Coincidence or Providence? Adrift at Sea


Luke 17:5-6
July 21, 2013

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

            A couple of weeks ago I started this sermon series on coincidences, or God-incidences, and I talked with you about my fascination with them. I mentioned how my own experiences of God-incidences led me into ministry, into a vocation I specifically didn’t want to be a part of. And I mentioned that I wondered if I was alone in my experiences. Were experiencing coincidences with God? So I shared a story of an event that helped me realize that it wasn’t just me that experienced these providences, but that others did, too.

            While working on my Ph.D. my interest in God-incidences and providences grew, but others didn’t always share my fascination. It wasn’t until I came to Calvin Church in 1996 that I came to realize how often God uses coincidences to help us. Here I found a group of members who shared the same interest in these events as me. I had conversations with a number of members, such as Jo Jones, Jane Smith, and others who had had constant experiences of God-incidences. No one influenced me, though, as much as June Worstell, who used to share a number of stories with me—both her own and of others—that influenced my thinking.

            In 1996, June told me a story that has stayed with me and that has captivated me ever since. It was a story she heard many times in the years immediately after World War II, and I want to share this story with you.

            During World War II, a miraculous even occurred that changed the life of a man named Jim Whittaker. Whittaker was the co-pilot of an Army Air Corps B-17 that took off from Hawaii in October of 1942, ten months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.  The plane was headed southwest over the ocean toward some small islands in the South Pacific. 

            Its manifest included five crewmen and three passengers.  One of the passengers was Eddie Rickenbacker, the famous World War I flying ace.  The flight was uneventful for the first few hours, but then disaster hit:  their navigational equipment failed.  They were suddenly flying blind over the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean, with no way to tell where they were.  Should they turn around or keep going?  Either way they would probably end up ditching the plane into the sea.  They did their best to find land, but eventually they ran out of gas.  They had no choice but to make a forced landing into the sea. 

            As they plummeted out of the sky, the navigator asked Jim Whittaker and the pilot, Bill Cherry, if they should pray.  Jim Whittaker didn’t answer, barely managing to keep from yelling at the man to shut up.  Whittaker had little room for prayer and religion. 
He had grown up in a strong, Bible-believing community as a child in Missouri, but for most of his life he had considered religion to be a sign of weakness.  To make it through this ordeal, he and the men would have to be strong.  There was no room for weakness, and prayer was weakness. 

            They hit the water at ninety miles per hour, and barely had time to get out of the plane before it sank.  They managed to push three rubber rafts out the door.  The only supplies they had were four oranges, some fishhooks, some knives, a pair of oars, and some twine. 

            They made it through the first night, wet and shivering in the cold.  The next day they were greeted with the blazing tropical sun.  The first day passed and there was no rescue.  The second day passed and it was more of the same.  The third day passed, but still there was no rescue.

            The days passed slowly and painfully in the hot, tropical sun.  By the sixth day, the men were getting desperate and delirious.  They had caught and eaten a bird and a few fish, and they had eaten the oranges, but other than that there had been no food or water for six days.  For several days they had conducted prayer meetings in the morning and evening, but Whittaker simply saw them as more signs of weakness.  God wouldn’t help them because there was no God.  Their only chance was to be lucky enough to be seen by a rescue plane.  Whittaker could barely keep his contempt in check

            Suddenly, Bill Cherry began praying:  “Old Master, we know there isn't a guarantee we’ll eat in the morning.  But we’re in an awful fix.  We sure are counting on a little something by the day after tomorrow, at least.  See what you can do, Old Master.”  Afterwards, Cherry took the flare pistol and shot it into the air, as they had done every evening, hoping that a search plane would see it.  Instead of soaring into the air, though, the flare veered into the water.  As it zig-zagged, its light attracted some fish and among them barracuda, which chased the other fish.  To escape the barracuda, some of the fish jumped into the rafts.  Food!  God had provided them with food.  At least that’s what most of the men thought, yet Jim Whittaker saw it as nothing but dumb luck. 

