Sermon for the 12th of October - Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
I wonder if you’ve been so self-absorbed or full of your own importance, that you’ve failed to hear those around you or you have been slow to take advice from those around you.
I wonder if you’ve ever been fearful about making a request, thinking it wouldn’t be granted, and then being surprised when it is.
I wonder if you’ve ever been so pleased by the outcome of something good happening, that you failed to thank the person who made it possible.
I often find that, given a choice of preaching on an epistle or on a reading from the Old Testament, or, as I prefer to call it, the Hebrew Bible, I’ll take the latter – mainly because with the explosion of content on screens – large and small, there is a real danger of cultural allusions being swept away.
This morning, I want us to focus on the story of Naaman from Aram or modern-day Damascus, an Assyrian. And apply it to the three wonderings.
It’s a story that certainly deserves to endure - the leprous general and Elisha. It’s a story in three acts – the first one we’ve just heard. I’ll briefly share the other two shortly.
This brings me back to the first wondering.
I wonder if you’ve been so self-absorbed or full of your own importance, that you’ve failed to hear those around you or you have been slow to take advice from those around you.
Naaman is most certainly mighty “puffed up” and full of his own importance. The text we have just heard omits that he is advised by his wife about the conversation she has had with her servant girl, who, note was taken captive in Samaria where Elisha is based. Like many powerful people, this puffed-up man does listen to his spouse and seeks permission from his King to go to Samaria. He travels with horses and chariots and lots of gifts – gold, silver and ten sets of garments.
A tense moment ensues when it becomes clear that the King of Aram has misunderstood the serving girl’s suggestion and, in his letter, has requested the King of Samaria to cure Naaman, this mighty warrior, whose country has a history of and will continue to attack Samaria, who has just turned up with his cohorts and is going to be mighty disappointed, if no cure takes place.
“Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me” wails the King
In desperation the King tears his clothes – in those times an outward expression of big feelings, primarily grief, but also anger, outrage, shock and indignation.
Elisha hears of the mistake and asks the King to send Naaman to him so “That he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”
Naaman is full of complaints about the manner of his suggested cure. Elisha doesn’t deign to receive him, when he arrives at Elisha’s.
No waving of the hand and an instant cure. Naaman is asked to go to some local river, surely inferior to the mighty rivers of Damascus. And if he was going to be cured by going into a river, could it have been done at home!
He takes some convincing to follow Elisha’s instructions. Note that it is his servants who encourage him do as he has been told.
And he is cured.
“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”
So concludes Act 1.
A lesson from the tale of Naaman is that we need to listen to those around us. The world looks for great, grand solutions but God's way is through the small, weak, and foolish. The young captive girl who served Naaman’s wife. And the servants who told him to jump in the river or words to that effect.
David defeating Goliath as a shepherd boy - Jesus being born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem - The early church starting with ordinary fishermen
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things – except -you may agree with me, the older we become, the more people we meet, the more we learn that no-one is ordinary. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone is special.
I’ll briefly mention Act 2 as our reading ceases just before it.
The second act is that the cured Naaman is thankful, and having recognised the primacy of Israel’s God, realises that this could place him in an awkward position when he gets home.
He has stood before Elisha and has promised no longer to offer burnt offerings or sacrificed to any god except the Lord.
He asks for Elisha’s understanding that when Naaman accompanies the king of Aram to worship in the House of Rimmon – the Assyrian temple, “With his master leaning on his arm, and he bows down in the House of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant on this one count?
This brings me to the second wondering:
I wonder if you’ve ever been fearful about making a request, thinking it wouldn’t be granted, and then being surprised when it is.
Do you know how Elisha replies?
It’s surprising.
Elisha said to him “Go in Peace.”
Note Elisha’s attitude to other religions – To affirm the reality and power of Israel’s God, rather than to attack other religions.
This led me to think about the opposition Sarah, our Archbishop of Canterbury designate might face, perhaps from those not accepting of women priests, or due to her role in co-chairing the Church of England steering committee on Living in Love and Faith discussing Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. I hope that any opposition will walk alongside her affirming the reality of and power of Jesus Christ and that she will be able to say “Go in Peace.”
The final act in the story involves thankfulness.
I wonder if you’ve ever been so pleased by the outcome of something good happening, that you failed to thank the person who made it possible?
Unlike the cured lepers, only one of which thanks Jesus and they are from Samaria, Naaman seeks to thank Elisha who declines acceptance of any gifts.
There is more to this story but, as parent might say to a child at the end of a bedtime story, that will have to wait till next time!
Or, when you go home, do please read 2 Kings, Chapter 5. You will learn that Elisha can be very strict!