2 Kings 5:1-14
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. 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.
This is the third in our summer series for this year. We have left Elijah the Prophet behind and moved on to Elisha, Elijah’s successor, but we are still in the same area of the world where the unified Israel/Judah was once a world power under David and Solomon but now the two separated kingdoms are just two among many in the region.
Our story begins in Aram to the north-east of Israel – one of the kingdoms where Elijah was sent by God to anoint its new king at the beginning of last week’s reading.
This is a story of healing – eventually – but before we get to the healing we have to wade through a boatload of hubris as well as some simple-hearted humility.
On the hubris side, Naaman wins hands down. He is commander of Aram’s army and Aram, right now, is probably the strongest kingdom in the region, with the largest army, so Naaman is legitimately a big deal. But, he is a big deal with leprosy. He’s much too big a deal to be exiled from the community as so many lepers were and this is Aram, where they are not bound by the purity laws of the Hebrews, so he lived as a rich, powerful man – with leprosy. And all the arrogance in the world can’t make leprosy go away.
On the faithful-humility side, we have Naaman’s wife’s servant – a young Hebrew woman who had been captured in a raid. Whether she had heard stories of Elisha or had actually seen him work wonders, she is the one who suggests that Naaman needs to go down into Israel to see the prophet there who can cure his leprosy. She—a captive--is one of the many unnamed, unsung heroes of scripture—oneS who speak the truth at the right time. It is a sign of Naaman’s desperation that he listens to a mere servant, and chooses to go.
The next on our arrogance list is the king of Aram who, upon hearing Naaman’s plan to go down into Israel to find some healer is perfectly willing that Naaman go find healing -- as long as it doesn't cause him any effort beyond casually dictating a letter to the king of Israel saying, “My general has leprosy. Fix him.” This is the kind of non-request that a king writes to another king only when he is entirely certainly he out-classes the other guy in terms of wealth and might.
The king of Israel falls somewhere between the two extremes of hubris and humility – certainly closer to the hubris end – he is a king, after all – but not so arrogant that he doesn’t panic when Naaman shows up bearing the King of Aram’s letter. He is arrogant enough to be insulted at the king of Aram issuing orders to him, yet he knows he would lose in any contest between them. He also knows he can’t heal anyone and so feels trapped by Aram’s demand and his own inability to fulfill that demand.
He is also just humble (or wise) enough to accept rescue when it is offered him. Somehow Elisha hears of his dilemma and sends a message himself to the king, saying, “Don’t panic – send this person down to me and I’ll handle it.” The king, knowing full-well who Elisha is, gratefully sends Naaman along to him.
Naaman, #1 on our arrogant list, is offended when he arrives at Elisha’s humble abode. He is more offended when Elisha doesn’t invite him in and fawn over him a while. He’s even more offended when Elisha doesn’t even come out to greet him but just sends a servant to say, “Master says to go to the river and wash yourself seven times.”
Now Naaman is beyond insulted and has moved into fury, when he declares he’s not having any of this simplistic nonsense from some scruffy backwoods prophet and he’s going home. And once again, it is a couple of the most humble characters in this story –- a couple of un-named, powerless servants who speak truth to Naaman and convince him to give the river cure a try. And of course, it works and Naaman is cured. And a man who has lived his life believing only in his own strength and his position and his accumulated riches finds that none of those things could save him and only a god he probably never heard of or paid any attention to, could heal him. A God who apparently loves us all -- even when we are jerks -- whose love, aided by the faith of simple people who trust their God – is the only thing that can save any of us us.
Our nation is torn right now by a super-abundance of hubris. We have political leaders who arrogantly no longer listen to anything but their own greed; we have church leaders who have been seduced away from the gospel by wealth and its trappings; and then we have just so many people who believe their own desires and opinions, sick and twisted as they may be – including their hatreds -- are ordained by God because they themselves are somehow innately better than anyone else. And few, if any of these people care at all about anyone who is not of their own tiny tribe.
These are frightening and ugly times we live in.
And yet, as in this story, it is often the un-named, the relatively powerless, the humble who continue to trust in God and to do good. They may be servants – ordinary folks – but they continue to work for the welfare to those who “own” them along with the good of everyone else around them. They may appear to be constrained by their circumstance but they trust God and do good anyway. These are the people who stand for hours in the hot sun demanding that the border camps be closed – and who do it in such numbers that they can’t be ignored. These are the children who run lemonade stands and collect thousands of dollars which they donate to funds for relief for the imprisoned migrant children. These are the people who every other week hold a big outdoor meal in a city park for the homeless and who not only feed them but greet them as old friends and then sit at table with them and share the meals together.
It is important for us to recognize that, without the actions of the nameless ones – the little people in today’s story -- this healing would never have happened and God’s purpose would not have been revealed.
We can do the same as they. It is easy to feel powerless against the evil in our world, but we can speak, and we can act, and we can trust in the power of our God whose power is greater than greed and evil. Remembering that trusting God does not mean sitting back and expecting God to do it all alone.
