July 4, 2010
 
Scripture:         2 Kings 5:1-14
 
Sermon:           “Muddy Waters”
 
            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to 2 Kings, chapter 5, where we will read together verses 1 through 14.  You can find that easily on page 410 of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament in the pew Bible.
            I’m aware that Jesus once preached a short sermon on this text.  And it did not go very well for him if you recall.  In the fourth chapter of Luke, Jesus was in a synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth where he sat in front of the congregation and preached.  He read some words from the prophet Isaiah about how the kingdom of God was fulfilled in their hearing of the word.  They liked that part a lot.  Sermons that make folks feel good about themselves usually have that effect.
            But, then he mentioned this story that we’re about to read, along with another one.  The books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings contain these stories about prophets named Elijah and Elisha from some 800 years or so before Jesus was alive.  So, he reminded them of these two stories where a couple of people received help from God for their distresses.  One was a widow who was fed during a famine.  She was not an Israelite, but from Sidon in Lebanon.  The other was this fellow we’ll read about today.  He was the commander of the Syrian army, Naaman.  And Naaman had a skin disease that was cured by the power of the God of Israel.
            Jesus reminded the folks in his hometown of these two stories as a way to kind of expand their horizons.  He wanted them to see beyond themselves and take notice that the grace of God is not limited to just one certain kind of person.  They can feel good about themselves that God’s grace and love were imminent in their lives.  But, they have to understand that it is for everyone.
Do you remember what the people in Nazareth did to Jesus that day?  In a fit of rage, they got up and drove him out to the top of a cliff where they intended to throw him off to his death.
            I have this hope that you will not receive a sermon from this story in the same way today!  Being the 4th of July, the implications for seeing God at work beyond our own borders is an obvious way to think about this scripture.  But, I’m interested in something more personal.  It’s probably equally as challenging for us.  But, the Bible always is a challenge.
            Let’s turn to the word of the Lord…
 
            Naaman, the 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.  Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.  She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria!  He would cure him of his leprosy.”  So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said.  And 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.  He 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.”  When 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.”
            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.”  So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house.  Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.”  But 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!  Are 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.  But 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’?”  So 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.
 
