Reading the Bible is a dangerous thing and it can get you in a lot of trouble. How do I know? Because I’ve done it and it is dangerous and I have gotten in trouble. I’m likely to do it again today. But I’m not the only one.
When I was in seminary I had a classmate who was convinced that John Wesley had it right when it came to reading the Bible. One of Wesley’s methods for seeking revelation from the Bible was to take the book and let it fall open and then plunk his finger down on a random verse. So my classmate decided that she was going to adopt this method. Whenever she went visiting in the hospital she would take along her Bible and use the drop and plunk method to find a verse that needed to be heard.
Now let me say that this is a fine method for people who are steeped in the Bible. When you know the context for the random verses that will turn up this way there is something new to be discovered. But, as I said, reading the Bible is a dangerous thing as my friend found out when she went to visit another one of our classmates who was having eye troubles so that she was in danger of going blind. She went in and talked for awhile and then said, “Now, Kay, I’m just going to open the Bible here and see what God has to say to you in this situation.” She opened the book, plunked down her finger and I believe it was a verse from Zechariah 1:17 that says, “I will bring such distress upon people that they shall walk like the blind; because they have sinned against the LORD, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.” And she had to turn and say, “Oh, Kay, I’m so sorry.”
Reading the Bible is a dangerous thing and it can get you in a lot of trouble. The compilers of the New Revised Common Lectionary, the cycle of readings that many churches use, knew this and that is why there are some notable omissions in the lectionary. Stories that didn’t make the cut. My Disciple class that recently finished has been discovering some of those omitted stories. They know that the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis chapter 38 is racy stuff and it didn’t make it into the lectionary. You will never hear the tale of Jepthah and his sacrifice of his daughter in Judges chapter 11. And though you will hear the story of Elijah being taken up in a whirlwind and Elisha taking up his mantle, you will never hear in church the stories that come immediately after it in 2 Kings chapter 2. At least until today that is.
Listen, for this, too is the word of the Lord:
The people of the city said to Elisha, "Look, now, where the city sits is good, as my lord can see. But the water is bad and the land is infertile."
He said, "Fetch me a new jar and put salt in it."
So they brought it to him. He went to the spring of water and threw the salt into it. He said, "Thus says YHWH, 'I have healed the water; there shall not be anymore death and infertility from it." The waters have remained pure to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.
Then he went up from there to Bethel and as was on the way some small children came out from the town and made fun of him. They said to him, "Go away, Baldy! Go away, Baldy!"
He turned around and saw them and cursed them in the name of YHWH. Then two she-bears came from the woods and mauled forty-two of the children.
And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
I’ve been telling people the story of Elisha and the two bears for many years now, ever since I started losing my hair. Though scholars have debated for many years the meaning of this disturbing passage, it is obvious to me that this is a straightforward morality lesson in how to treat the follicularly challenged. If you make fun of a bald man, the text clearly says, you had better be looking over your shoulder for the bears.
I’ve used this passage in jest for many years, but it has always gnawed at me the way that great Bible stories do. Why do I keep telling it? Why is it in the Bible? What might it have to say? And as I looked at it, it became more and more clear to me that this is a cautionary tale, but not for those who would make fun at a bald man’s expense. No, this is a story for people who have more power than they think they do and how they can use it to either bless or to curse. That makes this a dangerous passage and it could get me into trouble.
Let’s back up for a minute, though, because the gory parts of this story come after a really beautiful story that we read for us this morning. Elisha is just starting his ministry. He had been an apprentice to the great Elijah, who had found Elisha plowing a field and who called him away to the life of an itinerant prophet.
We don’t know much about their relationship, but we do know that Elisha was stubborn and a little bit cranky. When the time came for Elijah to be taken up into heaven, three times he tried to shake Elisha and tell him to stay back, but three times he refused saying, “I will never leave you.” On two of those occasions other prophets tried to needle Elisha, too, saying, “You do know that God is going to take your master away from you today, don’t you?” And here is the cranky Elisha--both times he tells them, “I know that! Be quiet!” Finally Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind and Elisha sees him taken up and takes up his mantle, but the other witnesses can’t figure where Elijah went so they go to Elisha.
What follows is a classic bit of church politics. The fifty witnesses say to Elisha, “Send us out and we’ll go look for Elijah. Maybe God just dumped him off up in the mountains somewhere. We should go look for him.”
Elisha knows it’s a bad idea. He knows that Elijah has been taken up into heaven. He knows they’ll be wasting their time. So he says, “No, don’t go.”
These fifty prophets are persistent, though. They know Elisha has Elijah’s mantle but they also know that he’s a little green. He hasn’t been around the area as long as they have. He may have the seminary education and the ordination papers but, by golly, he hasn’t served in Jericho before and we do things different around here. Besides we’ve outlasted a lot of preachers and the ones who got to stick around were the ones who followed Miss Hattie’s advice….I’m sorry, I think I’m reading into the text now.
Anyway, these fifty folks browbeat Elisha until finally he begins to feel ashamed for putting his foot down so hard and, in an act of facilitating leadership, he says, “O.K., go look for him.” So they go and look and put out APBs and search every nook and cranny. Three days they search and guess what?—no Elijah. They come back and Elisha can’t help it. He’s a cranky guy who’s just inherited an overwhelming mantle. So he says, “I told you so.” Not a good start.
Then he gets a chance to redeem himself. There’s a new problem in Jericho. The water is no good and the land is unfruitful. Which is a pretty big problem if you are people who inherited a land flowing with milk and honey. They like the location, mind you. The people of Jericho play that up when they come to Elisha. “Look at this great location. Right near the river. Got big mountains over there. They’re putting in a new Wal-mart Supercenter just down the road. It’s a shame the water is foul and the land is barren.” You see, they had heard the stories of how Elijah had ended droughts and made people who were dead come back to life. They wanted to see if Elisha could do the same.
