Truth and Consequences; forgiveness and adoption . . .

     This week’s reading from the OT might offend you, were you all fluent in Hebrew or Greek.  As it is, with the NIV’s sanitizing, I still saw more than a few squirms as our lector read this morning.  Yes, I decided to continue our journey through the minor prophets rather than spend all morning discussing the Lord’s Prayer in Luke.  I know, I know.  Everyone here wanted to know why Jesus gave us this prayer.  Suffice it to say that the prayer He gave us teaches us much about God, just like our reading from Hosea.  The big difference, of course, is that everyone here has said the Lord’s Prayer so many times that we likely do not pay attention to what we are praying.  Hosea has the virtue of being unfamiliar to us.  That, and the language, might cause us to pause and really listen.

     Those with gentle ears might be shocked that the Lord would command His prophet to take a prostitute for a wife, but that is just what He does in the beginning of the book named after that prophet on the receiving end of the command.  Scripture is uninterested in why Gomer is living the life of a prostitute.  There is no “she was really a faithful woman reduced to that profession by the lack of support within the godless society;” nor is there a condemnation of her actions as a determined decision to act contrary to the torah of God.  Hosea is told to marry a prostitute, and Gomer is the one chosen.

     Now those of us who view the Bible and the revealed characteristics of God from way above the text might be shocked that God would tell His prophet to do this might well remember our Confirmation classes.  I remind you all, often weekly, that God specializes in making the common holy.  One of our denominational strengths, I think, is our recognition of this particular effort by God to make the common holy in our midst.  I suppose the first sermon you all heard me speak of this was about the women in Austin who had been chastised by pastors and lay leaders for breastfeeding their infants in church.  I have spoken how God can use us in check-out lines at the store, on computer games, at work, and any number of other places.  More recently, you have heard me remind us to be inviting to those strangers who show up at our doors playing Pokemon and to consider learning to play it with your grandchildren or others in your family.  God often takes ordinary “secular” moments, times, or events and causes them to be holy.  So few of us spend time with that younger generation that we despair of the legacy, at least spiritually and emotionally, we might leave with them when we are gone.

     Now, to simplify things, we have a special language.  For those of you visiting today or for those who have never sat through a Newcomer’s class, and because the laughter sounded as much nervous to my ears as ironic, that last statement was made in a sarcasm voice or font.  We call this making the common holy sacramentalizing.  Now, all you good Episcopalians should be able to answer this question: what is a Sacrament?  That’s right.  A Sacrament is an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace.  We Christians agree there are two, right?  Baptism and the Eucharist.  It’s hard for any denomination to argue against those two because Jesus said we were to do both:  break this bread and drink this wine and baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  In typical Anglican vocabulary, we call those Dominical Sacraments, because our Lord Jesus commanded them, and then we give each other wide latitude in describing the other five sacraments or rites.  You know them as marriage, unction, confirmation, confession, and ordination.  Such was the fight a few hundred years ago that our Anglican founders included an entire Article, #25 I think, on how the Sacraments relate to and are to be used by the Church.  Because we associate God and the Church usually with good, we tend to think of the Sacraments as good.

     What is happening in Israel, though?  Are the people keeping the torah?  Are people loving God with all their heart, mind, body, and soul?  Are the people loving their neighbors as themselves?  Well at least the kings are getting it correct, right?  Oh, wait.  You know better.  We have read Samuel, Kings, and Amos since Easter.  Well, at least the priests are getting it correct, right?  I see the head shakes.  We talked about how the priest in Amos forgot the holy place, Jezreel, was God’s and not the king’s and actually rebelled against God’s identified prophet.  So what is going on here at the beginning of Hosea? 

     In truth, God is using an outward sign to display the inner heart and lack of grace of His people.  If it makes you feel better, we could call it a negative sacrament.  But God is using a visible sign to make known what is in the heart of His people.  Now His command to Hosea makes sense, doesn’t it.  Over and over, throughout the entirety of Scripture, God reminds us that we are unfaithful to Him.  The most common, though not the only, imagery used is one of a marriage.  In fact, the next chapter of Hosea will pick up just on that image.  God is the groom; the Church, you and me and everyone who claims Him as Lord, is the Bride.  I see the nods of assent.  Israel is so far gone from Her Husband that she accepts the rich stealing from the poor, the king leading Her away from God, rejects the prophets voice, and even thinks that God will be unfaithful to His covenant and cause the Land to disgorge them.  Given the imagery of marriage and unfaithfulness, God’s command makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

     Think of the discontinuity that must have, or at least should have, been incarnated in the minds of Israel.  Our most holy man is commanded to marry a prostitute, a whore.  Has God lost His mind?  What if I were unmarried, walked into the sanctuary this morning and told you that God had commanded me to marry a prostitute? A druggie?  An infamous criminal?  How disturbed would you be?  Brian, are you sure?  Brian, do you know who she is?  What she has done?  Maybe some of you would ask such questions out of some concern for me, but most would ask because of the scandal.  We are not alone.  How do the Pharisees respond to Jesus and His willingness to allow the woman to minister to Him?  If He were truly a prophet and knew who she was, He would never allow her to touch Him.  Right?  That got them a good lecture on forgiveness.  Wait, God is not done.

     This is not a marriage of convenience.  Gomer will not be the prophet’s wife in name only.  She bears Hosea a son.  You know what that means.  That’s right.  The prophet of God had sex with that former prostitute.  Given my experiences and conversations with those who like to use prostitutes, such an idea may not disgust or worry us as much as it should.  Despite the risk of STI’s, men routinely force the prostitutes to have unprotected sex with them.  A suggestion of safe sex can result in a cuffing or beating for the prostitute.  Yet here is Hosea, prophet of God, knowing His wife, getting her pregnant with a son.  You all did not know you would need a shower after church today, did you?

     Even that event negatively sacramentalizes the condition of the hearts of the people of Israel.  The son is named Jezreel.  We have spoken of Jezreel a bit this summer.  Who named the place?  That’s right.  Jacob named it when he had the vision of the ladder to heaven way back in Genesis.  It should have been a special place to Israel, right?  The God of Jacob granted him a vision in that very spot.  What has happened since?  Everyone remember the story of Naboth and Ahab and Jezebel?  How about the priest trying to drive out Amos?  Where was that?  Jezreel, the place of God.  Soon, Jezreel will be the site of the northern kingdom’s enslavement by the Assyrian empire.  The place of God will be overrun by the soldiers of Assyria, and ten of the twelve tribes will be carried off into Exile.  God instructing Amos to name his son, his firstborn son, Jezreel should provoke Israel much like it would provoke you if I had another child and told you that God said I should name him or her Orlando, or Baton Rouge, or Baltimore, or Dallas, or Nice, or some other such name.  Yuck, huh?

