This is the third of a series of three messages focused on the Old Testament prophet Elijah and his successor, the prophet Elisha. In the first message, we heard about Elijah’s call to serve God and the many battles in which he engaged to that end. We focused especially on the near total exhaustion he experienced in his ministry as God’s prophet. I noted a parallel between Elijah and the anti-war demonstrator, Cindy Sheehan, who has recently grown weary of her role and the criticism of her role from within the peace movement. I utilized some stirring words from a man preaching in South Africa before apartheid was ended. He said, “God understand that there may come a time in the lives of people when we get tired. God understands that the struggle is long, drawn-out, painful, tear-filled, and we may get tired.” He would then remind the congregation “And so we may be tired today, but we will go on, for we have work to do. As long as apartheid exists, we have work to do.” This minister was, in my estimation, a modern prophet, and so is Cindy Sheehan.
Last week we spoke of Elijah facing his own mortality. We learned that he was instructed to select Elisha as his successor. We watched as Elisha began gathering his personal power, refusing to leave Elijah’s side even when told to do so. We listened as Elisha requested a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, and we watched him at the shores of the Jordan as he put on the full mantle of God and proceeded to work miracles.
This week we will encounter Elisha once again. This time we will look at him in his role as a healer. But there is much more to this story that we must consider. First of all, let us remember that Jesus refers to this story in his very own ministry centuries after Elisha. He will refer to the healing of Naaman, a Gentile, in one of his early sermons, and it will not be well received by those in the synagogue.
Before we venture into today’s story, let us set the stage with some considerations about Gentiles, or non-Jews, in our scriptures. Naaman was a Gentile, the commander of an army often hostile to Israel. However, by law, Israelites were forbidden to oppose “resident aliens” as they remembered their days as aliens in the land of Egypt. One scholar goes so far as to mention that Jesus has Gentiles in his genealogy, including Rahab, a prostitute, and Ruth. The point the scholars wish to make is that God has made provisions for Gentiles from the beginning of time.
Moving into today’s scripture passage, we find that Naaman has leprosy. By rights, he should have been set outside the city and prescribed certain unusual rites such as putting bird blood on himself for seven days. Parallels have often been drawn in the modern era that leprosy was to the ancients as AIDS is to modern people. It is an event of ill health, social stigma and social isolation.
How fortunate for Naaman that among his household is a Jewish woman, captured in battle, who knows of Elisha’s healing powers. Naaman goes to his king who then writes a letter to the King of Israel. A huge purse is sent with Naaman perhaps to purchase good will on the part of the foreign king. Scholars estimate that the amount of riches sent would exceed 1.5 million dollars by today’s standards. The stakes were high. Naaman must have felt affirmed that his king would value Naaman and his health so highly. The king of Israel, however, was now in a dilemma.
Scripture tells us that this king tore his clothes, a sign of consternation and despair. This king was obviously uneasy. Did he, a mere mortal, have powers over life and death? Should he accept this payment? It was meant to honor him, but what if he could not fulfill the expectation that came with it?
Elisha comes by and reassured the king. Remember that Elisha is aware of his powers and is comfortable using them. He requests that Naaman come by his place, which Naaman does in full flourish of horses and chariots. Elisha sends out a simple prescription for health with a servant. But Naaman becomes angry! He apparently wanted someone to wave a magic wand. He wasn’t expecting to have to participate in his healing. After all, what was all that money for?
But Naaman does wash in the Jordan seven times, and his flesh is restored. It turns out that the king does not accept the gratuity, but Naaman comes away converted to the God of Israel as experienced through Elisha’s healing powers.
Today’s message is all about healing. In the New Testament story, the seventy are given powers of healing and of casting out spirits in the name of God. And certainly Elisha’s healing powers have been made known to us. How do these stories apply now, to the present age, and what meanings might they have for us in the modern era?
The first aspect of our readings that I would like to magnify is Naaman’s anger at being asked to participate in his own healing. He wants a magic wand. In today’s culture of healing, at least in the United States, we generally want a silver bullet from our doctors. We want a pill that we can take, maybe once a day, to make our troubles go away. So what if I weigh 300 pounds and have high cholesterol and a demanding 80-hour-a-week job? Just give me a pill so I won’t have chest pain. And don’t even think about asking me to give up my food, or my lack of care for my body, or my big paycheck position. Just give me the pill, and I’ll add it to my other pills and be out of here. I have to hurry back to the office, you know.
We are modern Naamans, demanding cure for money with no intention of participating in our own health. I once attended a healing ceremony with the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota. We were told prior to the opening sweat lodge that the malady we sought to heal might involve a change in lifestyle. We might have to give up behaviors such as sugar consumption and lack of exercise for diabetes. I would come to learn that not only behaviors, but thinking styles would have to be examined in the quest for health.
The program of spiritual healing known as Alcoholics Anonymous calls the work we do to help God heal us of our addictions “Footwork.” That is, in fact, the title of today’s message. Yes, one is to turn one’s life and will over to the care of God, but there are certain other actions that one is to take in order to heal an addiction. One is to attend meetings, read literature on healing, get a sponsor, find the courage to begin looking at one’s defects and asking for them to be healed. These are some of the aspects of footwork, and they are a lot harder than bathing in the Jordan seven times. But just as surely as Naaman had to set aside his doubt and do as told, so addicts must follow suit.
How amazing it has been for me to discover how closely our mental anguish is tied to our thinking patterns. Programs of spiritual recovery, of spiritual healing, tell us that we must develop a new way of thinking. We must learn that we can act upon life, not just react to life. Perhaps an example I encountered in the past several months will illuminate this concept.
In late April, I came to discover that the applications for the Lilly Endowment for Clergy Renewal were due on May 15. You can probably imagine my surprise and dismay! It had never occurred to me that monies desired for the end of 2008 would be required to be requested by May of 2007. But I am new at this grant proposal game, so I got over my shock and went to work.
Around this time, Elsa, our choir director, was encouraging me to play my flute with the choir in May. I looked at the piece. Five flats! I didn’t even know what the fifth flat was! I felt like the king of Israel must have in today’s story. I felt threatened by an expectation I didn’t know if I could fulfill. I felt much anguish about this situation, the flames of the fire being fanned by knowledge that I would be needing to give many, many hours to the grant application before the choir sang.
I prayed that I might receive discernment in this matter, and the answer came in the form of a message from a daily meditation book on May 7. A Danish proverb was quoted: “Better deny at once than promise long.” The text went on the say that those of us who struggle with the ability to say “no” to others can be very problematic for others because we keep them dangling and coming back to find out whether we mean “yes,” “no,” or another “we’ll see.” I saw myself in this story.
The writer went on to say, “Fear is at the root of my inability to refuse. Someone may get angry or be displeased or write me off. But I cannot be responsible for the way people react to the choices I make… all I can do today is try to carry out God’s will for me as I see it. If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected and make my amends. I believe that, too, is God’s will.” This prayer was found at the end: “God grant me the courage to be honest; to say No if that is what I mean.” And so I did decline to play and I quit leaving the music folks dangling.
All of this represents footwork. When, with God’s help, we realize that we have a character defect such as indecisiveness, we do what it takes to overcome that defect for our own sake and the sake of others. We are invited to participate in our physical healing, and we are invited to participate in our spiritual healing. And it all begins with faith that God wants us healed and whole and making manifest God’s love whenever and wherever we can.
You have heard how an individual can be healed of a defect or “demon” as the ancients called them. Now let us sing a hymn to the healing of the nations.
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