Transcript
Have you ever had a moment when you were faced with more questions than you had answers? When there seemed to be more things that that caused you to wonder and ponder, and peaked your curiosity than possible solutions? Sometimes, these unknowns spark more questions, like a young child that asks over and over again – why? Why? But why? As adults it can push our buttons and we may want to label children like that as irritating or precocious, but really that is how children learn and I think giving them a real answer is often more beneficial even if it’s to ask another question in return. In fact sometimes it’s okay and even best to wonder together.
A few weeks ago this type of questioning happened to me. It was well past lunchtime – Liam had come to work with me that day and we were hungry. We jumped in the car and headed down Monument Avenue – headed for Willow Lawn. I shouldn’t have been surprised when a deeply theological conversation full of questions sprang up on the way to Chick Fil A because after all – we were going to get God’s Chicken…but out of the blue, he asked… “Mom, do you think Adam and Eve had Belly Buttons? You know, since belly buttons come from those cords and they were ‘formed’ by G Bible talks about the serpant in the garden. od, did they have belly buttons?” Well, I said, I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about it. I guess that depends on your view of creation. Was the creation of the world a literal 6 day event or a telling of how that could have also included science and evolution. He thought for a moment. “What about the Devil – The Do you think that God created evil and sin?” Well, I guess that depends on what you believe about evil and sin. Sin literally means missing the mark like on a bullseye – and all of us do that. We talked for a moment more and then he said… “Well, Do you think that God knew we would sin
and if so, why would he let something bad happen to us?” Well, I suppose that depends on your view of Free Will and if you think God acts as a puppet master that controls everything we do or if he allows us to have free will to make choices and have consequences.
Finally he made his proclamation – I think God loves us enough to create us and it’s up to us if we choose good or evil, but he wants us to choose good and he tries to get us to choose that. As the server handed our lunch through the window, I realized this trip to grab a quick lunch with my son was truly My Pleasure. We never got an answer to the belly button question but we talked about what we believe and how we relate to a God that can create, sustain, and redeem. A silly question led to an unexpected moment where the Spirit of God was alive and present. It was not planned or predicted or forced, but sometimes the most unexpected things happen in the most unexpected ways.
I think that’s how the spirit moves – swooshing in and through when things are not structured or planned or scripted – but none the less powerful and impactful. We simply have to have eyes to see it. The same can be said for our scripture this morning. We have spent several weeks looking at lesser known passages and trying to find the spirit of God at work. In today’s OT passage – I looked hard and questioned many times why Jim Somerville chose this passage for the series on the spirit –because not once does it mention the word SPIRIT…but just like in our conversation on the way to chick fil a – I found 2 places that I think the Spirit was moving. If you will, allow me to summarize the passage and share these with you.
Hear the story again from 2 Kings 5 in what we’ll call “Allison’s Paraphrase.” It’s is not a scholarly word for word by any means, but I think it will get the point across.
A long time ago, there was this hot shot commander named Namaan who served in the King’s Army and he thought he was tough stuff. He fought all the big battles and won. Everyone looked up to him – he was wealthy, and powerful, and had gobs of servants…but he also had this problem that started creeping up…leprosy. A servant girl mentioned that someone in the next kingdom over could cure him so he talked to his king and packed lots of clothing, gold, and silver and set off with his entourage to get healed. When he showed up in Israel, the King of Israel read the letter from the hot shot commander’s King and thought who am I to heal leprosy! He almost thought it was a trick and a political battle was about to begin!
Thankfully, the prophet Elisha rolled up on the scene and said “Yo King” (remember this is my paraphrase…not a direct translation) – “send him to see me instead.” So the hot shot commander was sent to see Elisha. When he got to the prophets house and asked to be healed, Elisha sent a servant outside and said, ‘Go take a bath 7 times in the Jordan River and you’ll be healed’. Well – the hot shot was enraged. He was livid! Didn’t he know who he was talking too – He could should have come out in person and waved his hands like a magician and said some magic words or have at least given him the time of day. Plus, the rivers back in his country were much bigger, wider, and better than this puny Jordan stream that trickled by here. Who did this prophet think he was. (Enter the commander’s friends who calmed him down and convinced him to go take a dip in the water)… and low and behold – he is healed. The commander is so thankful that his attitude completely changes and he hurries back to the house of the prophet and this time he sees the prophet directly and offers to give him the clothes and gold and silver, but nothing is
required because his gratitude to God is enough. The hot shot commander is now a humble believer and the prophet Elisha sends him away in Peace.”
Now in all that – where I find the spirit at work is indeed in the unexpected.
The first place is in the young servant girl. In that time, leprosy was not just a skin disease that caused isolation but was also seen as a divine curse that brought a great stigma against the person and anyone that had contact with the inflicted. They were ostracized, outcast, ridiculed, and demoralized. The fact that Namaan was still a commander in the Kings Army makes me wonder if it was well known that he had leprosy or if it was something that was kept under wraps and not common knowledge yet. If it got out that he had leprosy, the entire household could be in danger…not just political status, but socially, morally – their entire lives disrupted. But that young girl who had been taken captive, abducted from her hometown in Israel and brought back to Aram in a raid was forced to serve as a servant for Namaan wife. This slave girl knew that her master had leprosy. Perhaps she had washed his clothes. Perhaps she had wondered why his clothes had to be boiled separate from everyone else’s. Perhaps she wondered why he covered his arms or why people spoke in hushed tones and didn’t talk about it openly. Whatever the case may have been – something stirred within her spirit until she couldn’t keep quiet and she had to speak up saying to her mistress in verse 3, ‘If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ That was the catalyst that began writing the letters, packing clothes, and seeking to be cured instead of settling into sure fate.
