Domes - Our Monthly Newsletter
Dunbar UCC
July 8, 2007
2 Kings 5:1-14
Kings and Prophets
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This is a story about healing. It’s a story about a general who served the King of Aram and had a disease nobody could cure. Even his king with the best doctors couldn’t help him. The king of Israel couldn’t help him either.
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It’s human nature to look to our government to help us. We ask our kings to protect us -- save us! But in the world of the bible -- the government is usually corrupt and hurts people more than it helps them. God told the Israelites not to have a king. God told them, “Your king will spend all your money on his army -- raising it, maintaining it, and fighting wars with it.” The people didn’t listen.
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And things haven’t changed. We still want our government, our armies, to save us. But instead, they take our children to fight bad wars -- and our grandchildren will have to pay for these wars -- financially, and spiritually.
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These things don’t change. And through all the human corruption and the wars, the Bible asks us: “Where will we find healing?” Who will heal our diseases, our leprosy, our greed --who will heal it? Physically, most of us have something that’s not right. Many of us take medicine to treat something. And if you’re healthy now, eventually you won’t be. Aging is like leprosy, a slow disease. The joints get stiff, the eyesight fails, the memory won’t work. Until some day our bodies will just quit. We’re all stricken with the leprosy of aging. We can slow it down with exercise, good diet, miracle vitamins -- we can slow our deterioration -- but eventually the grim reaper’s gonna chop all of us down. And all the kings horses, and all the kings men can’t save us.
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But one thing can. There’s a part of us that won’t die. Jesus talked about it a lot. He said: “Don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body but can’t kill the soul.” Then he said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Our idea of life and death is so shallow. When Jesus spoke of life and death, he talked about eternity -- that part of us that we’re shaping right now that will survive our physical bodies. What’s important about the Naaman story is not that he was a powerful general. What’s important is that he followed the directions of the prophet Elisha and washed himself in the Jordan river -- and was healed. Not just the leprosy, but his soul. After he washed in the Jordan, he said to Elisha: “Your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord.” From now on, the king he would serve would be God. In the Jordan river, Naaman’s body and soul were healed. He changed direction -- he repented. Later, John the baptist told people to repent as he baptized them in the same river. And others would be baptized in the name of Jesus from that time until now. Yale New Haven hospital or our family doctors can’t give us this healing. Our government can’t give it to us. But Jesus can. When we turn and ask for a new life following him, our souls -- our spirits will be healed. We will love our enemies as much as we love our friends. We will want the immigrants in our country to share this land with us -- to stay -- and to be happy. Where there’s war, we will want peace. We’ll change. We won’t live in this world any more, but in the kingdom of heaven, right here. Today Marley was baptized -- but each of us can turn our lives over to Jesus right now. He’s waiting for us, and he will give us the healing we need.