So Elisha gets them to bring a new jar of salt and he goes out and throws it in the spring and he says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I have healed the waters. There will not be any more death or infertility here.’” Elisha shows that he has the ability to heal through the blessing of the word of his God. The waters are clear and they remain clear even to this day.
How did he do it? Some commentators have tried to explain how the salt might have had a purifying effect. Maybe it was a psychological miracle as people who believed the water was bad and the land was bad suddenly had permission to believe something different. But all of that speculation is beside the point. The point is that the word of God is powerful and the people who dare to speak in God’s name have the power to bring healing.
Does it have to be miraculous? It always is miraculous when people of faith do what they are called to do. Jean Vanier, who has followed Jesus by beginning community houses for people with mental illnesses, says, “Love doesn’t mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness.”[i] Sometimes it is just being with people through the midst of their trials. Like stubborn Elisha refusing to leave his mentor’s side as he travels through the land towards what he knows is the end. What did Jesus ask from his disciples in the garden? Not that they would take the cup of suffering away from him, but that they simply stay awake with him and pray. It does not take extraordinary means to bless in Jesus’ name. It takes “ordinary things [done] with tenderness.”
So people who dare to speak and act in God’s name have the power to heal, but they also have the power to hurt. Here’s where that strange bear story comes in. The biblical writer goes out of the way to make sure we know that these are young children who come out to tease the prophet. What they say is mocking but even so it is not much worse than what the Bible itself says about bald people at some points. For the prophet Amos baldness itself was a curse. (Although I should point out that Leviticus makes it very clear that bald people are clean!) But what they are saying is not terrible. It’s not even clear that they are trying to get rid of him. He’s headed up the road to Bethel and what they say can be interpreted as, “Go up, baldheaded man. Go up.”
The scripture says that Elisha turns around to look at them, and you can just feel the glare from this cranky prophet’s eyes. He curses the children in the name of YHWH. Two she-bears come out of the woods and they tear apart forty-two of the children. The word is one of the harshest and most violent that can be used. It is used in other places to describe how slaughtering armies wiped out the people before them, mutilating them. It is a horrible and terrible scene. Like the scene in Bethlehem after Herod orders the slaughter of children. Like the children Rachel weeps for. And all in the name of the Lord.
I don’t have to look far for or linger long on images of the destruction and harm being done to children in the name of the Lord. Our brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church are going through tremendous pain right now because of the abuse committed by a small number of clergy and a system that protected the priests but not the children. The continuing neglect of children in our worship and church life. The contradictory message we give when we say you must accept the kingdom of heaven like a child but you must not actually be a child to participate fully in the church. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that we sometimes utter curses in the name of the Lord to our shame.
What has all of this to do with us? I think it is important for us to hear this because we are powerful people. Check that – we are empowered people.
Oh, I know we don’t feel like powerful people. It’s easy enough to believe that things would be different if only we did have the power. But real power? No, we grumble about the folks with power but we don’t really believe that they are us. BP – now they have power and look what’s happening in the Gulf. The government – now it has power and look at Afghanistan. The Board of Supervisors – now they’ve got power and look what’s happening to the county. The school administration – now that’s power and look what a mess our schools are in. The pastor – now he’s…all right…but the rest of the hierarchy that doesn’t understand what’s going on our here on the Eastern Shore and won’t do what needs to be done – they’ve got the power. The culture and the media which make church people into sentimental, loveable buffoons, or blow-dried hucksters, or irrelevant relics of a bygone era – they’ve got the power. But me? If I put salt into water it becomes salt water. If I grumble at my tormentors they come back the next day to torment me again. Tell the truth, my brothers and sisters, isn’t that what we have believed about power?
But here’s the good news: We are lying to ourselves when we believe that we have no power. We don’t have to wait for it to be given or relinquished. We don’t have to wait for the cavalry to arrive. We are the people we have been waiting for and we are possessed of the power to bless or to curse.
This is a time of transitions for us in this congregation. People who have been a huge part of our life as a church are moving away. They are wondering what life is going to be like in the new places to which they go. We are wondering what life if going to be like without them here each week. But we are powerful people because of the Holy Spirit.
We may not have power in the ways we sometimes think we want it, but when we listen to a struggling soul…when we accompany young and old through the mysteries of life and death…when we speak a prophetic word…when we stand in solidarity with the poor in our community…we experience real grace and real power. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power…do you hear what the Apostle Paul says here, church?...this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. [2 Co. 4:7-10]
If you have not heard these words before – hear them now: You have the power to bless and to curse. Whatever path you are on – you have the power. And for all the ways we have cursed what is life-giving…for all the ways our lives have been blessed…for all the things that remain undone…for all the unexpected glories…for all the tears…through all the fears…in all the joys…for all the jumbles…for all the warmed hearts…for all the heartbreaks…may we count this service an awesome blessing. For it is a fearful and a wonderful thing to follow the call of a foolish God who entrusts such power to such people as we are. From baldheaded Elisha to risking Mary to stumbling Peter…we are the servants of a gracious God. What will you do with the power? Thanks be to God.
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-10 (NRSV)
Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel."
But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.
The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?"
And he said, "Yes, I know; keep silent."
Elijah said to him, "Elisha, stay here; for the LORD has sent me to Jericho."
But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they came to Jericho.
The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?"
And he answered, "Yes, I know; be silent."
Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan."
But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on.
Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you."
Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit."
He responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not."
As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?"
When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over. When the company of prophets who were at Jericho saw him at a distance, they declared, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." They came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
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