Pentecost 4C - Sunday, July 7, 2019

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Robert James Magliula, OHC
Pentecost 4C - Sunday, July 7, 2019

2 Kings 5:1-14
Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Click here for an audio version of the sermon.

The story of Naaman, the supreme commander of the army of Aram, who enjoyed the trust of his king and had defeated the army of Israel, is certainly a tale for our time and place. Odd how we expect God to think and act like us. Naaman faced a considerable enemy he could not defeat, leprosy. Leprosy was feared and often viewed as a sign of God’s displeasure. But God does not leave us bereft when tragedy strikes. God employs ordinary people to act in extraordinary ways.

Aram’s military raids against Israel had brought a captive Jewish girl into the household of Naaman as his wife’s servant. The slave girl learned of the general’s disease and told her mistress about a Jewish prophet who could heal him.

Naaman sought his king’s permission to return to the land of their enemy to seek healing. The King of Aram sent the king of Israel a diplomatic request, which caused quite a stir, because the King of Israel took it as some kind of plot or threat. But the prophet Elisha intervened and sent word to his king to let Naaman come to him. So Naaman arrived at the prophet’s house, accompanied by soldiers, servants and lavish gifts. Common rules of diplomacy required political permission, gifts between rival governments and respect for national religions. Naaman did everything by the book and expected the same in return. He pridefully expects his power and wealth to obtain his cure. He expects a theophany from God to heal him, and he is willing to pay for it.

What a shock when they show up and Elisha sends his servant out to relay his instructions. Naaman misconceives God’s actions through Elisha on both a personal and a national level. He rails at the perceived insult. He even takes umbrage at Elisha’s choice of a river in which he should wash, claiming that the rivers of his own nation are far superior. His pride blinds him from perceiving God’s providential acts by the slave girl, Elisha, his messenger, and even his own servants.

Finally, he heeds the appeals of his servants who suggest that if Elisha’s directions had been more challenging, Naaman would have agreed. He followed their advice, immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, and his flesh was restored. No great healing ritual, elaborate sacrifices or spells pronounced by the holy man, but instead, simple obedience to a prophet’s instructions.
This story, like much of life today in our own country, is characterized by irony. Our leaders show little or no ability to critic their own duplicitous power games. The people at the very top, who should be in the know, appear clueless, while the marginalized perceive accurately what God can do. This irony invites us to reflect on two ideas: knowledge of God and the truth of our circumstances may come from unexpected sources, and God’s providence is complex and does not always match our assumptions.

The irony that people with little or no power or wealth perceive God’s work, when the powerful may not, recurs in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. In this story the captive Israelite girl proposes a solution to Naaman’s problem. The king of Israel is perplexed and paralyzed by his suspicion and fear. It is the prophet who helps both the king and the general. Naaman’s servants show him the weakness of his own reasoning, coaxing him to accept the treatment offered. The king and the general do not perceive where God is at work. The slave girl, servants, and itinerant prophet do. This is a tale for our time providing hope to the marginalized and disenfranchised, and a warning to the affluent and powerful. Human consciousness does not emerge at any depth except through struggling with our shadow. It is in facing our own contradictions that we grow. Material disadvantages are not spiritual disadvantages nor are material advantages, spiritual advantages. They may in fact hinder or obscure a person’s perceptions of God. God calls people regardless of circumstance. God can empower the powerless who seek greater justice to find their voices in the midst of their circumstances. Those with power are called to identify, pay attention, and learn from those who are marginalized.

Whatever sociological context we are in, we create and act on stereotypes about those who differ from us. We all tend to turn the one who is different from us into an “other” who is somehow problematic and should therefore be ignored or dismissed. Every one of us is probably someone else’s “other.” The irony that wisdom and insight come from unexpected sources invites us all to strive to curb this tendency in ourselves. This story encourages us to recognize that any person may have important insights and be an instrument of God’s saving work in us.

Naaman’s preconceptions about how his healing should take place includes special attention from the prophet. Elisha’s directions do not match these preconceptions. This great general almost cheats himself of his healing because of his arrogance. We might expect and even hope that God punish Naaman for his pride, at least by withholding healing. Ironically, God heals him, even though he is a foreigner and an enemy who is skeptical of Elisha’s God. This irony offers the opportunity for us to reflect about the ways we understand God’s involvement in our own lives and the lives of those around us. Like Naaman, we sometimes assume that our expectations are the measure of God’s ability to work in our world. We want God to do something for us in the particular way we want it done, on a schedule we devise. The irony of Naaman’s healing discourages our tendency to look for God’s work in terms of our own desires or expectations. Naaman’s healing does not occur as he expects, but as God chooses.

Naaman’s story is important because if we hear it with the ear of our heart chances are, we will recognize it as our story as well. Like Naaman, we also may make our expectations the measure of God’s work, when we assume that God is exclusively on our side regarding all sorts of relationships, both interpersonal and international. His healing shows that God is not vindictive and includes a variety of people in the divine purpose. We do well to remember how this story expresses the breadth and complexity of God’s love. Our greatest disease is the lack of love for those who are unwanted and uncared for. God demonstrates continuing providence for individuals and nations, whether we approve of it or not. May this story move us to welcome the other, the stranger, the asylum seeker without dehumanizing and insisting that they are not like us. That tendency is ours not God’s. God’s love is beyond our control and will not be contained.   +Amen.