     God’s not done, not by a long shot.  What happens next?  That’s right, Gomer gets pregnant again and bears a daughter.  Who is the father?  Compare that description with the description of the first child.  Notice anything missing?  Could Hosea be the father?  Sure.  Is Hosea named the father, though, as he was of Jezreel?  No.  It’s ambiguous.  Or is it?  Hosea has been invited into relationship with a prophet of God, much like Israel has been invited into a relationship with God.  Whether Gomer chose to be a prostitute or was forced by circumstances, she should have thought of herself as “trading up” in this marriage commanded by God, right?  But so should have Israel.  Yet Israel constantly chases after the Ba’als and other false gods of the ANE, even though Yahweh had freed them and kept His promises to them.  The question of parentage should resonate with Israel.  Who was the father of Gomer’s second child?  Who do the people around us think is our God?  Subtle, right?

     Not so subtle is the naming.  God instructs Hosea to name the daughter Lo-ruhamah, which means “not compassionate” or “not merciful.”  God reminds Israel that He will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them.  Like with Amos, when He played on the words of passing them by and the Passover, God is telling Israel His mercy is at an end.  That’s a scary thought.  One of the worries of the time before the Exodus was, and one of the worries during the Exile will be, whether the Covenant of God was still in effect.  Has God forsaken us?  Has He quit on us?  Did we drive Him completely away?  Now, whenever the people think on the prophet, they will be reminded that he was commanded to marry a prostitute and named his children Jezreel and Lo-ruhamah, the latter of which might not even be his own child.  What is going on?

     God is still not done.  Again, Gomer conceives and bears a child that may or may not be Hosea’s.  Unlike Jezreel, who was born to him, this third child is just conceived.  This is another son.  Again God gives the name to His prophet.  Hosea names the child Lo-ammi, which means “not my people.”  We have no real way to really get at the heart of this particular name, at least I don’t.  Israel would worship God reminding themselves of their relationship with God.  He was their God.  They were His people.  It was axiomatic to their existence.  The Lord had sworn the covenant with Abraham.  The Lord had confirmed it through Isaac and Jacob.  The Lord had provided Joseph in Egypt to preserve His people.  The Lord had sent Moses to free His people from Pharaoh.  God had humiliated Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods.  God had punished Israel for her disobedience and lack of faith at the Jordan.  Eventually, God had given them the land, given them great victories, and tormented those who hated Israel.  By this time in Israel’s history, they think they cannot be harmed.  Were they to be conquered, that means God would be conquered in the heavens.  That could not happen, so they could live as they wanted.  We Christians would call that cheap grace.

     Imagine if we had to remove the whole “The Lord be with you.  And also with you.” from our worship.  How weird would it sound to our ears?  How would we ever get meetings started or large pot lucks?  Those words signify to us a prayer is about to begin, worship is about to begin.  What if we were prevented from such?  What if God said “no more!”?  How would we feel?

     Now, every time Israel speaks of the prophet and his family, they should be reminded of their spiritual harlotry and its consequences.  There goes Amos and Gomer with the kids.  Who’s acolyting in the Temple or synagogue today?  It’s either Not-My-people or Unmerciful, I forget which.  Ouch.  Talk about cringing.  Talk about serving as a negative reminder of the inward and spiritual condition of Israel.  Whew.  They should have been driven to sack cloth and ashes.  They should have seriously worked on repentance.  Unfortunately, most ignored the warning incarnated before them.  And the result in 722 BC or so was that they were conquered.  The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom were carried off into slavery and dispersed throughout the Empire.  God, indeed, no longer passed by their sins.  God, indeed, no longer showed them mercy and protected them as His people.  It is no wonder then that Israel will be convinced during the Exile that they have been abandoned by God.  People will wonder if God has abandoned them.

     Curiously, had they listened to the words of Hosea to begin with, they would have known He was still with them in the Exile.  Way down in the bottom of our reading, in verse 10, Hosea speaks the promise of God.  Despite the looming punishment, says God, the number of the people Israel, the people of God, will be like the sand of the sea.  There will be too many to be counted.  And where people (read Assyrians) will mock them and remind them that they are not God’s people, Gentiles will say of them that they are “Children of the Living God.”

     Where’s the Gospel in the passage?  If Jesus is right, and all the Old Testament is about Him, where is He in the passage?  Those of us sitting in church today falsely thinking that God in the OT was far more wrathful in the NT should spend some time studying the Passion.  Ask Jesus, the next time you are in prayer, whether He thinks the Father took sin seriously?  Whether He took sin seriously?  Whether you were a harlot when it came to following God and His instruction?  Whether you, and all of humanity beside you, needed Him to be merciful so that we could live into the hope and promise of being His people?  I see the squirming.  I know.  We want to pretend we are so much better than Israel.  We want to think that we really are His people.  We catch all His warnings, but especially His obvious ones.  We would never make the same mistakes as Israel did.

     Yet, look at us.  Are we not struggling with issues common to Jezreel?  We claim America is Christian or founded on Christian values, but what does the world see?  We rattled off some of the violence of the last month earlier.  I guess we are sort of Jezreel.  I had some really good, thoughtful, conversations about racism this week.  Heck, I’m not sure I can answer even most of the questions raised by people.  And, in a tip of the hat to a former Adventer, (oops.  Make that a grown up Adventer who lives elsewhere and now attends another church), Percy Ballard, maybe we are not giving voice to the sadness we should be expressing in the midst of such violence or racism or whatever evils.

     At least we are not in the middle of a division like the Northern and Southern kingdom, right?  Dang it!  I forgot.  The Republican convention was last week; the Democratic is this week.  At least the individual parties are unified, even if they are dividing us.  Why are you all laughing?  You’d think there are internal protests or squabbling the way you all snorted.

     Well, at least we are not under any threat by any foreign nation or power, like Israel was with Assyria.  Oh, wait, I forgot about ISIS and Al-Queda.  All of us would sleep well if Iran got the bomb.  I’m sure we are all comfortable with Russia’s recent military provocations.  I know we all sleep better knowing that China owns more and more of our ever-growing debt.  And who knows what in the world is going on in North Korea?

     At least our personal spheres are unbothered, right?  None of us worries about provision.  None of us are fighting cancer or other diseases that threaten our very lives.  At least it’s non-members in orbit of the parish who are dealing with the traumas of horrific events in their lives, like rapes, or muggings, or terrible accidents and not Adventers.  At least we all have great relationships with our families and friends and co-workers.  We don’t have those pesky problems caused by misunderstandings.  And, let’s face it, we can see and hear God with us in every event in our life.  We never wonder where He is.  We never have those crises of faith common to others.  When things go bad, which seldom happens, we know right where He is and how He will redeem our situation.

