C, Post-Pentecost 9, Proper 14 - Luke 12:32-46 "Forgetting the Faith"

Fear and anxiety are markers of faithlessness.  Faithlessness comes about when we forget God and his promises, seeking to work our own way through the wilderness.  Like someone whose car has broken down in the desert, they try to walk to safety, get lost, and die having been overcome by a hopeless situation.

Do you daily remember God as you travel through the wilderness of this existence?  Our modern society blindly blunders into the unknown having put aside the transcendence of God and all the gifts he promises.  Humanity forgets the gifts of God, because it has firstly, turned its back on God, and forgotten him. 

We Christians are no different.  If someone measured how much you remember God the Father in heaven, in every moment of your day, you may or may not be surprised just how much time you spend forgetting God to be absorbed in mesmerising and memorising yourself!

Imagine if after Jesus was crucified, raised, and ascended into heaven, that was the end of the matter.  Two thousand years after the fact, would you or I remember Jesus Christ? 

I put it to you that most of us struggle to remember what happened a week ago.  Can you remember all the names of your ancestors beyond your grandparents?  So why don’t we forget the holy figure of Jesus Christ, hidden from humanity’s sight two thousand years ago?

We receive faith so we do not forget.  The faith we receive is the faithful witness and work of the Holy Spirit.  God the Holy Spirit was sent, to help us be holy, after God the Son ascended into the hidden realm to the right hand of God the Father.  The Spirit was sent and still comes so we remember our humanity has been hampered and he helps us recall and receive the holiness of God’s heavenly kingdom.

While Jesus was resolutely working his way to the cross for us, he reminds us to, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:32–34 ESV)

We, the little flock of God, are gathered by the Holy Spirit into church, to where we are called as God carries us in his kingdom towards eternity.  Jesus is our prize purse that does not fail, that not even the thief of all thieves , the devil, can steal.  Nor can moth destroy Jesus’ many gifts!  Jesus promises it’s your Heavenly Father’s pleasure to give you, his kingdom.  Indeed, even so it’s Jesus’ pleasure too.  As we hear, he is “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)

 So then why do we fall into fear and anxiety?  Why do we forget this promise of God?  What happens to faith when we forget God?  What happens when I forget the faith given to me? 

Jesus tells us to be ready for his return saying, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.” (Luke 12:35–37a ESV)

Peter asks, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” (Luke 12:41 ESV) We might ask the same thing too, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?”

Jesus follows on with a parable teaching every hearer what happens when we forget God and are not ready for the return of our transcendent master.  He says, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.”  (Luke 12:42–46 ESV)

When we forget God, we forget he is master of all things.  Just like the servant in the parable, we forget the true master of our domain and pinch his place.  The servant who forgets God, tries to become God, powerfully abusing God’s other faithful servants.  A foolish servant forgets it’s God’s pleasure to give the kingdom and replace the gift of God with earthy debauched pleasures, like eating and drinking.

It’s here faith has moved from God to the self!  Jesus Christ, the founder, and perfecter, of our faith gets forgotten!  Although we might call on God for an hour a week in worship, maybe a bit more, we burden God with our actions that work against him, making our own kingdoms come.

But making oneself master is fraught with fear and anxiety.  One is constantly looking over the shoulder, in suspicion.  When one forgets God, they suspect every other servant is seeking the same, causing competitive fear and dread! 

Also, deep down there’s knowledge that the true master is returning and will put his household right and remove those who are unrepentantly wrong.  The servant who turns God’s house of holiness into a house of happiness for one’s own ego, rules with fear and anxiety making God’s house a house of horrors for every other servant.  As the old adage goes, “When the cat’s away—or forgotten—the mice will play!”

What makes it even messier is when all forget God is the transcendent master.  The results of this are easily seen everywhere today inside and outside the church.  The mice are at play, playing up in plague proportions.  If you’ve ever experienced the chaos of a mouse plague on a grain farm, you know how devastating it is when the plague is out of control in fear of famine.  The plague can destroy everything!  Humanity is much the same when faith in God is forgotten in favour of fear and human failure at being the master of their own dominion.

The Holy Spirit never strays away to play.  He calls, gathers, enlightens and makes us holy with the written word of God in Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh.  As we travel through the wilderness of this world, the Holy Spirit mobilises the church to move in Christ.  Just as Moses and the Israelites moved in the wilderness only when the holy pillars of cloud and fire moved, we move and stop in faith given by the Holy Spirit, keeping us in the holy protective confines and convocations of Christ, so we are constantly remembering and returning to the means of grace. 

