The Commander in Chief of the largest and most powerful army in the world came down with an incurable illness and to make a long story short he ended up on the doorstep of the king of one of the smallest nations in the world. He arrived in a bulletproof Humvee and a trunk filled with gold and a hundred armed soldiers, demanding that he be cured of his disease.

Now if that sounds a little like a bully trying to pick a fight, it seems that this is exactly the reaction of the king of Israel when the commander of the army of the nation of Aram ended up on his doorstep. Luckily the prophet sent word that he simply had the wrong address before things got out of hand. It’s a great story, full of drama, suspense and even humour.

An expert mechanic in a small town worked on an older car for one of his customers. Finally he had to admit defeat and announced that it could not be repaired. The owner agreed and the mechanic asked on of his employees to tow it to the junkyard

As the tow truck was latching onto the car, a long haired teenage boy in ripped jeans came by and said, “What is that old clunker worth?” The mechanic told him that it would not run. Insisting that he was prepared to accept it in its condition, the teenager offered to pay for the tow and take the car off of his hands. The mechanic agreed and the old clunker was towed to his driveway. The very next day the mechanic saw the car going down the road. A few days after that he ran into the teen said to him, “I tried everything I could think of to get that car to work. What did you do?”

The teen replied, “I put some gas in it”.

(Pause)

Sometimes there are simple solutions to the problems in our lives; too simple to see; too simple to be believable.

Naaman the commander of the army of Aram, a man with the dreaded disease of leprosy, was asked to do something simple: the prophet offered no incantations; there was no hocus-pocus, just two simple steps: “go” and “wash - wash 7 times”. Naaman objected. He did not think that he, the commander of the army of Aram, was being given enough respect by this simple prophet. He could have done that at home and in far more important water. However, his advisors convinced him otherwise, he followed the advice and he was healed.

Even though he had some inside knowledge, like the Magi a long time into the future, the commander of the army of Aram, a person of power, thought healing and truth would also come from power. Instead, he found out that the healing he needed would come from simple acts performed in trust. He would find out that the things he had brought with him to sweeten the deal had no effect whatsoever on his healing.

As I said, it’s a great story - full of political intrigue as well as theological truth.

Let’s look at this story a little more closely. Leprosy in biblical times may not have been the horribly disfiguring disease the developing world now knows as leprosy; a disease which is now easily treated. In biblical times leprosy may have been a term used to cover many kinds of skin conditions. Justified or not, the common denominator for all of these conditions was that those affected by them were shunned by the community out of fear or prejudice and they were most often forced to live in colonies outside of town where people similarly affected were also banished. These prejudices and fears were reinforced by religious laws.

From time to time I visit people in hospital who are in some kind of isolation. In order to visit them you have to put on a gown, usually one with cuffs, and then you seal those cuffs with gloves and then sometimes have to put on a mask. And of course if you wear glasses, they steam up from your breathing. Then you go in to see the patient, who cannot really see you! Foir example, they cannot see if you are smiling at them or not. They can only feel the touch of a gloved hand, and cannot even receive a kiss from a spouse or relative. They can’t usually leave their room and if they do they must gown and glove and wear a mask. It very frustrating for visitors and very isolating for the patient. Now, imagine having to live your entire life that way; imagine having to go through life with people being afraid of you; going through life being branded as unclean.

I suspect that you would begin to see yourself as unclean and unworthy after a number of years of living that way. For the people with leprosy we read about in the gospels, required to call out “don’t come near - we have leprosy” it would certainly be understandable if they had no other view of themselves.

When we read of healing stories in the Bible we modern folks become fixated on the idea of cure, but healing involves much more than “cure”. Healing involves the spirit, the soul, the heart. Perhaps the biggest and most difficult part of the healing of Naaman, and others such as the man in today’s gospel story, was how an encounter with the living God had the power to change in how they viewed themselves. They were no longer “just a leper” but a child of God and beloved and accepted. That, and not the cure, was the biggest miracle.

Naaman sounds like he is on a real power trip. Perhaps Naaman’s attitude made his disease worse. We know that many diseases are made worse by stress. Perhaps Naaman needed to give up his attitude of power and superiority and see himself as someone who could follow directions and not someone who had the right to give orders; he needed to see himself as a child of God in order to be truly healed. Perhaps.

We all know people who “seem” at least to enjoy being miserable. There was once a very elderly woman who had suffered from one malady or another all of her life. She went to see her doctor and asked him to do a “complete physical” because she was convinced that she was seriously ill. She was never convinced the physical was complete enough because it never turned anything up! Finally after a number of such requests, the doctor said, “Mrs Smith, you are well over 90; if there was anything seriously wrong you would not be with us. My advice is for you to enjoy the years you have left and try to stop thinking of yourself as ‘dying’. “

She lived another eight or ten years but unfortunately I don’t think she ever thought of herself as ‘living’.

