Guided by Thirst

August 25, 2024 00:25:38
Guided by Thirst
Knox Pasadena Sermons
Guided by Thirst

Aug 25 2024 | 00:25:38

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Preacher: Rev. Dr. Matthew Colwell / Passage: 2 Kings 3:9-20
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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let us pray, o God, tell us what we need to hear and show us what we ought to do to obey Jesus Christ. Amen. This morning's scripture reading comes from two kings, chapter three, verses nine through 20. So the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom set out. And when they had made a roundabout march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that were with them. Then the king of Israel said, alas, the Lord has summoned us three kings only to be handed over to Moab. But Jehoshaphat said, is there no prophet of the Lord here through whom we may inquire of the Lord? Then one of the servants of the king of Israel answered Elisha son of Shaphat, who used to pour out water on the hands of Elijah, is here. Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. Elisha said to the king of Israel, what have I to do with you? Go to your father's prophets or to your mother's. But the king of Israel said to him, no, it is the lord who has summoned us, three kings only to be handed over to Moab. Elisha said, as the lord of hosts lives whom I serve, were it not that I have regard for King Jehoshaphat of Judah, I would give you neither a look nor a glance, but get me a musician. And then while the musician was playing, the power of the Lord came on him. And he said, thus says the Lord, I will make this wadi full of pools. For thus says the Lord, you shall see neither wind nor rain, but the wadi shall be filled with water so that you shall drink you, your cattle and your animals. This is only a trifle in the sight of the Lord, for he will also hand moab over to you. You shall conquer every fortified city and every choice city. Every good tree you shall fell, all springs of water you shall stop up, and every good piece of land you shall ruin with stones. The next day, about the time of the morning offering, suddenly water began to flow from the direction of Eden until the country was filled with water. This is the word of the Lord. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Some days, don't you find it frustrating to be human? I mean, we're just so needy. Air, sleep, food, water. We need all these things and more. I mean, it's embarrassing. I mean, there I was on a honeymoon in the island of Kauai, snorkeling in the coral off of tunnels beach. And I head down, oh, maybe 15ft underwater to see some fish up close. And then after just about, oh, 60 seconds or so, my lungs started, start to burn. And so I do what we humans have to do. I go up for air and I can hear, I can totally hear the fish behind me laughing. They're saying, ha ha, look at that. Human has to go up for air. So weak. Haven't you found it frustrating with only 24 hours in the day? Practically a third of that time has to be spent in a kind of vegetative state, sleeping. I mean, who thought of that so much? You could do with that time. But if you say, okay, I'll just stop sleeping, good luck with that. I tried that one time back in college, you know, pulled an all nighter and then thought, hey, I can do this. I can make it to the evening. I had a paper due that particular morning. I turned it in right at 08:00 a.m. an english paper to Professor Larry Graver. I thought, I'm fine. And then come about two or 03:00 p.m. it was such a battle to keep my eyes open. And my body said to me, all right, you have two choices. You can either lie down and go to sleep or wherever you sit, we're just going to shut you down. We need sleep, food. I remember as a youth minister leading our group on a world vision 30 hours fast to raise money for organizations that are meeting the needs of world hunger. Maybe you've been a part of that before. And I thought, 30 hours, that's nothing. That's a piece of cake. Well, by the end of those 30 hours, I really wanted a piece of cake. I really did. I thought to myself after that, you know, this hunger thing, it really hits. And water, Lord, do we need that in a comfortable and controlled environment. I read a human being can last for three days or more, perhaps even a week without water. But throw us in a desert, in a dry desert environment and we'll be lucky to make it through a day. And you know who's laughing at us there? The lizards. The lizards are at. This lizard is laughing at us. They can last a week, sometimes months, without taking a drink of water. Our need, our thirst, it's humbling and it's heartbreaking. I remember attending a christian conference out in Tucson, Arizona, and during the time some of us were taken by van to a visit to an area near the US Mexico border. There we saw a water station that a group called the Good Samaritans had set up. So if someone was wandering in the desert and needed a drink, they could have one. That water could be the difference between life and death for those making the perilous journey north across the Arizona desert. Well, as we parked the van near one of these water stations and I walked out and felt the dry desert air, I wondered. I felt immediately thirsty and wondered how someone could survive. Ran into a few migrants who were under a bush close by, maybe in their early twenties. And we talked to them for a bit, and I thought afterwards what desperate conditions would lead one or a group to try to make that trek north, given our human need for water. Heartbreaking stories are told all over the world of thirst. Just one of those stories that has grabbed so many of our hearts has been the thirst in Gaza. Right? Estimates are that roughly 1200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. And since that time, estimates are more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by israeli military attacks. But those attacks have also led. The war has also led to an acute water crisis. The wars crippled Gaza's infrastructure, leaving municipal wells and desalination plants functioning about one fifth of their pre war capacity. And water that is available is often contaminated. This is a picture of children in Khan Yunus pausing to look at the destruction as they go in search of water. In a 2022 report, the United nations noted that droughts have increased across the world by a third over the last 20 years as a result of climate change, and 2.3 billion people currently face water stress. That's our world. What do we do? What do we do when confronted with thirst? Our thirst and the thirst of our neighbor near and at another part of the world? What are we supposed to learn from