UCC Church of Charlotte

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Finally Listening
Psalm 30
2 Kings 5:1-14

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.

    As for me, I said in my prosperity,
    "I shall never be moved."
    By thy favor, O LORD,
    thou hadst established me as a strong mountain;

The moment the psalmist takes their eyes off of God and trusts in
their own prosperity, something happens:

    thou didst hide thy face,
    I was dismayed.

How easy it is to trust our prosperity when things are going well, and
to remember to pray only when they do not…
Naaman is the commander of the army of the king of Aram.  (Maybe his
predecessor gave an interview to Rolling Stone or something.)  He is
at the top of his career.  He has it all.

But Naaman developed a skin condition.  Leprosy.  A condition that
will have him stripped of his rank, thrown out of the capital, cut off
from his family, cast out from society to live on the edges.  He will
have to wear a bell to warn people he was coming.  Maybe a church
group will leave some food behind as everyone runs away, but they will
all run away.  Leprosy.  Universally seen as unclean, loathsome,
grotesque.

Uncle Walt says we might picture the wife sitting in her room getting
ready for a state dinner; her husband in the next room, putting on his
dress uniform one last time, making sure the medals are all lined up
properly.  The wife has put on her finest gown.  She sits before the
mirror, fixing her hair, putting on her make-up for one last meal
before everyone finds out their terrible secret.  Her slave girl,
taken in a raid of Israel, is helping her with the clasp of her
necklace when she sees the wife silently crying her mascara down her
cheeks.  Just weeks before, they had said in their prosperity, “We
shall not be moved.”  Now they are ruined.

A slave girl, one with no place in this kingdom, no standing or status
or authority, says to her crying mistress, “Would that my lord were
with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

She speaks the truth.  God heals.  And there is a man of God in
Samaria: Elisha, Elijah’s protégée.  And the wife hopes for the first
time since the diagnosis.

She tells her husband, who petitions the king, who sends his general
to get healing.  But being a king, he only knows king stuff.  So he
sends a letter to the king of Israel.

Can you see the problem?  One king tells another king to heal his
general.  Of course, the king of Israel fears; it is an impossible
demand.  And generals don’t come alone; they bring armies.

Elisha hears of it and calls for the general.  Elisha knows something
more than king stuff.  He knows kings and generals are also subject to
the God he serves.

So he calls Naaman.  And when the general’s procession stops outside
the door, Elisha sends his servant out to tell him the cure.
“Go and wash seven times in the Jordan.”

Naaman is ticked.  He sputters and growls and glowers.  How dare this
prophet not treat him according to his rank?  He should come out and
do that religious stuff…wave his arms about and call on the Name of
the Most High God…a general deserves some pomp and circumstance here!

Naaman has been told what he needs to do.  But it isn’t good enough for him.

Finally a servant comes forward and says, “What if he had told you to
go climb a mountain, or swim the length of the sea, or something
terrible; would you not have done it to be cured of your affliction?
So when he tells you something simple, why not try it?”
Naaman bathes seven times.  And he is cured.

And Naaman is changed.  He sees the power of the Lord, made known to
him in this man of God, Elisha.  Naaman asks God’s forgiveness.  For
when he serves the king, he will lead the king into the temple and
when the king bows to a foreign god, Naaman will have to bow to help
the king down and help the king up.  But Naaman knows there is only
one God to bow to and hopes the Lord will forgive him.

What fascinates me about this story is the nature of the truth.  It
doesn’t come from the halls of power or the places of prosperity.  It
comes from those who trust in God.

And the truth does not come wrapped the way we want it.  It comes from
slaves and cranky prophets who refuse to dance to our tunes.

Healing comes not by our power or piety, but when I finally listen.

Oh wait, did I say “I?”  Surely I mean Naaman.

I mean it was just a little bout of reflux that puts me in the
Emergency Room a while back.  That doesn’t really mean anything does
it?  (Yes, I followed up on it and yes the ticker is fine.)

Or the way my wife has been glaring at me for years whenever I agree
to do one more thing on my day off.  Or when I say, “just one more
meeting, just one more visit, just one more community event….”  I
thought the calendar was like the check book.  I can’t be overdrawn, I
still have checks left.  I can’t be overworked.  There is still stuff
to do.  (Yes, she’s gotten very good at glaring.)

Just because the people I counsel against workaholism give me that
look that says, “You first buddy.”

Just because the other day I got shown up in taking Sabbath time by Tom.

Just because when I was installed as your pastor after having been
here six months, the Men’s Group gave me a book of meditations for men
who do too much.  A lovely gift, but surely misplaced, right?

No.  All of these things are correct.  I just haven’t been listening.
The worst part is how many times I have preached that we ought not let
a trip to the hospital be our wake-up call, we ought to know better.
It is almost cliché.  It is as bad as that silly prophet not coming
out and doing his prophety stuff.

I have enlisted allies to help me.  I am changing old patterns.  I am
working at better decisions when it comes to diet and exercise and
Sabbath and schedule.

Why does Naaman wash in the Jordan seven times?  Because the prophet
told him to.  And maybe because it will take a lot of repetition for
the healing to sink in.
    
The good news is, we already know what we need to be doing.  As Dawn
says of being liturgist, “It’s already written for you….”  The bad
news is we are a stiff necked people.  We only change when we are in
enough pain.
    
We already know what we need to be doing.
    
Let us pray for the courage and strength to finally listen, and to do it.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.