February 15, 2009
(Sixth Sunday after the
Epiphany)
Wash in the River and be Healed
By
The Very Rev. Terry White,
Dean
2 Kings 5:1-14 • Psalm 30 • 1 Corinthians
9:24-27 • Mark 1:40-45
(From
The Lectionary Page)
Canon Herbert O’Driscoll looks at today’s first lesson and wonders why some 18th century composer did not base an opera on the text. [The Word Among Us, Year B, vol 1, pp 93-6]. Some others might wonder why it is not the basis for a country western hit, along the lines of "Achy Breaky Heart". Regardless of one’s taste in music, this reading tells a powerful story that is familiar in several ways, and is a story of hope.
General Naaman is a mighty general with numerous victories to his credit. But it becomes clear that his high rank and status depend upon military results. The minute he fails to achieve a victory, Naaman will fall from the king’s favor. Thus, his position depends not on respect or relationship, but merely on performance. In any organization, whether ancient army or modern corporation, this guarantees stress.
Is this why Naaman has developed leprosy? Has sickness has robbed him of his power?
Next, a young slave woman in Naaman’s household offers advice. It is a measure of his desperation that he listens to what the girl suggests: go see the prophet in Samaria.
Naaman agrees, but must first get the king’s permission. It must have taken courage to go to the king, confess that he has leprosy, and ask for time off to go to Samaria to deal with his problem. The situation must have been both fearful and humiliating for him.
Somewhat surprisingly the king is all cooperation, anxious to protect his investment in his highly skilled general. The king offers Naaman money, bodyguards, even a personal letter to the king of Israel.
How familiar does this sound: any problem can be fixed if you can find the right people and throw enough money at it -- ten talents of silver, and six thousand shekels of gold. All of this is a far cry from what the slave girl suggested: go see the prophet in Samaria.
Naaman arrives at the court of the King of Israel and presents the letter from his own King. In this letter, the king of Aram does not merely introduce Naaman, but demands that Israel’s King heal Naaman’s leprosy, which is of course, impossible. The reason for this? The king of Aram will then be able to justify going to war. Naaman finds that he has been used for political purposes, adding to his stress. The King of Israel refuses his request to travel to Samaria.
But at this very moment, comes word from Elisha: Let Naaman come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel. For when the king is powerless, there is still a greater power to seek.
Naaman and his entourage arrive at the house of Elisha. And surprise—Elisha doesn’t even go to the door, but sends a messenger, who says, literally: "Go jump in the river." A bit of humor here: how many soldiers have yearned for the chance to tell a general, “Go soak your head!”?
Naaman is insulted: "I thought for me – for me! – the prophet would come out himself to intercede on my behalf, calling upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hands, and cure my leprosy."
And just when it seems clear that he is heading back home, and will die from his leprosy, an anonymous servant, himself a very courageous man, persuades Naaman to reconsider. Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult would you not have done it? Sure you would have. So when he commands you to do something as easy as, ‘Wash in the river and be clean,’ what can it hurt?
Naaman wades into the River Jordan, and seven times he drops beneath the surface. The water is cool, and Naaman himself cools down, his temper leaves him as his soul becomes peaceful. As he walks toward the riverbank, he looks down at himself and beholds a healed body. He now has the flesh of a youth. As the prophet promised: he is clean.
This general, the embodiment of great authority and devastating power, has bowed his head to a greater authority. Pride has given way to humility. The cult of arrogance has been vanquished by the presence of the Living God. Only then, was healing possible. Only then, could Naaman be healed.
If this story is worthy of the stage, the greatest ovation we can give is silence, complete and utter awe for the truths revealed here.
This is in fact a reoccurring play, in our personal lives, and in society. Naaman’s leprosy is a real disease, but that leprosy stands for more than the physical. In his writings, our own Father Michael Johnston points out that leprosy caused people to be quarantined, literally marginalized, sent away from community and excluded from all human contact. Lepers were forbidden to interact with non-lepers, and were treated as being much less than fully human. And this in turn enabled the powerful, the majority, to feel safe and in control and right, by God.
In the screenplay Philadelphia, lawyer Andrew Becket, a rising star in a prestigious firm, a gay man, begins to show the physical affects of HIV/AIDS, and is fired. Becket hires attorney Joe Miller to sue.
Miller is not convinced that Becket has a case. The two meet in a law library, where a weakened Becket shows Miller the basis of his action. Miller reads: The Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against otherwise qualified handicapped persons who are able to perform the duties required by their employment. Although the ruling did not address the specific issue of HIV and AIDS discrimination...
And here Becket interrupts in order to finish the citation he has committed to memory: Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law, not only because of the physical limitations it imposes, but because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precedes the physical one.
AIDS is one disease likened to leprosy for this very reason: it exacts a social death before physical death occurs. This is the effect of discrimination in every form, such as sexism, racism, and ageism. These are but a few of today’s realities that resemble how people treated lepers throughout the scriptural story.
Leprosy in the time of Jesus caused a social death before the actual physical death. So when Jesus heals a leper, an account Mark places in the very first chapter of his Gospel, there is more going on than a physical healing. Mark is saying that the Incarnate Son of God has come to end once and for all the social deaths human beings create and to restore all people to health and community. For God’s holy vision to take root and grow, walls must come down. Defining people in order to subjugate, manipulate, and otherwise question their self-worth is incompatible with the teachings of the prophets and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And yet, though these teachings are clear, they remain only words until faithful people, living courageously, willing to sacrifice and surrender privilege, make these words the foundation for everyday life.
Mark fills the first chapter of his Gospel with stories of healing, banishing unclean spirits, and restoring people to wholeness. Healing the outcasts of society, eradicating social death, is a priority of Jesus’ mission and proclaims that Reign of God has come.
Naaman’s search for healing and wholeness is our search today. Healing is only found in God. Justice, compassion, peace, generosity, creating a true common-wealth, requires our complete surrender to God’s vision. And we can do that.
Naaman encountered the power to be healed because he listened to two rather insignificant voices on his journey: the servant girl who said, “Go see the prophet in Samaria,” and the one who persuaded Naaman to listen to the prophet, swallow his pride, and wash in the river.
Such voices still speak today. May we learn to listen. May we surrender our pride and be healed. May the Reign of God be built in us, and by us.
