June 9, 2013 Children's Leadership Sunday "Life-Saving"

I’m from this little town named Zarapheth, in the Middle East. You’ve probably never been there, but once there was this guy named Elijah who showed up on our doorstep. He asked my mom for some bread and water. She was good with the water, but she didn’t want to give him our last bit of food, and she told him so. My dad had been dead for a couple of years – she’d tried to provide for both of us, but it was really hard on her. And then the drought came and dried up all the wheat plants she’d planted, so we were down to our last bit. He told her that her oil jug and flour jar would never give out until the drought was over. She didn’t believe him, but fed him anyway, hoping beyond hope that the Lord would provide for us. She fed the two of us, as well, but for me it was a little too late. In the morning, she found me dead. She ran to get Elijah, and told him that I was dead. She was wailing and stuff – hard to understand. When Elijah saw me, he cried out to God, “O Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?” Then, according to the neighbors, he laid his body over mine three times, asking the Lord to let my life return to my body. And the Lord did, which is why I’m standing in front of you today, a living miracle. Thanks be to God for miracles. I Kings 17:8-24 Realize that the name Zarapheth is pretty obscure. Zarapheth only occurs 3 times in the whole Bible. First, when the people were following God with Moses in the Wilderness. And the people revolted against God and Moses, Zarapheth is identified as one of the few who did not turn away from God or Moses. When they came to the Promised Land and were about to enter Jericho, Joshua divided up the land for each of the families by their father's name. And the daughters of Zarapheth came forward. They said, “We were born in the wilderness, our father Zarapheth was faithful and good, who never turned away from God. But he had no sons, only daughters. While it goes against tradition and custom, we have been faithful and we would like to inherit our father's portion. And they Did! So the name Zarapheth identifies these daughters as standing up against the crowd, against tradition, to be faithful and endure. Good morning. I’m here to tell you about what Jesus did for our family. My mom had had such a tough life. She had been doing pretty well until my dad died. Then things started to get rough for her. A couple weeks after dad died, I got really sick as well, and everyone tells me that I died as well. My mom asked a few of her friends to help her by carrying my dead body out of the city gates, to the place she’d buried my dad. They had just left the gates of the city when they came upon this huge crowd of people heading towards the city. I guess my mom was making quite a scene, because the whole group stopped, and this guy, Jesus, asked my mom what was wrong. She told him, and he said that she didn’t need to cry anymore. Everything would be OK. Then he said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” and I did. Dead one minute, hugging my mom the next. That Jesus. One heck of a prophet is what everybody said about him. Mom did OK after that – she became a bit of a celebrity, because of me I guess. I’m sure glad Jesus came along at the right time. Thanks be to God for miracles. Luke 7:11-17 What is the difference between Charity and Compassion? Between Enabling Entitlement and Empowering? This woman had lost her husband and now her son, and with them all rights. She could be a beggar, dependent upon people's charity to keep her from dying, but instead Jesus returned her son to her. Sometimes our generosity and compromises do more harm than good. Sometimes returning from death to life means more than a heartbeat. So my mom was friends with this guy named Elisha. She was pretty old when I was born, and didn’t expect to have any more kids, but when Elisha told her to expect me, she didn’t have a choice. When I was about ten, I got this pounding headache, came out of nowhere. My head felt like it was going to explode. I ran out to find my dad working in the fields, crying, it felt so bad. He had a servant bring me to my mother, but by noon I was dead in her arms. Mom took me upstairs and laid me in the bed that Elisha had slept in and then set out to go find him, where he was working with some folks at Mount Carmel. When she got there, she wouldn’t tell anyone what was wrong, except Elisha. When he heard, Elisha sent his buddy, Gehazi, ahead of him, and told him to lay his staff on my head, see if that helped. It didn’t, so Gehazi returned to Elisha to tell him. So Elisha came himself. Once he got there, he asked everybody to leave him alone with me, and then the man began to pray. Then, I’ve been told, Elisha lay on top of me, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand, and my body grew warm. He got up, paced a bit, and then did the same thing – lay on top of me. Weird as it might sound, once Elisha arose, I sneezed seven times and was back among the living again. My mom couldn’t stop thanking God. Thanks be to God for miracles. II Kings 4:20-37 Caring for people has a cost, it is intimate and personal. Elisha told Gehazi all the things to do, but he kept the dead body at a distance. Elisha, lay face to face, mouth to mouth, eye to eye. Communion, solidarity, is about more than saying we are committed, being part of the Body of Christ costs. I’m here to tell you about what happened to my buddy. One of my friends had died recently, and we were planning on burying him, when a bunch of Moabite raiders came riding hard up behind us. We’d dressed my buddy up in his best clothes to bury him, and we didn’t want the Moabites to steal my friend’s clothes, so we threw him in the pit that we were passing. Come to find out, the prophet Elisha was buried in that pit, and as soon as my friend’s body touched Elisha’s