February 23, 2003
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Today is
the last of the sermon series that asks the question, “What Do Christians
Do?” The answers have been that
we pray, worship, study scripture, give with joy, and serve others. Today we add
to those answers this one: we grow spiritually, that we come to understand more
deeply than we did before the power, love and grace of God in our lives.
Understand that spiritual growth is a process, it takes time, it takes work, it
demands something of us, but it is not hard. It is a matter of committing
ourselves to doing what is required of each of us in order for all of us to grow
spiritually fit. When Paul
wanted to describe spiritual growth and fitness, he used the analogy of an
athlete. His reference was the Isthmian games, an athletic festival held every
two years in Corinth.
Paul says
to the church, “let your spiritual growth have the same discipline as an
athlete’s. They have goals and they know how to reach them. But as you take on
their disciplines, understand their limitations. They strive for something that
will fade. You are after something that will last into eternity. The prize for
victory at these games was not the gold medal we associate with Olympic victory,
nor was it a laurel wreath. The winner’s wreath was made of withered celery. (Interpretation
series. Richard B Hays, I Corinthians John Knox Press. Louisville, 1997,
p.155-156). Now the
athletic prize may be a medal, a ring, a crystal bowl, or even the honor of
being called champion. All of that is good, but none of it lasts, except in our
memories. Medals can tarnish and be put away in a drawer somewhere. Crystal
bowls can break, records are broken every sporting season and new champions lead
the victory parade. But, if athletes will run and box for celery and for other
earthly prizes, what will we do to get ourselves ready to receive the gift of
eternal life? Strive for what will
outlast what you can see. Because when we grow spiritually, when we work to
deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ, we are preparing ourselves for a
spiritual victory that leads to life. We believe
that Jesus Christ is Lord and we demonstrate our beliefs as we tell our story to
others. When people seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ ask us, what do
Christian do, we can answer them with strength and confidence. Among the things
we do are these: we pray, we worship, we study the Bible, we give our money with
joy, and we serve others. If Paul
shows us the result of growing spiritually, Naaman reminds us that the
journey toward spiritual growth can take some strange turns. As his story
begins, we know these three things about him. First, we know that Naaman is a
non-Israelite, he is a gentile, and he needs to leave his native territory of
Syria to get what he needs. Second, we know that Naaman is a well-regarded
military officer who has, by the hand of Israel’s God, been victorious over
Israel. And third, we know that Naaman has leprosy. Leprosy is the name given to
a variety of contagious and unpleasant skin diseases, that carried with them
great social stigma. But what is described as leprosy in the Bible is not the
same thing we know today as Hansen’s Disease. It was likely a severe case of
psoriasis, an inflammatory skin disease characterized by scaly patches, or
vitiligo, a skin disease characterized by smooth white patches on parts of the
body. However
his leprosy manifested itself, it makes Naaman ritually unclean; he must
announce his presence by covering his mouth and shouting “unclean, unclean”!
Great commander that he is, his illness makes him unwelcome in society. If you
have ever been in a predicament like Naaman’s, admired and respected on the
one hand, but rejected and shunned on the other, you know his need for healing
both his body and his spirit. “You have all the gifts this place requires, but
we have to let you go. You are a talented artist, but…We can always be
friends”. Naaman was looking for a place of healing, but when he found it, he
did not quite know what he was seeing. Right now all he knows is that there is a
prophet in Israel who can heal him. So Naaman
gets permission to travel to Israel and sets out with an entourage, and with
gifts of money and clothes and a letter from his king. The
problem is that when Naaman gets to Israel he makes two mistakes. First he does
not go to see the prophet. How often is our growth thwarted when we go to the
wrong place, which causes us to be delayed, and the thing we are looking for is
that much harder to find. Naaman does not go to the prophet, nor does he even
ask where the healing prophet lives. He goes to the palace, where he believes
the real power is and he gives his letter to the king, only to discover that the
king does not know what to do. Here is Naaman with his letter and all this
stuff, gifts to give for his healing, with a letter from his king that says,
“heal this man”. Here is the king, who has a lot of power, but he has
neither the power nor the gift to heal anyone. In fact
the king believes Naaman will be the excuse for Syria to invade Israel again. He
is so sure that he has been set up, that he tears his clothes as a sign of
mourning. The king does not need to mourn because there is a prophet in Samaria.
