| II Kings 5:1-14 "A Radical Faith" |
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| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 07 July 2007 | |
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“A wandering Aramean was my father…” few words so define Israel’s identity as a people as these from Dt. 26:5. They are a reference to Joseph, the Prince of Egypt who though a Hebrew, became the most powerful man in Egypt, 2nd only to Pharaoh. The irony? These words are also a painful reminder of their shared ancestry with the Arameans, Israel’s sworn enemy. Aram was located in ancient Syria. Despite their shared ancestry and common borders, they were warring rivals during most of the period of the monarchy; the time of the Kings (think David and Solomon). It is in this context that a young unnamed female slave, one of the “least of these” in that society, began to change her world, one life at a time. Our reading comes from II Kings 5:1-14. I invite you to listen for the word of our Lord. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. 2Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3She said to her mistress, ‘If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ 4So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5And the king of Aram said, ‘Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.’ He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. 6He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, ‘When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ 7When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.’ 8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, ‘Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.’ 9So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 10Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’ 11But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 12Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?’ He turned and went away in a rage. 13But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’ 14So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. Prayer: come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen. Pope John the II was once asked what he would tell the church to do “if he learned Christ’ 2nd coming was tomorrow.” He slyly replied, “Look busy!” Church, Christ is calling us to get busy. We are to change the world one life at a time. According to the Gospel we do this by loving: • the poor (Lk 6:20), • our neighbor (Mk.12:31), • our enemy (Mt.5:43). But how are we supposed to love the stranger down at Austin Street, the unhinged neighbor who verbally abuses my child or the Islamic extremist? Our government says we should hate the terrorist and that makes a whole lot more sense then loving them! And yet on this one thing the Biblical witness is uncompromising: They will know you are Christians by your love….” We have enough trouble loving members of our own family; how are we supposed to love the stranger, the needy, our enemy? God’s answer is simple: Jesus lives in us, his church and that means we have within us the capacity for love. There are two switches within us that if flipped, turn on that love. 1) The 1st Switch is Identification. Love comes as we share in one another’s suffering. What little we know about the unnamed heroine in our OT story is gleaned from the biblical narrative. • Taken captive by the Arameran army during a raid • Presented to the general and assigned to tend his wife. • She was a worshipper of Yahweh, Israel’s God and • Believed in the reality of God’s presence and intervention (epitomized by the prophetic tradition). Forcibly taken from her home, and enslaved in a foreign land, don’t you wonder what her motivation was for helping Naaman? Why help your enemy? Why would go to the trouble, even put your neck on the line, to help an enemy? Slaves had been killed for much less then meddling in their slaveholder’s personal affairs. Why risk it? It just doesn’t make sense, unless you consider the possibility somehow she identified with his suffering. She knew what it was like to be enslaved by something, held captive against your will. She knew what it was like to lose everything that mattered the most to you, and to find yourself in a hopeless situation. And she knew that despite Naaman’s pride and even arrogance, he lived in fear. She could identify with these things and how they had turned her to the only thing that had ever helped; God’s love for her; a love that enabled her trust God with her fears, her life, and her future. It is because of her willingness to identify with the suffering of her enemy that she becomes a part of his story; part of his healing; of his experiencing the God who “makes us well.” I think we in the church get confused over what love is. And that confusion has effectively stripped the Gospel of its power! We interpret Jesus’ command to love to mean we are to feel sorry for the poor, and be kind to our neighbor, and pity our enemy. Let me put this bluntly: Jesus does not command us to pity our enemies but to love them. The Gospel is not simply a global movement that seeks social change, economic justice, or civil rights. The Gospel seeks worldwide transformation, a change of heart, one life at a time. Love is the family business. The writers of the Bible seem far less interested in proving whether God exists and far more interested in talking about what God is like. God is love, they claim (I John 4:16). And it is we who are made in God’s image and not the other way around. It is in remembering who we are, that we know what to do. One of the most provocative statements in the NT is Philippians 3:10. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. I think we share in the fellowship of Christ’ sufferings when our heart breaks over the things that break the heart of God. We have a word for that in the Church: It’s called compassion (literally, to suffer with). Compassion is when despite the cost, we climb down into human suffering, to hold, comfort, and weep with another. The problem is not that we care too much. Its that we care too little. Hawaiians tell the story of Father Damien, a Belgian Catholic priest who in the late 1800s was sent to serve a leper colony established on Molokai. This is long before they had any kind of effective treatment for leprosy. For years the priest served this leper community unsuccessfully. The people were cordial, even friendly but had little interest in this priest or his church. Admitting failure, he sent word to the Mission Board to send a replacement. However, before the boat arrived, he discovered to his horror several leprous white spots on his hands, evidence that he had contracted the deadly disease. Overwhelmed by his failure and the death sentence now hanging over his head, he returned to his church to pray. In the mean time, word had already spread about the priest’s illness. Arriving at his church, he was greeted by the members of the colony. He had become one of them and they had come to hear and embrace their priest. Father Damien died from his disease in 1889 after 16 years of heroic service. Some here may be thinking, “Well that’s just stupid! Why throw your life away like that?” The answer is simple: God told him to! Let me tell you, the 1100 people Father Damien cared for did not consider his life wasted. Our destiny as the Church is to change the world, one life at a time. According to Jesus, we do this with love. Identification is an internal switch that makes loving others possible. Love comes as we enter into human suffering. 2) The Second Switch is Conviction. Conviction invites us to act out of our beliefs. The unnamed woman in our OT narrative encourages her master to seek out God’s healing through the Prophet Elisha, because this female slave recognizes a need and realizes God had placed her here to do something about it. It was the conviction, that God was needed there and had something to offer Naaman, that motivated her to make Yahweh, the “God who heals” known. Conviction is passionate belief. In terms of the Christian faith, conviction is not rigid adherence to a set of prescribed dogmas. Rather conviction is to believe in God, and humanity’s need for God. We are here to point people to God, and we do that by showing them love. As United Methodist we proclaim that all people are of sacred worth. Why? Because we believe they have sacred worth in God’s eyes (regardless of performance). Conviction backs up belief with demonstration. Like the church member who spent the entire week of VBS carrying around a special needs child as if to say, “God loves you and here, let me show you how much…” I’m one of the coordinators for this year’s CROP walk. CROP Walk raises funds for and awareness of world hunger. I am going to ask everyone in this church to be involved at some level in this walk. We’re passionate about a lot of things: our nation, our sports teams, our children, our freedoms. Are we passionate about Christ, what he has done for us and wants to do for others? Sending our youth on mission trip (with Rita Recovery) is an opportunity for them to nurture conviction; to see a need and realize that God has them there to do something about it. Conviction and identification. These 2 internal switches release the power of God’s love in our lives. Our story has a happy ending. Naaman responds to the unnamed woman’s prodding. He seeks out the prophet and is healed. Do you want to change the world? Love the poor, the stranger, and your enemy. How? Enter into people’s suffering and believe that what God has done for you, God can do for others. Prayer: God, give us a faith radical enough to change the world. Amen. |
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