January 24-26, 2015 Pastor Timothy J Spaude Text: 1 Kings 19:19-21 “THE WORK OF THE LORD GOES ON!”

EPIPHANY 4

January 24-26, 2015

Pastor Timothy J Spaude

Text: 1 Kings 19:19-21

“THE WORK OF THE LORD GOES ON!”

1 Kings 19:19-21 (NIV 1984) “So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said, "and then I will come with you." "Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?" 21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.”

          It’s a mess. The country is in a state of immorality. The rulers, hard to see exactly where they are leading, certainly not toward the one true God. So many scandals as though they are above the law. Enemies are threatening. And the church? So many people are not worshipping the LORD, they choose instead the fake gods and religions that tell you what you want to hear. Even when God does something or allows something big to wake people up the effect only lasts a short time and then people return to their self-serving lives. You know of course that I’m talking about the state of affairs at the time of the prophet Elijah. Maybe I was even a little too nice in my description. Our text today follows Elijah’s great
“cave” in to all the pressure. Remember what happened? Because of all the immorality and idolatry God had sent a drought that caused a three year famine to wake the people up to their need for Him. That had led to the showdown with the prophets of Baal where God demonstrated He is the only true God when fire came down from heaven to burn up Elijah’s sacrifice while Baal’s just sat there. The people woke up for a time. They killed all the prophets of  Baal. But after that no one rallied to Elijah’s defense when Jezebel determined to kill him. Elijah had had it. That was it. He ran and hid in a cave. His country was going to Hell in a hand basket and no one else cared. He was done. Game over.  But then the LORD came to Elijah in the still small voice of His word and set Elijah straight. No whining. God would take care of the bad rulers of Israel in His time and His way. And he wasn’t alone. There were still 7000 true believers in Israel and help was on the way for Elijah. A man named Elisha. You know why? Because the work of the Lord goes on!

          Whether you fell into my trap or not to think I was describing our own times we can all at times find ourselves feeling like we’re getting to be all alone. Doing our utmost for God does not matter. People don’t listen. They don’t care. No one seems to join our rallying cries against immorality or for Christ. And where is God? He seems unaware or unwilling to do anything about it despite our cries to him for help. But nothing is further from the truth. As it was in the days of Elijah and Elisha, so it is right now. The work of the Lord goes on. Let’s look at this part of God’s word and figure out where we fit in.

          “So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him”. God had told Elijah to do this, to anoint Elisha as his successor. It’s interesting to note whom God uses. In our first reading we heard about Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, Saul (Paul) and John. In the Gospel reading Jesus called fishermen. We don’t know all kinds of details but in that listing there are young and old. The very well educated Paul and the brothers whose only school was fish. There were working class poor and nobility. We know a little about Elisha. He was a farmer, and a rich one. Twelve tractors and the servants to drive them. Elijah threw his cloak around him. There must have been something about that cloak that said “prophet.” Maybe it was like a pastor’s robe. We wear these to indicate we are in our role as spokesmen for God. And it’s a pastor’s robe, not a pastor’s dress, as two girls I know like to say. A robe. Not a dress.

          Elisha understood what the cloak meant. “Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said, "and then I will come with you." "Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?" Elisha is ready to go. He asks for a chance to say good-bye. Elijah grants it. He understands that this call to do the work of the LORD means changes. “What have I done to you?” Elisha would find out. He would find out some neat things when God would give him the power to do miracles like healing the leprous Naaman and making an axe head float. He would find out the hard things when some young people from a town made fun of him because he was balding. I should mention that those who made fun of the balding word of God speaker were mauled by two bears! “So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.” The work of the LORD goes on. Elisha became Elijah’s attendant. That’s like an apprentice. A student who learns by watching, the doing under supervision, the doing on his own. All of Elijah’s worrying, despair, his pity party were needless. God had everything under control and the work of the LORD goes on.

          Now what can we learn from this? It is to learn to trust what God says instead of what we hear in the media and see with our eyes. It is to take comfort and have confidence because the work of the Lord goes on among us too. And each one of us is an Elijah or an Elisha, of maybe a combination of both. Many of you are of the generation of Elijah. At your Baptism the Lord marked you as his own. He brought you into his service. You have been involved in the work of the Lord for many years. Your parents brought you up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Your grew up. You married. You were careful to train your children in the way of the Lord. You lived through the times where there were these things called family values and Protestant work ethic. While your country was careful not to interfere with religion many of its laws mirrored God’s morality. People generally agreed that America was a Christian country. And now things have changed. It feels downright discouraging. The country’s morality is degrading daily. Work ethic? What’s that? Just give it to me. While for you worshipping the LORD weekly is a given many in the younger generations, your own kids, seem to feel worship isn’t that important and God doesn’t mind second place. Oi!

          Get up Elijah! The work of the Lord goes on. He’s got generations following you behind who will do His work when you are basking in the glory of heaven. Don’t judge with your eyes. Your work is not yet done. There are Elishas to be trained. Their rulers will be more like Ahab and Jezebel than yours were so let’s make sure we train them well. This is why our work across the parking lot in our school and in our high schools is so important. Whether you have kids there or not can we see things in the bigger picture and talk about our kids, the next generation, the new Elishas? What kind of training do we want to give them? What kind of spiritual armor? If they were going to fight ISIS we would insist on the best money could buy would we not?  Strong Elisha’s for tough times. Elijah’s cloak, put over Elisha. New generations of trained workers to carry out the work of the LORD. Yes it is expensive to carry out Christian Education at every level. Let’s find a way to do it. Would some of you Elijahs consider making that happen by placing St Jacobi or WELS or Wisco or Prep in your will, especially if you can’t trust your heirs?

          Then there are the Elishas. You younger people. When grandpa or grandma or mom and dad start bemoaning things, when they fear for your future, smile. Understand it’s coming from love. But then ignore them. They are forgetting that the work of the LORD goes on. Elijah judged with his eyes and was wrong. Elisha served God and  found faithful people for many years. You will too. You don’t have to leave behind your oxen and plow but maybe can you leave behind your generation’s live for the moment mentality, fixation on things and social media addiction and take seriously God’s words in your life. You will need them.

          You will need them because the work of the Lord goes on. Until the Lord Jesus himself returns, the work of the Lord goes on. And you know what’s really neat? Young and old, rich and poor, different levels of education, male, female, man, woman and child, God has chosen each of us to be a part of it! That’s quite an honor. Amen.