     Have I made my point?  Do we have more in common, both personally and corporately, with Israel in the 720’s-30’s BC than we would like to admit?  I think so.  Fortunately for us, we live on this side of the work and person of Jesus.  Fortunately for us, we live on this side of the Incarnation of God.  We know our need for repentance and our need for a Savior, and we know it was provided by our merciful, loving God in the person of Jesus Christ.  We know that Jesus has made it possible that verse ten can be proclaimed of us, in spite of us and our shortcomings.  To use the image of the next chapter of Hosea, God will court us despite our adultery, despite our wantonness, despite our “not deserving Him.”  That God would court us again, to use the next image of Hosea is not enough to capture the promise given word by the prophet in this reading.  Not only will we be courted, we will be given the chance to become heirs.

     Brothers and sisters, I know this has seemed a dark sermon.  If I discerned well and spoke well this week, we have each been forced to examine our own faithlessness, our own spiritual harlotry, and we have each had to face the fact that we are no more deserving of His love and His grace and His mercy that the audience that first heard Hosea’s words.  Had my sermon ended there and had God’s words in Hosea ended there, we would truly be without hope.  But now, now brothers and sisters, all of us who proclaim Jesus as Lord and seek to live as He commands us, are heirs.  With that adoption comes great benefit and great responsibility.  Like our Lord before us, you and I are called to die to self.  We are called to quit living for the things we once or the world currently values.  Wealth?  We cannot take it with us.  Power?  Again, it turns to dust with these bodies, if not sooner.  Sex?  As Meatloaf says, it is not built to last.  Drugs or alcohol?  They assuage the pain only for a time and the hangover, ugh!  Whatever it is that we value more than our Lord, we are called to give up.  He is to be our treasure!  He is to be that which we value above all else!  And it is He who will see to the fact that we will be His eternally!

     But we have a responsibility.  We who love the Lord with everything must also strive to love others into knowing and loving the Lord, too.  It matters not whether we like them, admire them, want to hang out with them, are repulsed by them, or want to run screaming from them.  We are called to love them all into a relationship with the Lord who calls us His children.  We are called to invite them to see Him in us and the possibility of Him in them.  Make no mistake, my friends.  This is incredibly hard.  But in a world full of Jezreel’s, Lo-ruhamah’s, and Lo-ammi, no testimony, no witness, no act of love could be more needed.  We live in a dark world, brothers and sisters.  Every day it seems we are driven a bit more into the darkness of the mid night.  And in that bleakness, in that darkness, He has called forth you, and you, and you, and me to show forth that candle that is lit in our hearts, that the world might be drawn to the brilliance and glory of the Groom who calls us all!  We who have lived through the Passion and darkness of the tomb are especially equipped for this job.  He has promised.  We are all now, after all, children of the living God!

Peace,

Brian†

Choosing the better part for ourselves and for the world . . .

     For those of us who try to preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper, or internet, in the other, this is a challenging week.  Scripture has a number of potential lessons.  Amos has the cool wordplay on summer fruit and the end, never mind the people of Israel’s absolute rejection of Leviticus’ and Deuteronomy’s instruction on how to deal with the poor and oppressed.  If only we could somehow apply that to a modern country . . . I am told by several women that Luke’s pericope on Mary and Martha has been used to bash women in certain denominational expressions of our faith, so that might be fun to mine.  And did you listen to the psalm as you read it this morning.  Rulers ignoring God’s instruction—where will ever find such short-sighted men and women in this day and age?

     Turning to the newspaper side of things, we are dealing with yet more violence.  Many of us still have not gotten over the events in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Dallas last week when we were confronted with the political unrest of Turkey and the terror attack in France, the latter of which has demonstrated that we need headline editors more than ever.  I’ve noticed that a Nice Bomber kills 80, After the Nice Attack: an Angry Public Wants to Know, and ISIS Claims Responsibility for Nice Attack and other headlines crossing my social media spaces.  I know the town is pronounced differently than the word in English, but it creates a strange juxtaposition a first.  Locally, we may have reached the end of the Vanderbilt rape case.  And, perhaps the most challenging for clergy this week, Pokemon is back.  That has really blown up my FB feed.  Do we, as churches, welcome this phenomenon and the people playing it?  Do we use it as a marketing ploy—Instead of “Gotta catch ‘em all,” “We hope you catch the One!”?  That sounds a little too Matrix to me.  Maybe there is a better slogan out there among you.  Do we condemn the game as some sort of demonic spiritual warfare?  Some of those Pokemon look strange, but I don’t think they rise to the level of demons.  There is a lot to synthesize this week.

     What makes it all the more difficult is my week.  Normally, I like to think I do a fair job of discerning what we as a congregation needs to hear, and I try to preach the text faithfully.  This week, though, I felt I was getting the sermons preached at me.  Sometimes I will preach a sermon and wonder where things came from, but this week has been an illustration of Luke and Amos for me.  I wonder if such will benefit all of us, or have I likely missed the mark?

     My week began with the aforementioned Pokemon on Monday.  We had finished Bible Study.  I was working on writing last week’s sermon and headed over to the kitchen for some coffee.  On a couple trips, I encountered young men, nerds really.  And before you go nuts that I am slamming youngsters unnecessarily, I’m only recognizing my own kind.  It will likely surprise only the visitors among us that I was once a nerd, to which my wife and kids will offer the sarcastic “Once?”.  You can tell who these young adults are.  Their skin is really which, like vampires who avoid the sun.  Many have sunglasses on because, well, they have been cooped up inside on computers for far too long.  Most are not in good shape.  But the tell tale sign is the simple observation that they are being led about by their phones.  They are searching for Pokemon in the world, or looking for particular spots.

     I learned this week that we are a gym.  Advent will become important as people collect more and more powerful Pokemon.  People will have their Pokemon fight for control of the gym here.  Right now, the red team controls the gym with some big fluffy purple thing.  No doubt the yellow and the blue team are looking to take this site away from the red team by battling with more powerful Pokemon, and other members of the red team are seeking to become the captain of the gym in the same way.  How did I learn all this?  I “caught” a couple young men following their phone around here.  I teased them by letting them know I knew what they were doing.  They tried to play it cool when they encountered me, but they were so busted.  And, as I said, I speak a language of nerd, so we ended up in lengthy conversations after we exchanged the daily passwords and secret handshakes.  You all are laughing, but it’s those mini-cultural markers that you and I are particularly gifted representatives when empowered by the Holy Spirit.  That’s not to say we had no difficulty communicating.  I used to speak Dungeon & Dragons.  Now I really only speak WoW and maybe Candy Crush.  They were really speaking Pokeman too quickly for me to follow it all.

     In the beginning, of course, I thought it a nuisance.  I had things to get done.  Many of you had asked me to get my sermon up quickly last week.  We were dealing with the two dead air conditioners.  I had a meeting with diocesan men.  I was behind on the red book.  Vicki, Ron, and Oliver were giving some thought as to how we might change our approach to outreach at Advent.  I had Bible studies for which I needed to prepare.  I even needed to prepare a sermon for this week.  Yet here I was, so busy doing the business of the church, I was annoyed at doing the work of the Church.  At least such never happens to any of you, right?  The priest may be screwed up, but you in the pews have no such worry.  You are all able to balance your work on various committees, the Vestry, the Altar Guild, and everything that goes on around here, your “real” jobs or “secular” life, and still do the work of the Church, right?  Hmmm.  I see squirming.  You mean I am not alone?

