1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,580 Good morning. It is a joy to be with you today and I bring greetings from the 2 00:00:07,580 --> 00:00:12,400 Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo and the churches throughout the 3 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:18,240 Middle East who worship our God in the language of Arabic. Thank you for the 4 00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:23,000 partnership that you have given my wife and I in the work that we're doing at 5 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:27,760 the seminary in our teaching. We're grateful for your partnership with us 6 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:34,320 and we we thank God for all that is happening here in Palms. So join me in 7 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:40,840 prayer now. Gracious God, bring your Holy Spirit that our minds might 8 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:45,600 comprehend the words of your scripture and our hearts might be moved that we 9 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:53,840 might be able to act them out in the world today. In Jesus' precious name, amen. 10 00:00:53,840 --> 00:01:01,600 Our reading today is from 2nd Kings chapter 6 starting at verse 10. 11 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:09,200 Hear the word of the Lord. The king of Israel sent word to a place of which the 12 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:15,360 man of God spoke. More than once or twice he warned such a place so that it was 13 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,840 on alert. The mind of the king of Aram was greatly 14 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:25,320 perturbed because of this. He called his officers and said to them, now tell me 15 00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:34,400 who among us sides with the king of Israel. One of his officers said, no one, my 16 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:42,280 Lord King, it is Elisha, the prophet in Israel who tells the king of Israel the 17 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:49,560 words that you speak in your bedchamber. He said, go and find where he is 18 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:56,800 I will send and seize him. He was told he's in Dothan. He sent horses and 19 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:02,880 chariots there and a great army that came at night and surrounded the city. 20 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:09,120 When an attendant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, an 21 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:16,240 army with horses and chariots was all around the city. His servant said, alas 22 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:25,400 master, what shall we do? He replied, do not be afraid for there are more with us 23 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:33,680 than are with them. Then Elisha prayed, oh Lord please open his eyes that he may 24 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:39,600 see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant and he saw the mountain was full 25 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:47,480 of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. When the army our amians 26 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:52,680 came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, strike this people 27 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:58,360 please with blindness. So he struck them with blindness as Elisha had prayed. 28 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:04,360 Elisha said to them, this is not the way and this is not the city. Follow me, I 29 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:12,000 will bring you to the man whom you seek and he led them to Samaria. As soon as 30 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:18,720 they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, oh Lord open the eyes of these men so that 31 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:24,960 they may see. The Lord opened their eyes and they saw that they were 32 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:31,680 inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, father shall 33 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:39,480 I kill them, shall I kill them? He answered, no. Did you capture with your 34 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:47,480 sword or your bow those whom you want to kill? Set food and water before them so 35 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:54,960 that they may eat and drink and let them go to their master. So he prepared for 36 00:03:54,960 --> 00:04:00,200 them a great feast. After they ate and drank, he sent them on their way and they 37 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:07,440 went to their master and the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of 38 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:16,400 Israel. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So the old axiom goes 39 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:23,320 that seeing is believing, but we've all had experiences where we've seen 40 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:31,180 something and then interpreted what we've seen entirely incorrectly. For 41 00:04:31,180 --> 00:04:37,320 example, the tragic part of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet hinges on the fact 42 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:47,000 that Romeo sees and believes incorrectly that Juliet has died when in fact the 43 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:53,480 friar gave her a potion that would make her sleep two and forty hours. Sorry, 44 00:04:53,480 --> 00:05:01,520 spoiler alert. Just kidding. Our passage today shows us just how easy it is either 45 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:09,120 to fail to see something or to see it but see it wrongly. Elisha does three 46 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:15,800 things that are instructive for us today as we seek to see and believe as 47 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:23,240 followers of God. First, he observes the reality around him and he names it 48 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:31,040 properly. Second, and most importantly, he sets this reality into the larger 49 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:39,920 context of God's love and power. And finally, he responds to that reality with 50 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:48,080 hope, courage, and compassion. Elisha is God's prophet and he has been steadily 51 