            On the eighth evening, Bill Cherry again prayed to God.  This time he asked for water.  Soon, they noticed a small cloud on the horizon change from a puffy white to a deep gray.  It moved toward them and settled overhead.  Soon they were being deluged with water as the rain came down in sheets.  Cherry yelled out, “Thanks, Old Master!”  The water came down so hard that they could catch it in their hands and pour it down their arid throats.  They gathered more of the rain into their shirts, and wrung them out into the pockets of their life jackets for reserve. 

            This new event sent spiritual shivers down Jim Whittaker’s spine.  Maybe God was answering their prayers.  This wasn’t the way he thought God would have worked, if there were a God, but maybe he was wrong.  A few days later they prayed for rain again, and again another cloud darkened and spilled hard rain over them. 

            On the thirteenth day, when they saw rain in the distance but it failed to come near them, Jim Whittaker led the prayers:  “God, you know what the water means to us.  It is in your power to send back that rain.”  Whittaker was surprised at his own prayer, but he was even more amazed when the rain quit moving away and began to move toward them, against the wind.  Again, they were drenched with a life-saving rain.  Slowly, Whittaker’s skepticism was dying while faith was being born in his heart and soul. 

            They drifted in the ocean for a total of twenty-one days before they were finally rescued.  On the twenty-first day they saw islands in the distance.  They rowed and rowed, and slowly they came closer and closer to the islands, but they were so weak.  Could they make it?  They had eaten so little food and drunk even less water that they could barely row anymore.  They had been rowing for seven hours since seeing land. 

            As they came closer to the island, a current picked them up and began moving them away.  With sharks attacking the rafts, and the currents pulling them away from the islands, Whittaker prayed “God give me a little more strength.” An invigorating rain descended and gave him more life, and as the sharks bumped the rafts with ever more ferocity, he yelled out, “God!  Don’t quit me now.”  He felt a strength that was not his own surge through his arms and shoulders.  A swell took them over the reefs, and finally they came to a halt on a white, sandy beach.  There, natives nursed them back to health and contacted the U. S. Navy. 

            When Whittaker recovered, he decided to tell his story to people all over America.  He told them how his skepticism and doubt had died during those twenty days, and how he came alive to God’s presence in his life.  He was no longer the same man he was.  That skeptical man had died in the South Pacific and a new man was born:  a man of faith, love, and hope. 

            This story taught me some really important things about God. The first lesson I learned was a paradox:  faith withers in a garden and blooms in a desert. You may remember that twelve years ago I published a book titled, Paradoxes for Living. In it, I explored a number of biblical paradoxes, such as to be rich we have to be poor, to be strong we have to be weak, to save our lives, we have to lose our lives, and a bunch of others. I realized that often the core teachings of Christianity are paradoxical and seem as though they don’t make sense. But it is in living them out that we realize we are being led to a deeper life.

            Whittaker’s story brings out this paradox, because his faith withered in a garden and bloomed in a watery desert. This particular paradox seems to be central in the Bible. The only ones ever asked to form their faith in a garden—in a place of ease, beauty, and peace, where no on ever struggles or suffers—couldn’t. And so Adam and Eve got kicked out into the desert wilderness where they had to struggle. Meanwhile, most of the other biblical characters either literally or figuratively had to form their faith in a desert: Abraham, Israel, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites, David, the Israelites again in Exile, Jesus (40 days and nights in the desert), and Paul (three years in the deserts of Arabia following his conversion). It seems that the struggles of the desert are the preconditions for forming a strong faith.

            We often think that a good God would never let us struggle or suffer, but apparently we need struggles to actually form a deep faith. This paradox lies at the core of the reason that college students often lose their faith, or have it seriously eroded. Think about the college experience: the students live on a secluded, beautifully kept campus (whether in the country or the city). They have their meals and housing paid for. Their entertainment is provided, and their jobs (attending classes) are virtually guaranteed. They are given lots of time to think about life in the abstract, while they live relatively protected lives. They lose their faith because they are living in gardens. For many, it’s not until later in adulthood that they recapture their faith after living through the difficulties of real life.

            Whittaker’s faith was soft until he was hardened by his experience, yet it was his experiences of 21 days on a watery desert that allowed a deep faith to bloom.