     My second reminder involved one of the homeless that we sometimes help.  I will call him John, just in case he ever takes me up on my invitation to join us for worship.  John probably suffers from mental illness.  He is one of those guys who would remind you of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.  What’s worse, a lot of the cloud that follows him is of his own decision making.  In my less pastoral moments I just want to shake him and say “make better choices!,” as if that would fix everything in his life and him.  John spends more time seeking help from the good folks at Good Shepherd than from you at Advent.  Of course, Randy is on vacation this month.  We talked specifically about John before Randy left.  I knew John would be here more.  I had a chance to consider my responses long before he showed up and started calling.  When he did precisely what we thought he would do, it still drove me nuts.  I found myself lacking the patience I should have had for John.  John has health concerns and material needs, and I do not mean to diminish those in your eyes, but I recognize he just longs for someone to listen, to care.  If I am not in the patient frame of mind to do that listening, to do that caring, as God’s ambassador, I am really not fit for kingdom life.  I may have good excuses for my impatience: on top of my normal workload I have these nerds wandering the grounds!  But in the end, such thoughts dishonor God.  How often in life am I just like John?  How often do I make bad decisions, sin, and deal with the dark cloud of consequences?  How often do I just want to know that God cares, that He still will redeem?

     Because I wear a collar, I know you expect me to be better than yourselves.  Sometimes I am.  But as you have all figured out over the last eighteen months, sometimes I am not.  What’s worse, your lack of a collar does not excuse you for your behavior.  I may be the “professional” church among us, but we are all the Church in the world.  You each have difficult family members, friends, co-workers, and others in your life who are just like John.  Heck, some of us at Advent are friends, true friends, and recognize in one another that we can act like John more often than we would like to admit.  And we get so caught up in our business that we forget our work and our calling as Jesus’ disciples.  We accept things the way they are because, well, fixing them is someone else’s responsibility.  We allow society to go about life in violation of Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 19, just as it did in the time of Amos, and we say nothing, do nothing, maybe even vote for the status quo . . .

     Brothers and sisters, our reading from Luke today is not an attack on women.  Our reading today is not a “mind your own business” teaching moment.  Our lesson, as all are in the Scriptures, a reminder of the freedom and responsibility of being heralds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  You and I cannot begin to grasp the importance of hospitality in the ANE.  Hospitality was an important virtue in the ANE, and in the Jewish life in particular.  Abraham’s interaction with the angels on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah had planted that in the Jewish DNA.  If you know any Jewish matriarchs, you can well imagine them in this scene.

     Jesus and His retinue of disciples show up at the house of Mary and Martha on His way to Jerusalem.  Martha is faced with the daunting task of feeding the group and making them comfortable.  If she lacked enough food on hand, she’s had to put together a shopping list and head out to the market.  She’s had to take note who is allergic to gluten or peanuts.  She has had to see who prefers water to wine, beer to soda, who wants what condiments.  Afterward, she has had to clear the table, refill drinks, put the food in containers, wash the dishes and put them away.  She is right to feel hassled.  There has been a ton of work and, because of the importance placed on hospitality by the culture, a great deal of pressure.

     You are all Southerners.  We understand this a bit.  I see it when I drop by houses for visits.  Northerners might think it sexist, but it is just how the South works.  When I visit a home, the wife is always anxiously making sure I am comfortable.  The husbands will have her fetch a drink, a sweet tea, or a water.  I will be asked repeatedly if I need a snack.  Imagine the pressure if I dropped by with Karen and the kids?  Imagine the pressure if I dropped by with my family, the Vestry, and a few other tag alongs?  That’s what Martha faced.  No wonder she wanted help.

     She complains to Jesus and asks Him to tell Mary to help her.  And Jesus refuses.  And in His refusal you and I are reminded that our work is far more important than our business.  Mary rightly recognizes that Jesus is the guest.  She has the opportunity to sit at His feet and listen and learn.  The dishes, the business as it were, will still be there tomorrow.

     Jesus’ answer is not a condemnation of Martha.  He does not rebuke her or cast her aside.  He simply reminds her and us of what her and our priorities should be.  We should be far more concerned with Jesus than the business of the church; we should be far more concerned with the work of the church than its business.

     Sitting here today, you may be arguing internally with me that your service on Vestry, your service on various committees, even your worship today is your spending time with Jesus and being about His work.  Is it really?  You may be even arguing with me internally that you cannot spend time with Jesus because He is not in your home as He was with Mary and Martha in this pericope.  Yet those of us who claim Him as Lord and who have been baptized into His death and His resurrection also claim that we have unfettered access to God now, right?  The veil has been torn by Christ’s work on the Cross.  More amazingly, He has promised that He will be with us always.  So how can we meet Him, as did Mary and Martha and others?

     As Episcopalians/Anglicans, we claim that we meet Jesus in Scripture.  In fact, we have it in our little red book that we should read Scripture every day so that we will meet Jesus every day.  We have a two year cycle where we read a big chunk of the Bible to remind ourselves of the saving works that God has done and how he has fulfilled all His promises in Christ. 

     We also believe that we can meet God in prayer.  I know the world is quick to use prayer as a “break only in case of fire or emergency” button, but you and I know better.  We have it in our little red book that we should enter into prayer multiple times a day.  It is so enshrined in our little book that we don’t even need “professionals” in the church to lead the prayers.  We can meet Jesus in the morning, at noon, in the evening, or before bed.  We can do that on good days, on bad days, on “meh” days.  And here’s the secret.  Those who came before us recognized that if we spend time meeting Jesus, we have a better chance of keeping our priorities straight.  If we spend time studying what God has revealed to us in Scripture and in the work and person of His Son, you and I will be consumed with His work rather than the business that, for all its good intentions, sometimes gets in the way.

     So, brothers and sisters, the question for all of us this week is rather obvious: are we choosing the better part in our lives?  Are we putting aside our distractions and focusing our attention upon the One who will not be taken away from us?  Are we meeting Jesus in the Scripture and in our prayers?  Or are we too busy really to make such time?  The questions, by the way, are not purely academic.  In fact, they may the best practical questions for this day.  Sitting among us may be the saint who will be given the wisdom that can help the world around us work through racism.  Sitting among us may be the saint who will be given the wisdom to help us navigate through an election process that seems to choose between narcissism on one hand and dishonesty on the other.  Sitting among us may be the saint who will be given the wisdom to help us figure out how to deal with the causes of terrorism, the economic injustices that we share with Amos’ Israel, or whatever other problems we face as individuals, a parish, a diocese, a nation, and the world.  We may not have the answers to the questions and problems in our lives, but we know the One who does.  And He invites each of us to spend time with Him, listening and learning, that we might be beacons of light in a dark world, pointing others to His love and His glory.

