Wash and Be Cleaned (Prophet Margins – Part I)

Sermon Title: Wash and Be Cleaned

Good News Statement: God washes us and cleanses us from our ailments.

Preached: Sunday, July 10, 2022 at Dogwood Prairie UMC & Seed Chapel UMC

Pastor Daniel G. Skelton, M.Div.

 

Scripture (NRSV): 2 Kings 5:1-14 Today’s scripture reading comes from the 2 Kings chapter five verses one thru fourteen. Listen to the words of Naaman and the Prophet Elisha…

The Healing of Naaman

5 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from a skin disease. ² Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his skin disease.” ⁴ So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. ⁵ And the king of Aram said, “Go, then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. ⁶ He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his skin disease.” ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”

⁸ But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! ¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” ¹⁴ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

This is the Word of God for the People of God; And all God’s people said, “Thanks be to God.”

Introduction:  

Throughout your life, especially while growing up, every time you got ready to sit down for some sort of meal, someone, usually a parent, would ask you a single question: “Did you wash your hands?” Some of you would respond with saying “Yes” as you hid your filthy hands under the table or under a napkin. Others of you would say “Yes” while you shoved your clean hands in someone’s face telling them to smell them. On average, a person will wash their hands five to eight times a day. While growing up, I was always asked by my mom, “Did you wash your hands?” Back then I thought I was just washing my hands, getting all the dirt off; but today, washing my hands has a deeper meaning.

Washing our hands is and has always been about hygiene and being clean, but it is also about preparation. “Did you wash your hands” is a question about whether or not we are ready to join the family, to engage in conversation, and to be in their presence engaging in enjoyment and connectedness. “Did you wash your hands” has become a social indicator that basically is asking, “Are you ready to join in or do you wish to remain separated? Washing our hands is not only about hygiene, it is about being prepared for what comes next.

Over the course of these past three years, washing our hands has become more important than anything. When COVID entered our lives, shutdowns happened, doors were locked, windows were shut, groceries found their way to our front doors, soap and toilet paper were leaving the shelves as fast as they were put on them, and masks became lifesavers. On top of all this, signs about proper hand washing became our Nation’s wallpaper. The CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly and publically released videos and instructions concerning how to wash your hands: 1) Wet your hands with clean running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap; 2) Lather your hands by rubbing them together with soap, lather the backs of your hands and rub them together, and rub between your fingers and under your nails; 3) Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds—the time it takes to sing through “Happy Birthday” twice; 4) Rinse your hands well under clean, running water; and 5) Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them (https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html)

More than ever before, we became obsessed with keeping our hands clean. Before, during, and after preparing food, we washed our hands. Before and after eating food, we washed our hands. After blowing our nose, coughing, or sneezing, we washed our hands. After petting an animal, we washed our hands. After handling pet food or pet treats, we washed our hands. After touching garbage, we washed our hands. After getting into our cars, we used hand sanitizer. After getting gas, we used hand sanitizer. And the list could go on and on and on. Over the course of three years, our hands have probably never been cleaner. We prepared ourselves, by washing our hands, for what might come our way. We became obedient to these rules because we wanted to keep ourselves and others safe. We started doing what God has done His whole life: seek to make us clean and prepared for what is to come.

Our text today is about obedience and about submitting to authority, but it is also about recognizing the voice of God in the voices of others, especially if they are calling us to be cleaned. Naaman had little reason to listen to the Prophet Elisha, except that he listened to the voice of the refugee girl whom he made a servant in his house. What does it take to hear the voice of God? To whom do we listen? In the story, the foreign Commander Naaman is invited to wash in the River Jordan to be healed of his leprosy. His willingness to do so is at the crux of the text. Naaman’s willingness to become clean invites us to live with the fact that God washes us and cleanses us from our ailments.

Opening Prayer:

            Let us pray… God of Liberation, We are gathered to meet with you this morning. Open our hearts to the many ways you will speak to us. As you did with the prophets, you call us out of our everyday lives to share your message of love and grace. Challenge us today to look within ourselves so that we may be your disciples. May my words fall to the ground as Your words settle in the hearts of all those before me. In Your name we pray, Amen.

 

Body:

We live in a day and time where leaders seem to take themselves too seriously. Yet, leaders are people. They suffer, they celebrate. They rejoice, they mourn. None of them, however, are able to connect with everyday people as much as they can when they are sick or suffering from some physical ailment.  Typically, upper-level government leaders can secure the best medical consultation and have access to the best pharmaceutical resources. Access to health care is not much of a concern for these leaders— except, of course, when the kind of condition a leader has is not curable.

