February 13, 2000
The story Naaman and Elisha is one of the more
contemporary stories of scripture. Think, if you will, about Naaman's
plight — a four star general on the Joint Chiefs of Staff
with a terrible disease that not only affected his body, but also
caused him to be in quarantine from his family, his men and his
society. The President of the United States thinks very highly
of him and says to Naaman, "There is a healer in another
country. Go there and be healed." Naaman gets a foot locker
full of currency and a couple of steamer lockers full of the finest
clothes and goes off in search of the healer.
Think, if you will, that this is a contemporary story and that the one doctor who can cure you lives in Moscow, a far country, and you go there with that good American currency so needed in that place. You arrive after the trip and the doctor sends out his P.A., won't even come to the door to see you. The P.A. says, "What you really need is a bath in the Chernobyl River. In fact, you need to go there and bathe seven times, then you will be clean."
That is the situation that Naaman faced today. Elisha says to him, "Go and bathe several times in the River Jordan." Naaman replied, "But we have clean water at home. If it's bathing that is going to make me whole again, I shall go back home and take a bath in clean water."
But the bathing is not really the point. Certainly all of that currency and all of those finely made clothes were not the point because none of that would buy God's healing. We had that same message preached to us last Sunday, that nothing we bring to God is going to affect our salvation. Christ has won that for us already. It is freely offered and freely received. Good deeds are acceptable to God because he chooses to accept them — not because they are really good, and certainly not because they are sufficient for our salvation and our healing. Jesus has already accomplished our salvation. Everything else is the result of that act. The gratitude we show is the result of knowing Christ. Taking something with us to buy our healing, our salvation, is irrelevant.
A similar story is told in today's gospel. Another leper comes to Jesus and says to him, "Lord, if you would choose to do so, you can make me whole." Jesus says, "Well of course I choose that." That is what God chooses to do all the time, to make people whole and to restore them to community.
The trouble with leprosy in the 1st century was that it didn't just affect the human body, it tore at the fabric of their society and separated them from it. The healing of a leper, as wonderful as it was for the restoration of a person's skin, it was even more wonderful because it restored families and communities. Jesus says to him, "Of course you are healed." And he was. Then Jesus says, "Now, do what the community of faith has done ever since Moses laid down the law on Leviticus. Go and show yourself to the religious leader to certify the cure and do what was commanded in Leviticus to show thanksgiving to God."
The cost of medical care has not changed much since Naaman. It is still very expensive and no amount of money can really pay for it. God's economy has not changed either. It is freely offered and freely received. He bids us to approach him as Naaman finally did at the bidding of his servant who said, "Naaman, if you had been asked to wage war against our enemies and won an impossible battle, you would have done it to be healed. So, If the prophet says to go and bathe several time in the Jordan River, such a simple thing, why won't you do it?"
Be humble before the word of God, however silly and simple it may seem, because God's power is shown in the simple. It is certainly not the bath that is going to heal you. The humility of going there where God is, opens you to God's touch and his healing.
And so, we learn several things from these two wonderful stories today. One is that when we approach God to be restored in our bodies and in our communities, we are to approach him with humility. When we have been restored in our bodies and our communities, we are to show great gratitude to God for all that he has done for us. Those things are told by the story of the lepers.
The other side of the story is told by Elisha and by Jesus. When an outcast or a foreigner (someone who you don't know or wouldn't normally care for) comes to you in the name of God seeking God's touch, you must not condemn them or turn them away. The purpose of the church is to receive those that God brings to us and to witness to Christ's saving power in their lives, as well as in our own. Humility, gratitude, acceptance of the stranger and the outcast, those are the things that mark the people of God.
As we gather here week by week, we have a responsibility before God to assume, to take for granted that anyone who comes into this place has been sent here by God for the blessing that the rest of us have to share with them. We are God's blessing to those who come to us. We have something to give them.
As we are gathered week by week in this place, we are bidden to share the joy of the experience of Christ's presence and his healing touch among us. The power that he has given us to celebrate, to rejoice, to be restored in our community, to have wonderful relationships in Christ's name — we are to share all that with those who come to us and to incorporate everyone into this saving community.
As we gather week by week, we are not only to accept those who come in, we are to brings our friends and our neighbors with us. We all know people in our neighborhoods, in our communities and in our families who need healing, who need to be restored to a community, who need the warm embrace and the words, "May the peace of Christ be always with you."
So let us be God's agents, to take them by the hand and bring them into this place so that Christ may be known and worshipped to the ends of the earth. Our Lord is counting on us to do his bidding. Let us never shrink from doing it. AMEN
The Rev. Dr.
Robert Certain
rgcertain@stmargarets.org
February 13, 2000