I’ll be honest.
I don’t think I’ve even heard the whole song. At least, I don’t remember hearing it. But I do remember this famous line. You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know
when to fold ‘em, and it goes on from there.
It’s an oldie but goodie, The Gambler, Kenny Rogers
Why was I thinking of that song? It’s because I was asking myself that
question. How do you know? How do you know when to hold ‘em and when to
fold ‘em? How do you know when you are
heading down a dead-end road, that you need to cut your losses and move
on? How do you know when you do need to
hold on, to not give up, no matter how difficult it seems?
In these words, God points the way. So, let’s listen and hear what God has to
say. And today as we hear God’s word,
we’re going to hear it in a unique way.
Today, we celebrate what you might call the Birthday of the church, a
church that now crosses countless cultures and languages, that spans the
world. So, to honor the wondrous
diversity God has created you will hear the passage in just a few of those
languages in which God’s good news has come.
How do you know?
How do you know when to hold ‘em, and when to fold ‘em? How do you know when you need to hold on, and
when you need to let go? In this story,
God tells you. You will know when you
know what voice you are truly listening to, the voice of fear or the voice of
love?
After all, why does Elisha stay with Elijah? At first, I thought it was because Elisha
wanted the pay-off. He wanted a double
helping of Elijah’s spirit. He wanted
the power. But now I get it. He didn’t stay with Elijah because he wanted
something. He simply wanted Elijah. He
stayed because he loved his friend, his teacher. And he asked for that double portion of
spirit for the same reason. It took a
poem written by a dead son to his dad for me to get that.
Have you ever heard the name Leighton Ford? At one time, he was a big deal in the Christian world. He preached in stadiums to tens of
thousands. Since he was the
brother-in-law of Billy Graham, Time Magazine even speculated he would succeed
Billy if he retired.
And, Leighton had a son, Sandy, who aspired to follow
in his dad’s footsteps. But, at 14 Sandy
had been diagnosed with a syndrome that creates arrythmias in the heart. Still after surgery at Duke University all
seemed fine. For a few years, it was. Sandy ran track. He enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill. He even fell in love. But shortly
after he turned 21, Sandy went running and an arrthymia struck. He died on an
operating table a few days later.
After he died, his dad
found this unfinished poem on his son’s desk.
Sandy had titled it. “To Dad, for
his 50th birthday.” And there,
Leighton read these words.
What a
golden honor it would be to don your mantle, to inherit twice times your
spirit.
For then you
would be me and I would continue to be you.
In that
poem, Sandy Ford was remembering this story.
He saw it for what it was, the story of a great love. Elisha had left everything behind to follow
Elijah, to be mentored as a prophet. And
his love had become so strong that nothing, not even Elijah’s own words would
pull him away from his side. He didn’t
want Elijah’s spirit because he wanted power.
He wanted the spirit because he wanted Elijah. He wanted his spirit, his presence with him
always.
And when
Leighton Ford read those words, words of his son’s great love for him, words of
an Elisha written to his own Elijah, it changed his life’s direction. He developed a ministry to mentor others. He became an Elijah to the Elisha’s coming up
in the world. He invested in a small
group of women and men to help them “run their race” for God.
You see, at
first, I was going to tell you to never give up, to persist no matter
what. But does that make sense? Do you tell that to a woman getting beat up
by her husband night after night? No. You tell her to get out of there. And it’s not what God is telling you in this
story at all.
A woman in
an abusive situation doesn’t stay out of love.
She might tell herself that, but it’s not true. She stays out of fear, fear of her husband,
fear of the unknown, fear of failure and embarrassment even.
But Elisha
stayed with Elijah out of love. He
wanted to be with his beloved teacher to the very end. And God recognized that love and gave him
that double spirit for which he yearned.
How do you
know when to hold ‘em or when to fold ‘em.
You ask yourself what voice are you listening to? Are you listening to the voice of love or the
voice of fear?
After all,
when Leighton Ford started that mentoring ministry, he had to fold ‘em a
bit. He had been with Billy Graham for
close to thirty years. He had become an
important leader in the church around the world. To start this new direction, he would leave
a ministry where he preached to tens of thousands so he could sit and invest in
a room of just ten. Why did he do
it? He listened to the voice of love, to
a God who said. This is what I want you
to do. Fear would have led him to stay
with the familiar, with what had made him famous. But love led him in a different direction,
one he has never regretted.