            The second lesson I learned is that when God does miracles, it usually doesn’t get rid of the need for human effort. One of the constant criticisms I hear from people outside of the Christian faith, regarding our belief in miracles, is that we Christians want to lounge around and do nothing, hoping that God will do everything. Funny, but I’ve never heard a Christian propose that idea. In fact, the Christian understanding is that miracles occur when all other efforts fail. In other words, God doesn’t let us lounge, but instead, God expects work.

            Whittaker’s story is one of work, struggle, suffering, and intense difficulty, and of God’s breaking through. They had to work to save the plane, to get emergency supplies and people out the doors before it sank, to secure the rafts, to keep up hope in the face of adversity, and so much more. They didn’t lounge. They suffered. God doesn’t eradicate suffering, but God does overcome it.

            Finally, the message of this story is to never give up hope…. Ever! The Christian message is one of God overcoming what seems hopeless. Most of the biblical stories are those of God breaking into hopelessness: Joseph in slavery and prison, the Israelites in slavery, the Israelites being attacked by Moabites, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, and even under occupation by the Greeks and Romans. It also tells us about Jesus on the cross, and the hope that broke through in the resurrection. In fact, our belief is that even if all hope fades and we, or someone close to us, dies, that’s not the end. We believe that something far better awaits us—a fate that makes the present sufferings “not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Roman 8:18).

            In other words, never despair because God is with us… always!

            Amen.

Coincidence or Providence? Being in God's Place in God's Time

-->
Genesis 40:9-15
July 7, 2013

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, ‘In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.’ Then Joseph said to him, ‘This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days; within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. But remember me when it is well with you; please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this place. For in fact I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.’

            When you read the whole story of Joseph, about him being sold into slavery by his brothers, being put into prison, meeting people from Pharaoh’s court, getting the opportunity to interpret his dreams, being put in charge of Egypt’s food supply during a time of famine, and then being able to welcome his father and brothers into Egypt during a famine, it’s hard to escape the reality that Joseph was always in God’s place in God’s time. That’s not the same as saying that Joseph’s path was easy. In fact, being in God’s place in God’s time often isn’t easy, as Joseph’s life demonstrates. It can mean being in places we don’t want to be. But despite the suffering Joseph underwent, he was in God’s place in God’s time.

            Joseph’s story is a great example of a really prominent theme in Christianity, both in the Bible and throughout 2000 years of Christian experiences. It shows how God often chooses to work through what many would call coincidences, but we Christians call providences. Many Christian writers and teachers have spoken about this. Adrian van Kaam often said that, “there are no coincidences, only providences.” The archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Anglican Church world-wide) in the 1920s often said, “I find that when I pray coincidences happen. When I cease to pray, coincidences stop happening.” Many others talk about coincidences, preferring to call them “God-incidences.” Experiencing God in seeming coincidences is to be a staple of biblical and Christian experience.

            I first became fascinated with the connection between faith and God’s coincidences through the events that led me to eventually go to seminary and become a pastor. So much of what changed me from a person who had walked away from church to a person passionately involved in church was clearly coincidental/providential. It felt as though I was being carried, through a set of coincidences, into a whole new way of living life. That doesn’t mean I always went peacefully.

            Still, for a long time I wasn’t sure whether these coincidences were just in my mind, or were something more objective—something others experienced. Then I had an experience during my 2nd year of being a pastor that made me realize that God often works in coincidental, providential, and God-incidental ways with everyone who is open.

            The year was 1990, and I was preaching on a particular Sunday. As an associate pastor I generally preached about once every five to six weeks, which made the timing of this coincidence even more interesting. In this particular sermon I was preaching about faith, and about how real faith gives us a sense of purpose and meaning in life. I then gave an example of what life without faith is like. I read the congregation a passage from a book that my wife, Diane, whom I was dating at the time, had given me. The book was titled, The Search for Meaning, by Phillip Berman. Berman had traveled the country, interviewing people from all walks of life about what gave them meaning. He interviewed well-known people, as well as those who were unknown. Each chapter of the book offers a different set of interviews corresponding to a particular meaning perspective.

