Have you ever heard a group of musicians play or choristers sing when one person is either out of tune or out of time with the others?

It sounds horrendous. But sometimes we are not in tune with everyone around us. That is what happened to the disciple, Thomas.

All the disciples, in the locked room, saw the risen Jesus, but there was one who did not. He was not there for some reason, which meant that there was always going to be the one who would be different from the others. When they later would go out in groups to tell the story of Jesus, Thomas’ story would never blend in with theirs. So, Jesus came again, especially to see him – and so enable him to be in harmony with the others, when they went out to tell everyone the difference made to the world through Jesus rising from the grave.

A difference just as great as when all musicians play in harmony with each other. We have a story to tell everyone, a story that Jesus is risen, he is alive and is with us today. That is a story we can all tell and we will all be in tune with one another.

They say that an optimist views a glass as half full, a pessimist sees it as half empty, while an opportunist sees it as totally empty as he has drunk it while the other two were arguing! Without a doubt we all see the world in different ways and how we view the world – how we see reality – has a tremendous effect on the way we live.

Nothing highlights that more than the first reading this morning. It is a very strange reading where very strange things happen such as –

• solid iron axe heads floating on a river
• angels armies surrounding earthly ones, and
• whole armies blinded so that they cannot see that the person giving them misdirection is actually the one who they are looking for.

The wider picture is that the King of Aram wants to kill the King of Israel – but is thwarted at every turn by the prophet who acts as a saboteur due to his ‘inside knowledge’ as God warns Elisha what the king is doing. So when the King of Aram gets serious, realises that there are no spies in his camp but that it is Elisha who is causing the problem and surrounds the city where Elisha was staying, it is the servant who is the reasonable voice. He sees that the only reasonable option is to lose hope. The prophet however prays that he will be able to see the truth of the situation (6:16) and that those who are attacking would be unable to see (6:18). So let us hear what happened.

6 The company of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.’
And he said, ‘Go.’
3 Then one of them said, ‘Won’t you please come with your servants?’
‘I will,’ Elisha replied. 4 And he went with them.
They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe-head fell into the water. ‘Oh no, my lord!’ he cried out. ‘It was borrowed!’
6 The man of God asked, ‘Where did it fall?’ When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 ‘Lift it out,’ he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.
Elisha traps blinded Arameans
8 Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, ‘I will set up my camp in such and such a place.’
9 The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: ‘Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.’ 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, ‘Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?’
12 ‘None of us, my lord the king,’ said one of his officers, ‘but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.’
13 ‘Go, find out where he is,’ the king ordered, ‘so that I can send men and capture him.’ The report came back: ‘He is in Dothan.’ 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. ‘Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?’ the servant asked.
16 ‘Don’t be afraid,’ the prophet answered. ‘Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’
17 And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.’ Then the Lordopened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all round Elisha.
18 As the enemy came down towards him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, ‘Strike this army with blindness.’ So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
19 Elisha told them, ‘This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.’ And he led them to Samaria.
20 After they entered the city, Elisha said, ‘Lord, open the eyes of these men so that they can see.’ Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.
21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, ‘Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?’
22 ‘Do not kill them,’ he answered. ‘Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.’ 23 So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.

This reading is a challenge for us because most of us only see the world through the ‘normal’ lenses – the lenses that decide what can happen and what can’t happen based on experience and reason. So we find ourselves to be closer to the servant of the man of God (6:15) than to the man of God, the prophet (6:16). The servant believes his eyes while the prophet sees beyond his physical eyes with the eyes of faith. He sees the angel armies, he sees God’s plan for their escape and for not just their own blessing, but the blessing of the enemy!

In the same way on Easter Sunday morning, the soldiers and the religious leaders were not prepared to look at the events of this day through the eyes of faith and they tried to convince others to do the same. When the soldiers came to the leaders to say that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb, they tried to spread lies in order to prevent people seeing the resurrection through the eyes of faith.

Listen to what happened:-

11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Now I do not know how each one of you views the resurrection. I do not know if you follow the line that someone stole the body, or that he rose from the dead. I don’t know if you view Jesus as simply a good teacher to be followed or the Son of God to be believed in for your own salvation and the salvation of the world. I don’t know if you are blinded by prejudice to not see with the eyes of faith or whether your faith allows you to see a whole realm of possibilities in and through Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit but I would join the prayer of the prophet, who prayed that his servant might see, might see with the eyes of faith the spiritual reality that surrounded him and us. I would pray that in hearing the Gospel message you would believe that Jesus was who he said he was; he was not crazy, he was not a liar. I would encourage you to move on today to be fruitful in your frontline, realising that the call of Jesus on our lives is an unsettling one because he does not adjust his call to our expectations but expects us to adapt to his, seeing the world through the eyes of faith and possibility. The Holy Spirit is poised, even now, to pour out a massive blessing on this church, to bless it in spiritual growth, physical growth, emotional growth. We simply need to believe, to see with the eyes of Elisha, Mary, Peter, John, Martha, Paul, Augustine, Calvin, Knox and countless other angels who are gathered here today who are desperate to work with us, just as the armies of angels worked with Elisha to bless not just us but those around us, not just St. James but Lossiemouth, not just Lossiemouth but the Presbytery of Moray, not just the Presbytery of Moray but the whole of Scotland. God can do this, if we have the faith, God can do this if we will open our eyes.

Thanks Be to God. Amen.