On one of the conquests of Naaman—a military commander and government leader of his time—a little girl was secured or captured. As a matter of fact, she became the servant of Naaman’s wife. She witnessed Naaman’s misery as well as the challenge that his wife and servants had in caring for him during his moments of discomfort. Remember, Naaman, “a mighty warrior,” had leprosy. Leprosy is a disease of both the Old and New Testaments which causes the skin to have defects or lesions, causing the skin to go white. Moses experienced the same disease in the Book of Exodus chapter four when the LORD was trying to convince Moses that he was the one to do His work (Exodus 4:6). It is also reported that leprosy was often untreatable and even incurable. Essentially, Naaman was unclean and possibly on the brink of death. To help Naaman, the little girl offered a reference. She knew a prophet. She knew that her master back home could cure him. “So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, ‘Go, then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel’” (2 Kings 5:4-5).

Two men of extreme power and authority have found themselves listening to the advice of a servant girl. When was the last time you took advice from someone smaller or of lesser status than yourself? I remember one time when I was babysitting my niece and nephew. It was lunchtime or dinner time, and I had to feed these two kids, otherwise the rest of the day was not going to be fun. My nephew was telling me everything that he wanted to eat and things that his sister liked to eat. Instead of preparing them each a meal of their liking, I prepared them the same meal. My nephew ate his meal with no problem, but my niece slowly ate hers. About ten minutes later, my niece got sick. If only I would have listened to my nephew, I would have not had to experience what came out of that little girl. Even when we think we have authority, someone comes along and reminds us that we don’t know everything: that we must be willing to listen to the tall and the small and the young and the old.

Naaman had plenty of political experience in the realm of international relations. It would make sense to invite the king, Aram, to assist him in securing this special service. The king agrees to send a letter to the king of Israel, who ultimately throws a fit. Verse seven reads, “When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me’” (2 Kings 5:7).

Elisha hears of this fit and sends the king a word of comfort. “Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel” (5:8). It is done. The king sent many gestures of exquisite kindness. But prophets who are settled in their call and assured in their work are not easily swayed. Naaman arrives and is not even greeted by the prophet. There is no state dinner, no pomp and circumstance, nothing. Instead, Elisha sends a messenger who said, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean” (2 Kings 5:10). That was insulting to Naaman: “Naaman became angry and went away, saying, ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease!’” (2 Kings 5:11). But when you are really sick, there isn’t much time for pride. Naaman, encouraged by one of his servants, dipped in the pool, probably feeling ridiculous. But that feeling didn’t last long, as his rough, scaly skin was renewed and restored to the texture of a little boy’s skin.

The text reads, “But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?’ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean’” (2 Kings 5:13-14).  Wouldn’t it be nice, if this sort of thing happened in our life today? All we had to do was take a shower and all our worries and sickness would disappear. All we had to do was wash our hands once and germs would cease to exist. All we had to do was jump in a pool and life would become perfect. All we need is a magic wand! Wouldn’t it be nice to know that cancer could be cured simply be immersing ourselves in water? Wouldn’t be nice to know that COVID could disappear if we immersed ourselves in water? Wouldn’t be nice to know that Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Mental Disabilities could disappear if we immersed ourselves in water? Wouldn’t it be nice to know that all the sicknesses and illnesses and ailments in our life could be wiped away if we simply immersed ourselves in a body of water, if we washed and became cleaned?  Wouldn’t it be nice…?

This, on the surface, seems like a fortunate turn of events. A mighty warrior, a Commander of the Army, becomes sick and listens to the voice of a servant girl and becomes healed by a prophet who is not even physically present. But it is far more in-depth than that. Elisha was a prophet who perhaps did some of his greatest work while sitting on his couch. In fact, this may not have been the prophet’s work at all. This was God’s work. God, as only God can, used a little poor girl to initiate not only the healing of a man but also the witness that God is able to cure the incurable. This isn’t the first time that God has used a poor young girl to bring about immeasurable transformation among those who do not yet know God. God used Eve, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Ruth, Rachel, Sarah, Deborah, Esther, Miriam, Elizabeth, Priscilla, and Martha to change history. All these women gave advice to men that changed their life, that saved their life, and lead them to more deeply understand God. So much was accomplished here. So much was accomplished when Naaman simply listened to the voice of a little girl.