Allowing the Holy Spirit to work his work of making us holy, removes fear and anxiety for the future. He keeps us in the faith, so we stay dressed ready for action and keep our lamps burning. 

These actions are like the Israelites who ate the Passover, ready to roll into the wilderness at a moment’s notice, towards the land of milk and honey.  We remain ready for action,  ready to repent, forgive, and live—trusting in God as we are moved by the will of God.

The Holy Spirit also keeps the lamp burning, with the good oil of God’s word.  Without his word the Holy Spirit has nothing with which to keep us in Christ.  The church without the word—each of us without the word—forgets God, gets lost, and flounders in hopelessness. 

But abiding under the word of God, keeps us burning as the body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit keeps us moving through the wilderness of this world.  The Holy Spirit throughout history has done the same with many others, who in faith, did not forget God.  With them the Spirit gives us understanding to stand under him who is unseen, remembering the promise of God with determined Christ-like hope despite the hopelessness of all other things.  Amen.   

C, Post-Pentecost 8, Proper 13 - Luke 12:13-21 & Colossians 3:1-11 "Good, Guilt, & God"

Luke 12:13–21 (ESV) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good for one’s existence.  Guilt though however, is an essential part of our created being through which we can learn about ourselves and our relationships with others.

Think about how you feel when guilt comes over you.  How do you react?  What do you do?  What do you think?  What do you try to hide?  Perhaps you’re defending a treasured idea or object! Reflecting on our guilt, despite the discomfort, helps us to identify what is broken within ourselves.  And once recognising what our guilt uncovers, it’s a powerful tool to rebuild what’s busted.

Jesus tells parables, to teach the truths of God the Father to those who have ears to hear.  He does this by exposing our emotions in the stories or parables he teaches.  In them he uncovers the emotional truths hidden within the hearer.  The parables can be painful because he gets to the core of our being where our human hidden reality bubbles and boils like lava deep within the earth.

Jesus tells parables to expose fault in our humanity.  So, in exploring the guilt and its cause, faults can be found, and our humanity can have the holy healing it needs. 

However, no one can fix their own guilt.  Trying only makes the fault line worse, because the internal tectonic plates of our emotions grind against each other only increasing guilt all the more.  Yes, one may be able to fool others with a calm external persona.  But in reality, we only fool ourselves, as the pressure builds before the emotions erupt and one emits the sulphuric state of their true being.

Instead, Jesus tells the parables, we hear his Word, so the Holy Spirit can expose guilt and guide us from it to the goodness of God.  As we’re reminded by the Psalmist in Psalm 107, to “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!  For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:1,9 ESV)

On the other hand, what we think is good, seems good, until good gives way to guilt.  In the parable of the rich fool, Jesus touches your heart to reveal guilt, so the Holy Spirit can teach you about your guilt, and the products of fear and anxiety that come from it.

That’s why just prior to this parable Jesus teaches and warns us about hindering the Holy Spirit saying, “…everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:10–12 ESV)

In fact, it’s here Jesus gives us the answer in the Holy Spirit, even before any questions can be thought of, or asked.  Any question only comes from our guilt being provoked by hearing this parable of the rich fool. 

This is the question: What is the good treasure that makes me rich in and towards God?  The Answer: It’s allowing the Holy Spirit to make me holy, through the workings of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ. Alternatively, one could ask: What are the treasures I lay up for myself that diminish richness towards God? The answer: Anything that leads me to put God in second place, cheapen the pricelessness of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and hinders the Holy Spirit from delivering us to Jesus’ forgiveness.

Therefore, Jesus begins the parable by warning the hearer to, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15 ESV)

The rich man covets his goods, and he believes this to be good.  His land is full of life given by God, and it produces plentifully.  But he doesn’t treasure the coming of God’s kingdom nor God for giving him good things.  Instead, idolatry takes a hold of him as he builds his kingdom of pleasures by tearing down and building bigger barns to house his grain and goods. 

The idol of pleasure is his treasure.  This seductive shortsighted “good” is ingrained in him.  Eating, drinking and being merry, appears to be a good thing for many years to come.  But the idol he has built and worked so hard to protect as a result of the productive land will be left to someone else.   He built his barn but didn’t fear or trust that God had built him.  Therefore, his kingdom of coveting collapsed when God demanded back the very life God had given him.

What goods are ingrained in your pursuit of pleasure?  What blasphemous barn are you building to cover your coveting?

The call to not covet is the last of the commandments, but coveting begins down deep in the seat of the emotions and boils up through a person, leading us to fail in some, or all, of the other commandments. 