Part of what this passage is about is the community embracing the one who has received healing and seeing them as God’s beloved child in the same way that we are God’s beloved child.

Rejection by the community was the sad result of a diagnosis of “unclean” in biblical times. However, as much as we would like to think that we are more sophisticated, or that “we would never do that”, we do.

Small communities do not easily embrace outsiders and people “from away” especially if they look different, or talk different, or have different ideas.

We put a sign on the front lawn of our churches indicating that “all are welcome”, but when you get right down to it, the reality is often very different. Do we really welcome all people? Some churches do not welcome people who do not fit into the categories of what is normal and expected in the congregation - such as divorced people, or people with disabilities, or people of a minority ethnic heritage, or people who cannot afford to dress up for church, or pregnant teenagers, or children, especially the noisy ones, or people who have questions about the usually unquestioned beliefs of the congregation, or gay and lesbian people, or folks who live on a certain road or section of town, or the poor, or single adults, or common-law couples, or someone ‘from away’, or a member of a First Nations community or someone who left as a teen and hasn’t been back for awhile, or anyone who could be categorized as “one of those people”.

A couple stayed at a rural B&B run by a middle aged farm couple with the same last name. Much to his wife’s chagrin the host kept his guests up very late looking in vain any possible connections they might have. He was not satisfied until he found a connection between himself and this couple from ‘away’. It was as if they did not have a “place” unless there was a connection with what he knew and understood, so instead of being open to the new, he forced them into the “boxes” he already had.

As people of faith we are called to form communities of love, acceptance and healing. Closing our doors, or our hearts to to those in need to love and acceptance and healing is not an option for us as a community of faith.

Let us open ourselves to God’s healing and changing power. When we accept that we are loved just as we are and can accept that deep in our heats, let us then be agents of God’s healing power and embrace.

Amen.

February 22, 2009

2 Kings 2: 1-12
Psalm 50
2 Corinthians 4: 3-6
Mark 9: 2-9

I had a great struggle this week trying to decide what text to use as the basis of my sermon. The last time this passage from the book of 2 Kings came around in the lectionary, was supposed to be my first Sunday here in Kings United, but as you know, I did not preach that week because my father had just died.

I really wanted to preach on Elijah and his flaming chariot, yet as the sermon developed the transfiguration took over and I had to change my plans, but I will give you fair warning though, that Elijah will show through from time to time.

The phrase, “I’ve been to the mountaintop” has been made famous by the civil rights leader the Rev Martin Luther King and brought to mind in the past few months as the United States elected and then inaugurated a black man as its president. “Obamamania” seemed alive and well this week as he visited Ottawa on his first official foreign visit.

The “mountaintop” is a metaphor for a place of clarity and vision. It is a metaphor for a place from which one can view the big picture and see things clearly, without the distractions of daily life. On a mountaintop you are away from the mundane things in life. The things on your “to do” list will have to wait and there is no cell-phone service on a mountaintop so no one can call you and ask you to bring home a litre of milk and a pizza! On the mountaintop it is almost as if you can see the world as God does and you can grasp the vision. On a mountaintop it seems as if you can see forever.

For those of you who are afraid of heights, I have good news for you! You can be on the mountaintop even though you are on level ground, or even perhaps, on a boat at sea or while scuba diving. These kinds of mountaintops are a matter of spiritual geography not literal location.

A colleague of mine, the Rev Marilyn MacDonald sent this piece of prose out to a number of other preachers. It goes like this:

 
 "A person whispered," God, speak to me" and 
a meadowlark sang. 
But, the person did not hear.
So they yelled,"God, speak to me" and 
the thunder rolled across the sky. 
But, they did not listen.
The person looked around and said, "God, let me see you" and 
a star shone brightly. 
But, the person did not notice.


They shouted, "God show me a miracle" and 
a life was born. 
But, the person did not know.
So, they cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here."
Whereupon God reached down and touched them. 
But, they brushed the butterfly away, and walked on.” 

Over 25 years ago now a friend of mine at university was blessed by some kind of mystical, “mountaintop experience”. As I recall he was never really able to describe in words the details of this experience, but it filled him with love, hope and joy. He could hardly contain himself he was so happy.

He also had a problem. His problem was that he wanted it to last. He wanted to live forever in the clarity and certainty of that moment. When he found that he could not, he was, to say the least deflated, downcast and very sad.

