10.16--With Great Power (Sermon on 2 Kings 2:18-25)

My family is a movie-going family. There was a two-dollar movie theater in the town over from us, and we would go almost every week to see a different movie. The seats were old and deep; sitting in them was like sitting in a Lazy Boy recliner. The popcorn was just on the too-greasy side. And the projector was old enough that the picture quality was starting to fade slightly.

I loved it.

And what was my favorite type of movie to watch? Super hero movies. Yes, the plot line was always pretty much the same. Yes, the good guy always got the girl in the end. Yes, they always managed to throw in some funny, tension-breaking line at just the right spot in the drama. And yes, I loved them.

I remember going with my family to see Spiderman when it first came out. I was so excited, because Spiderman was one of my favorites. He never seemed to be the perfect hero, but he always managed to get the job done.

I could appreciate that in him, because I felt that way a lot in my own life.

I sat on the edge of my seat through the entire film, eyes riveted to the screen. What a perfect balance of action, comedy and even romance! What a wonderful combination of great cast, spot on writing, and just enough special effects to get the job done but not overkill it. It was perfect.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I always stay through the end of the credits when I’m at the movie theatre. Some people do this out of respect for the people who worked hard to bring me my movie. I do it just to see if there’s a teaser at the end for the next film. And while my family and I waited patiently to see if anything was at the end of the credits, my little sister wakes up from the hour and a half long coma she’s been in since Spiderman started. In the loudest voice her four-year-old self can muster, she asks, “Where’s Batman?”

Katherine had slept through the entire movie. She missed the fight scenes, the intrigue, the plot twists. She missed the jokes, the witty dialogue, the catchy one-liners.

And she missed the life lessons hidden throughout the film, like the famous line from Peter Parker’s uncle: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

 A lesson that Elisha the prophet learned first-hand in our chapter this week from The Story. Elisha, with the cloak of his mentor, Elijah, resting upon his shoulders, has just taken on the role of God’s prophet. The hand of God is upon him, and he able to perform miracles in God’s name. Like Jesus says to His disciples so many years later, whatever Elisha binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven.

He has the power to bless, and he has the power to curse.

In our Scripture lesson today, we witness his first two public miracles—the purifying of the water in the spring at Jericho and the calling out of the she-bears to maul 42 youth.

Very different circumstances, very different results.

Now, we know about Jericho. In the book of Joshua, way back in chapter 7 of The Story, the Israelites march around the city seven times, shout out to the Lord, the walls come tumbling down. The people of Israel completely destroy the city and everything within it, and Joshua places a curse upon it, saying that ““Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates.” And at the very end of our last chapter, in 1 Kings 16:34, we read that “In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun.” So Jericho, this cursed city that was supposed to remain razed for the rest of history, is rebuilt at great cost. And now, Elisha is asked to cleanse the only water source near the city so that it can truly flourish. He does so, and the city of Jericho thrives because of it.

Then Elisha leaves Jericho and makes his way to Bethel, the city built at the place where God first spoke to Jacob. While there, some kids play a game that one of my old youth directors called “Pick on the Prophet.” Not a smart game to play. They continue to taunt him as he travels nearer, shouting “Go on up, you baldhead!” Not the most original jeer, but I’m sure that it did the job. And this sets our protagonist off. He loses his temper, and calls down a curse upon these kids, causing two bears to appear out of the woods and maul them to death.

Not exactly the kind of story that we want to be remembered for.

In these two stories, we see the pros and the cons of being an agent of God. We see how blessings can be brought to those in need, and we see how the power of God is not something to handle lightly. And friends, the truth is that we have the same power at our fingertips today. We might not be able to throw salt into a stream and purify it, and we might not be able to summon bears to maul our enemies, but we have been given the power as followers of Christ to bless and curse the things of this world.

Listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 18: “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” As disciples, we have the ability to bind—to lift up as truth and to secure a place for another—and we have the ability to loose—to let go, to banish, to leave off. This is a great power, and with it comes a great responsibility.

Like Elisha at Jericho, we have been given the task of testing, discerning, and deciding whether or not something is good and pleasing to God. This is an ongoing task, and a never-completed task. Jericho was once a cursed place, and God told Joshua that it was never to be inhabited again. And yet all these years later, the prophet of God deemed it right to purify the waters of Jericho and make it livable once more. Times had changed, and no longer was Jericho to be a cursed land, for in cleansing the waters of the spring, God through Elisha blessed the land and allowed it to prosper.

There have been and will be times in the life of the church when we are called to test those doctrines and stances that we have taken throughout the years, and when it is necessary, we might even be called to change the stances that have been taken. Like the many pastors who were charged as heretics during the Reformation, who pushed against the position that the church had taken on things like indulgences and the role of laity in faith. Like the brave men and women of the Civil Rights Movement, who would not stand for the church allowing and even supporting segregation. Like the women who fought for the right to follow God’s call on their lives for ordained ministry.

Our history is full of reform as we constantly evaluate what it means to be the people of God. So do not shy away from this task. It is a vastly important one.

And with this comes the second lesson: the lesson of Elisha at Bethel. Elisha let his anger get the best of him, and he called down an unreasonable curse on an undeserving group of kids. No, they should not have taunted him. No, they had no right to do so. But the punishment did not at all fit the crime in this case. Elisha unleashed the power God had given him, and in this act we see just how much responsibility that power comes with. The result of Elisha’s misuse of power is the death of 42 youth.

Many times, we as the church take up a righteous cause or purpose, but our actions actually work to its detriment. Like Elisha, our anger can get the best of us at times, and we can end up doing more harm than good. When I was 17, I remember watching a news segment about a church group that was picketing outside of an abortion clinic. The camera showed a young girl, with tears streaming down her face, walking out of the clinic while people waved signs in her face and yelled at her and spit at her. The men and women of God who are trying to stand up for the sanctity of life show nothing but hate and malice to this girl who is already on the verge of a mental and emotional breakdown. That same channel did a follow-up story a couple days later, after the girl had committed suicide.

Friends, this is just as scary and wrong as a curse that causes the death of 42 kids, and this is a lot closer to home than a story buried in 2 Kings that is easily overlooked. We as Christians are absolutely called to take a stance on injustice where we see it. But we must always remember that with great power comes great responsibility, and our greatest responsibility is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our strength, our soul and our mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

So may we remember the biblical lesson of Spiderman as seen in this story about Elisha. May we remember that with the great power Christ has given us comes great responsibility. May we remember that we are called to always evaluate what we hold to be truth, and may we constantly be aware of how our actions measure up to the love we are called to share. Amen.