November 2 -- All Saints' Sunday and Elisha&Naaman

Do you ever think you know better than the Holy Spirit?  I mean, when the issue of health care or immigration comes up, and Jesus says,  “Let the children come to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  When Jesus puts children at the center, do you ever question all that, and say, “Well, yes Jesus, but you don’t understand the financial implications and the tax burdens that immigrant children and healthcare for everyone can have on our society.”  That’s very a political example.  But when we look at Jesus’ words, and then we look back at our real world, it’s hard to trust in God.  It’s hard to believe that this God that we celebrate and praise in here, is real, or has anything of substance for our present situations.

How about a more personal example?  We can get pretty angry at times.  I know I can.  We don’t show it all the time, but I think anger can build up inside of us, and we can let that out in all kinds of ways, mostly unhealthy ways...because it’s so hard and scary to face the truth of what really eating at us.  And when we hear all those stories and messages that Christ comes among us, his disciples, and says, “Peace be with you.”  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m a little snarky and cynical and say, “Yeah, sure, Jesus.  Easy for you to say.  But we’re living in the real world here.”  It’s hard to trust in God.

Naaman had the same problem.  Naaman was a soldier, actually he was a decorated general in the army.  He had a lot of things, he had quite the resume, he had his king’s ear, he held a privileged position and money.  He was the kind of guy who, when he stepped into a restaurant, everyone would turn an look at him, because he was famous and powerful.  
But he also had this skin disease.  And he was in pain.  

And here’s where the saints get to work.  I said this is a story about God’s subtle saints.  Characters in the background, who don’t even have names.  We celebrate the saints today, on this All Saints Sunday.  Think of how the saints in our lives often work and worked subtly.  [pause]

Naaman had this Hebrew servant, who basically whispered to him about God’s healing acts through this Israelite prophet named Elisha.  She didn’t even have a name.   

But an ongoing theme in our journey through the Old Testament is that Israel, God’s people, are from the beginning and always blessed to be a blessing to the world.  Naaman was a Syrian general.  He was not an Israelite.  He was from the North.  And this Hebrew servant passes him a message of salvation, a message of healing.  God can make you whole.

But like we can be, Naaman is resistant, doubtful, realistic.  He doesn’t really believe it, even while he attempts to make contact with the king of Israel, to try to get Elisha’s number.  See how he works right through the top? 

And now things get even murkier as he finds a way to contact Elisha.  Elisha doesn’t even go out to meet him.  He sends another servant -- another saint -- with a message:  “Go wash in the Jordan River seven times, and you’ll be cured.”  

Do you think Naaman received that well?  

Have you ever had a medical issue that was easily solved, but that almost made you angrier?  You went around and around with doctor’s offices, appointments, medical bills, insurance companies, family members’ referrals for months, and then it turns out you just need to stop eating almonds...or something like that?  Often it’s diet.  What?  I can’t believe that.

I think that’s Naaman.  He’s angry coming into it, he’s arrogant, he’s in pain, and he gets told by a servant -- “No one sends a servant out to me” -- to wash in the Jordan.  Then he insults the Jordan River.  “That muddy trickle of a river?!”    

But then his servants -- what I could call his saints -- calm him down, “Peace be with you, father...just try it.  We’ve come all this way.”  And so he does.  And so he’s healed.  

It’s an odd story on one hand, but on the other hand, it’s our story again.  Who are your saints -- some alive, some gone ahead to heavenly glory -- who calm you down, who breathe peace into your hectic world?  We get blinded and arrogant and entitled and angry, and we lose sight of the saints that God has sent us, those quiet servants of the Gospel.  We too can miss those voices in our lives, because we like Naaman think we know better.  We like Naaman struggle to trust God or the puny little whispers-and-hints-and-suggestions-and-encouragements-and-invitations-to-calm-down that the saints God offer us -- in their earthly life, and in their heavenly life.

Funny story Micah and his friend Jackson.  His mother told me... Micah: “You know, Jackson, you’re always talking about all these things you want to build.  But you never build any of them.  Why don’t you just build one, already?”  [pause]

If that question were directed at us, it would be easy to snap back.  “I’ll tell you why I don’t build, or invest in a relationship, or reach out to an organization or friend in need, or sacrifice my time or money, or my emotional energy...because here are all the things that can go wrong!”    

See how worked up we can get?  How worried or paranoid?  How obsessive and averse to any risk whatsoever?  And sometimes the answer is easy:

Just go wash in the river.  Seven times.  Just go talk to him -- the one who upset you so much.  Maybe he’s hurting too.  Just ask her, you’ll never know if you don’t ask...

Just go wash in the river.  Seven times.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes a while and it takes repetition to untangle our distrust in God.  That’s what I love about liturgy.  We’re untangling our distrust in God.  

We can lose heart, sisters and brothers in Christ, we can lose hope and trust, but God does not.  God is faithful and just, remember?  God does not abandon us in our frustration and anger and doubt.  God washes us.  God makes us new.  

The servant girl in the story who first got the message of healing, of one who could save Naaman from his disease (which needless to say was much more than just a skin disease, right?), that servant-saint was described as a YOUNG girl.  

When Naaman is cured, it says that his skin was restored to that of a YOUNG boy.  I think there’s a connection with sainthood and that word YOUNG, regardless of age.  The young girl is the silent saint at the beginning, and now Naaman  with skin like a young boy becomes sainted too.  This is a medal that tops all others.  

And this is a medal that God pins on you too.  We join the glorious company of saints, upon being washed in the waters, even the trickling waters of our little font.  God makes you whole, names you a saint, and hold you in grace today.  Amen.