Peace,

Brian†

On God's plumb line and overcoming evil with good one ministry, one person at a time. . .

     O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of Your people who call upon You, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.  – I confess that all I can do sometimes is marvel at the redemptive purposes of God.  I know there was some anxiety around here during the Prayer Book revision now close to forty years ago.  But think on this for just a second.  When those making the changes were selecting Collects and readings in the early to mid 70’s, this was the Collect they wanted us to pray with these readings on this day.  Of course, there is no way that they could know what would be happening this week in July 2016, or at least none claimed to be making suggestions prophetically that I know of!  But they selected readings and a Collect that just happen to fall this week.  Pretty cool, huh?

     I am certain that many of my colleagues will be looking at the Good Samaritan as a response to violence to our neighbor, and that is all well and good.  We should be looking after our neighbors who are injured, hurt, suffering, or any other negative description you and I can think of.  But I want us at Advent this week to take a look at the bigger picture before we focus upon how our individual ministries are used by God to His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  If you are so inclined to follow along, turn in your Order of Worships to our reading from Amos.

     I must confess, by the way, that I have, as near as I can remember, only preached from Amos once and taught from Amos one time each.  Such is not surprising.  There is an alternative OT reading allowed for the Sunday in our RCL, so this reading only comes up every six years.  I cannot speak as to why we have an alternate reading, but I would imagine there was some pushback against the inclusion of Amos in our lectionary.  Amos was called to preach a harsh word to a people who did not want to hear that word from God at a time when people really considered themselves blessed.  No doubt you will want to do some pushing back as I preach on Amos today.

     We live in a country not that dissimilar from the northern kingdom.  For the wealthy elites, things seem to be going well.  Some on the evangelical side of things like to claim that America is the modern Israel, right?  You have heard the arguments, especially in the last week.  “In God we trust,” “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” and “God Bless America” have been well talked about on television and well-memed on Facebook this week.  And when we compare ourselves to much of the rest of the world, things really do look good.

     At Advent, things are even better.  The Holy Cow survey, the professionally assisted study of the congregation that gathers at Advent, that families filled out before calling me to Advent, pointed to a blessed life of privilege.  Our average income was 2 ½ times the national average.  Most of us feel we have great security in our jobs and our professions.  Most have wonderful homes, well-running cars, medical insurance, pensions and savings of some sort, and lots of other things we may take for granted but which our neighbors around this country and this world can only dream.  If we accept that suffering is punishment from God for our sins, the corollary must also be true, right?  Our blessings are proof that God loves what we are doing.  That was the mindset in the northern kingdom of Israel.  Things were great, which proved that God was happy with them.  The wealthy were making lots of money.  Their enemies were leaving them alone.  Peace and prosperity always equals God’s approval, do they not?

     And poor Amos got the wonderful calling to go and preach to Israel that God was so displeased with them that He was going to cause the Land to disgorge them.  Add to that the fact that he was a citizen of Judah, the southern kingdom, and you can begin to get an understanding of how intolerant the northern kingdom was to be to Amos.  It would be akin to a Yankee coming to Advent five or ten years before the Civil War and telling us we needed to change our ways before God judged us lacking.  How receptive do you think we would have been to that message?

     Of course, there are other clues to Israel’s rejection of God and His torah, clues that we tend not to notice.  For example, the kingdom is divided.  The northern kingdom is called Israel, and the southern kingdom is called Judah.  That in itself tells us much about God’s People.  In fulfilment of an earlier prophesy and in response to the peoples’ unfaithfulness, God has caused the kingdoms to divide.  Another example is the response of the king.  Those of you who do not miss church are probably tired of being reminded of the fact that the king is supposed to take instruction from the prophet and that most kings, instead, ignore or even try to kill God’s prophet.  Jeroboam is no different.  He trusts what is happening around him instead of trusting God and His prophet.

     Another sign of the rejection of God is the priest’s response to Amos.  Amaziah is the priest of Bethel.  That’s an important detail.  Why is Bethel famous in history?  Remember back in Genesis when Jacob laid down to rest one night and was given a vision of a ladder?  What did Jacob name the place?  That’s right, God’s place, Bethel.  To whom does Amaziah say the place belongs?  It is the king’s sanctuary.  How shocked would you be if you strolled into church one day and I told you this was the President’s church or the Governor’s church or some other nonsense?  Most of you would be offended, rightfully?  Bethel was really God’s place, and yet the priest there has forgotten that important truth, as well as the fact that the prophet speaks for God.  Things are a mess.

     Amos is, perhaps, most famous for this prophesy about the plumb line.  Those of you who build or wallpaper may have used one.  I think I have a laser one now.  But plumb lines are important, if simple, devices.  They help us establish vertical lines.  That’s an important function, if we want to build buildings that do not fall over.  With the big exception at Pisa, Italy, what happens when we build buildings and towers that are off center or “not plumb.”  They tend to lean and fall over, over time.  Kids playing with blocks learn that lesson at a young age.  Plumb lines were the solution to that problem.  It allowed master builders to make sure that the building was vertical, well-built, and able to stand the test of time.  Egypt used them to build their great buildings and towers.  Architects in the Middle Ages used them to erect the great cathedrals in Europe.  We marvel at the permanence of such cathedrals or the pyramids or obelisks, but they were built using simple equipment such as plumb lines, to help fight the natural pull of gravity.

     Another fascinating bit of trivia, at least to me, about this passage is the fact that the Hebrew word we translate as plumb line is used only once in Scripture.  If we did not have the tradition and scholarship of the rabbis and the Church who came before us, we would not know what God was setting in the midst of His people.  I joke with people that Hebrew is like combining Morse code and a foreign language.  Now, imagine that and only using words once!   Yet this plumb line that God is establishing is as unique as the word is grammatically in Scripture.  Ponder that for just a moment.

     Amos prophesies that God has a plumb line and is setting it in the midst of His people.  No longer, God says, will He pass by His people.  Clearly, we cannot read that and not hear the allusion to the Passover, when God passed over His people Israel in Egypt.  What is this plumb line that God is setting in His people?  I think we are meant to see this unique plumb in two ways.

     Part of the problem with human nature is the idea that, when things are going well, we seem to believe better about ourselves.  Although Scripture testifies adamantly against such an understanding, even Christians fall into that trap of believing that they are getting what they deserve.  Think of prosperity gospellers in our midst.  Think of those of us who are like Job’s friends.  We believe our condition reflects our relationship with God.  And, we like to think better of ourselves than we really are.  God came to redeem the murderers, the thieves, the hardcore cases, but some “Christians” think that they are not the sinners that others are.  In extreme cases such Christians might believe that their sins are not nearly as bad as the sins of others.  Jesus died for their sins; mine were not so bad.  We have seen this play out in our denominational split of the last decade, have we not?  We have seen it play out in our own church.  In my first year-and-a-half here, people have been quick to tell me the unforgiveable sins of others and, when challenged in conversations, instruct me that their own sins are/were just “garden variety.”  Think I am nuts?  Consider those in the congregation with whom you refuse to speak, to socialize, or to love?  What’s at the root of that?  Where is it ok in Scripture for us not to love one another as ourselves?

