3 Lessons in Revolutionary Love During a Time of Rage

This continues our series on Elisha with a Ted Talk by Valarie Kaur

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Transcript

Sermons from 

Mission Hills UCC

San Diego, California

Rev. Dr. David Bahr

david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org

July 6, 2025

“3 Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage”

2nd Kings 4: 27-29 – The Message

But when she reached the Holy Man at the mountain, she threw herself at his feet and held tightly to him.

Gehazi came up to pull her away, but the Holy Man said, “Leave her alone—can’t you see that she’s in distress? But God hasn’t let me in on why; I’m completely in the dark.”

28 Then she spoke up: “Did I ask for a son, master? Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t tease me with false hopes’?”

29 He ordered Gehazi, “Don’t lose a minute—grab my staff and run as fast as you can. If you meet anyone, don’t even take time to greet him, and if anyone greets you, don’t even answer. Lay my staff across the boy’s face.”

Two The prophet Elisha had a close relationship with a Shunammite woman and her husband.  To make a much longer story short, Elisha promised – and against all odds – she would have a child, and she did.  But years later, that child died in her arms, and when he did, she didn’t just mourn.  She was enraged that something she hadn’t even asked for, something so precious, had been taken away.  

She stormed her way back to Elisha and wouldn’t settle for him sending a servant to help.  She demanded Elisha come himself.  And he did.  He came as quickly as he could and laid his body across the child’s lifeless frame—face to face, breath to breath—until life returned.

It’s a story that deserves a much deeper unpacking, but I simply want to pause and honor this woman’s grief and rage – which we know all too well.  They are too much a part of our daily lives.  For example, this week, along with the elderly and disabled whose precarious lives are already at risk and much more, we shook our heads in horror as we watched people celebrate the idea of men, women, and children being torn apart by alligators:  cruelty and inhumanity.  And frankly, I’d be more concerned if we didn’t feel grief and rage.  But rage cannot be the end of the story and thus today, I want to introduce you to another woman who echoes the Shunammite woman’s fierce love and refusal to give up.  Her name is Valarie Kaur, and she asks:  “How do we love in a time of rage?”

We’re going to watch a Ted Talk she gave nearly a decade ago.  I wouldn’t normally suggest we watch a video for a sermon, but when we finish, I hope you’ll understand why, so that, in the spirit of the prophet Elisha’s healing presence in the world, we can learn some lessons about how to walk through these times and turn our heartbreak into action.  Our grief into courage.  And our love into revolution.

Watch her Ted Talk here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ErKrSyUpEo&t=140s 

CLOSING PRAYER inspired by Valarie Kaur

One:      May we sit in stillness and be present to this bright pain.

All:         May we let our tears flow.

One:      May we awaken to the truth — that we are only as strong or safe 

                or well as the most vulnerable among us.

All:         May we look upon the faces of others as sisters, brothers, 

                and siblings, and say: “You are a part of me that I do not yet know.”

One:      May we begin to reimagine a world where we see no stranger, 

                where no person is disposable.

All:         May we make revolutionary love a conscious practice in our 

                homes and hearts and in the streets.

One:      May we breathe and push and begin to birth the world we dream.