body, he jumped up out of that pit, as alive as ever. Almost scared us to death, but our friend is still with us. Thanks be to God for miracles. II Kings 13:21 Have any of you seen the film “Epic”. It's a wonderful cartoon movie about nature. The description at the beginning is that life is not about a battle between Good and Evil, sometimes it feels like that, but the real battle, at the most basic level is between Decay and Life. We as part of creation, die, we are mortal. We fight against it, but from the moment of our birth, we are aging. What happened when they put the body of this young man into the grave of Elisha, is that going through the motions of life, being afraid of death and afraid of their enemies, suddenly came up against Faith in God and nothing can withhold faith in God, not height, nor depth, nor fear, not even death. My name’s Lazarus. Let me tell you my story. You might know my sister, Mary. Well, she wrote to Jesus, and told him that I was really sick, but he didn’t come right away. When he finally got there, I’d been dead for four days. My sisters wanted me out of the house, because I was starting to really smell, so they’d already put me in my tomb. Martha, my other sister, went out to talk to Jesus. Jesus told her that I would be raised up. She told him that she understood all about the resurrection at the end of time, but she was hoping for something a little sooner than that. Jesus told her that he, Jesus, is the Resurrection and the Life, and that if she believed, it would happen. Martha went back and told Mary, and so when Jesus showed up, they took him to my tomb. That really got to Jesus. He was pretty mad, and he even cried a bit. He wanted to know why they’d stuck me in a tomb, and Mary explained about the smell. He told them to roll away the stone, and commanded me to come out. I shambled out, looking straight up zombie, wrapped in all of my grave clothes. Jesus told them to unwrap me and let me loose. Believe me, after that, everybody believed that Jesus was the miracle worker. Thanks be to God for miracles. John 11:1-44 It's funny, that when Jesus came to their home, the Bible records Martha served and Mary listened to Jesus as a disciple. BUT where was Lazarus? Sometimes, it seems as though the biggest thing in our life, is that we died. They were only 15 when they had a car accident. The baby was born and died. But the most important part of the Burial of Lazarus, Mary and Martha's brother, is that when Jesus got to the tomb, he WEPT. The point of Life is not whether or when or how we die, but that our lives and our deaths touch other people. I want to tell you about my daughter. When she was 12, she died. I was heartbroken. The neighbors all showed up with casseroles – all of us were sitting in the living room, talking over happier times and crying, when my husband shows up with this guy he’d been talking about, Jesus. So Jesus wants to know why all of these people are hanging around our house and we tell him, and Jesus says it isn’t true, that my daughter is only sleeping. Then he tells everybody to leave. I’m so upset, I just watch everybody leave. Jesus goes into my daughter’s room, along with my husband, myself and Jesus’ three buddies, Peter, James and John, and he grabs my daughter’s hand and says “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, get up.” And what does she do? She gets up and starts walking around! I mean, I was so excited. I thought my daughter was dead, and then she isn’t? Jesus, he just told us not to tell people what he’d done and give my daughter something to eat. Just happened that I had quite a few casseroles on hand. Thanks be to God for miracles! Mark 5:35-43 My name is Anna Margaret Biss, and I’m a miracle girl. When I was born, God only gave me half a heart to pump my blood. My mom and dad were scared, but not me. I had my first surgery when I was one day old – it took the surgeons six hours to fix my heart. My mom and dad prayed. The people of this church prayed. I came through with flying colors, even if it did take me a month to heal. When I was nine months old I had my second surgery, and my last surgery was just this year, in October. Like some of the people in the Bible, I was in need of healing in order to live, and with the help of some wonderful doctors and a whole lot of prayers, I’m pretty good to go now! My mom and dad thank God for me every day, and without the prayers of the people in this room, I might not have made it this far, but because of faith, I’m here today. When I grow up I’m gonna be a heart surgeon, so I can help other children like me. Thanks be to God for miracles! Hey. My name is Martha, and I’m from the Sudan. I’m here to tell you how God saved me from death. When I was six, my village was attacked by another tribe. My parents were at church, and I was staying at a neighbors with my three year old sister. We had to run away, so we wouldn’t be killed like my parents. A bunch of us got together and started walking from my village to Ethiopia. We had no food, no water, and had to walk through some very hot country. When we got to Ethiopia, things were not good there, either. The UN came, and helped out some, but there were too many of us, so my sister and I were moved to Kenya. It was there that we found out that many Sudanese boys had been sent to America – we wanted to go there, too! In Kenya, my sister and I had already been settled with a foster family, but I didn’t want to stay with them. They had already arranged a marriage for me, and I did not want that – what would happen to my sister if I married? So, I secretly applied to go to America with my sister. Our application was accepted, and here we are – with a husband I was free to choose, beautiful children, and no threat of starvation, or war. God, it seems, had found me when I needed him most, and provided me with the miracle I needed. Thanks be to God for miracles.