     I get that such ponderings are hard.  Amos’ message is as uncomfortable today for some as it was in the 750’s BC.  When things are going well for us, we want desperately to believe that God is pleased with us.  Yet God’s revelation is that His character is absolute.  God does not sit in heaven creating a hierarchy of sin.  All sin, from mass murder to white lies, is an anathema to Him.  He can no more be in the presence of and tolerate sin that you and I cannot blink or not breathe.  It’s an autonomic response, if we may speak anthropomorphically, of God to destroy sin.  Why do you think He hides His face from those who ask in the Old Testament, even His prophets?  Why do you think his people are terrified by His voice or even His reflection in the face of Moses?

     That plumb line that God sets among His people is His torah, His instruction of what life in full communion with Him is like.  We have this modern, fanciful idea in parts of the Church that God gave us the torah when He was angry and Jesus when He switched tactics.  The torah was given to a redeemed people seeking to live in full communion with a holy, righteous, just, loving, merciful and “every other adjective you want to toss in there” God!  The God who created the heavens and the earth and all that is seen and unseen always reminded His people that He loved the widow and the orphan.  Such was His nature that He who was all-powerful cared even for those most forgotten, most at risk, in society.  And how have His people responded to their Exodus, to their kingdom, and to His instruction?  They have played the harlot!  The rich have gotten rich on the backs of the poor.  They have abused the very people He loves, and they think their lack of calamity in their lives, both corporately and individually, testifies to their important standing before God.  He reminds them that His line is absolute, that they are sinners in His eyes, and that He will judge them just as He promised He would!  The land will disgorge them.  They will be carried off into their own slavery.  Many will die cut off, in unclean lands reflective of their unclean hearts.

     It’s warning to us, the new Israel, the Church, that is every bit as clear.  As we have celebrated July 4^th this week, no doubt you have heard the political “christians” claim that this nation is the new Israel, just as have I.  We are the new shining light in the dark world, in God we Trust, and all the evidences of us turning from our God-given responsibilities have filled the airways and our Facebook feeds.  And in the midst of that nonsense were three acts of violence that have risen to our collective consciousness.  I cannot remember if the shooting in Minneapolis or Baton Rogue was first.  And then the events in Dallas, apparently in response to the prior two and many others besides, played out in front of our eyes.  All this, of course, comes on the heels of shootings in Orlando and elsewhere.  Each time there is an act of violence, we cluck our tongues, gnash our teeth, maybe say a prayer, and then hope it does not happen again.  And we are surprised when it does.  If God’s plumb line in our midst has taught us anything, it should be that we are every bit in need of a Savior as was His people.  For all our technological advances, we are still a people with stiff necks and uncircumcised hearts!  We are quick to condemn and to judge, and we are often quick to do so with arrogance and “God agrees with my position” assertions.  We who claim the mantle of Christians do a poor job of living the life to which He has called us.

     How many of us cling to our weapons, as if that is where our trust is placed?  How many of us judge those seeking abortions as heathens, yet do little, if anything, to try and raise those unwanted babies as if our Lord above us loves them?  How many of us Christians cross the street to avoid a beggar?  Roll up our windows to avoid interacting with those on our corners?  How many of us cluck our tongues as we hear stories of the working poor wiped out by medical issues, offering the belated suggestion, “they should have had a better job with better benefits.”  I see the squirming.  I realize I am hitting close to home.  That wonderful modern Amos, Stephen Colbert, got it right some months ago.  “If this is going to be a Christian nation that does not help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was as selfish as we are, or we have to acknowledge and come to terms with the fact that, even though He commanded us to love the poor and needy without condition, we just do not want to do it.”  Or something like that.

     That, of course, points us in the direction of the other plumb line God has set in the midst of His people, you and me.  You and I live on this side of the Cross and Resurrection.  You and I know, without a doubt, that God has reconciled us to Himself through the death and Resurrection of His Son our Lord Christ.  Just as importantly, He has ascended to the Father to create the condition necessary for you and I to accomplish greater things in His Name.  While on earth, God’s revelatory power was focused on and through the Person of the Incarnation.  Now that Jesus is ascended, you and I and all who claim Him as Lord can be that same focus of His redemptive power.  But we have to commit to being that, just as our Collect reminded us.  For the new Israel, the Church, the work and person of Christ stands as that plumb line in Her midst.  He lived that life that we could not.  More amazingly, He showed us that face we could not bear to see in our sinful state.  How we act, what we say, what we do, all that we are is measured against that plumb line, brothers and sisters.  Each time we gather, we remind ourselves of our shortcomings and sins, ask for forgiveness and help against our unbelief, and then for power to accomplish those things He has given us to do.  Every time.

     So, how does Advent become a beacon in a dark world?  How does Advent become the plumb line to the world around us – a tangible reminder of the world’s need for a Savior and of the fact that the Savior came to save, not condemn, the world?  How does Advent attack the evils that plague our world?  One ministry, one person at a time.  We overcome evil with good, knowing that such is the example set and commanded by our Lord.  We may not have all the answers to combat a particular evil, but we know THE answer and we have some ideas and commands.  The truth is, some of us are already engaged in this battle.

     I have tried to get us to talk frankly of our experiences, both good and bad, as we go about our daily lives and work.  I admit it’s tough slogging sometimes, but then things worthwhile are never evil.  And we attend a parish which has some interesting diversity, not just in the color of our skin but in our experiences, talents, and calls.  Take Billy.  He may be the best educated among us.  He has an MD and an DDS (we can talk about his common sense for doing both at another time!  Lol)!  He trains the next generation of doctors and dentists.  If you have not heard his story, I commend it to you.  He was the first tenured black man at the University of Mississippi’s medical school.  He is a leader not just in our parish, but in our community.  Ask him if there is a difference between how he is treated by the police compared to say Hunter or Dick.  Ask him if there is a difference in the way he is treated by police south of Old Hickory or north.  What is the difference?  Those lessons he has learned, and those we learn from, could make Nashville’s police force more like Dallas’, where civil rights complaints have dropped 64% the last few years, you know, the ones before the shooting started.