When one covets, one desires what one thinks is good.  Coveting makes one feel good!  When we get what we covet, chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin are released in the brain giving a hit of immediate pleasure that quickly fades.  No one ever covets something that will make them feel bad.  Feeling bad comes after the apple is eaten; after our knowledge of good proves not to be good in the way we’ve imagined and idolised.  After this comes guilt and its various reactions.

Jesus doesn’t tell us about the reactions of the rich fool after God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20 ESV) The reaction is never heard from the rich fool, but instead the heart of the hearer is provoked by Jesus’ parable because of the goods coveted and treasured instead of God.

In Colossians 3 Paul calls all who are raised with Christ and wish to appear with him in glory to, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 ESV) And to, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  (Colossians 3:5 ESV) This earthliness is that which is ground into your being.  It’s the dirt of Adam ingrained and deeply rooted in you.  This is the dirt of sin deep within one's mortality from where idols are cast from molten emotions deep within the earthliness of one’s humanity.

The human goodness ingrained in us does not like having its guilt revealed.  But those in Christ, we whose earthliness is revealed by the dirt of our deeds, know although it’s painful having our guilt revealed now, it’s a blessing from God.  It gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move us in the goodness of God who has sent the Holy Spirit, to give you faith.  Firstly, belief you are human. That is, earthly vessels or sinners who will perish.  But also, it’s belief that the death and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ, saves from eternal death.

God the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father and God the Son to bring us to the Father through the Son.  The Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus with life-giving faith.  Faith is a good gift from God through the Holy Spirit.  When the guilt of our ingrained greed is shown within, the Spirit wills you to run in repentance to Jesus Christ knowing that these trials test, “the genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 1:7 ESV)

Through repentance, the Holy Spirit puts to death guilt within, and covers forgiven sinners with the blood of Jesus.  We allow the Spirit to put to death what is earthly within because, “On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:6 ESV)

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good, but learning from one’s guilt, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reveals the eternal goodness of God in his Son, Jesus Christ.

When you allow the Spirit to teach you to treasure this, you are reassured, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4 ESV)  Because, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV)   Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 5, Proper 10 - Amos 7:7-17 "Dread"

Amos 7:7–17 (ESV) This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, “ ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’ ” And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the Lord: “ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ”

Picture yourself in Amos’s sandals.  You’re a sheep farmer and an orchardist and God calls you from your land into a different land.  Then God places before you visions and asks, “What do you see?”  You report what you see, then God calls you to proclaim his Word to others without fear or favour!

What you’re called to say, has occurred through the disobedience of the people, the priests, and the king to whom you’ve been sent.  God calls you to tell them, “God has dropped a dividing line between himself and you.  No longer will God be found in your places of worship, and your holy sanctuaries will lay in waste!”

In Amos’s time, God dropped his plumb line, saying, “Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.” (Amos 7:11 ESV)

It was God’s “line in the sand” set to cause dread amongst those who heard its proclamation.  Like Amos, having seen God’s vision and then told to tell others what God says, would you obediently report what you’re called to say?  It is a dreadful message to tell!  Who would you dread more; God or those to whom God calls you to proclaim the prophecy?

But it doesn’t end there.  This farmer come prophet from Judah is confronted by the priest of Bethel, Amaziah, who’s reported your prophecy to the king of Israel, and then tells him to get out of Bethel, go home, and prophecy there.  Imagine if God commissioned you to tell the priest, “Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land. ” (Amos 7:17 ESV)

Would you dread telling this to the priest, or more so would you dread God, if you didn’t do what you were told to teach?

Like fear, dread has a positive and negative sense.  Today it’s mainly used negatively.  Dread and fear in a positive sense can lead a person in awe of someone to do great things. Like Amos, the prophets, our Lord Jesus Christ, his apostles and martyrs!  Or negatively, dread and fear can be quite awful, inciting panic and terror in those who refuse being rescued, by the likes of the prophets or the apostles, therefore remaining condemned guilty before God.

Two avenues of dread stand before Amos. Dread in reporting God’s Word to God’s people and how they would react to him.  Or not reporting God’s Word to his people and dreading how God would react with him, if he didn’t report what he was called to see and say!

This was the third vision God showed Amos, after stern prophecies were spoken against God’s people and king in Israel.  But it wasn’t to be the last vision or prophecy. 

The first two visions were firstly, locusts devouring at the end of the growing season.  And then secondly, judgement by fire which was to consume everything in the land.  But both times Amos interceded, and God relented.

Twice Amos says “O Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” (Amos 7:2,5 ESV) And twice, “The Lord relented concerning this: saying, ‘It shall not be’, and ‘this also shall not be.’” (Amos 7:3,6 ESV)

God’s people tested God, and Amos was sent by God to reveal God’s action against his people acting disobediently, the priests of God acting defiantly, and God’s king acting contrarily against God as a rebellious authority.