But when
love calls you to persist, to hold on, it will not always be easy. Sometimes, it will be hard, scarily
hard. You will hear the voice of fear
telling you to let go, to give up, to walk away. But if love has called you there, then love
will get you through.
A month or
so ago, I read a story about the Paumari people in Brazil. The Paumari live in some of the remotest
regions of the Amazon. But after their
encounters with outsiders, the Jara as the Paumari call them, they found. These Jara often despised them. As a result the Paumari had come to hate
being Paumari. And in that situation
almost 40 years ago, a 19-year-old woman, Braulia Ribiero, decided to join a
four-person team to plant a mission station in a remote Paumari village. Two members of the team had grown up in the
Amazon. But Braulia had grown up in the
city and had no clue. So why was she
there? She had some training in the
Paumari language.
To reach the
village, they first traveled for five days by river to Labrea, a small town in
the middle of the Amazon. But from
there, they still had a week to go. For
that they needed a boat that would take them there. But here was the problem. They had only a
few hundred dollars left. They had
planned to use that money for three months of supplies so they could
survive. That left no money for a
boat.
But then they heard God saying to them. Give up all you have. Trust me for the rest. And amazingly that’s exactly what they
did. They commissioned the smallest boat
they could find. And when they asked the
price. He gave exactly the amount of
money they had left. So, they went on that
boat with no walls, no bathroom, no kitchen, just a small diesel engine. It took five days to get to the mouth of the
Cunhua river. There they found a man with a canoe who would take them to
Manicoa lake where these Paumari had their floating village.
When they
got there, they got off in front of the first hut they saw on a sort of
floating dock. Braulia used her Paumari
to say hello. “Ivaniti” Is that you in Paumari. An old woman answered. Ha’ a hovani “Yes, it’s me.” She didn’t seem surprised by these
strangers. Instead, she invited them in for a dinner of
fried fish. And, after an hour of
visiting she asked them who they actually were. Braulia said in her broken Paumari. We are missionaries.
At first the
woman looked puzzled then she called to her grandson, Danilo. “Come over Danilo. The missionaries have
arrived. Take them to their home.” Puzzled Braulia and her friends asked. “Our home?”
Yes, she said. Danilo and I
built it for you two years ago. We
heard on the radio about the creator, God, and how his son, Jesus wants to help
us. So, I said. “If that is true, he will send his
people. So, we built the hut for you.”
Braulia and
her friends stayed there for six months. They taught the Paumari to read and
write in their own language. They
opened a makeshift medical clinic. They
taught the adults better math so that the river merchants wouldn’t swindle
them. But more than that, they changed
how these Paumari viewed themselves.
After all, these outsiders, these Jara, depended on them, the Paumari to
survive. Their dependency was mutual. Their relationship was equal. And they began to be proud to be Paumari
again. Their years later, that village,
now a thriving, productive Christian community still remains proud to be
Paumari
Faced with
that choice between food and a boat, fear said to them, Give up, go home. But
in the midst of the fear, they heard a voice of love saying. Trust me and go. And because they did, they discovered that
God had already prepared the way two years before.
Today we
remember how Jesus asked his fear-filled followers to stay behind in Jerusalem,
to wait for the Spirit to come. Their
fear told them to go home, where it was safe and secure. But they stayed and prayed in that city.
Why? Jesus, the one they loved, the one
who so loved them, had asked them to.
And so, trusting in that love, they did.
And the Spirit did come, and the world has never been the same.
In the church I serve we face great challenges to reach our community with that same love of
Jesus. And it will take great
persistence sometimes against great odds.
At times, fear might tell us to give up or not risk or not try new
things for fear of failure. But if we
listen to the love, if we commit to love others as Jesus has loved us, freely
and generously, without condition, then that love, that love that has given
everything for us, will show us the way.
And in your
own life, when the questions come. Do I
fold ‘em or do I hold ‘em. Ask yourself.
What voice am I listening to the voice of love or the voice of fear? And whatever the answer, let love be your
guide. And in that love, you will find
your way, even on the scariest of days.
For if love has called you there, then love will get you through.
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