2 Kings 5:1-14; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
“But his servants approached him and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it?
How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean?'”
*Let's begin by recapping a few items from last week's message:
Jesus had turned his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51)
Christians are most faithful when we turn our faces to Jesus and make Jesus the path in which we walk so that we can reach our rightful destination
The principle of the path is this: Direction, not intention, leads to Destination.
*Said another way, the actions we take and the decisions we make in our lives do not necessarily lead us to the destinations we intend for our lives. Consider this example:
The last thing they heard was the piercing whistle of an oncoming train. Moments later, dozens of mostly Latin American immigrants who crossed the tracks instead of using an underground passageway to reach a beach party in this seaside resort were dead or injured, their body parts strewn among the rails. Spain's deadliest train accident since 2003 took place during a nationwide ritual on one of the longest days of the year called Noche de San Juan, or the night of St. John, when the blazing Spanish sun sets at 9:30 p.m1.
The young people on their way to this beach party to celebrate the summer solstice had every intention of going out and having an awesome night; it was never their intention to be killed and maimed. The underground passageway was the correct path to take, yet it was clogged up with people and seemed to be taking too long to get through it to the beach. So they changed direction which led to a deadly destination. Direction, not intention, leads to destination.
Andy Stanley writes in his book, “Generally speaking, we don't abandon the clearly marked paths because we are looking for trouble. There's always something about the alternate routes that is powerfully appealing.”2
The healing of the Aramean General, Naaman, tells us something of the consequences of a decision to leave the clearly marked path, namely, the instructions of Israel's great prophet, Elisha. Fortunately for Naaman, his servants are able to talk some sense into him and get him back on the path to a cure for his leprosy. If he had continued in the direction he chose, Naaman would never have found the healing he needed — his intended destination... See if you can pick out the places where and why Naaman left the Path:
VV 10-11 Elisha sent a messenger to him saying “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, 'I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy.'”
Naaman left the path when he got angry, insulted by what he perceived as disrespectful treatment from Elisha.
Naaman expected that because he was a very important person, “a mighty warrior,” (v 1) that Elisha would make a big flashy show out of healing him.
Anger and Arrogance set Naaman on a different path, one that would not lead him to his intended destination, the healing of his leprosy.
V 12 I picture Naaman walking heatedly in circles, his armor clanking and protesting as loud as the man himself. He was shouting at no one in particular, while all his men watched. “'Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than ALL the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?' He turned away in rage.”
VV 13-14 Naaman gets going in the right direction; he gets back on the path with some wise guidance from his servants. He had come a long way; brought expensive gifts, and frightened the King of Israel to reach his intended destination. There had been a lot of fanfare, a big show, but none of that got Naaman to where he wanted to be. Yet, Naaman's men knew the Principle of the Path (this is not something Andy Stanley made up). “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean?'”
If we make ourselves our own destination, if we make decisions that lead us in directions that do not lead to the destinations we desire, all we end up doing is wandering around in a circle of life marred with regret, illness, and despair. Is that where we want to go, how we want to live? Of course not, yet the misdirected decisions we make reveal why bad things happen to smart people.
I do not believe God intends for bad things to happen to us, but when they do, God is always certain to lead us back in the right direction, if only we learn to discern his plan and agree to the adventure. God created for great things, yet “we all have a propensity for choosing paths that do not lead in the direction we want to go”3 and then we wonder where we wandered, how we got lost.
There are three points to remember about being lost: 1. We never get lost on purpose; 2. We never know exactly when it happens; and 3. The road we are on always determines where we end up.
You see, direction decides everything. The decisions we make are not isolated events — each one is a step in a certain direction; these steps when we take the time to connect them determine our destination.
Imagine you are looking in the rear view mirror of your car. What do you see behind you? Where you've been, of course Now, think about where you are in your life today and try to pick out the decisions you made — the steps you took -- that determined the direction(s) you have traveled along your life's journey, the ones that got you to where you are today.
If you were to plot them on a graph and then connected the dots, would the connected dots reveal the pictured destination at which you intended to arrive? We rarely end up in places different from the direction we have taken.
If you keep changing your major in college, it takes longer to get your degree doesn't it?You have to take more courses in the new field. If we keep changing courses in life, we postpone the arrival at our destination. When we get lost in life, we can't retrace our steps and start again without losing precious time. Connect the dots!
When we choose to connect the dots, when we turn our faces to Jesus and walk with him on his path, we could very well experience what the seventy disciples found when they went out among the people where Jesus sent them. Luke 10:17 captures the moment: “The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”
The demons people face today work to lead us in wrong directions. A walk with Jesus can either cast them out or help us to live with the consequences of our actions. Jesus heals every situation; all we have to do is turn our faces directly on him.
Jesus connects the dots in our lives; he leads us to fulfill God's plan for us. He is the one sure way to the destiny for which we are created, to have our “names written in heaven” (LK 10:20b). Amen.
Questions: Are there disconnects in your life?
Are there discrepancies between what you desire in your heart and what you are doing with your life?
Is there an alignment between your intentions and your direction?
July 4, 2010
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