Elisha shows us how not to be too drawn in with being in the spotlight in the fight when doing prophetic work. This prophet, Elisha, was not mesmerized by political pageantry. He was not frightened by the possibility of political strife. While King Aram sent a note and material luxuries, Elisha sent a soldier to the water. Elisha never left his house to meet Naaman. He did not once leave his house to talk to the sojourners responsible for ensuring a successful trip. He never left his post as a prophet. But yet, Naaman heard his voice and his life was changed. Quite frankly, he was quite content doing all this work by staying and being tucked in the margins.

Sometimes in life the greatest advice we could ever receive comes from those who do not have power, who are not well-known, who are just living their life, and who are on the margins of society. But are we listening to those individuals? Are we hearing their voices? Are we practicing what they are preaching? As I have shared with you numerous times, God chooses imperfect people to do extraordinary things. And surprisingly, when we live into this realization our faith grows and we become washed and cleansed: we become washed and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. As a famous hymn asks, “Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?” (Are You Washed in the Blood?, Elisha A. Hoffman, #468).  God is inviting you to immerse yourself in the waters of the River Jordan, to be cleansed of your sins and illnesses. But are you listening to His plea? Are you obeying His command?

Naaman listened to the voice of a servant girl and then followed the instructions of the Prophet Elisha. In today’s culture, we struggle to follow the instructions that inform us how to properly wash our hands. I wonder what it will take before we truly hear the voices of others and fully commit ourselves to the instructions of both God and Jesus Christ?

Conclusion:

Last week, I was given an email to read; and it fits perfectly with the message today. This email was written as a devotion after taking a trip to Israel. Listen to the words of this young female: “Around day two I had a personal dilemma laid on my heart, and I asked God, ‘Yes or no? I’m listening!’ We continued to go to places like Capernaum, Beit Shean, and even being baptized in the Jordan River. Don’t get me wrong, all those places were a blessing! It’s just that I was really hoping once I stepped into a synagogue, climbed a mountain, or came out of the water, I’d have this ah-ha moment of the answer. I never did, but I did realize two things. One, I’m not really listening! I’m in my own head way too much and I’m not letting God take the reins. Sometimes you just need to stop, close your eyes, and breathe. This leads to number two: I’m just not patient enough. Answers from God are on his time, not mine. I was hoping by the end of the trip I would have all my problems solved and feel accomplished. Honestly, I don’t and that’s okay! If you’re to take anything away from this, it’s that you have to get yourself out of your head and be patient on Gods timing.”

This young female reminds us all that it’s not always the extravagant things and places that change our life. Sometimes it’s the small things, the simple things, or things on the margins. We have to listen to what God is telling us. We have to get out of our own head before we can be cleansed. We have to let God “take the reins.” We have to be patient and learn to operate on God’s time. We have to allow God to speak to us. We have to allow God to wash us of our iniquities. The time has come to be washed and to be cleansed. Are you listening for God’s voice to guide you towards the River Jordan? If the small innocent voice of a servant girl can save the life of a powerful military leader, then just think how the voices in your life, the people in your life, can save you. Are you listening?

 

Closing Prayer:

Let us pray…Dear Heavenly Father, help us to be washed, help us to be cleansed, and help us to hear your voice and the voices of all those who need to be heard. Lord, Jesus, we are here to obey your authority and to be the disciple you need us to be. All power and glory is yours, now and forever, Amen.

 

Benediction:

The next time you wash your hands, yes practice what the CDC recommends, but also consider how you are not just washing your hands: You are potentially prolonging your life and saving the lives of many. Are you ready to be washed and cleansed by the healing power of God? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit go transforming lives as you live well and wisely in God’s world. Amen. Amen. Amen.

 

Prayer of Confession/Prayer of the People:

God of Grace and Glory,

We confess that we lose sight of our identities, finding our worth in our status,

our demographic, or even our location.

Forgive us of our idolatry

Forgive us for placing our worldly identities above your love for us.

Forgive us for when we get distracted by elaborate rituals,

holding ourselves superior, simply due to our place of birth.

You, O God, are the source of our identity.

You, O God, call us to love our neighbor.

You, O God, challenge us to learn from one another.

You, O God, tell us to be different!

May we swim in your healing waters,

resting in the fullness of being children of God.

Amen.