            In my sermon I focused on an interview with one particular man, a man named Elisha Shapiro. Shapiro called himself a nihilist, which means that he didn’t believe in anything at al—not God, not meaning, not morality. Then I read a passage from the book in which Shapiro said, “But me, I call myself a nihilist.  It’s part of my art to call myself a nihilist.  There is no God, and I don’t feel like replacing him with anything, and I like it that way.  It’s a joyful experience, not an angst-filled one.  My basic belief, if you can call it that, is that there is nothing that’s constant, whether it’s a more or ethical tenet or whether it’s a physical law.  Take for example the statement ‘the grass is green.’  That’s not always true.  Nor is the sky always blue. Maybe that’s not true.  We don’t know.  Maybe it’s all a dream.  I like the idea that everything that people cling to that’s comforting or gives them a grounding is subject to change.  People change, and nothing is constant….

            “To me, there really isn’t any significance to life, none whatsoever.  No significance.  And I find that’s a comforting thing.  You’re let off the hook that way. (Laughs.) People feel like that’s a terrible emotional deal.  But there is no significance to my existing here.  I’m a product of… if I were to try to figure out what I was a product of, the best thing I could guess would be billions of years of coincidences, dumb luck.  I enjoy my existence as an animal organism—if I’m not just a figment of my own imagination.  If I am in existence at all, I’m just this animal organism running by what makes it run, what coincidentally came along with this package.”

            After reading that passage, I said to the congregation that I couldn’t understand how anyone could live this way, or how anyone could live without a real sense of faith or meaning. I mentioned that it was a life devoid of meaning, and therefore any kind of compassion or real sense of service to others. I think the sermon went well.

            At the end of the worship service a visitor to the church, a woman in her mid-30s, shook my hand at the door as she dabbed away tears. She asked if she could make an appointment with me. We agreed to meet the following Thursday. 

            Thursday came and she and I sat down to talk. She said to me, “I’ll bet you’re wondering why I had tears in my eyes on Sunday, and why I asked to meet with you.” I told her that the thought had crossed my mind, and that I hoped it wasn’t due to my giving a dreadfully bad sermon. She then went on to tell me her story. She had grown up in Southern California in a family that was part of the Four Square Gospel Church, a fundamentalist church that was highly restrictive and regimented. Growing up, she felt as though she was never allowed to do anything the other children were doing, and as though she was a prisoner of her parents’ religion. She couldn’t wait to get out from under her their control.

            After graduating from high school, she met a charismatic and dynamic man—a man who promised her freedom and a life filled with adventure and excitement. She left home to travel with this man, along with a group of others who seemed to be part of his entourage. They lived an exciting life of drugs, partying, and experimentation. But then the life took a downward spiral. The man became more and more controlling. He enticed her to dabble in all sorts of sexual practices with other men, and he turned her into something very close to a prostitute. She found herself trapped in a nightmare. What made it worse was that through this lifestyle she ended up damaging some of her internal reproductive organs, leaving her with a working ovary on the right side of her body and a working fallopian tube on the other side. In other words, without artificial help to get an egg across a wide cavity, she could never get pregnant.

            It took her two years to escape this man’s grasp. She moved back home and enrolled in college, majoring in psychology. After graduating she enrolled in a master of social work program so that she could become a counselor working with lost souls like herself. She eventually met a man, a psychologist, whom she married. They moved around a bit as he took on teaching jobs and worked in rehab centers. Their travels brought them to the town where I was an associate pastor. She told me that it had taken her so long to recover from the life with that man who had destroyed so much of her life, and that church was something that helped her tremendously. She came to our church looking for a place to help her continue to heal, especially when she was beginning to obsess about her past more in recent months. She had been praying to God to help her find a church that would help her heal.

            She then leaned forward and said to me, “You can imagine my surprise when I came here for church Sunday and you talked about Elisha Shapiro.  You see, Elisha Shapiro was that man I just told you about.” She then said that she was still living the consequences of that life. All her life she wanted to have and raise children, but because of her internal scarring there was no way to become pregnant naturally. Her only option was in-vitro fertilization, especially since her husband was against adopting children. At that time they had already spent thousands of dollars on unsuccessful in-vitro fertilization treatments.