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:55,920 thwarting the Aramean king's plans of capturing Israel's army. Things go so, 52 00:05:55,920 --> 00:06:04,440 get so bad because when the king sends the, excuse me, so the Aramean king is 53 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:09,200 trying to track down the Israeli army and they can't find him because each time 54 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:14,600 Elisha as a prophet says no, go to this city, go to this city in order for them 55 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:20,400 to get away. And the Aramean king gets so mad about it that he sends horses and 56 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:28,760 chariots and a great army to take care of one pesky prophet. The scene, the next 57 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:33,920 scene, feels to me like it was just made for the movies. Elisha's servant rises in 58 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:41,200 the morning, opens the shutters and shutters with fear. The city of Dothan 59 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:47,200 is surrounded by a hostile army. The servant's next line is one of those that 60 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:56,160 echoes Apollo 13. Houston, we have a problem. He says, Alas, master, what 61 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:05,240 shall we do? The Aramean army really is out there. It's big and it's dangerous 62 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:11,640 and it's completely surrounding them. At no point does Elisha dismiss this 63 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:17,840 reality as a threat. It's a real threat and he is not just whistling in the dark. 64 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:23,600 Like the Christian tradition after him, Elisha takes the dangers of this world 65 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:33,640 seriously. Sin, evil and brokenness are real and truly terrifying. In Egypt today, 66 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:38,520 we have some real problems for the country generally and the Christian 67 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:44,840 population specifically. Metaphorically, it can feel like we are under siege and 68 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:52,640 surrounded by forces far more powerful than we are. It is the, it's been a 69 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:57,640 really, really awful quarter of a century during the time that we've been 70 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:01,880 there in many, many ways. Let me run through some of the things that we have 71 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:06,240 had the privilege of walking with Egyptian Christians through over the last 72 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:14,280 25 years. First, there was the aftermath of 9-11. Then we had the turmoil of the 73 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:20,760 second Gulf War. Then we had the economic collapse of 2008. We went through 74 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:25,680 the hope and then the disappointment of those massive protests for the Arab 75 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:30,880 Spring. There was the overthrow of President Husni Mubarak. There was the 76 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:35,880 disastrous reign of the Muslim Brotherhood. There were the massive protests 77 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:41,640 that led to the removal of President Muhammad Morsi. Is this a trend going on 78 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:47,520 here? There was the rise of ISIS and its reign of terror and now there's the 79 00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:53,880 tremendous losses from October 7th, the attacks of October 7th and the war in 80 00:08:53,880 --> 00:09:02,040 Gaza and beyond afterwards. It has been a brutal 25 years and we need to have the 81 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:07,400 courage to name things rightly. And I encourage each one of you, when you read 82 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:12,360 about things like this happening in the Middle East, please take a moment to 83 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:16,960 pause and pray for the Christians who are over there trying to be light and 84 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:23,560 salt in their environment. Like Elisha and his servant, we must acknowledge the 85 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:29,800 reality of the forces marshaled against us. Seeing rightly clearly involves 86 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:36,040 standing with victims, outcasts and the weak in an effort to call for greater 87 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:43,080 justice and transformation for the future. It is true that your community here in 88 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:47,560 Jacksonville and it's true for the in relation to God's children all around 89 00:09:47,560 --> 00:09:56,560 the world. We simply must name things properly. But that second step is even 90 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:02,160 more crucial and more important. We must set these realities in the greater 91 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:11,000 context of God's mission, love and power. Elisha's response to the servant seen 92 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:17,960 in the sees the larger picture therefore helps him to believe differently. We 93 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:26,360 read in verse 17 Elisha prays, oh Lord please open his eyes that he may see. A 94 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:31,040 prayer that would be good for each one of us for ourselves and those around us. 95 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:36,640 It's worth remembering here that the servant was not blind to begin with but 96 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:44,720 rather was only seeing part of reality, the harsh threats of reality. In answer 97 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:49,920 to that prayer God widens the servant's perspective and reframes it in light of 98 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:56,080 the power and the reality of God. The Bible continues quote, so the Lord opened 99 00:10:56,080 --> 00:11:01,920 the eyes of the servant and he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots 100 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:10,240 of fire all around Elisha. There are two really interesting