I can imagine the hope, the joy, the energy, the spirit of possibility – all because of the courage that it took for one young girl to speak up. A child that was ripped away from her homeland, enslaved in a foreign country, and forced into manual labor to speak on behalf of her captors and point them towards the God she knew would heal him – body and soul. What the adults wanted to conceal or hide, she was willing to name and address. Where we may wish ill on those who would harm or enslave us, she sought healing and health. A courageous spirit that I dare say many adults in far less difficult situations possess today.
As adults we tend to fear the repercussions of our actions or the social stigma’s and perceptions we will attract more than children. As adults, we don’t want to be labeled or seen in a certain way so it’s easier to keep quiet or work behind the scenes, saying that children just don’t understand or they aren’t old enough to realize the impact of decisions. However, history has far too often proven that if you don’t look like “us”, act like “us”, believe like “us”, then you can’t be one of “us”. But it is the young that are able to give voice to what we cannot or will not. When was the last time you prayed for someone you disagreed with? When was the last time you genuinely offered to help someone in need…giving out of compassion and not compulsion? A child that will speak and try to bring healing even to those who wish her harm…I think that’s why Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these. I believe that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
At Vacation Bible School a few weeks ago, I had the joy of shepherding a group of children who had just completed first grade through the rotations. We spent the week talking about missionaries and what it meant to be on mission wherever you go when one child, Evelyn, shared with our group that her family had been commissioned as missionaries and they are leaving this week to move to
Senegal, Africa. I asked how long she would be there thinking perhaps it was for a few weeks and she said they were moving there permanently and she was so excited to share the love of Jesus with others. This is a country that is 95% muslim and will a different world from the school, markets, and life she has known here but there was not one ounce of saddness in her face. On the last day of VBS, as we began a song that needed a partner, she came up and asked if she could be my partner. I could feel the spirit as we sang, “You will never run away, You’ll forever shine, You will never run away, You’re by my side.” That afternoon we returned to the chapel for our last rotation and our little group gathered around Evelyn and laid hands on her and prayed for her and her family. It was all I could do to choke back the tears and get through that prayer. In that moment, it didn’t matter what agency her family was commissioned through, what difficulties they may face, what unknowns they may encounter – what mattered was that this precious child was following the call of God and she knew that she was loved, prayed for, and that she is the hands, feet, and voice of God no matter where she goes. I believe you can feel the spirit move through the heart of a child – for the ones who want to see their captors healed, ones that teach adults how to speak light into darkness, and ones who want just want their new friends to know about Jesus!
The other place I see the spirit move in our scripture this morning is in the healings that occurred. Certainly the healing of leprosy was a miraculous event. Even though leprosy is now curable with modern medicine, over 200,000 new cases of leprosy are reported world wide each year and if not treated, the bacterial infection will affect the organs and nervous system functions often causing disfigurement and discrimination. However, in this passage, some will diminish the diagnosis of leprosy and use terminology like skin disease, reducing the condition to
little more than common day eczema being treated by a good cleaning. Whether it was the healing of a deep bacterial infection that had moved to the nervous system or a topical skin rash that was cleared by the washing, either way in Biblical times, the healing of Namaan was not only seen as a blessing, but as a mighty work by the one true God.
Now please don’t get me wrong we I think God is still in the healing business – however, the greater, and unexpected work of the spirit here for me is the healing of Namaan’s attitude. This is something that is not as easily explained away. The only cost of Namaan’s healing was gratitude. Verse 15 says, “Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.” The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.” He went from being filled with anger and self-righteousness and importance, to being filled with humility, graciousness, and making himself into a servant of God, a change that would have then spilled over into his household and the ways he dealt with those in his family and his world back home. His heart changed from being “look at me” to “look at God”. That kind of change of heart is one that only the spirit can affect in man. It’s not about the outward appearance but about the inward heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God saw something in Namaan that mankind did not see and the great healing that took place that day was not the healing of leprosy but he healing of Namaan’s spirit.
Still, much like an inquisitive child, when it comes to miracles, I am left with more questions than I have answers. Perhaps it is because I see the church as a group
of wounded healers more than a profession of trained miracle workers. There are questions like “Why don’t we see miracles like these as much today? Do they happen and we aren’t looking? Why did Jesus send out his disciples to heal the sick and we don’t even try? Why do some preachers equate healing with having enough faith as if you can earn good health? Why do some believers ask, beg, and plead with God for answers only to feel like He is miles away? Why do some people receive healing when others don’t? What do we do with a theology that says God allows some people to thrive and some to suffer? Is that good or right theology?” And I guess, when I am patient enough with myself to allow room for those questions to ruminate, I pause and say, It depends on what you believe about the goodness of God’s love and mercy. It depends on what you believe about God walking with you through the storm and not causing the storm. It depends, my dear child, on what you believe it means to be healed, and if you are looking with eyes to see the spirit of God move in the unexpected places. For the older I get, I believe it’s okay to ask hard questions, not have answers, and rest in God’s love for that is His Pleasure. Amen.
