing the lunch counter and other local businesses. 

Fortunately, allies had arranged for television coverage of their action. As the video went nationwide, the Greensboro sit-ins sparked a sit-ins in college towns throughout the South and even in the North, as young blacks and whites joined in various forms of peaceful protest against segregation in libraries, beaches, hotels and other establishments.

By the end of March, the movement had spread to 55 cities in 13 states. Though many were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, national media coverage of the sit-ins brought increasing attention to the civil rights movement.

At the end of July, when many local college students were on summer vacation, the Greensboro Woolworth’s quietly integrated its lunch counter. Four black Woolworth’s employees—Geneva Tisdale, Susie Morrison, Anetha Jones and Charles Best—were the first to be served.

The world shifted. The waters were a little less bitter. 

Late this week, Dana sent me an article about one other young black man who was there. He was an employee of Woolworths, working behind the counter. He said in the world he grew up in racial discrimination was common. It was so common that his parents and other adults around him just accepted it as “the way things were.” They dreamed of escape to heaven. They never dreamed things could change here on earth. It took young people with new dreams, new fire, to take the bold actions needed to drive the change.

My appeal to you young people, and really to all of us: In your times of prayer, include a prayer for wisdom and courage to make some difference in the place where you are. At school, at work, in your neighborhood, in the church, in the city, in the nation.

Let’s resist the urge to go backwards.

In the church people talk about going back to the pure faith of our ancestors. But this is wrongheaded. If their faith had been all that great we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today.

In politics, a current slogan is to make the nation “great again.” A dangerous notion because it congratulates our ancestors and blinds us to the continued work before us to secure a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

Let’s go forward to be even greater, more noble, more compassionate, more equitable, more just.

Let’s heal the waters.