God’s love is greater than the world’s arrogance and hatred. And we can continue to believe that God has plans for us all – even the arrogant and hateful – plans that will come to pass.....if we who have faith play our parts.
Our story begins in Aram to the north-east of Israel – one of the kingdoms where Elijah was sent by God to anoint its new king at the beginning of last week’s reading.
This is a story of healing – eventually – but before we get to the healing we have to wade through a boatload of hubris as well as some simple-hearted humility.
On the hubris side, Naaman wins hands down. He is commander of Aram’s army and Aram, right now, is probably the strongest kingdom in the region, with the largest army, so Naaman is legitimately a big deal. But, he is a big deal with leprosy. He’s much too big a deal to be exiled from the community as so many lepers were and this is Aram, where they are not bound by the purity laws of the Hebrews, so he lived as a rich, powerful man – with leprosy. And all the arrogance in the world can’t make leprosy go away.
On the faithful-humility side, we have Naaman’s wife’s servant – a young Hebrew woman who had been captured in a raid. Whether she had heard stories of Elisha or had actually seen him work wonders, she is the one who suggests that Naaman needs to go down into Israel to see the prophet there who can cure his leprosy. She—a captive--is one of the many unnamed, unsung heroes of scripture—oneS who speak the truth at the right time. It is a sign of Naaman’s desperation that he listens to a mere servant, and chooses to go.
The next on our arrogance list is the king of Aram who, upon hearing Naaman’s plan to go down into Israel to find some healer is perfectly willing that Naaman go find healing -- as long as it doesn't cause him any effort beyond casually dictating a letter to the king of Israel saying, “My general has leprosy. Fix him.” This is the kind of non-request that a king writes to another king only when he is entirely certainly he out-classes the other guy in terms of wealth and might.
The king of Israel falls somewhere between the two extremes of hubris and humility – certainly closer to the hubris end – he is a king, after all – but not so arrogant that he doesn’t panic when Naaman shows up bearing the King of Aram’s letter. He is arrogant enough to be insulted at the king of Aram issuing orders to him, yet he knows he would lose in any contest between them. He also knows he can’t heal anyone and so feels trapped by Aram’s demand and his own inability to fulfill that demand.
He is also just humble (or wise) enough to accept rescue when it is offered him. Somehow Elisha hears of his dilemma and sends a message himself to the king, saying, “Don’t panic – send this person down to me and I’ll handle it.” The king, knowing full-well who Elisha is, gratefully sends Naaman along to him.
Naaman, #1 on our arrogant list, is offended when he arrives at Elisha’s humble abode. He is more offended when Elisha doesn’t invite him in and fawn over him a while. He’s even more offended when Elisha doesn’t even come out to greet him but just sends a servant to say, “Master says to go to the river and wash yourself seven times.”
Now Naaman is beyond insulted and has moved into fury, when he declares he’s not having any of this simplistic nonsense from some scruffy backwoods prophet and he’s going home. And once again, it is a couple of the most humble characters in this story –- a couple of un-named, powerless servants who speak truth to Naaman and convince him to give the river cure a try. And of course, it works and Naaman is cured. And a man who has lived his life believing only in his own strength and his position and his accumulated riches finds that none of those things could save him and only a god he probably never heard of or paid any attention to, could heal him. A God who apparently loves us all -- even when we are jerks -- whose love, aided by the faith of simple people who trust their God – is the only thing that can save any of us us.
Our nation is torn right now by a super-abundance of hubris. We have political leaders who arrogantly no longer listen to anything but their own greed; we have church leaders who have been seduced away from the gospel by wealth and its trappings; and then we have just so many people who believe their own desires and opinions, sick and twisted as they may be – including their hatreds -- are ordained by God because they themselves are somehow innately better than anyone else. And few, if any of these people care at all about anyone who is not of their own tiny tribe.
These are frightening and ugly times we live in.
And yet, as in this story, it is often the un-named, the relatively powerless, the humble who continue to trust in God and to do good. They may be servants – ordinary folks – but they continue to work for the welfare to those who “own” them along with the good of everyone else around them. They may appear to be constrained by their circumstance but they trust God and do good anyway. These are the people who stand for hours in the hot sun demanding that the border camps be closed – and who do it in such numbers that they can’t be ignored. These are the children who run lemonade stands and collect thousands of dollars which they donate to funds for relief for the imprisoned migrant children. These are the people who every other week hold a big outdoor meal in a city park for the homeless and who not only feed them but greet them as old friends and then sit at table with them and share the meals together.
It is important for us to recognize that, without the actions of the nameless ones – the little people in today’s story -- this healing would never have happened and God’s purpose would not have been revealed.
We can do the same as they. It is easy to feel powerless against the evil in our world, but we can speak, and we can act, and we can trust in the power of our God whose power is greater than greed and evil. Remembering that trusting God does not mean sitting back and expecting God to do it all alone.
God’s love is greater than the world’s arrogance and hatred. And we can continue to believe that God has plans for us all – even the arrogant and hateful – plans that will come to pass.....if we who have faith play our parts.
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