parts about this 101 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:17,040 claim to me. First the revelation, their ability to see God's larger reality 102 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:25,920 dramatically shifts their perspective away from fear and on to action. And 103 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:32,360 secondly the Bible never mentions the vast divine army and chariots of fire 104 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:40,240 again. Instead it is one prophet's courageous action that defeats the entire 105 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:46,720 army. In other words this is not fundamentally a story about an angelic 106 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:55,120 army so much as it is God's faithfulness in working through his people. The core 107 00:11:55,120 --> 00:11:59,320 belief of the church from the time of the resurrection onwards has been that the 108 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:04,840 life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has actually changed everything. 109 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:11,120 Through Jesus Christ we are able to look at the world with hope even when the 110 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:17,680 picture is incredibly dark. I often see this hope in the eyes of my current and 111 00:12:17,680 --> 00:12:23,360 former students in Egypt and the wider Middle East. One of our graduates is a 112 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:27,680 student named Ekram and to be honest he was not one of the brighter students 113 00:12:27,680 --> 00:12:34,280 that I had a chance to teach. But he came and he began to work in a 114 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:41,320 slum portion of Cairo. He entered this as a student and where most people saw 115 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:48,320 poverty, suffering and overcrowded conditions, Ekram also saw amazing 116 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:54,440 potential and hope. I can still recall him sitting in my office and talking 117 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,520 about what he was going to do after graduation. He would return to this place. 118 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:07,280 My head was spinning as I seemed to detect a contradiction between his 119 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:14,720 description of the circumstances and the smile of joy and excitement on his face. 120 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:22,520 After he graduated from, so I asked him about this contradiction and I said 121 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,920 well tell me about this disconnect of these terrible circumstances and your 122 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:32,440 your excitement on his face and he said this, I really think God is going to use 123 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:40,080 me to make a difference in this community. That is really exciting to me. 124 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:46,040 Ekram went on to graduate and he went back to that poor area of town. He didn't 125 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:50,400 have a building to worship. There wasn't a church established there so he began 126 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:53,360 walking around the streets and he noticed that there were lots of children 127 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:57,840 playing in the streets so he decided that he'd start a Sunday school that was 128 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:02,720 like Vacation Bible School consistently. He went around and kids flocked to it. 129 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:07,800 Before you know it there were almost a hundred kids coming to be with him for 130 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:13,240 these Sunday school classes. Not only that, their parents were ecstatic about 131 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:18,640 it and so they began to ask about the church that he was starting. Now years 132 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:25,920 later he actually has a building and over a congregation of over 300. He saw 133 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:31,880 something in those circumstances that others were not able to see when they 134 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:37,760 didn't see that wider perspective of the work and power of God. I mentioned 135 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,800 earlier that it's been a terrible century or quarter-swint century for 136 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:47,760 Egypt and the wider Middle East. That's only partially true. What I'd like to do 137 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:54,600 now is to challenge you to see that wider perspective, to have our eyes opened to 138 00:14:54,600 --> 00:15:01,480 what God's work and power is doing in our region. During that same period, God has 139 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:06,840 been working mightily through the seminary and through the wider church. When 140 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:15,040 we arrived in Egypt in 1999, the seminary had 67 students. As of this fall, we had 141 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:22,720 an enrollment of almost 700. In 1999, we did not have any full-time Egyptians 142 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:30,440 with their PhDs. Today we have 10 Egyptians with their doctorate or who 143 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:34,560 are working on their doctorate right now. 144 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:40,600 Moreover, in the last 15 years, the number of Egyptian Presbyterian churches 145 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:48,200 has increased by over 30%. 