Elisha the prophet hears about all the goings on in the palace and makes us
grateful that every now and then God will send someone who knows what’s
happening to step in and clear up the confusion. “Tell the king to relax,
patch up his clothes and send Naaman to me. When he gets here, he will know that
there is a prophet in Israel”. Naaman’s
first mistake was going to the wrong place. His second mistake was that he
traveled to Elisha’s house with the wrong attitude. He arrives in all of his
importance, with his entourage and his gifts and waits in front of Elisha’s
house where he expects to be welcomed and hosted and healed. After all, he is a
great soldier in a great army. He is used to being waited on and obeyed. He
knows that Elisha understands the right protocol. Imagine
his surprise when Elisha sends out a messenger, who casually says to Naaman as
if were no different than any other leper, “here is what Elisha wants you to
do. Go down to the Jordan River, wash seven times, and you will be healed.” Now if it
were me, I would be so happy for a remedy for my condition that I would get to
the river as fast as I could. I imagine we would all be like the couple in that
commercial, racing each other through neighborhood streets and backyards,
disrobing as we run, eager to be the first ones to feel the soothing water
spraying from a particular shower head, or the Jordan River. But Naaman
is a little caught up in his own importance. He is the way we are when our pride
gets in the way of our good sense. Not only is Naaman not grateful, not only is
he not on his way to the river, he is insulted, he is pouting, he is checking
the map for the fastest way back to Aram. We can almost hear him: “Doesn’t
this Elisha person know who I am? The least this so-called prophet could do is
come outside, stand before me, like one of my soldiers, call on his God,
wave his hand over me and cure me? Where is the ritual, where is the respect? Is
that too much to ask? And what is up with the Jordan River? The quality of water
at home is better than this. I could have stayed home and washed there. This is
not what I expected at all. What a waste of my time”. Barbara
Grafton describes Naaman’s reaction, and our own this way: “Naaman
is like the man in an old joke who is caught in a flood (don’t stop me if you
have heard this) and goes up on the roof, where he intends to wait for God to
rescue him. Person after person comes by in a rowboat, offering to take him to
safety. No, thanks, he says, I
know God is going to save me. Finally the waters rise over him, and he dies.
When he gets to heaven, he complains, “I
prayed and prayed, but you didn’t save me! And God answers, I
sent you four rowboats, and you didn’t get into any of them.” For Naaman
and for us, a miracle has to be magic, full of special effects, before we’ll
pay any attention. But most of the miracles we know are like rowboats. They come
along regularly, but we have to get into them to get the full effect. When it
comes to miracles, we are snobbish” (“Living
by the Word – Miracle Market” Christian Century, February 8, 2003, p.
18). It is a
servant who calls Naaman out of his snobbish tantrum. He says, “if Elisha had
asked you to do something difficult –leave your home country permanently;
resign your commission, renounce your citizenship all for the sake of being
cured, you would have done it. How much more is it for you to do what he
asked?” Calmed and
humbled, Naaman goes to the Jordan, and washes seven times. When he does
something incredible happens. His is cured, he is made whole, he is restored, he
is able to take his place in society, and he learns the power of the God of all
creation. Later on, his attitude is adjusted, Naaman returns to Elisha, and
acknowledges the God of Israel as the one who has the power to heal both body
and soul. The
question for us is what has any of this healing story to do with us and
spiritual growth? Here we are, 21st Century folks, when we are sick,
we go to a doctor, get a prescription, take some medicine, and pray to feel
better. Or, if our illness requires it, we can go to a hospital and find the
help we need there. Naaman had
to grow spiritually in order to receive the gift God had for him. I believe
Naaman’s story connects with our desire to grow spiritually in three ways. First,
Naaman had to grow beyond his one self-importance and listen to voices he might
otherwise ignore. Spiritual growth
comes when we gain wisdom and insight from people we might otherwise overlook.
Naaman was certainly too important to get medical advise from a servant girl,
but she made herself heard anyway. Why would a great army officer go see prophet
from a religion that was not his own? Yet, there he was in front of Elisha’s
house waiting to be healed. Is there any reason to listen to the aides who tend
his horses and fix his meals? But these are the ones who say to him, you won’t
act because it is too easy, what are you thinking?
Growth
occurs when we do what is helpful to us without grumbling, even when it is not
exactly as we wish. Naaman came to Israel to be healed. But he almost missed his
miracle because he thought it was not put in a package big enough for him. He
learned and we learn that growth can come from little things too. What we learn
as children – a simple bedtime prayer, being taken to church, Bible stories
that can be understood by children, putting the whole offering in Sunday school,
and saving nothing for the corner store, helping others, all help us to grow
spiritually. And if you did not grow up in the church, growth is possible now,
it is never too late to start. Second,
Naaman had to grow beyond the need for one great big thing, when several little
things were what he needed. Spiritual growth happens when we quit making it so
hard. Are we thinking that spiritual development and growth can’t be as easy
as the church claims it is so it must be something hard. But it really is not.
Growth happens when ever something that is alive is fed and nurtured. We don’t
tell children to grow. Instead, we provide a healthy environment, with mainly
nutritious food and water, shelter and clothing, and opportunities for education
and play, and growth happens. And third,
Naaman had to grow beyond what he already knew. He could command an army, but he
had no means of controlling God’s prophet or God’s healing process. In our
spiritual life, growth will happen when we commit ourselves perhaps even more
than we have to regular prayer, regular worship, and regular study of the Bible.
By the way, the next Bible study will begin with a study of the Lord’s Prayer,
on Wednesday, March 12. Growth occurs as we give joyfully of our time, and
treasure, and when we serve others. We
will be stronger, we will witness to our faith with confidence, we will do great
ministry from this place, we will be the people God has called us to be. We will
be faithful. What do
Christians do? We grow spiritually, and now is a great time to start. Let’s
get going and growing. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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