Dearest e-votees-
We are drawing near the close of Epiphany. Ash Wednesday, February 22 this year, marks the beginning of Lent.
This text of Naaman being cleansed of leprosy shows up only twice in our 3-year lectionary cycle. It shows up on Proper 9 in year C (Sundays between July 3 and July 9 inclusive) as an alternate 1st reading and it shows up on Epiphany 6 in Year B (our current year in the lectionary). That means if your church stays with the lectionary and doesn’t use the alternates you will encounter this story once every 3 years. If your church doesn’t read all the appointed readings you could miss this text for years and years and years. That is truly unfortunate. This is a beautiful and powerful text so we will linger with it for our devotion this week.
I hope and pray that God has been revealed to you and through you in many ways during this season of Epiphany. May your baptism and the cleansing that happened there be ever apparent to you. You are a washed and redeemed and beloved and blessed child of God.
Peace,
Karl
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1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. 2 Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. 3 She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." 4 So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel." He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me." 8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel." 9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." 11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, "Wash, and be clean'?" 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
3 Powerful Threads of this text:
Thread 1. Baptismal connection:
Namaan is afflicted and considered unclean. This is the type of disease that could cause one to be cut off from the broader community. The king of Israel is disturbed to the point of death (tearing clothes was a sign of mourning) when he is approached about Naaman’s leprosy. The king rightly states that only God can truly grant life or death. Elisha, God’s prophet, sends word for Naaman to wash in the Jordan and he will be made clean. There is an invitation made for Naaman to bathe in the Jordan (where Jesus was later baptized). The act is so humbling and so simple and can only be understood through faith and trusting in the one who gives the invitation. Yet in this humble and simple act God takes us from death into life. Namaan almost missed the blessing as he flustered in a rage. How many ways do we rage and fluster about the simple yet deep and profound ways that God comes to us: water, bread, wine & word? Yet, as we enter into those places and are immersed in them we are made clean. Luther calls us to daily return to our baptisms. And so we, like Naaman, can shun our pride and our rage and our entitlement and remember with humility and peace and gratitude all that God has done for us through the life, death and rising from the dead of our Lord Jesus. That is what we are connected to in baptism. We are restored into community with each other and with God.
Thread 2. Promise was spoken from an unexpected place:
Naaman and the king of Aram were expecting healing to come from a position of power. The king of Israel was approached. How did they know to go looking in Israel? A servant girl, a foreigner captured as the spoils of war, was the one who pointed the way towards healing. She told Naaman to consult a prophet. Had Naaman listened more carefully he would have gone right to Elisha. Elisha inserted himself. Naaman now expected this powerful man of God to come and dote on him. Elisha instead sent a messenger and told him to “Go jump in a river!”. The places of healing and promise were the lips of a servant girl and the waters of the humble river Jordan. How many of us struggle with the form and the presentation more than the gift of the promise? Do we worry about who comes to see us more than what the one who does come says? Do we seek the attention of the power-brokers thinking we have merited their doting on us? Do we look for form and hype and show at the expense of the life-giving forms of water, bread, wine and word? God speaks to us often through unexpected places. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Thread 3. Promise came in the form of grace:
Naaman was a successful commander of the Aramean army. He certainly knew about authority and command structures. He knew about engaging a task and earning a deliverance, a victory and a prize. Naaman brings his skill set to the problem of his leprosy. He brings a letter and some extravagant gifts. He exerts the authority and influence available to him. He pursues the king and then the prophet. He is looking for some sort of task to accomplish in order that he might merit cleansing. He is trying to earn his restoration. But the king says no and the prophet says no and his servants say no and the waters of the Jordan say no. Cleansing in Naaman’s case comes as a gracious act that can only be received. Cleansing in Naaman’s case foreshadows cleansing in our case—baptism (and salvation). We are made clean by grace. We are saved by grace. God graces us with the means of grace—water, bread, wine and word. We may wish to earn them or augment them through our own efforts. We will not succeed. If we want to receive the promise we need to receive on God’s terms—by grace.
God draw us deeper into our baptisms. Open our lives to hear your good news from unexpected places. Drown our desires to earn and control salvation in the gracious waters of baptism. Amen.
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