            She eventually joined the church and became a very active (and personally inspiring for me) member, and one of our most prayerful members. She taught me a lot about how faith can lead to a life of God-incidences. She taught me that my experiences weren’t unique, but were quite common for Christians, especially as we grow deeper in our faith. But her coincidences weren’t through. Over the years she kept trying to have children via in-vitro, but after going through twelve or so treatments without success, at a cost of thousands of dollars, she decided that she couldn’t do it anymore. 

            She and I talked many times over the year about her disappointment, and we even prayed for healing, but nothing seemed to work. She was disappointed and helpless to do anything about it. For a long time we didn’t talk about it. Then, one day, she walked into my office with a big, ear-to-ear grin. I asked her what had happened, and she said, “I’m two months pregnant!”  I said to her, “But I thought you quit the in vitros.”  She said, “I did.  This was a natural pregnancy.” I then asked her what had happened.

            After jokingly asking me if she needed to give me a lecture on the birds and the bees, she told me that about two months prior, in the midst of despair and sadness, she sat down with God and prayed: “Lord, you know how much I want to be a mother.  You know how much I’ve wanted this my whole life.  It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.  So, Lord, I give you my life.  If you want me to become a mother, I will become the best mother I can be, and I will serve you as a mother.  If not, I will serve you the best I can in whatever you call me to do.  All I want to do is to be yours, so I will follow you and serve you however you want.”  She said that it must have been during that week that she got pregnant.  She was convinced that she became pregnant because she surrendered to God and gave up her demand that God make her pregnant. She gave up control over her life. It was her saying to God that she was God’s no matter what, and that she was willing to give up her dreams, that seemed to open her to God’s Spirit. Her miracle happened because of her surrender. Seven months later she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Two years later, she gave birth to another healthy baby boy. Both of these conceptions were pretty near physically impossible.

            She taught me that when we have faith and pray, coincidences, providences, and God-incidences become a regular part of our lives. One of the reasons we’re doing this series on “Coincidence or Providence?” is to explore what we can learn from these God-incidences. From her I learned three really big lessons:

            First, if we choose to turn away from God and God’s way, God won’t stop us. God really does give us freedom of choice, and the real basic freedom is whether we will choose God’s way for us or our own way. If we choose our own way, no matter how destructive it might be, God won’t stop us. But God will wait and watch for us, much like the prodigal son’s father (Luke 15:11-32). The son takes his inheritance and squanders it on an self-destructive life. But the father watches every day for his son to return, and when he does the father runs to embrace and restore him. This is the way God is with us. God will let us choose a path of destruction, if that is our choice, but God also always waits to restore us, often using coincidences to do so.

            Second, when we choose to return, God takes whatever life we give God, and makes it better. But that doesn’t mean God will make it perfect. God won’t necessarily take away the scars, consequences, or burdens of our bad choices and lifestyles. But God will find a way to make our lives better, starting with where we are. And that life will be better than anything we could imagine when we were struggling and lost.

            Third, the more we open to God, the more God will surprise us. This is the great lesson of God-incidences. God loves to surprise us with possibilities we didn’t know were possible. I never imagined that becoming a pastor could be a great thing. My friend didn’t realize that God could actually speak to her directly through a stranger’s sermon, nor that she could get pregnant naturally despite her prognosis.

            God is also ready to surprise you,… if you are open and ready.

            Amen.

Picking Up the Mantle, by The Rev. Connie Frierson, 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 6-30-13


  
2 KINGS 2:1-2, 6-14

1Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2Elijah 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.
6Then 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. 7Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. 8Then 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.
9When 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." 10He 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." 11As 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. 12Elisha 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.
13He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14He 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.
        

