Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Pentecost + 4, July 7, 2019
2 Kings 5:1-14 [15-17]
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.” 8But
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.
15Then
he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before
him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in
Israel.”
So
many powerful people in this story. Did
you count them as they went by? Four of
them. All identified with their titles,
so that we know how powerful they are.
Let’s
go through it and find them.
Verse
One (that didn’t take long): “Naaman,
commander of the army of the king of Aram.”
I suppose that’s two, technically.
And we’ll count the King of Aram, because he appears in verses four and
five. Naaman needs his letter of
introduction to get the attention of the King of Israel, in verse 6. So that’s three.
And
who is the last powerful person?
[Elisha, the man of God]
Four
powerful men. It can be said that they
all have a role in this healing story.
Naaman is the object of the healing.
The king of Aram wrote a letter.
The King of Israel read the letter…and then complained loudly enough for
Elisha the prophet to hear. And Elisha
sent out instructions for the healing.
Four
powerful men, all concerned in some way, but none of them really going out of
their way for this healing. Even Naaman,
who is suffering from what the text calls “leprosy,” which could be one of a
number of skin diseases, none of which are pleasant—even Naaman doesn’t want to
work too hard for this healing.
Who
does the heavy lifting in this story?
Who puts themselves out there?
The
servants. First the servant girl from
Israel, who knows of the prophet Elisha and tells her mistress, Naaman’s
wife. (And props to Naaman’s wife for
then taking that message to her stubborn husband.)
How
much power does that servant girl have?
Let’s count what’s working against her.
#1:
“Servant”
#2:
“Girl”
#3:
“Taken captive from Israel” which meant that she was subject to the
Aramean laws of slavery, not the Mosaic code, which was generally more lenient.
She
didn’t have much power in the society in which she lived, though most sources
agree that it was much better to be a slave in the ancient world than it was in
America.
She
had one thing, which she uses well in this lesson. What’s that?
Her
voice.
She
speaks to her mistress, telling her of the prophet in Israel who could cure
Naaman.
So
a few things happen, and finally Naaman finds himself at Elisha’s front door,
where he receives this message: “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your
flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.”
And
Naaman, being a reasonable man, did as he was…yeah, just kidding.
Naaman,
being a powerful man, pitches a fit worthy of one of our children, and leaves
“in a rage.” He is willing to trade his
pride for his body.
And
that would be the end of the story, were it not for…
His
servants. Whose relationship with
their master is revealed in their address:
“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’?”
They
obviously have a relationship with Naaman which allows them voice, a
relationship that is even familial.
But even in families, the distribution of power is usually clear. And it’s not always easy to speak up, is it?
How
many of us have hesitated to speak up in a situation like this, in which we are
in the position of lesser power?
How
many of us are holding on to things we want to say to family members,
but never have?
This
story could have ended at verse one. It
could have ended at verse twelve, when Naaman threw a fit about being asked to
wash himself clean in the waters of the not-so-clean Jordan.
But
the servants used the power they had—the power of their voices—to change the
story.
Many
of us have felt powerless in the face of the atrocities being committed at our
southern border. We have wondered what
we can do, when we lack the ability to change executive orders or to influence
the powerful agencies in charge of the detention camps. A cursory look at the whole system reveals
that powerful monied interests are shaping the border crisis for their own
monetary gain. We lack the political and
financial power to compete with them.
It
is easy to feel that there is nothing we can do. To look at images like these drawings from
little children in a respite center in Macallen, Texas, know something is
horribly wrong, but to think to yourself, “What can I do? I’m just one person.”
Tell
that to him. [Slide 5]
And
them. [Slide 6]
And
him. [Slide 7]
And
her. [Slide 8]
Oh,
and him. [Slide 9—Jesus]
When
Jesus sent seventy disciples out to prepare the way, he instructed them to take
very little with them. “No purse, no
bag, no sandals.” No protection. “I am
sending you out,” he told them “like lambs into the midst of wolves.”
When
you enter, say “Peace be with you.”
Preach
the word of God. Bring forth the kingdom
of God by your very presence, with nothing but your voice. Be servants to the gospel!
That’s
what we have, people of God. We have our
voices. We have our bodies,
strategically placed to magnify our voices.
We can choose to step into the fragile places, to risk our comfort and
perhaps our persons, in order to stand up for the values we hold. We can choose to go out, like lambs into the
midst of wolves, to follow countless people before us who have changed the
world with nothing but their present and the power of their voices.
We
can testify, as Naaman did, that there is no god but the God of Israel. The gods of money and might may look
powerful, but history shows that God’s justice will be done. In this country, justice will
prevail. As soon as enough people demand
it.
[Slide
10] So come out on Friday evening and preach
the word of God with your body and your voice.
It is time.
It
is time.
A
closing image. The manager of an art
gallery in El Paso worked with women in detention at the Otero County Prison in
New Mexico. She helped them share their
stories through art.
Here
is one story. [Slide 11]
“El dolor es real, pero así es la
esperanza”
The pain is real,
but so is the hope.
I
still have hope. Do you have hope?
Let
us stand up for hope. Let us stand up
for her.
[Slide 12 after closing]
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