The disciples had a mountaintop experience when they saw Moses and Elijah talking to their teacher and heard him affirmed as the Holy One. The younger prophet Elisha had what was certainly a “mountaintop” experience in the wilderness by the Jordan river when he saw the flaming chariot and his beloved teacher Elijah being carried heavenward in a whirlwind.

These passages are read as we make the transition from Epiphany to Lent - we now KNOW who this Jesus is. You will remember that not that long ago our lectionary readings took us to the Jordan with Jesus for his baptism by his cousin and wilderness preacher, John the Baptizer, and we learned that he was affirmed as God’s own son. Some of the gospels tell us that this affirmation was for Jesus’ hearing alone. Today is the “public” declaration. Today this announcement, this affirmation is for all who care to listen.

Next week we will be in the season of Lent and on a journey toward the cross. In Lent we find out what Jesus’ mission will cost and what it will mean for him, and for those who choose to follow.

Jesus and his disciples frequently went somewhere to “get away” from it all, to pray, to talk, to learn more deeply. Today they are on a mountain and suddenly the disciples see Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah. And it is as if everything is glowing. The disciples want to preserve it, but just as quickly as it begins, it ends and they are alone with Jesus. They wanted to build tents, but the vision was gone before that could be done.

We may approach this text with many questions. Why Moses? Why Elijah?

There are several possible reasons for this. Traditionally Moses is seen as the “law giver” and Elijah, the first among the prophets. These are also the two great figures from their past whose death could not be proven. Moses went to the top of a mountain and did not return, and Elijah was carried off by a whirlwind. Maybe he would return some day.

Perhaps this vision tells us that in the teachings of Jesus the teachings of the law and the prophets have come together. You see, Jesus did not really teach anything new, but took the best from the traditions of his people and, in a sense, called them back to the basics of their faith!

The first question I have always wanted to ask about this passage was “how did they know it was Elijah and Moses?” We have many photographs of famous people, even ones long dead, but they didn’t have photographs or even recognizable paintings, as far as we know. Maybe they were just 2 old men with beards; they could have been just anyone. However, that is not a question we can answer. When it comes to visions, one or more of my colleagues has said this week, “you just know”. They knew that these men in the vision were Moses and Elijah - just as they knew the voice was God’s.

What do the dwellings, presumably tents, that the disciples wanted to build, represent? Even though they were scared out of their minds, what the disciples were experiencing at that moment was so marvellous, so good and provided such a window on the holy that they could not bear for it to end. They wanted these three to stick around. They wanted to sit at their feet and learn from them. The did not want this to end.

But end it did. YET, the good news is that there was holiness in the life after this vision. The good news was that there was still mission and ministry after Elijah’s departure and even, and especially after Jesus had completed his ministry. The good news was that God was still with them; that God was still calling them to proclaim the good news of God’s love in the places where they would find themselves.

These passages are a perfect transition to the season of Lent; a time in which we must wrestle with the knowledge that the way of Jesus is the way of the cross. It is a time when we must realize that the gospel is full of paradoxes such as freedom being found on only in service and life be found only after realizing that we do not need to fear death; either our own or that of the people and things we cherish most, and also that success and failure in the Gospel’s terms are often the opposite of how those words are usually defined.

These passages are also helpful when we face any time of transition. Like Elijah’s student, Elisha we may know that what seems like unbearable change is coming - like the disciples we may have been told that our world will soon fall apart.

Like these long ago biblical figures we refuse to hear about it, until the last possible moment. We don’t want to hear about it, as if, by not listening, it may not happen. Sometimes we ignore the signs as long as we can because the idea is just too painful. Sometimes we are so successful at ignoring it that it is as if it was totally unexpected when it does come.

We can’t live in the yesterday, whether those yesterday’s were good days or not. We are called to pick up the mantle of the departing Elijah or walk down the mountain certain only that God will be with us in the time of change.

We know and do not want to hear that change is upon our small Island. We know and do not want to hear that schools are set to close; we don’t want to hear the news of economic change; we don’t want to face decisions about changes in our churches and our communities. When we do not listen to this news though and when we do not acknowledge that we have seen the signs, we cannot hear the news and see the signs that our God is still with us. When we do not hear the news we cannot hear or answer the call to be active participants in forming the future toward which God has been guiding us. There is no other generation to do the work. While we work with the gifts and legacies of previous generations we cannot assume that their ways and solutions will work in 2009 and beyond. We cannot wait for a new generation to take up the mantle or answer the call to discipleship. The call needs to be answered now.

The Good News in the midst of all of this uncertainty is that God has been with the faithful through many changes and will continue to be so. Let us open our eyes on this mountain and see what God is preparing for us. Let is catch a vision of a present and a future in which we can proclaim the Good News in the world in which we find ourselves.

God is with us. Thanks be to God.