     Of course, to do that, we need to be a sanctuary for officers.  How many of us are quick to judge the actions of our officers?  I admit that the videos I have seen this week are not good.  Are there bad cops among our police forces?  Of course.  They are human beings like ourselves.  But, we test them psychologically, we train them religiously—no pun intended—on situations and how to act.  We demand that they run to violence even as we are running away.  And then we condemn them all when one snaps or one turn out bad.  The police chief reminded us of that truth on Friday when he told us that most days we do not show them our love, our respect, and our thankfulness and that he hoped Friday, the day after the shootings, would not be like most days.  In our quick rush to judgment, how many of us are trying to carve out sanctuary space for those who protect us?  How many of us are extending a hand of thanks and gratitude, a prayer of protection, for those who serve us even as they risk their lives?  Talk to a cop, and you may not want to hear how they feel about protecting you and your rights.

     Other people are doing other work.  Take Jim.  Jim should have been a student of Hebrew and Greek.  He sometimes speaks in earthy language.  You know what gets him the most riled up?  The systemic injustices in the world around us.  Many of you may not know, but Jim has been mentoring kids through the Tennessee Promise paperwork and bureaucracy the last couple years.  That’s the government program that helps low income students get a couple years of college for free.  Ask Jim sometimes about the hoops set up in that program.  Why, it’s almost as if our politicians wanted to pretend that they cared about poverty and education, but they really did not want to do anything (hear, spend money) to change it!  Jim is well educated, a successful businessman, and pretty sharp.  And he is reduced at times to cussing out this program.  He sees the injustice, howls at the moon and sometimes at me, and then works to help the young men he is mentoring get the paperwork filed and the help offered and needed.

     How many of you in the healthcare have given time and talent, pro bono, to help the poor in our midst?  You are part of the effort of fighting incredible evil.  People in this country are withheld medical care because they lack resources.  We refuse to pay living wages, another sign of a “Christian” nation, and then we wonder when they cannot afford medicine.  Some help at St. Luke’s in a variety of ministries, others of you participate in other ministries which are just as important.  Heck, some of you may be so busy that you really do lack the time necessary to help, but your financial contributions make it possible for those with time to use your monetary resources to minister to those in our midst in His Name.

     What is the antidote to racism in this country?  The work you and I have been given to do by our Lord Christ.  His plumb line reminds us that He hates it, just as He hates all sin.  But His plumb line reminds us that it is through loving sacrifice, the care of our neighbor, that we do on earth what is done in heaven.  Institutional evils and sins which cling to our hearts may seem too great to confront, but we, God’s people, know better.  We can accomplish incredible great things in His name, one ministry and one person at a time.  If I asked you before this sermon about the antidote to racism, your answers would have varied, and rightfully so.  Some would have said education, some may have answered sharing the wealth, some may have answered reminding people that they are loved, and the spiritually mature may even have mentioned Christ.  The truth is that evil such as racism or slavery or whatever is complex.  In our finite selves, we may not even be able to see how our work, our ministry in His Name, has any success against evil.  But we know that it is happening.  All we need are more and more people engaging in His redemptive work, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and the effects of whatever evil will be reduced.  To be sure, it will not go away completely until His return and re-creation, but you and I can point the way.  We can show and tell others how God’s plumb line made us aware of our need for a Savior, how He has provided that Savior, and how He has made us ambassadors and heralds of the truth that God wins in the end.  His goodness and His love conquers evil, even as it embraces all who call Him Lord.

     Brothers and sisters, I recognize that this was a hard word today.  Likely some of you were as annoyed with my words as Jeroboam and Amaziah were with Amos.  Before casting my words in your brain’s trash can and hitting the delete button, though, think back on our Lord’s plumb line.  Are you living the life to which He has called you?  Are you living the life which draws others into His saving embrace?  Are you living the life that shows hope in the face of hopelessness?  Mercy rather than condemnation?  If not, why not?  The words we say each Sunday are not empty and ritualistic.  They are reminders of the calling that He has on each one of our lives and the lives of those around us.  They are tough words, sometimes to hear, and even tougher to keep in action.  But that is why He gave us the plumb line.  To remind us that He has redeemed and empowered us to do His will, even in the face of our own death or humiliation, confident that He will be victorious over all evil, even those we have enshrined in our culture, our systems, and, yes, even our hearts.  Let us pray:  O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of Your people who call upon You, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen. 

Peace,

Brian†

For the Naaman in all of us . . .

     For those of you who are visiting, or maybe those who have forgotten, we have been speaking a lot the last month of what it means to claim that Jesus is King.  It is, perhaps, a bit ironic subject on the day before we as a nation celebrate our own independence from a king.  But we are talking about THE King and His absolute claim on the entirety of our lives.  If you turn in your Order of Worship to the Old Testament reading, you will get the simplest reminder of why The King is so different from a king.  And sometimes, I think, it is helpful to remind ourselves of the foundational blocks of our faith.  More importantly, I think, as ambassadors of our King, I think it is helpful for us to remind ourselves of the message, the Gospel, with which we have been entrusted and commanded to share in our life witness.

     Although we have moved ahead in the story of 1 and 2 Kings, not much has changed.  Well, they have.  The people of Israel have continued their downward spiral of unfaithfulness to God.  Things are crazy in our passage.  First, we are introduced to a man named Naaman, pleasant of face, who has been lifted up by the Lord and granted a victory over the people of Israel.  Those of us who have studied the covenant notice right away that something is amiss.  God promised Israel that if they were faithful, He would give them victory over all their foes.  Now, a general of Aram has defeated them.  Do you hear the theological commentary?  Israel has been unfaithful to God, and God has rewarded them with defeat.

     Things are a bit worse than defeats, though.  The prophet Elisha, he the inheritor of a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, is living where?  That’s right, Samaria.  Where is God’s prophet supposed to be?  Most of us can put two and two together and realize that the kings have not been listening well to the prophets.  Those of us in church last month heard of the wonderful relationship that existed between Ahab and Elijah, right?  Ahab and Jezebel wanted to kill the man who spoke for God.  Things have gone even further astray in that the prophet no longer lives in the land of God’s people.  Talk about a messed up situation.  I wish there was some way I could get us to understand how screwed up this really is.  We would have to live in a country where we felt things were more godly in the past.  We would have to live in a country where the old rulers or politicians were deemed to be ruling for the common good, rather than lining their own pockets.  We would have to live in a country where our leaders were to be admired for their wisdom, their trustworthiness, their honesty, and their humility.  Why are you all laughing so hard?  I know, I know.  The author of Ecclesiastes is correct.  As bad as things seem, there really is nothing new under the sun.

     So, here we are.  Israel is not listening to God.  The king of Israel is not listening to God.  And God is granting victory to the enemies of Israel.

     Those enemies, of course, have a problem.  Well, the leader of the enemies has a problem.  He who has a pleasant face and has been lifted up by God has leprosy.  I know leprosy is called Hansen’s Disease now.  It is entirely possible that the general of Aram had Hansen’s Disease, but it is also possible that the general had flaky skin characterized by psoriasis, allergies, or any other disease of which you medical experts can conceive.  It mattered not to most cultures in the ANE which disease one had.  They were all called leprosy.  Leprosy was a huge problem.  In Israel, a diagnosis of leprosy meant one was effectively ex-communicated.  To come in contact with a leper was to come in contact with uncleanliness.  One had to spend money and time being purified for worship, if one came into contact with the unclean.  That is part of the reason why lepers tended to be forced to live in isolated communities with other lepers.