The plumb line prophecy was the third vision Amos saw, but it was the first of three in which God did not relent.  The first two were set to cause a godly dread and fear to turn God’s people in repentance back to him.  Now the third, fourth, and fifth prophecies were announced through Amos to reveal God’s opposition and cause them dread as they remembered what they defiantly didn’t do.

God showed Amos the fourth vision, and then God says, “‘Amos, what do you see?’ And Amos said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,’ declares the Lord God. ‘So many dead bodies!’ ‘They are thrown everywhere!’ ‘Silence!’” (Amos 8:2–3 ESV)

God promises to no longer forgive his people, he will not pass by or over them in judgement. No longer heeding his Word, God would withdraw from the orchard and no longer grace them with his presence.  God’s own people will be separated from him, left to themselves as dead rotten fruit.  There is unanswerable silence, in God’s deadly absence. 

God reveals continuing dread in what they’ve sought for themselves, saying, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.’” (Amos 8:11 ESV)

To this the Psalmist adds, “I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.’ Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!” (Psalm 82:6–8 ESV)

God inherits the nations through death.  In fear and dread people return in repentance to God, through the daily death of self and its pride, or they await dreadful expectations in a death without the Word of the Lord to save them.

This is played out in the fifth vision of Amos where he sees God standing beside the altar saying, “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape.  All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’” (Amos 9:1,10 ESV)

God did not put the plumb line amongst his enemy.  No!  These were his own chosen people, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Amos was called by God, to leave his farm in Judah, to followed God north into Israel, to see the visions of God, and to tell them to the people of God.  Did he dread doing this?  To this Amos testifies, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7–8 ESV)

God had sent a shepherd, to shepherd Israel, to warn them by sending famine in one place and not another.  Yet, over and over again, God’s people did not dread God’s judgement, causing him to declare, over and over again, “yet you did not return to me.” (Amos 4:6,8,9,10,11 ESV) “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (Amos 4:12 ESV)

God prophecies through Amos, pointing forward to Jesus Christ as the resurrection of David’s rule that’s fallen, saying, “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them… I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.”  (Amos 9:11,14a,15 ESV)

In our church and society today, many believe, “disaster will not overtake or meet us.”  The use of fear and dread are looked down upon as “not loving our neighbour”.  Yet God is still showing his faithful plumb line, a line in the sand in his Son Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit continues to open God’s Word to us; in the hope we receive Christ from our neighbours and share Christ with our neighbours.

When the silence of death comes, God will inherit the earth.  When we silence God’s Word of warning and believe “disaster will not overtake or meet us”, we should expect to dread, a death in the domain of darkness and the silencing of our sin.  Yet when we turn and trust in God, who will judge all things, then fear and dread leads us to the cross, to cover our sins with Jesus atoning blood for forgiveness, eternal light and life.  

Killing the prophets, re-crucifying Christ, not allowing the Holy Spirit to make us righteous in God’s Word, is still a current warning to all humanity, including you, regardless of how unpopular it is.  The writer of Hebrews reminds God’s people in Christ of his plumb line, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:26, 29 ESV)

The saints of God are still being physically and spiritually martyred for their faithfulness.  Where we are shown to be the killers of God, God’s Word and his people, may the dread of this, lead you and me to repentance from the domain of darkness.   So, having been transferred into the kingdom of God’s eternal light, we live in the assurance of God’s forgiveness of our sins. Amen.

Let us pray! Thanks be to God, who still sends out disciples and saints to share God’s Word with their neighbours.  Thank you for pastors who put aside the dread of proclaiming the truth of your Word, so we, your disciples, can be taught and encouraged to proclaim your message of life without fear or favour, without dread or distraction.  Thank you that the death of Jesus Christ saves from the greater dread and fear of eternal death. Amen. 

C, Post-Pentecost 4, Proper 9 - 2 Kings 5:1-14 "The Problem of Being Parochial"

So [Naaman] went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.  (2 Kings 5: 14 ESV)

There’s not a better feeling being clean after one has endured in the stench of a filthy body for some time.  Even better is the peace and tranquillity of health after the churning and trauma of illness.  Picture Naaman standing clean in health after he had suffered at the hand of skin disease.  No more sores, no more oozing, no more itching and stinging, the smell of failing flesh is gone, and so too is the social stigma of being a carrier of leprosy.

