Sermon preached at Trinity Beaver on the 6th Sunday after Epiphany:
“This feels SO much
better, I was in such pain but now it is so much better.” I hear
this day in and day out as I lifeguard in the therapy pool at the
Beaver County YMCA. I am constantly reminded of the healing
properties of water and sometimes I wonder about the significance of
water to God and how He shows forth His goodness through it. So, I
was quite excited when I read the Old Testament lesson for today,
which is at least in part, about a healing by way of washing in
water.
As we dive into the
leprosy healing stories, I want us to be thinking about the season of
Epiphany as well and ask, “who is Jesus revealed to be in these
stories?” For this is the season in which a spotlight is put on
Jesus, in whom we see God.
Though Jesus does not,
obviously appear in the Old Testament lesson, I think we can start
there since the editors of the lectionary saw in good wisdom that
these two stories fit together. So, by way of comparing and
contrasting, we'll go through the stories together.
We see that Naaman is a
Gentile, an Aramite. The leper healed in Mark's story is a Jew of
whom we know little else. Naaman is considered a mighty man, who has
had several successess in battle. The narrator reminds us that this
comes from the Lord, though Naaman doesn't get it. But, Naaman is
also a leper, apparently in Aram lepers did not carry the same stigma
as in Israel. We get the first clue as to this cross-cultural
difference when Naaman appears before the King of Israel. He
responds in grief asking, how they think he can heal leprosy, a
miracle that he equates with “raising the dead to life.” And
there, we find the state of the leper in Mark's gospel—considered
to be dead because he is outcast, friendless and dirty on account of
his leprosy. He literally needed rehabilitation, a healing from God.
Because the Law declared
those with leprosy unclean, they had to live away from everyone else
and were not allowed to worship with everyone else in the same space.
So, Naaman may not have been aware of this but the King of Israel
and Elisha certainly were. Elisha saw it as an opportunity for
witness, to declare the glory of the Lord.
The attitudes of the two
lepers varied. Naaman goes in all his earthly splendor, “chariots
and horses” before the prophet Elisha, the narrator suggests,
seeking to impress him. The other leper comes before Jesus pleading
and on his knees. The leper in Mark's story simply asks Jesus to
heal him, he does not have any pretense as to how he will do so, he
just knows he has come to the right place. The leper must have been
startled when Jesus reached out and touched him, as the man could not
have been touched since whenever he first had the disease. Naaman is
upset that Elisha does not touch him and call on the power of the
Lord. I see a difference in some of the people at the pool that is
similar, those who are so thankful to see another day, and that water
is there to help them move their aching limbs, but some walk in like
they own it, complain the water is not hot enough, complain that it's
cold outside, complain that Dancing with the Stars is no longer on
TV, all their expectations dashed.
Naaman is really really
ticked when he hears Elisha's instructions. Naaman thinks that Elisha
is just trying to tell him to wash as part of a ritual that will
declare him “clean” and he doubts the power that God wields in
the Jordan River. Naaman wants his leprosy completely gone. His
servants say to him, “Don't you get it? He just said something
awesome to you!” because they understood that when Elisha said,
“Your flesh shall be restored AND you shall be clean” he meant
that he would be both cleansed and also healed of the leprosy, so he
is healed before God and also in his body. When Naaman does what
Elisha prescribes, he is restored, to flesh like a child.
An early church father
remarked on this that “Naaman, an adult, became like a boy by
washing seven times.” At the pool, I have often seen both old and
middle aged alike become like kids when they enter the water. They
smile, they splash and they move as they can't anywhere else.
The leper with Jesus sees
that his leprosy is immediately gone and thus knows that he has been
declared religiously clean simultaneously. The Levitical code called
for examination by a priest, washing in the river, and atonement, sin
and thank offerings once cleansed. Jesus, the true great high
priest, is able to heal the man of both impurity and of the physical
ailment by a touch of His hand and further, Jesus is unafraid to
touch him because he will not be defiled by being with the unclean
and He wields the power to forgive and to dispense healing. Jesus,
like Elisha, recognized the healing of the leper as an opportunity
for testimony, directed toward the leaders of the Jewish people, that
the Messiah had come, not just as a prophet, but as the life-giver,
raiser and restorer even rehabilitating the least among them,
declaring clean what used to be unclean by His touch. It should be
clear from both of these passages, that God wants to freely heal and
give life. In this, I hope you can see, at least a beginning of an
answer to the question I asked at the beginning, “who is Jesus
revealed to be?”
So, my next question is:
Have you been touched by the life giver, has He said to you, “you
shall be restored and you shall be clean”? Does this jive with the
Jesus you know? Can others here testify to this? I hope that we can
all answer “yes” to this one. It may be a little early in the
morning for an “amen” but if you've got one, now would be a good
time. :)
These stories should
remind us of our baptism, where one church father says, our souls
were cured of their leprosy, the disease of bondage to sin was taken
away. I pray that we can all soak in that truth, that we have been
cured of that leprosy, able to confess God as the only Lord, true and
living. One of the miraculous things I see at the pool is that many
people come in hunched, limping, stiff, and disheartened but when
they enter the pool, they are quite literally transformed, they are
able to stand upright, walk from one end to the other with little
effort, stretch, laugh and move without fear of falling down. Just
as the water moves them to be able to do this, this is a good
portrait of the Holy Spirit raising us up to new life.
Have you forgotten the
great power of the Lord to raise you up and heal you? Have you been
doubting His work in your life recently? No matter which of these
you are experiencing, I urge you, brothers and sisters to testify to
one another and to yourselves as a reminder of the healing God has
worked in and through you. The leper left Jesus and disobeyed His
order to go to the high priest to tell him first of the healing, and
to offer proper sacrifices of thanksgiving and so robbed those who
should have been first to know of the opportunity to hear that the
leper was no longer diseased. In sharing with one another, you might
be able to offer hope to one another through doing this and you may
allow someone else to share your burden perhaps over a lack of
healing. One simple way you may do this is to visit the prayer team
at the back of the sanctuary after receiving Communion, and have them
join with you in thanking and praying for healing.
If you would like a
different starting place, maybe try thinking about water- notice this
week how often it is in your life, a cooling balm when thirsty, a
heating agent when in pain, infiltrating every system in your living
body, falling from the sky to provide drink, showers and a good
harvest, at least here in Pennsylvania, that's the case.
If you
need a visible reminder, come on by the YMCA and visit me at the
pool. I'm sure Fr. Scott would like for me to add here that we could
also offer up prayers when thinking about water, for our brothers and
sisters in Kajire who do not have enough and pray that we might work
together to help them receive it that they might experience more
healing joy as well.
Though I didn't get a
chance to speak about the 1 Corinthians passage from Paul today, I
think that his metaphor is a good one. He says, “Let us run that we
may obtain the imperishable wreath of life!” Some here may have
received the cure for their soul's leprosy long ago. But, I daresay
that there have been times of refreshing and healing along the way
that help us hope to see more of it in this life. Let us not become
out of practice with turning to the Lord for healing and restoration
even up until the very day when our race is finished and we are with
Him, the Fountain of Life.
These are just a few of the feasts that have been prepared for us as we travel across the ocean for a couple of weeks. We ask that you would be lifting us up and that we would have eyes to see, ears to hear those things that God has for us to learn and the encouragement we can bring to the Turkish people that we meet.
