Scriptures: 2
Kings 5:1-14, Psalm 66:1-9
Galatians 6:1-16 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
In today’s Old Testament reading we are given a healing
story – the prophet Elisha healing Naaman, a military commander who had
leprosy. On the surface, it seems like a
fairly simple miracle story – soldier has terrible, incurable skin disease,
soldier asks the prophet Elisha for healing; soldier is healed. End of story, roll credits. And it seems like a story that’s not all that
relevant to us – after all, leprosy isn’t something we experience in our day
and age, thank goodness, and unfortunately miraculous cures are also not part
of our daily routine. But I’d like to
dig into this story a bit more deeply, and maybe we can take something valuable
home from it.
This story involves people who were at the top of their
society, in terms of position and power – the king of Aram, the king of Israel,
and Naaman – and those at the bottom of society – the slave girl who told
Naaman about Elisha’s healing power and the servants of Naaman who persuaded
him to take the cure that Elisha prescribed.
The story includes people who are somebodies and people who are
nobodies. But as it happens, while on
paper the somebodies have the formal power, it’s the nobodies who actually
drive the story, the nobodies who actually have the power in the story.
We’re told that Naaman is commander of the army of the King
of Aram. We’re told he’s a favorite of
the king, because Naaman had won many battles on behalf of the king. But we’re also told that Naaman had leprosy,
a dreaded, disfiguring skin disease. So
on one hand Naaman is admired because of his military success, but on the other
hand, nobody wants to get too close to him, let alone shake hands with him, because
of his skin disease.
At this point the first of the nobodies, an Israelite girl
who had been captured by the Arameans in a raid and who served as a slave to
Naaman’s wife, sets things in motion.
She tells Naaman’s wife, “If only Naaman were with the prophet who is in
Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
The wife tells Naaman, and Naaman goes to his boss, the king of Aram for
permission. The king of Aram not only grants permission,
but assembles gifts and sends a letter of introduction to the king of
Israel. This is all high-level politics
– Naaman’s approach to his king, his king’s letter to the king of Israel – and
it all basically comes to nothing. After
all, the slave girl had never said the king of Israel had any power to cure
leprosy – and indeed, the king of Israel has no power at all to help
Naaman. In fact, the king of Israel gets
all flustered, saying, “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." The king
of Israel comes off sounding like Charlie Brown – “Why is everybody always
picking on me?” The prophet Elisha gets word of the confusion and offers the
king a solution, the same solution the slave girl had originally offered: send Naaman my way, and he’ll learn that
there’s a prophet in Israel.
So Naaman goes to Elisha’s house. But he didn’t get the reception he expected –
a servant of Elisha came out of the house and told Naaman to wash seven times
in the Jordan River. Elisha himself
stayed inside. And Naaman felt snubbed –
he expected that at least Elisha would come out and wave his hands over Naaman
and say some magic words to heal him. So
Naaman threw a tantrum and stomped off.
But here again, the nobodies in the story save the day – Naaman’s
servants reasoned with Naaman, saying, “If the prophet had asked you to do
something difficult, you’d have done it – and here he gave you something easy to do. Count your blessings!” So Naaman did as Elisha said, and was cured
of his leprosy. In gratitude, Naaman
tried to offer his gifts to Elisha – Elisha refused them – but then Naaman
resolved to worship the God of Israel, even asking for soil from Israel so that
he could kneel on it when worshipping God.
So Naaman received a gift he’d asked for – healing from leprosy – but
also received a gift he’d never asked for – new found faith in God.
Again, it’s striking that while the supposedly powerful men
– Naaman, the king of Aram, and the king of Israel – come across as
temperamental buffoons, it’s the powerless people in the story – the slave girl
serving Naaman’s wife, Elisha’s servant, Naaman’s servants – that allow the
miracle to happen. It’s the powerless
people through whom God chooses to show his power. Indeed, Naaman has to humble himself greatly
in order to be healed – Naaman expected Elisha to heal him on Naaman’s
timetable and according to Naaman’s expectations, but Elisha – and God – had
other ideas.
It’s also striking that, in this story, through the power of
God, Elisha heals, not an Israelite, but a commander of an army that had led
raids against Israel, including the raid in which the slave girl was captured. Talk about giving aid and comfort to the
enemy! But this story reminds us that God was bigger
than Israel, and that God can heal and bless whoever God chooses to heal and bless. We draw political lines separating us from
others, but God never colors within the lines we draw.
Of course, tomorrow we will be celebrating Independence Day,
when we remember the thirteen original colonies’ signing of the Declaration of
Independence from England. We’ll remember again those grand words, “We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As it happens, just a few days ago, England voted
in favor of its own declaration of independence from the European Union, of
which it had been a member since 1973 – over 40 years. It’ll take some time to see how that vote
plays out politically and economically. But
that word “independence” resonates strongly with us – not only American independence
from Great Britain or Great Britain’s independence from the European Union, but
a spirit of individual independence that encourages each of us to chart our own
course in life. This often carries over
into our faith, which we may think of in terms of “Jesus and me”, with us
asking Jesus to bless us on our timetable and on our own terms.
But our readings today remind us, not of independence, but
of interdependence – depending on one another.
Naaman didn’t just suddenly think
one day to go to Elisha all on his own; it took an Israelite slave girl –
somebody not even from Naaman’s country – to speak up and tell Naaman about the
prophet in Samaria who could help him. And when Elisha didn’t go out to meet Naaman,
it took Naaman’s servants to calm Naaman down enough to do as Elisha
instructed. And in our Gospel reading, when Jesus sent out
the seventy to all the towns where he intended to go, he sent them out – how? –
not individually, but in pairs. And he
didn’t tell them to pack a lot of personal belongings and to stay by
themselves, but to travel light and depend on the hospitality of those to whom
they traveled. The seventy whom Jesus
sent out in pairs were very vulnerable – dependent on one another and on the
kindness of strangers, ultimately dependent on God. And God blessed their trust.
We may remember these words of the poet John Donne:
No man is an island, Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
In describing the church, St. Paul gave us the image, not of
a bunch of lone rangers each running around doing his own thing, but of a body,
the body of Christ, of which each of us is a part, with all of the parts
working for the good of the whole. Paul
said that if any part of the body is exalted, all are exalted with it, and if
any part of the body suffers, all suffer with it.
And so, on this weekend when we celebrate independence, I’m
here to remind us of our interdependence.
Simply put, we need God, and we need one another. We cannot say to one another – or to other
Christians, “I have no need of you.”
I’ll close with these words from a gospel song by Hezekiah
Walker:
“I need you, you need me.
We're all a part of God's body.
Stand with me, agree with me.
We're all a part of God's body.
It is his will, that every need be
supplied.
You are important to me, I need you
to survive.
You are important to me, I need you
to survive.”
Amen.
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