times when we, or our world, or both are confronted with thirst? What's the faithful response when thirst hits us or thirst hits our neighbor? Those are questions of great concern to scripture, for the Bible has many a story to tell of thirst in dry desert spaces. And time and again, the Bible highlights what lessons might be learned about God and God's call in precisely those times. Today's passage that Josh read tells just one such story from the book of two kings. And it pulls our imagination back nearly 3000 years to a dry desert part of the world called the wilderness of Edom. And in that place, three kings of ancient people groups are confronted with this question we still wrestle with today. What do you do with thirst? Your own thirst and the thirst of others. The three armies were staging a military campaign against Misha, the king of Moab. The three kings had an audacious plan to make a sneak attack on Moab by confronting them not from the north, where Moab, you'll see to the right, had a number of fortified settlements. Instead, they went on a roundabout route down below the Dead Sea overthrew the wilderness or desert of Edom. The three kingdoms were Israel in the north, with its capital in Samaria, Judah in the middle with its capital in Jerusalem and the kingdom of Edom. And after a march of seven days, when they were over in that region, there was no water for the armies or the animals. What do you do with that kind? Thirst. Well, here's one possible response, one very human response, as you say, what Jarahem, the king, or Jehoram, the king of Israel, says in today's passage, when confronted with thirst, you can say, we're doomed, we're done for. All is lost. You can give in to despair. It's a very human response, understandable, but not especially helpful. Johoram's words might call to our minds a prior response to thirst from God's people. It might recall that time God's people were wandering through the desert with Moses, guided by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And they responded to that thirst in a dry desert place with complaint and despair. They said, Moses, why did you bring us out of Egypt to die? Complaint, despair. Understandable. But as the Bible presents, it not especially helpful for us or for our neighbor. A second king chimes in after Johoram offers that sense that we're doomed. This second king is Jehoshaphat of Judah and he asks this, might there be a prophet of the Lord here in our midst? Might there be a prophet of the Lord here in our midst? It's like he's posing this question. What if we paused? What if we took the time in the midst of this period of thirst and consulted God, consulted God's word, listened to the prophets? That question of Jehoshaphat, as scripture presents, it is just the question to be asking. And it makes us wonder, doesn't it, what might have happened if these three armies had done that prior to landing all the way in that desert? When we read of these three armies originally planning this attack, no mention was made of consulting a prophet or consulting God's word. Those questions did not appear to be raised. We do read early on in two kings, chapter three of an economic arrangement between that northern kingdom of Israel and Moab. That sounds to many of our ears a lot like economic exploitation. Moab was famous for its lambs and rams and we learned that the king of Israel had demanded of Moab a regular tribute of a thousand lambs and the wool of a thousand rams. Well, when a new king came to power in Israel, when Johoram came to power, the king of Moab said, no more. We are ending this relationship where we have to pay you tribute. And the king of Israel, Jehoram said, for this rebellion I will attack you. Now, it does make you wonder, doesn't it? Might that rebellion not have called to the mind of the people of Israel, the king of Israel, a prior time when a people rebelled from a relationship of economic exploitation, might it have called to their mind that time when they were enslaved in Egypt where they were in a situation of bondage, forced to make bricks for pharaoh and they finally said, no more and they left Egypt. They staged a grand exodus that you might call a rebellion, led by God's hand across a red sea into that wilderness. Such a story of rebelling against an economic relationship that was hurtful might have called that to mind for the people and king of Israel. But if so, we don't hear of it. Instead, the king of Israel calls upon the king of Judah and Edom to join him in putting down this rebellion of Moab. And they do. And then they head all the way into the desert of Edom and finally their thirst comes. And then, only then they finally say, hmm, maybe we should look to God. Maybe we should look to God's will in this. Let's listen to a prophet of God, Elisha. Now before we go heaping too much blame on these kings. Don't you find yourself in that same situation time and again? Maybe you're not leading an army out in the desert, but don't you still find that it's only when confronted with your own vulnerability, your hunger, your thirst, that it's only once your own strength and resources seem to have given out that you finally do what, in retrospect, you kind of wish you'd done from the start. You consult the source, guide and goal of all things. You look to the one on whom you and I and the world are finally and ultimately dependent. Like it or not, you point your mind and heart finally to the creator and redeemer and sustainer of all things and God. You realize was there all the time, waiting for you to open your eyes and see or open your ears and listen. Thirst, hunger, need hours and that of our neighbor. They can be powerful prompts to alert us and humble us and point our attention to a God we might have not looked to before. And then we see what was there all the time, God's presence, God's word, God's work in us and our world. Surely that quality of thirst is what Mary Oliver had in mind when she wrote this poem, one entitled thirst. Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond in all the way. God has given us such beautiful lessons. O Lord, I was never a quick scholar, but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell. Grant me in your mercy a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart. Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent? Yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing except the prayers, which with this thirst, I am slowly learning that quality of thirst, how it can point us to God and God's will for us. That was clearly on the mind and heart of Scott Harrison when he wrote a book entitled thirst back in 2018. Have you heard Harrison's story? He writes in this book of growing up in a christian household, but largely leaving his faith behind to chase fame and fortune and rub shoulders with celebrities. From age 18 to 28, Harrison lived what he calls his decade of clubs, working as a promoter for some 40 different venues. And he says this at that time, I had just become a really selfish sycophant, a hedonist. I smoked two packs of cigarette a day. I had a gambling problem. I had a pornography problem. I had a drinking problem. He knew he was lost, hungry, thirsty, yearning for something that he did not have, and he knew he needed. And his efforts to fill it with various vices left him ever more thirsty. That thirst finally led him to explore theology and revisit the christian faith he had learned about so many years ago. He writes of reconnecting with the God we know in Christ, and he then saw new forms of engagement with the world. He thought he would try working for a humanitarian organization, but none would hire him. The only organization that finally did was a ministry called mercy ships, and this brings medical care to people all over the world via boats. And as he engaged in that ministry of floating hospitals, particularly visiting the coast of Liberia, it had a powerful impact on him. He saw not only his own thirst for meaning. He saw the acute thirst and hunger and medical needs of people around the world. And Harrison began to hear God's voice, leading him out to care for his neighbor in new ways. He realized not only was he saved in Jesus Christ made new, but the God who called and claimed him, was transforming him to be a vessel of God's love and care to others. He would go on to found charity, water, a nonprofit that helped support water projects and communities of need all around the world. Thirst in today's passage. It's what finally prompts some God seeking among three kings in the desert of Edom, Jehoshaphat asks, is there no prophet of the Lord here? And one of the servants of the king of Israel answers, there is Elisha. Elisha's first miracle. You heard me share with the children after he'd inherited that mantle of Elijah was, in fact to clean contaminated water so that people in Jericho could have water for themselves and their animals. And surely the kings thought, maybe this prophet Elisha, who points so strongly to a God who provides clean water, will help us. The three kings go to him. Elisha is dismayed to see Jehoram, king of Israel, the famously unfaithful king. But then Elisha sees Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he says, I'll try to listen for a word from God, but get me a musician. Music can help, you know. Can it? Sometimes to hear God's word, to sense God's leading in ways we might not hear or sense without it. Thank God for music. So music is played for Elisha. And as it's played, a word does come to Elisha. He says, thus says the Lord, I will make this valley full of pools of water so that you and your animals might drink. But then he says, I see something else, too. I see you conquering the Moabites and decimating the land on which they dwell. Now both of these things come to pass. God provides water, as God has done before, as God does for us today. Water flows in every direction. The desert of Edom is filled with it. And then as the Moabites look out on these three armies, the water plays tricks on their eyes, and they think they're seeing blood. They think, in fact, these three armies are fighting each other. So one of them says, attack, and they go after the three armies. But the three armies are not fighting each other. And when the Moabites attack, then these three armies attack back. They chase the Moabites back. And then we read, they not only conquer them, but decimate the land. This explicitly violates deuteronomy, chapter 20, verses 19 through 20, that prohibits ecological devastation. God's word is meant to speak against this. And perhaps that breach of God's word is a major factor as to why the tide then turns against these three armies. And right when things seemed utterly lost for Moab, right when the king of Moab does something so awful and desperate, he sacrifices his own son. We read of wrath coming down, and the armies of Israel have to stage a retreat, and they go without any victory over Moab. In the end, well after the dust settles and we look out over the water and the land of Moab laid waste, what are we left with? We've witnessed what we see so often in scripture, a God who provides, but also a God who guides. We've seen in scripture how a failure to attend to God's guidance can lay waste to the provision God has so graciously given. What a different result we might have seen had Israel, Judah and Edom consulted with God before staging that military campaign, or had they heeded God's Torah before laying waste to Moab's land and people thirst, thirst if we dare listen, it can point us to a God who provides, and a God who guides it can help us recognize anew that great provision God has given the earth in water and air and food, and the fecundity of this precious gift of creation. But thirst can also point us to God's call, that this precious gift, God's provision, be shared, be available to all, especially those in need. God guides as well as provides. It's good news and it's challenging news. It's news that came to us in a new, world changing way when the son of God came to us to bring God's provision and guidance for us in the flesh. In John's gospel, Jesus says those wonderful words, let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let anyone who believes in me drink. For as scripture is said, out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water. In Christ, we have the very presence of God brought near, which quenches our soul's deepest thirst. And that same savior came, that the whole world might know God's love in word and deed, a love made flesh in Jesus Christ. And so we find in him our souls nourished with living water, and we're given purpose, meaning, direction. We find our attention directed by his teaching and example, not only to God, who we look to with love and adoration, but we are also directed to follow where Christ leads, to care for the world spiritually and physically. So, friends, when your soul is thirsty and your mouth is thirsty, listen. Attend to that thirst. Follow where it leads. When you see thirst in your neighbor here or on the other side of the world, and it moves you, listen to that thirst. Attend to it, and may your thirst and mine. May the world's thirst point us heavenward to the giver of all good things, the God who came to us in Christ. And may it lead us to the God who also guides, pointing us forward to where Christ would have us go. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. I.

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