Pentecost 20(C) – 2 Kings 5:1-15, Luke 17:11-19
God did this. That much was clear. Some of the other details about the way he’d gotten to this point were a little more confusing. See, Naaman was the commander of the armies of the Kingdom of Aram, a great and powerful nation in the ancient middle east. Aram had swept its way across the middle east with its army and scooped up all of the little countries around it, including that little tiny place on the western seaboard called Israel. By that, they had shown that they were more powerful than Israel. That their king was better than Israel’s king. That their army was better than Israel’s army. That their god, they thought, was better than Israel’s God. And this great and powerful man, Naaman, this commander of armies, who had an illness, a white rash on his arm that wouldn’t go away, Naaman found a suggestion in the strangest of people: A little, tiny girl from Israel, a servant, said, “There’s a prophet in Israel who might be able to help you.” So the great and powerful Naaman went to his king, and took a letter, and said to the king of Israel, “Heal me.” And the king of Israel proved as unhelpful as anyone else. But there was a prophet in Israel, and so he went to Elisha. Who wouldn’t even come out of his tent when this great commander came to visit. I guess no one taught him good manners. And he said, “Go and wash in that river.” As if the water in Israel were better than all the other water in the world. But Naaman went, and did it anyway, on the advice of another servant, and– and he was made clean. And Naaman was right, there was nothing special about that water. God did this.
God did this. The lepers came out because they heard that Jesus was coming to town, and his reputation had gotten around. He was well-known as somebody who could heal those people that were un-heal-able. These people who were outcasts who had been thrown out of society, who had to keep their distance and call out to warn people. They couldn’t even come near people let alone talk to them and get to know them and shake their hand. And they went, and Jesus gave them an answer that must have been terribly disappointing. “Go, and show yourselves to the priests.” It was the priests’ job to look at a skin rash and tell whether it was one of those things that would just go away with time, or if it was contagious, dangerous, unclean. They already knew what the priests were going to say; they had heard it before. But they went, and did it anyway, and they were made clean. And it was clear, if not to all of them, then at least to that one who turned around and went back, that this wasn’t just some happenstance healing. God did this.
You know, sometimes I get tired of reading all of these healing stories and miracle stories in the Bible. They’re good stories, don’t get me wrong, and I love them, but sometimes they feel so far removed from my life, from our lives. There’s illness and death and violence and pain in our world, our families, our lives. And it would be awfully nice if just once–just once!–God would give us that kind of healing miracle. Sometimes we can’t help but ask, “Where is God in all of this?” And it’s only our faith that allows us to say that God IS still here. But that’s the key, isn’t it? It’s our faith.
Our faith isn’t just some belief in God, that God exists, that doctrine is right, that the Bible is inspired, that Jesus is the truth and the life and the way. Although these are good things, our faith does more than that for us. It allows us to look at the world and see it transformed. Our faith allows us to look around and see the miracles that ARE happening every day, every where, in every life. Our faith is an incredible gift that changes what the world is when we see that world.
You know, I’ve only been here for a week, and I’ve already seen incredible miracles happen here. When six churches gather together on a Sunday night and our youth get together and play and plan together in our gymnasium, and there were so many kids I could barely count them, that was a miracle. God did this. When an incredible outpouring of love is shown to a newcomer to this community, like the hospitality you’ve shown to me this past week, that is a miracle. God did this. When families gather together on a Friday night and go down to center-city Worcester and make meals for children that might go hungry otherwise, that is a miracle. God did this. When we gather around the font, and we pour water–nothing special about that water, no better than any other in the world–over a child’s head, and we trust that this faith will begin in her, that is a miracle. God did this!
That’s what our faith allows us to do! To see God at work, doing all these things! And it’s a faith that, if we really get it, if we really are able to see these incredible things that God is doing, it requires our hands and our feet. Naaman, when he was healed, didn’t just go on his way. He turned around and went back. In the part of the Bible that comes right after today’s reading, he tries to give gifts to Elisha. And when he won’t accept them, Naaman gathers two wheelbarrows full of dirt to take home with him, dirt from the land of Israel where this God had chosen to make his people, so that he could worship this God to the end of his days, a God better than any god there ever could be. When the leper was clean, he turned around and went back and threw himself at Jesus’ feet and praised God and thanked him. And his faith didn’t just make him healed, but truly whole and well and saved through and through, a changed person.
And when God does things in our lives, we can’t just wait and see what will happen. We have to be a part of it. We have to turn around and run back to Jesus, and we have to make these things happen again and again. Not because God wants us to. Not because it’s required of us. But because we just can’t help it. Because every bone in our bodies aches to do it. When we see the world transformed, we Christians want to be a part of it. Don’t you? Isn’t that what Christ’s resurrection is all about? Don’t you want to be a part of that story? I’ll wager you do. And have been. And will be again. And so I ask you this morning: What has God done for you? And how will you go and make it happen again? And again? And again?