by
Pastor Gregory S. Kaurin
Texts: 2nd
Kings 5:1-15a & Mark 1:40-45
Sermon:
A Willing and Able Hand
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Naaman, the powerful General Naaman, with horses and
chariots finally halted at the door of Elisha’s house, with gifts and servants,
he waited for Elisha, and whatever powerful magic he might bring. Because the mighty Naaman needed a cure. He had a skin disease, and it was getting
worse. But Elisha didn’t even come to
the door.
Instead, Elisha’s messenger showed up to squeak, “Just go
bathe in the
What? No magic
words? No incantations, or potions, or
powerful wizards? No huge stadium packed
with people, no high-strung, toupee-wearing preacher, slapping people on the
forehead, yelling “be healed”?
No, just go bathe in that little river over there seven
times. Naaman just about packed it up
and left. Except once again his servants
set him straight: “You would’ve done
anything, so just try this.”
So Naaman bathed, and was healed. Naaman learned that day that healing didn’t
come from the man; Elisha didn’t even show up.
He learned that his healing didn’t come from a formula or incantations
or potions; it wasn’t the river or the seven dips. It was God.
All because he listened to a slave girl back home, and to his
servants. He listened and was healed by
a simple, quiet bath, seven rinses and discovered the power of God.
The Bible described all kinds of different skin diseases and
infections, and tended to lump them under one word, leprosy. Even a fungus on your wall was considered a
leprosy of the house.
Leprosy, medically defined leprosy, I’m told has become curable, just within the last
century. But really, another kind, the older,
Biblical leprosy, it’s all still here.
We bring it here: cancers, family fights, old grudges, old wounds,
addictions, victims of abuse, abusers, we’re all here. And on a wider scope, here we are, on the
brink of a possible dangerous war.
I think if we were honest, we’d all admit that we’d like a
touch of magic in our lives and in the world.
We would love to have some powerful magic to fix things our way. If only someone could say the right words, make
the right gestures or speeches and set everything straight and heal us, make us
whole. But then, wholeness, real health
is something else entirely.
Both of these lepers in today’s lesson were not just
cured. Their diseases went away that’s
true. For both of them their cures were
a way, a sign, of a much more important wholeness. They went for healing of their leprosy, but
came away with a health that was eternally beyond the health of their
skin. The Bible says that Naaman’s skin
became as smooth and soft as the proverbial baby’s bottom. Newborn, but that was the external sign of
his whole-body realization. “Now I
know,” he said, “there is no God except
I was talking about this text in the office last week and
Lynne mentioned her cousin who struggled with faith and God. Then, he was dying, and he slowly came to
grips with God and decided to be baptized.
And in that baptism, such a peace settled over him, that Lynne says
that, even though he died from his disease two weeks later, he was healed, he
was whole. And now that he’s embraced by
his Father in heaven, ask yourself if he isn’t more healthy and whole than all
the rest of us here.
Jesus showed, in a bodily way, the whole healing of faith
...and he showed that God cares. God
does not will the brokenness of disease, death or violence. One of my friends in seminary said in a
sermon—and I remember his exact words, because I've used them many times since
then—he said that: "From the beginning it was clear that God is not
neutral with respect to life and death; God is unequivocally on the side of
life, against death."
Jesus put a human face to that. Genesis says we were made in God's image. But
look, when Jesus' friend, Lazarus died, the Bible said Jesus wept at his
tomb. Jesus, God, wept!
When he knew he would soon be nailed to the cross, the Bible
says Jesus asked that this cup of death be passed, if at all possible. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die ...but he was
willing. And on the cross God knew
loneliness, when Jesus cried out, "My God, why have you abandoned
me?!" And finally, after his
resurrection, Jesus invited his disciple, Thomas, to touch the nail prints in
his hands, the wound at his side ...all still there!
Genesis says we were made in the image of God. But because of Jesus, God has accepted a
human image: God bears scars. Humanity,
suffering, grief is forever imprinted on the image of God. God has always cried out for justice,
healing, and mercy, but now he has cried out with human lungs. He bears scars. Human scars--deeper than the flesh.
So then, we can know that God is truly on our side. He feels with us, stands beside us, defends
us ...and heals us, because he knows, he understands. He's been there.
In the Old Testament I have found some of the most powerful
words that I carry with me all the time.
Even when he was in the middle of suffering and loneliness, Job cried
out, "O that my words were written down! ...inscribed in a book! ...that with iron pen and lead they were
engraved into a rock forever! For I know
that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and
after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I
shall see on my side! This my eyes shall
behold and no other!"
The greatest healing of all comes from that faith, knowing
that, no matter what strikes us, or is taken from us, all that we hold dearest,
all that is most important, all of these are in the hand of God, the best
hand. That is where you and I are: in
God’s hand. God reaching and holding us,
that is faith, that is the touch of salvation.
Just a touch. That’s
all that’s needed. A quiet touch, a
prayer. ...Then healing ...and
wholeness. Amen.
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