            The Syrians, or the Arameans as they were also called, were no picnic, boy.  They were tough neighbors to the north of Israel that fought over territories around the Sea of Galilee.  Sworn enemies, you might say.
            In one battle the Syrians defeated the Israelite army, sent them scurrying into the hills, and killed the king of Israel while they were at it.  Of course, the king of Israel at that time was Ahab.  And the Bible doesn’t have anything good to say about Ahab.  But, for the people of Israel it was a shameful moment of defeat.
            This is not the kind of thing that inspires a man to write the words of a national anthem.  Right?  “And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there.”  That’s what we sing.  Francis Scott Key was watching a victorious battle of Americans defending Fort McHenry against the British Navy in 1814.  National victory inspires great words.
            What happened to the Israelites was the complete opposite.  They’d lost in battle and had to live with the defeat.  On top of that, their king was killed in battle.  So, no one wrote any songs about that.  The people there would just as soon forget about it.
            The story goes that the Syrians had taken a young girl captive on one of their raids.  She was made to be a slave for the wife of the Syrian army commander.  And because of that, Naaman learned that there was a prophet of Israel’s God who could cure him of this skin disease that he’d developed.
            Naaman went to his king and asked for permission to go back to Israel and seek out this prophet.  The Syrian king granted him permission and sent him with a whole boatload of money and gifts so that the king of Israel would be willing to help the man out.
            These people were not all on good terms, you know.  The wounds of war were still fresh.  In fact, the king of Israel was terrified that this was all some kind of trick.  Cure the commander of your enemy’s army or else!  He said, “Am I God, to give life or death?”  And the king tore his clothes in agony and fear.
            Have you ever done that?  Have you ever assumed something about another person so that you can’t fully hear what they’re saying?  You say, “What are you really up to?  What do you really want?”  You know how your history with somebody causes you not to trust them?
            But, Elisha said, “Just let him come to me and see what we can do.  Let him learn that there is a prophet here in Israel.”
            It’s quite a scene as this very important man, this very skilled warrior, this decorated general of the battlefield arrives with his whole entourage outside of Elisha’s house.  This is the kind of stuff that can happen to us when we’ve tasted a great deal of success in our lives.  It’s like he drives up to the house in a motorcade of limousines.  He’s got all of his horses and chariots and servants there.
            The land is barren.  The people have been defeated.  There’s a famine taking place.  It’s an awful time.  And Naaman shows up at the front gate of Elisha’s house like he’s the President of the United States in all of his pomp and circumstance.  Obnoxious, really.
            I saw Naaman before over in the west end of Louisville.  I’ve probably been Naaman before in the west end of Louisville, to tell the truth.  I ride my bike through these neighborhoods sometimes where there are kids there that can’t even afford a bike.  But, I saw Naaman there once for certain.  You couldn’t miss him.  He’d gotten lost off the interstate looking for gas.  So, he pulled into this little station there on West Broadway driving one of those big Hummer things.  It was all white with shiny rims and tinted windows.  He gets out wearing this outfit that unmistakably was intended for a day of betting the horses at Churchill Downs.  There’s gold rings and a gold watch shining in the sun.
            Now, these folks there who were milling around at the gas station—this was not a life that any of them could imagine.  They had bars covering the windows of the store in that part of town.  There were sheets of plywood covering some of the windows of the houses nearby.  And there were a couple of gentlemen kind of standing around the doorway of the place just looking this Naaman up and down as if to say, “What are you doing here?”
            That man walked over to the two men sitting on the curb outside the door of the gas station.  He pulled out this money clipped that was stuffed full.  Grabbed a few twenties and said, “Alright, boys.  Fill ‘er up with premium.”
            He thought it was a full service station and these were the attendants!  Do full service stations even exist anymore?
            Do you get the picture?
            Elisha didn’t go a greet the man personally, by the way.  He sent out a messenger with a simple set of instructions.  “Go wash yourself in the Jordan River seven times and your skin will be healed.”
            In Naaman’s mind, you see, it’s a slap in the face.  “Don’t you know who I am?  I’m Naaman.  I command a powerful army and I’m quite good at what I do.  You see this entourage that escorts me around?  I’ve earned it.  And I’ve earned enough respect in this life to have a man come and speak to me face to face.  I’ve earned this healing with all I’ve done in my life.”
            Oh, we can end up like that, too.  We can gain a certain standing in life that we think affords us some kind of special treatment.  We can begin to believe that we’re entitled to everything we’ve got and that there’s nothing wrong with showing it off.
            But, it gets in the way.
            When it comes to experiencing God…when it comes to experiencing God, pride and opulence and misplaced notions about how important we are compared to anybody else?  It gets in the way.
            I don’t know if you’re aware of this.  But, the Jordan River?  It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.  When I saw it for the first time myself I was, shall we say, underwhelmed.  I’d always imagined something like the Ohio River.  But, it’s not.  It’s not a raging river in the least.  In fact, it’s little more than a muddy creek.  Did you know that?  Have you ever seen it?
            Well, Naaman was well aware of this fact.  And the thought of getting into it offended him even more.  “We’ve got better rivers at home,” he said.  “Why can’t I just go and wash in the Abana River?  What about the Pharpar?  They’re twice the river that the Jordan is.”
            See, Naaman was much too proud, much too full of himself to think that somebody else might have wisdom and answers that he didn’t have.  He was Naaman, for crying out loud.  He always had the right answers.  But, it turns out that the somebody offering a new way was God.
            It’s like we do sometimes.  We imagine that we can live a life of faith on our own terms.  We’ll hold on to the things that bring us comfort even if we know that God would have us do otherwise.  Right?
            The story ends that Naaman was convinced to give it a try.  A servant said, “C’mon, sir.  This is easy.  All he said was, ‘Wash and be clean’.”  And even though this is the kind of man that believed he had earned some extravagant way of demonstrating his faith, he figured that he’d branch out a little bit and trust it.  He went down to those muddy waters, immersed himself seven times, and he was clean.
            I’m reminded that our faith continues to call us towards what we struggle with.  It calls us toward humility and gratitude and servant hood.  It calls us towards simple living and generosity.  It calls us toward a life that is shaped by an image of sacrifice—the cross of Jesus’ death.  The Apostle Paul once named it just right.  He said, “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.”  (1 Corinthians 1:18)
            The promise is, however, that if we trust in it enough to shape our lives after it, we will know healing and wholeness.  “To us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)