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Picking Up the Mantle

Two weeks ago we used as our text a passage of 1 Kings that involved King Ahab, Jezebel, a vineyard owner named Naboth and the prophet Elijah.  Remember I asked who had heard of that passage before and understandably about three fourths of you said, “Never heard of it.”  I’m going to ask the same question with this passage. Anyone ever hear this before?  I bet a few more have heard this story. But for those of you who are new to this one. Here are the important points.
         Elijah, the super prophet of his age, was walking along with Elisha, the newbie, and they came to the Jordan River. About fifty other guys in the prophet guild are trailing along. At three points in the trek Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD is calling me further along.” But Elisha swears, "As the LORD lives, I will not leave you." They come up to the Jordan River. Old Elijah took off his cape and he rolled it up and “whap” hit the water. The water divided to the right and the left and Elijah and Elisha walked together across on dry land. The fifty other guys lag back on the wrong side of the Jordan. Perhaps they were just spiritual spectators. Once they were across Elijah turned to Elisha and said, “Well, before I leave you, Elisha, what can I do for you?” Elisha said, “I’d like a double portion of your spirit.” Elijah said, “Well, Elisha, if it happens, it happens.” And then all of a sudden from out of the heavens came a fiery chariot swooping down pulled by flaming horses and it picked up Elijah, sort of like a celestial rollercoaster, and it shot up into the air, and the cape that was on Elijah’s shoulders flew off and it went floating down to the ground. Young Elisha walked over and picked up that cape and walked over to the Jordan River and, standing exactly as he had seen Elijah stand, he rolled up that cape and he went “whap” and the waters parted to the right and to the left and Elisha walked over.
         Some may not remember this story but most of you know the phrase “to pick up the mantle.”  It means to carry on a job. It is a gift and a responsibility, to say “I’ve got it now. I’ll carry on.” Whether we like it or not, ready or not every one of us is picking up mantle’s along the way. Every change in life, every turn of age and every turn of time involve us evolving into new roles. Life is dynamic. If you want things to just stay the same then let’s all invest in some cryonic freezing technology. But being cryonically frozen looks a lot more like death than life.  Because, life is growth and change. So if we choose to live, we better learn to do change and transform well.
         I remember a powerful moment of transition in my own life. After my mother died. My three siblings and I were taking a quiet moment together before we went downstairs to face my mother’s funeral. The house was full to overflowing with friends and relatives. The few days since her death were so hectic. Just the four of us were upstairs in my childhood bedroom in our old farmhouse. My brother looks around at our small circle and he said with great insight. “We have just stepped up.” In a flash we all understood that for our family, he meant we had stepped into our parents generation. We inherited their mantle. Whatever family relationships we carried through, however we lived our lives, it was up to us, not my mom, not my dad, not anyone older or wiser or more prepared. It was us now. How do we grow into the roles God has in mind for us?        
         Elijah and Elisha can give us a hand here.  In this tiny, crazy story we see some of the things that help us step up. First, find a mentor or let a mentor find you.  I pity people who don’t have a rich faith community.  I have had many jobs over the years and I have had professional mentors that nurtured and helped me in the workplace. But there is a profound difference when people mentor you spiritually. They don’t teach you what to do as much as how to be. This place is thick with mentors. I can look out and most of you have taught me something.  Agnes Peebles and I did breakfast at the Kaufman House. For years I prayed with a prayer group every Wednesday. I’ve puzzled and talked and contemplated how to live in Faith Groups and Devotional Groups. I’ve watched and learned how to walk through grief and illness with many of you. I’ve learned how to move from problem to finding the solution. I’ve had before me the power of tender love and lifelong learning. I’ve learned how to be hopeful, loving, giving. I look out and see a sea of mentors.  But of all the Calvin mentors, one mentor is extraordinary, Graham is a mentor that I have valued in a special way.  Because he has had a hand in all the familiar aspects of Calvin we often don’t acknowledge the miracle that is a healthy church.  But it is his leadership that has framed it all. I have such gratitude for his quirky combination of tremendous vision and hope combined with an practical, workable, step by step approach to life and work. We are truly blessed to have that rarest of things in Graham, an original thinker with a kind heart.