15 years ago, we had no female Egyptian full-time 146 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:54,360 teachers. Today we have three, two with their PhDs and one in her final two years 147 00:15:54,360 --> 00:16:02,760 of it. In many ways, it has truly been a glorious quarter-swint century if we only 148 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:09,360 have eyes to see that wider perspective. After we have named the reality for what 149 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:15,920 it is, seen it in its context of God's larger power and grace, we are to respond 150 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:23,560 with hope, courage, and compassion. In Elisha's case, he not only refuses the 151 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:29,160 king's question about slaughtering the Aramean army, but he treats them as 152 00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:35,560 honored guests and offers them hospitality and grace. And it's that 153 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:43,800 action, that hospitality that actually stops the rating of the army. So I've 154 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:49,280 said these three steps of seeing the circumstances as they are, praying that 155 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:54,480 God could help us to see them in the context of God's power and grace, and 156 00:16:54,480 --> 00:17:02,640 then finally being moved to action. One of our students in 2010 had been admitted 157 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:12,760 to our D-min to become a pastor. Unfortunately, before he came to 158 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:19,200 the seminary, he was in a tragic accident and he lost his leg. In Egypt, it's a 159 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:23,800 shame and honor society, and so for someone to have a disability like to 160 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:30,200 actually be missing a leg was incredibly hard for him and his whole family. He 161 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:35,360 spent most of that year not in his first year of the MDiv program, but at home 162 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:41,440 trying to rehabilitate. And through the grace of other people who came along 163 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:47,920 side him, he came to the point that God was still calling him to go to 164 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:54,120 seminary and become a pastor in spite of what others said. So he got in contact 165 00:17:54,120 --> 00:17:58,720 with a friend who was in the United States at the time and the friend found a 166 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:07,760 prosthetic leg that was light. The friend brought the leg over for the 167 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:11,480 student and the student showed up. His name is Joseph, but we'll just call him 168 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:16,880 Joe. So Joe showed up at our seminary and for the whole first year of his time 169 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:23,680 there, he always had long pants on. It was not an issue where he wanted revealed 170 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:29,480 to others. Then he went to his summer internship and he realized that he really 171 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:34,920 could be a pastor. He served that community powerfully and when he came 172 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:39,320 back to our fall retreat, which we held up in Alexandria and there was a pool 173 00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:44,520 there, he came down for the first time that I'd ever seen that leg with a towel 174 00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:50,040 around his shoulders and swim trunks on and his leg showing and he said, Dr. 175 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:55,360 Kennedy, will you take a picture of me? So I took a picture of him and he was 176 00:18:55,360 --> 00:19:01,880 radiant with joy. Later when we got back to the seminary, he said, Dr. Daren, will 177 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:07,560 you please send me that picture? And I sent him the picture and he posted it on 178 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:15,640 on Facebook immediately for everyone to see. Advertising exactly who he was to 179 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:21,920 everyone and his caption continues to move me. He said, I'm the lucky guy who 180 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:32,320 walks with the prosthesis. Proud and so happy. What he had done is focused in on 181 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:38,960 the reality of his suffering, reframed it in the context of God's redemptive power 182 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:46,360 and purposes and he has been called to serve and served powerfully. About three 183 00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:51,240 years ago, we hired him to be a professor of pastoral care and counseling at the 184 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:55,760 seminary and he's already gained admission to a PhD program in the fall 185 00:19:55,760 --> 00:20:01,960 where he will be studying disability theology, a way of understanding the 186 00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:08,240 full humanity of people who have disabilities. He's taking his circumstances, 187 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:13,960 having them transformed by God's grace and is going to have an impact on 188 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:21,040 generations in the church and in the Middle East. I don't know what the 189 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:26,960 reality is for you and your lives here in Florida. My guess is that there's 190 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:32,800 aspects of them that are quite nice but I'm quite sure that each one of us has 191 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:37,720 problems and brokenness in our own lives. There's hard realities for all of us 192 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:44,720 personally, communally, and globally. Elijah's witness calls us to see these 193 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:51,760 and name them truly. We do not run away from realities but we also set them in 194 00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:58,560 the context of God's larger work and mission in the world and then God calls 195 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:05,040 each one of us to act and be transformative agents of grace and hope 196 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:12,760 for the world. May we all be transformed and transforming people by the power of 197 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:19,760 the Holy Spirit. Let us pray. Gracious God, you have called us into your service. 198 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:26,800 Let us embrace the realities of the world. See them with clear eyes. Widen the 199 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:33,440 perspective to understand exactly how you see them and respond with action for the 200 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:50,480 sake of the world. In Jesus' name, amen.