The Proclaimed Word
Preached by the Reverend Canon Durrell Watkins at
the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, November 25, 2007, at the 9:50
am service.
I went to Barnes & Noble the other day and asked the clerk where the
Self-Help section was. She said, “If I told you, it would defeat the
purpose.”[1] Our readings
today tell about people who needed some help, and who found people to be a
bit more helpful than my bookstore clerk.
The story we heard this morning from the book of 2nd Kings is
one of those signature tales of our faith tradition. It is a key story not
just because it mentions one of the great prophets, Elisha and not simply
because it affirms the possibility of divine healing, but because it
demonstrates the sacred possibilities that exist in unlikely places. It is
important to us because it shows that systems that are built on excluding or
demonizing others is absolutely contrary to how things ought to be.
If God has a preferential option, it is for those who have been excluded,
marginalized, left out, demonized, or unfairly vilified. The Universal Love
that we call God includes everyone, leaves no one out, and our sacred
stories repeatedly use the people society has left out to make that point.
The unlikely heroes are the people of God, pointing to the all-inclusive,
life-giving love of God. And the story of Naaman and Elisha is one more such
story.
In the story, we see a Syrian general, Naaman. A general… the highest
military rank. This is a person of influence. This is a person of power.
This is a person of privilege. This is a person highly regarded in his
society. He has a title, he has a position, he has authority, he probably
has some financial resources. He is a powerful person, and we know how he
has used his power… over others for his own personal gain and for the
advancement of his nation. How do we know this? Because we read in verse 2
that Naaman’s army had raided the northern territory of Israel and in that
raid it had taken captives. One of those captives was a young girl who is
now serving Naaman’s wife as a slave. Naaman has power, and he has used his
power to keep others disempowered.
We aren’t picking on Naaman; he’s a product of his culture and his time.
Wars and conquests and domination were part of political reality in
antiquity… thank goodness we’ve evolved past that today(!). Equality wasn’t
even on Naaman’s radar… he was in the position of power, so he enjoyed it.
Had he been on the opposite side of the equation, he would have resented it
and maybe plotted to gain power for himself and his people… not power with
all others, but power over others, perhaps the ones who had lorded power
over him. Such tit for tat, king of the mountain thinking was the way of the
world. But the scriptures consistently hint that there may be a better way
than the way of the world… there is the world that is, but there is also the
world that could be… and we are constantly challenged to transform the
former into the latter… into a world of justice and peace and equality and
goodwill.
So Naaman is part of the power structure that wages wars and takes
prisoners and enslaves the losers. In the world of conflict and struggles
for which few people get to have all the power and resources, Naaman is
powerful. But in God’s world, look who has power: 2Naaman’s
wife had a servant who had been captured from Israel. 3She said
to her mistress, “If my master would visit the prophet in Samaria he would
be healed.”
The one society has judged to be least, lowly, insignificant… the one the
power structure has tried to rob of her humanity, THAT IS THE ONE who knows
who she is. Dis-ease can’t keep her from knowing her truth. Discord can’t
keep her from knowing her truth. War, famine, injustice, crime, pain, loss…
these conditions are not her truth. They may be her experience, but they are
not her TRUTH. And she knows her truth, and she has an inner strength, an
inner power that war or slavery or social stratification cannot take away.
She has spirit. She has hope. She has dignity. She has the knowledge of her
own sacred value, and though others might say she is poor or powerless, she
is actually the one in this story who has something to give… and P.S., she’s
WILLING to give it!
Will she be repaid for her kindness? Probably not! Will she be given
freedom? Will she be reunited with her family? Will she be offered money or
prestige or a high ranking position? There is no guarantee of that, in fact,
it is unlikely and apparently that isn’t why she does it anyway. She gives
because she knows she has something to give. And just as the Syrian army
can’t take away her pride or her dignity or her hope, the Syrian army also
can’t give her a sense of empowerment, accomplishment, or self-worth. They
can’t give it, and they can’t take it away; so since the Source of her
power, the Source of her supply, the Source of her fulfillment is unlimited
and she is part of It and It is part of her, she has something that no one
else can give and no one in the world can take away. And when you have that
kind of power, that kind of wealth, that kind of insight… you gladly share
it.
She participates in the circulation of divine blessings because she knows
she has it to share and the more she shares the more she’ll have. No one can
take it from her, and she can’t even give it all away. She is giving from
the deep well of her own spirit, and she knows that will never run dry. This
servant, this captive says, “If you would visit a prophet in Samaria , in
Israel , the land you have already defeated, you might get some help.” She
doesn’t have the power to conquer nations, but she has the power to help a
person in need, whoever he or she might be, and she gives it. She doesn’t
have political power but she has divine power. She is the one with that kind
of power to share: the unnamed girl, the servant, the captive, the child of
God.
Of course, Naaman gives it a try, and from his sense of entitlement and
privilege is outraged that Elisha doesn’t pay him enough attention. Who does
this crazy prophet think he is? And what the prophet tells him to do is
crazy too! There are beautiful, clear streams in Damascus in which to bathe,
why would one splash around in some muddy river? But again, to the world’s
view… Damascus has cleaner water. But in God’s view, that which is judged to
be unclean is often the thing that is blessed. And Naaman takes a swim in a
nasty river, a river he found repulsive, and in his willingness to enter
into that which he had previously judged to be dirty, he himself was
cleansed, and healed, and made whole.
When Naaman confronts his prejudice, when he confronts his arrogance, when
he confronts his judgments and lays them aside (if only for a moment), then
he is renewed and then he experiences a miracle. There is a lesson in that
for us, I believe. We become our best selves when we get over ourselves.
When we see the other as our neighbor, as our sister, as our brother, then
we see ourselves more clearly and we become more of what we are meant to be…
reflections of the divine image and likeness.
Naaman could have ignored the loving and wise council of a slave-girl.
Naaman could have ignored the healing instruction of a crazy prophet in the
land of his enemies. And Naaman could have remained unchanged. But the ones
he would have thought to be beneath him actually were children of God,
filled with gifts of God, and they were willing to share those gifts. And
Naaman, in a miraculous moment, was willing to recognize and receive those
gifts. That was Naaman’s miracle… an effect of that miracle is that his
physical condition improved as well.
In Jesus’ day, lepers were untouchable, but we see him loving lepers into
wholeness today.
In Jesus’ day, Samaritans were the Other... vilified, the victims of unfair
prejudice. And Jesus sees them as children of God, and he affirms their
sacred value. He rises above the finger pointing, wrist slapping, name
calling prejudices of his day, and Samaritan lepers are healed. Jesus gave,
and people who probably thought of him as their enemy, received his gift of
healing. One was even grateful and in expressing his gratitude achieved
wholeness… more than physical improvement, the one that received the gift
and then gave his own gift of gratitude, that is the one who got more than
physically better… he became whole… body, mind, and spirit… brought into
right relationship with the god of his understanding and with his neighbor,
including the neighbor he would have earlier thought of as an enemy.
Thank God that Israelite slave-girl gave what she had.
Thank God the prophet Elisha gave what he had.
Thank God Jesus gave what he had.
Thank God the one grateful leper returned to give what he had.
When we know we have something to give, and when we gladly give it, we can
change the world. We may change it only one life at a time, but that’s the
fun way… because that’s how we can see that our efforts are paying off. We
are children of God and we have something to give to this world. And as we
give, we become miracle workers. This is the good news. Amen.
[1]www.wwj.org.nz/jokes