     So here is Naaman, a commander in Aram’s armies, pleasant of face but a leper.  He has what you and I would call a pastoral problem.  He has won a great victory for his king and his people against his enemies, but there is a limit to the embrace of his people because he has a terrible disease.  We can easily imagine the discussion around the house.  Maybe Mrs. Naaman expected a raise, a new house, invitation to the great events in Aram.  They would likely not be happening because who wants to socialize with a leper?

     At some point, the slave girl captured in one of the raids hear’s their complaint.  She tells the wife and general “If only you knew Elisha, the prophet of God.  He could cure you.”  Think of the preposterousness of her claim in that culture.  Remember the adages “As above, so below; as below, so above.”  In the ANE cosmology, what has happened to Yahweh?  That’s right, the God of Aram has kicked his butt.  What goes on in the heavens is reflected on earth, and what happens on earth is reflected in the heavens.  Since Israel has lost to Aram, the gods of Aram have conquered the God of Israel.  Now this slave girl proposes this defeated God can cure Naaman?

     Of course, when one is desperate, one will try anything.  Many of you are doctors and nurses and researchers in the medical fields.  No doubt you know all kinds of charlatan cures for which your patients fell, likely at great financial cost to themselves and, perhaps, even a hastening of their deaths.  What does Naaman have to lose but a journey and time?  What does he and his wife have to gain, if he is cured?

      Like a good soldier, Naaman heads to his king to get permission to go to Samaria.  The king of Aram is glad to help!  After all, Naaman just gave him a resounding victory over Israel.  So the king of Aram offers to write a letter of introduction to the king of Israel and sends Naaman on his way.  Naaman, of course, has been busy gathering his bribe.  He expects to pay for the cure.  He brings a veritable fortune with his caravan to offset the cost of his healing.

     Upon presenting himself at Israel’s court, Naaman throws the king of Israel and his retainers into fits.  We can understand why, right?  Israel just lost a war to Aram.  Now the king of Aram wants his general cured of leprosy.  The threat is clear.  If the king of Israel cannot get God to cure the general, it is an affront to the king of Aram.  Another war is likely.  Let’s face it, another defeat is likely.  So the king of Israel tears his clothes and laments his position, confessing that he is not God and that only God has such power.

     Amazingly enough, Elisha hears of the king of Israel’s problem in Samaria.  There’s no phone, no e-mail, no texting.  Still, Elisha hears.  He tells the king of Israel not to worry, that he will handle the problem for the king.  Just send Naaman to Samaria.  The king of Israel does as he is instructed by the prophet (for a change) and sends the military parade on its way to Samaria.

     Upon his arrival at the hut of the prophet Elisha, Naaman offers to present himself.  No doubt he expects the man of God to be impressed with him.  After all, he is good looking and a commander of armies of an enemy that just defeated Israel.  Likely, Naaman expected the prophet to grovel a bit.  Elisha, in what can best be described as nonchalant manner, does not even bother to come see the general.  He tells the servant to tell Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan to be cleansed of his leprosy.

     Naaman is enraged, we are told.  “What kind of nonsense is this?  Don’t we have better rivers in Aram?  Does the prophet not know who I am, how far I have travelled, or what I have brought to pay him?”  And he storms off with his retinue.  Curiously, just as a slave girl beneath the notice of society caused this journey to begin, another servant beneath the notice of society will spur it to its completion.  The servant asks Naaman what he was willing to do to be cured.  We know Naaman was willing to make a long journey, to make a huge payment.  Likely, if the prophet had said “build a big temple to God”, Naaman would have done that.  Likely, if the prophet would have said build a bridge over the Jordan or climb a steep mountain, the general would have done what was asked.  So the servant asks Naaman “why not try washing in the dirty Jordan?”  Naaman goes down to the river, washes seven times, and, according to the word of God spoken through Elisha, has his flesh restored, as the flesh of a young boy.”

      It is a great story, a miraculous story, and certainly there are many lessons in the text that we could mine for modern application.  As I said in the beginning, though, I felt compelled to speak of our own foundational responsibilities as disciples of our Lord Jesus.  The story of Naaman is similar to our own, and it is a story that is every bit as miraculous!

     You and I, before we bent the knee, bowed the head, and accepted Christ as King in our lives were once His enemies.  You and I were determined to do things our way.  We were captains of our own ships, masters of our own domains, and we were, to use the language of Paul, at enmity with God.  As a result you and I suffered the terrible consequences of our sins.  Perhaps we were liars and thieves and people could not trust us.  Perhaps we were selfish or narcissistic and people did not want to be around us.  Perhaps we were disfigured by the sins of others.  Maybe we were abused by those to whom we were entrusted.  Maybe we are exhausted by the system, the institutions, in which we find ourselves living.  Likely as not, we were victims both of our own sins and the sins of others.  In many ways, no matter the outward strength we project, no matter the handsome or beautiful life we like to claim on the outside, each of us recognized our need, our impotence to care and save ourselves, let alone others, our own unlovableness that we know results from our “secret” sins.  We may have looked great on the outside, but if people knew what was in here, our hearts, they would never want to spend time with us, let alone truly love us.

     Then we heard the Gospel.  We heard that crazy claim that God had become man, died for our sins, and offered us forgiveness of those sins, as well as promised us redemption from the consequences of those sins!  I say crazy because how similar is our cure to that of Naaman?  All we do is wash ourselves in the blood of Christ, and we are cleansed and healed.  He did the heavy work of suffering, of being humiliated, and of dying.  For His incredible work, you and I are declared righteous simply by asking Him to forgive us and to come into our hearts.  How nuts is that?  About as crazy as being told to wash in the Jordan seven times to be cured of one’s leprosy.  We bring nothing to our salvation but a willingness to accept Christ’s offer.  He, God, provides the rest.  And then, when things seemed the most ridiculous, He entrusted that message of hope, of love, of redemption, and of salvation to you and to me.  And then He commanded us to share it with others.  And, as if things could not get any more wild, He reminded us that He does not care about our station, our jobs, our preparation, our background, our wealth, or even our sins which used to separate us from Him.  He has promised to use us, wherever we find ourselves planted, to play a role in the redemption of the world, the conversion of His enemies, and the enlargement of His kingdom.  Whether we are slaves or CEO’s, of Gentile birth, of amazing intellect or more suited to vocational labor, wealthy or poor, sick or health, weak or strong, clergy or laity, He will use our faith, our trust, and our story to reach the next man or woman or boy or girl!

Peace,

Brian†