Elma United Methodist Church

Have it Your Way?

Elma United Methodist Church

Have it Your Way?

Dan Shelly

Elma United Methodist Church

February 12, 2006

(Mark 1:40-45, 2 Kings 9:1-14)

 

Our two scripture readings today both tell us of someone being cured of leprosy by God.  In the first reading, a high official, the commander of the army of the Arameans came to Samaria to see Elijah the prophet.  And in our second reading, an unnamed man called out to Jesus telling him that if he chose, Jesus could make him well.  One commonality between these two stories is that both of these people sought healing and both of them were healed by God.  But as I read their two stories, there was another commonality that stood out to me as well. 

 

In the first scripture, the commander of the king’s armies came in a great display of power and wealth, riding in a chariot bearing silver and gold.  He was so important that the king of Israel panicked when he heard he was coming.  He knew that if he insulted him, or failed to find a cure, that the entire nation of Israel could be thrown into war.  This was not a person to be trifled with.  He was definitely a red carpet dignitary.  He knew he was important and expected to be treated that way.  So imagine how this dignitary felt when he was sent to the humble home of Elijah the prophet, and Elijah didn’t even bother to come out to see him.  Instead he just sent a message for him to go and bathe in the Jordan river.  This commander had been royally snubbed and insulted.  Didn’t Elijah know who he was?  And he had traveled all this way.  He expected Elijah to come out, call on the name of the Lord, wave his hand over the leprosy, and make it go away.  But instead Elijah sent him a message to go take a bath!  He could have stayed home to do that.

 

The commander’s servants tried to calm him down.  They asked him.  If Elijah had asked you to do something really hard instead of something easy, wouldn’t you have done it?  Finally the commander relented went to the Jordan, bathed, and was healed.

 

Our second reading tells the story of a leper who approached Jesus and begged him for healing.  Jesus felt compassion for him and did the unthinkable.  He reached out and touched him, which completely violated the Jewish purity laws, laws that now declared Jesus himself to be ritually unclean.  And immediately the man was cured.  Not wanting this to affect his ministry, Jesus told the man that if he was thankful, he would go and show himself to the priest to be accepted back into society, but he sternly warned him NOT to tell anyone how he was healed.  This was not at all what this newly cured man wanted to hear.  If he was truly healed, he wanted to tell the whole world.  He wanted to publicly declare God’s miracle in his life.  So when he left Jesus, the man ignored Jesus’ warning and began telling everyone he met about his healing.  And soon, news of this spread to the point that Jesus couldn’t even show himself in town without getting mobbed.

 

So what did these two men who were healed have in common?  They both wanted to be healed, and they both had their own expectations about how God should do it!  And when God did something unexpected, they rejected it.  Somehow both of them thought that they were important enough that they could not only ask for a healing, but also dictate to God exactly how God should go about doing it.  Like the famous Burger King motto each of them wanted to “Have it Their Way!”  Not only did they want God to heal them, but they felt they should be able to tell God exactly how, when, and where to go about doing it as well!

 

Their stories remind me of yet another story.  In a southern town, a huge rain storm, not unlike what we experienced last month here in Grays Harbor, was backing up the rivers and terrible flooding was predicted - so all of the citizens were asked to evacuate.  But as the waters began to rise, there was a woman of great faith who steadfastly refused to leave her home.  She believed in the power of prayer and remained in her home on her knees in prayer.  As the water began to come up to her door, the sheriff drove up through the flooded streets and offered her a ride to higher ground.  But she smiled and said, “No thank you sheriff, my life is in God’s hands and God will save me.”  Later, as the waters rose up toward the second floor of her house, an airboat came roaring across the waters and the boat pilot asked her to climb out of her window and into the boat.  But again she smiled and said, “No thank you, my life is in God’s hands and God will save me.”  Finally the flood waters got so high that she was forced out onto her roof.  And they sent a helicopter to rescue her off of her rooftop.  But when the helicopter arrived, she told them, “This flood is a test of faith, and God wants me to remain faithful to the end.  I’m standing firm and I have faith that God will save me.”  Unfortunately, the flood waters continued to rise and this woman of great faith eventually drowned. 

 

And she was more than a little confused.  So when she arrived in heaven she asked God about it.  She said, “I was firm in my faith, I believed in your promises and I never wavered.  So why didn’t you save me from the flood?  And God said, “But my daughter first I sent you a car, then a boat, and finally a helicopter to save you!”

 

We all know how to come to the Lord in prayer and ask for what we need that’s not the problem.  The problem comes when we’re so used to getting everything our own way that we begin to think of our prayer time as sort of like a fast-food drive thru window.  Somehow we think it’s OK to not only tell God about our hunger, but then ask for a double stack burger, with cheese, no ketchup, and extra pickles.  Give us our daily bread, begins to turn into give us a sesame seed bun - lightly toasted - with no mayonnaise.  And then when God DOES answer our prayers, and God’s answer isn’t what we were expecting, it can take us completely by surprise.  So much so, that sometimes it’s days, months or even years later before we can look back on things and realize just how God was present with us and answering our prayers even when we thought we were being ignored.  

 

I was telling my spouse about this sermon topic and she suggested I share with you a story of just how unexpected God’s answer to prayer can sometimes be.  Back when she was in her 20’s she had been in a long-term relationship with her boyfriend for some time and it seemed like it was going nowhere.  So finally out of desperation she got down on her knees at the side of her bed, folded her hands, and asked God to tell her should she stay in this relationship and wait to marry him or should she break it off and leave.  And that very day, her boyfriend walked in the front door and said “You know what, I’ve been thinking, why don’t we get married?”  Talk about a quick answer to prayer!  She thanked God, said yes, and married her boyfriend.  The problem was, once they were married, he began to think of her as his personal “property.”  In three weeks, it was clear that the honeymoon was over.  First he began to bully her and finally in a fit of anger he beat her.  Within six months of their marriage, they found themselves separated and divorced.

 

Then she asked God, “What’s that all about?”  I prayed and asked if I should leave him or stay and marry him, and it sure seemed like you said loud and clear to go ahead and marry him.  And God told her.  “I couldn’t tell you to leave him until you two got close enough for you to really come to understand who he was.  I had to bring you two together in order to help you leave.”  Sometimes we get an answer to our prayer, but it doesn’t always come in the way that we’re expecting.

 

And that’s the key to our understanding prayer. God wants us to be in relationship and to bring our troubles to him in prayer.  And God is merciful and faithful, loving and kind, with a heart that wants only good things for all of God’s children.  But we don’t always understand what’s good for us.  Whenever he’s hungry, my two year old grandson would much rather eat candy then broccoli, but out of love his parents serve him a lot more broccoli than candy at the dinner table.

 

You see, there’s a HUGE difference between our wants and our needs.  And God has promised to meet all of our needs, not all of our wants.  And let’s give thanks that God is faithful to meet our every need when we take it to the Lord in prayer.

 

When you go to the drive thru window, there’s no doubt that you can order whatever you want, how and when you want it.  Even if it hurts you or puts you into the next pants size, you are welcome to “have it your way.”  But far better than that, when you go to the Lord in prayer, you can lay your burdens down, right there at the Lord’s feet and trust in God’s love which remains steadfast and true.  God will meet your every need and journey with you throughout this lifetime and the next. 

 

For beyond meeting our every need, God blesses us with Love, Joy and Peace the fruit of the Spirit when we learn to trust and have it God’s Way.