         This is a wonderful environment to live and learn. So look around. Spot someone who is living richly, has some skills, some experience or a view point that is life giving and plant yourself where you can learn. Say, “As the Lord lives I will not leave you.” And soak up some goodness.
         Mentoring is entirely unique. Elisha is not a carbon copy of Elijah. Mentorees are not clones of their mentors. It’s not like being an Elvis impersonator where you mimic someone. Elijah is so open-ended with Elisha. His final words are simply, "Tell me, what can I do for you?” Elisha replies, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” It sounds like “I want to be you – to the second power. I want to be you – squared.” But Elisha goes on to bring his own style to his role as prophet laureate of Israel. Elisha is not as pugnacious and flamboyant as Elijah. Elijah was always righting the great wrongs of the world. Elijah spent most of his ministry in someone’s face; King Ahab, Jezebel, the Priest of Baal.  Elisha’s ministry was helping people, demonstrating God’s power through caring. Elisha would be found more often with the common people as much as with great kings.  Great as mentors are, you make your own decisions. Three times Elijah gave Elisha the chance to leave, saying, “You’re free to go your own way.” Each time Elisha said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.”
         Mentors can come in surprising forms.  Too often we are looking for the Luke Skywalker/Obi Wan Kenobi model, an older wiser mentor and a young apprentice.  This is a great model but it is not the only model. But we rob ourselves of rich lessons by being so narrow.  This past week I spent lots of time with my Vacation Bible School classes.  In every class I learned something that I needed to know; how to have more fun, how to be a good friend, how to enjoy simple things. I learned lots from my small mentors.  My friend, Peter’s oldest son, Joel, is a genius with computers.  As a high school senor Joel met with someone who desperately wanted to learn computer skills. The social network and emailing and photo sharing were really important to her.  Joel was 17. His student, Alice, was 93. Mentoring can have amazing surprises and sometimes in the best mentoring it is unclear who is mentoring who.
         There is a habit of great people that we should imitate. They talk to the dead. Great people are formed by those who go before. Barak Obama wrote a book called Dreams From My Father about his own father. All his life, Abraham Lincoln talked with the founders of this country. Winston Churchill talked with the Duke of Marlborough. Theodore Roosevelt talked with the men and women who settled the West.
Since we are talking about picking up a mantle and because the Pirates are doing so well that we are all baseball fans again, we should mention Mickey Mantel.  Mickey Mantel was tremendously influence by his father, Mutt Mantel.  At the age of five. Mickey’s dad would pitch to him left-handed and he would bat right handed. Then his grandfather would pitch right handed and Mickey would bat left handed. Mickey’s father and Grandfather both died in there 40’s from Hodgkin’s Disease. While Mutt got to see his son move up to the big leagues he didn’t live to see all of Mickey’s success. But Mickey admitted that he talked to dad whenever he was on the road in hotel rooms. Mickey would go over the game and hear words of encouragement or humor or insight in his father’s voice. With great people in times of great need the dead come alive and looking over their shoulder with encouragement and example.
         This opens up new realms of possibilities. If you didn’t have such a great dad, borrow Corrie Ten Boom’s father from The Hiding Place.  If you didn’t have a great mom, let Catherine Marshall give you sage motherly advice from her book Beyond Ourselves. Can’t pray deeply seek out some mentoring with Father Thomas Keating. Want to live a deeper spirituality learn from the Quaker, Thomas Kelly. The world is deep in mentors
         We have mentors from beyond this life too but in scriptural terms we call it the great cloud of witnesses. It as though in this sanctuary, we have an invisible balcony. In our lives we have an invisible ceiling. Those we love, those we admire, and those whose lives have been important to us are sending encouragement and inspiration. Roman Catholics believe this strongly with their veneration of the saints. We Protestants aren't quite so sure how it all works out. But the Word of God teaches that we get strength and encouragement from the greats who have gone before. I know it is true for me.
            Over 15 years ago I was a functional agnostic.  I had lost the knack of faith.  In a faithless world, I was lonely in the universe.  I came to Calvin and found mentors in faith that nurtured me. I really came to Calvin for the older women, who with love and kindness and just being themselves mentored me. Now I have a great congregation of faith models. I am rich with the wisdom of ancient and modern Christians.  This is the life that enables me to pick up my mantle.
“Whap” the River Jordan and cross over to a richer life.

Amen.