But there’s a stigma that’s even worse than the physical ailment seen by all; it’s one not seen by the naked eye of humanity.  Yet it’s more debilitating, and every one of us are long sufferers and loathers of this stigma we bear in the being of our flesh every day.  This is the oozing, rancid, reality of sin.  Like Naaman all of us have a deep-down desperate desire to be rid of the sickly stench of our sinfulness.

However, it’s surprising Naaman even had the opportunity to be cleansed, let alone the cleansing once he was given the advice which would free him from the foulness of his flesh.  We hear…

…Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.  And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”  But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.  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?” So he turned and went away in a rage.  (2 Kings 5:9-12)

Now it’s easy for us to understand Naaman’s anger.  Why?  Because each of us bear the same pride as that of Naaman.  This pride manifests itself in his parochial attitude; the same parochial short sightedness as all of us bear.

A little test will demonstrate our bias.  Are you a cat person or a dog person?  What about Ford or Holden?   After all we all know Fords are “Found On Rubbish Dumps”, and Holdens are Holes, Oil Leaks, Dents & Engine Noise.  Perhaps you’re a lover of the green John Deere over the mighty Red of the Case or blue of the New Holland.  How about your political alliance; that always causes the hackles to flair!  And when it comes to the footy, surely we all stand as one!  Dare I even mention the other code and how they hold and kick a football! 

The point of this little, perhaps humorous, exercise demonstrates how our pride leads us away from listening, into opinions which are more or less built on emotive judgments.  It’s more than coincidence when a “one eyed supporter” evokes a war of words, always with another who’s just as opinionated it seems!  Pride always rubs pride up the wrong way!

Naaman expected big things from Elisha.  And Elisha surely delivered, but not as the military man had expected.  No pomp and ceremony, not even a face-to-face meeting, and washing in the waters of the Jordan, that’s just laughable; ludicrous!  Like Naaman, being parochial causes us problems.

But how did Naaman come to the point where he was commanded to wash in the Jordan seven times?  These are a string of events that break the parochial single mindedness of the most powerful people, and they all start with the capture of a little child.  In the scheme of earthly things, this young girl is a nobody; she amounts to nothing in the big picture of Syro-Israeli relations.  We can be quite confident there wasn’t talk of her capture in the halls of power at Damascus or Samaria.

Yet this is from whom the whole even unfolds!  A captured child of Israel speaks to her mistress, the wife of Naaman, about what Elisha, the prophet in Israel would do.  This little child speaks and cuts through layers of protocol and parochial etiquette.  She could be mistaken as obnoxious for speaking out of turn; after all she is a slave.  But against pride and protocol the wife listens to her, then Naaman listens to his wife, and then the king in Damascus listens to his leprous military leader, and sends word to his enemy, the king of Israel.

And it gets a hostile parochial reception from the Israelite king.  As it would from any of us!  After all this is the enemy king, requesting for his unclean military commander, one who has been very successful in leading battle against Israel, to be healed of an incurable disease.  What would the Israelite king have thought, when confronted with a leprous, Gentile, warlord, breaking all the boundaries of parochial protocol?  Surely, he’s picking a fight with this request!

“Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” (2 Kings 5: 7)  Is the king’s conclusion!  The irony in his words names God yet exposes his lack of trust in God but rather trust in his own parochial godliness.

How often do we listen to the parochial god within rather than trust the eternal Father in heaven whose desire it is to free us from the longsuffering stigma of sin which kills and causes our narrow-mindedness?  How quick do we depart from the word of God and trusting in our own limited understanding lose sight of the cross?  And when the going gets tough, how habitually do we fall into the mindset that the tough must get going rather than allowing the Holy Spirit access into our being so we can pray and ponder God’s word, therefore glorifying all that has been done for us?

Like Naaman we get angry; like the king we tear at ourselves fearing the worst and unlike the little Israelite slave girl we hang onto our parochial ways to the detriment of grace, mercy and peace.

 After he is encouraged to listen to the command, I imagine Naaman went down into the Jordan, just to prove a point.  “I’ll show them all how ridiculous is bathing in the Jordan!”  Defiantly he doesn’t even wash, but just dips in the river seven times and is healed.  Now Naaman, the mighty military man from Syria is released from his scourge and like the little slave girl through whom God began the whole process now too carries the same innocent clean smoothness of her flesh and faith.

Surely the events recounting Naaman’s healing are a reminder to us Gentiles to return to Word of God.  To repent and daily trust in the actions of God in his Word, and what he has done for you having been baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Having had the old parochial sinful self, buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Col 2:12)

Let the Holy Spirit continue leading you from the stigma of all your sin, into the promised peace and holiness of your heavenly home, together with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son, your Lord and Saviour.  Amen.