Sermon for Epiphany 6, Year B
Reverend Gregg Wood
The first lesson for today is a story about a healing. Naaman, who is the successful commander of the Army of the king of Aram, is afflicted with leprosy. Now we are not sure if this was the very serious disease we know today as leprosy proper, or Hansen’s disease; it may have been a less serious skin disease such as psoriasis or dermatitis. But whatever it was, it troubled Naaman. Now Naaman's wife had a slave girl who had been captured in one of the raids on Israel. This slave girl spoke of the prophet Elisha, and suggested that this great prophet of Israel would be able to cure Naaman's affliction. So Naaman’s wife tells him what the Israelite slave girl said, and he likes the idea so much that he suggests that the king of Aram give him permission to go peacefully into Israel to seek the cure. The king agrees, so Naaman sets out with a lot of money and goods and a letter from the king of Aram requesting that the King of Israel grant Naaman safe passage.
When the King of Israel learns that the commander of the armies of the king of Aram is coming into his country, he fears the worst, probably that he is about to be invaded, and he tears his garments in distress. But the prophet Elisha sends word to the King, reassuring him and asking him to allow Naaman to come to Elisha. Soon Naaman comes to Elisha. But Elisha does not come out to greet Naaman, and instead sends a messenger instructing Naaman to wash himself seven times in the River Jordan, after which his flesh will be restored to normal. Naaman is insulted at this treatment. He is offended that the prophet did not come out to greet him, and also that he was instructed to do something so simple and undignified as washing himself in the River Jordan, which was not a great river like the rivers of Damascus. Also, Naaman no doubt expected that he would have to negotiate a fee for the prophet's services, which is why he brought all that money. However, one of his servants encourages Naaman to do what the prophet told him to do, since it is such a simple thing. So Naaman does it, he washes himself in the River, and the Bible tells us "his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean."
This story is about expectations. Everyone involved has different expectations. Let us look at those expectations.
First of all, there is the Israelite slave girl. It is she who sets the whole train of events in motion by suggesting that the prophet in Israel would be able to cure Naaman of his skin disease. Since she is a slave, she probably had no expectations that any of this would do her any good. So she seems to be acting out of a pure and generous heart, with the expectation of faith. She expects that her faith in God, and in God's prophet, will bring relief to her master.
Then there is the king of Israel, who is terrified and tears his garments when he reads the letter from the king of Aram. He expects the worst. He fears that there is deceit and trickery going on, that will ultimately do harm to him and to his country. Maybe that's not a bad expectation for a king to have. His job is to defend his country and to keep it secure. Probably it's not a bad thing for him to be suspicious and even paranoid, especially in dealing with people who have been his enemies in the past. The problem is that his fear and suspicion could cause him to miss an opportunity to improve relations. If you're always expecting the worst, you may be blind when something good comes along.
Then there is Naaman himself. He expects that he will have to negotiate an expensive transaction, which is no doubt why he brought along all that money and treasure. He also expects that this transaction will be accompanied with a certain amount of ceremony and performance, and his dignity is wounded when the prophet Elisha does not even come out to meet him, but instead sends him a simple prescription by the hand of a servant. What happens to him is so far removed from his expectations that he almost fails to get what he came for, namely a cure for his illness. He expected a complicated transaction; instead he got a rather simple free gift. The free gift of healing.
Everyone had their normal expectations. The problem is they did not expect the unexpected.
Sometimes, like Naaman, our expectations can defeat our purposes. In the village near where I live there is a thrift shop. The purpose of the thrift shop is to re-cycle second hand goods to people who cannot afford to pay retail prices for these things. The thrift shop is housed in a church basement; the church donates the space and the utilities. The shop is operated by volunteers from the church and the community; they donate their time and their skill. The clothing and household goods that are sold in the shop are donated by people in the community.
The volunteers spend a lot of their time pricing the goods for sale. Of course they are priced very low, sometimes as low as a dollar, 50 cents, a quarter. Everyone expects that people will pay these prices. But occasionally there is a customer who needs something but cannot afford even these low prices. What to do? If you withhold what is needed from such a customer, you will be failing in the main purpose of the shop, which is to get these goods to people who cannot afford them. So usually the volunteer in charge will make an outright gift to the needy customer. She does the unexpected. Sometimes, in order to do the right thing, you have to do the unexpected. And sometimes, like Naaman, the customer will try to refuse the unexpected gift. She, the customer, is bound by her expectation that she must pay for it.
The heroine of this story is the Israelite slave girl. She had faith. She believed that if her Master Naaman was able to get together with the prophet Elijah, good things would happen. She expected the unexpected. She had faith. And good things did happen, once everybody managed to get over their normal expectations.
You and I live in a world of normal expectations, as we must. But let us not lose the capacity to see the hand of God working in unusual ways. Let us not fail to expect the unexpected.
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