Sunday Worship 6 July | Lectionary Proper 9: Naaman and the Seventy-Two

I explained where we would be heading in our Sunday teaching a couple of weeks ago, but I appreciate not everyone was here then, so with apologies to those of you who have already heard some of this, I want to quickly set some context before we hear our readings. Starting from today, we will be following the lectionary. We have done this for seasons before, and some of you may have spent time in traditions where that is the usual practice, but in case you are not familiar with the lectionary, it is a three year set of readings which covers the majority of scripture. For each day there is a reading from the Old Testament and the Psalms and the New Testament and the Gospels, so it encourages us to engage with a breadth of scripture, and identify both themes and tensions that run through these holy writings. We won’t use every reading every week, although I will put them all in the Contact so you can read them for yourselves, but I hope it will get us into good habits and exercise some bible reading muscles that we may have neglected.

Because what led us to this was a request that we spend some more time looking at the Old Testament. I’ve hesitated for a while, not because I don’t like the Old Testament, and certainly not because I don’t think the Old Testament is important, but because I wasn’t sure what approach to take. It is a really diverse collection of texts, and looking at it in its entirety is really quite overwhelming. And while I believe passionately in the importance of biblical literacy, I appreciate that a series of lectures on the history and composition of the Old Testament would bore many of you to tears. I hope the overview I gave two weeks ago of the narrative and voices of the Old Testament will help you situate where we are in the story and understand what kind of text we are reading, and I encourage you to look back at it on the blog if you missed it or find you need a refresher, but I want to avoid a rehash of the Introduction to the Old Testament module I studied at theological college.

Inspiration struck when I discovered that even the late great Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggeman preached fewer than ten percent of his sermons from the Old Testament alone, and the overwhelming majority of his sermons were from the Old and New Testament together. That suggested to me that the best way to get to grips with the Old Testament is to read it often and to read it alongside the New Testament, hence the lectionary. I hope this will give us a good grounding in these ancient stories of faith, without ever taking us too far from Christ. I hope it will help us see some of those themes and tensions I mentioned earlier, so that we get a greater sense of how scripture interacts with itself. And I hope it will be challenging and enriching, as we approach these varied texts with open hands and open hearts.

2 Kings 5:1-14 

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!” When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

So we begin with the story of Naaman. In case the title of the book it comes from didn’t give it away, this episode comes during the ‘monarchy’ part of the journey through the Old Testament that we saw two weeks ago. To bring us up to speed, the family promised to Abraham grew into a nation which united under a monarchy. Saul was appointed as the first king of Israel, and was succeeded by David who was followed by his son Solomon. After Solomon’s death, the nation divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Each saw a succession of good and bad kings, held to account by prophets, most notably Elijah in the northern kingdom. He had a flair for the dramatic and was said to have been taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, leaving his second in command Elisha as the dominant voice in Israel. The story we are concerned with this morning takes place between the northern kingdom of Israel and the neighbouring kingdom of Aram, during the time of Elisha.

When we first meet Naaman, he is both a military commander in a foreign army and a man suffering from a skin disease. We know from elsewhere in scripture that Jewish law exiled those with skin diseases to protect the community, so I am left wondering whether the culture Naaman belonged to was more accepting of illness, or whether he had hidden his condition, only breaking cover when there was a chance of a cure. Either way, we can be sure that from the perspective of the author and audience of the text, as a warrior he was to be respected and feared, yet as a leper he was to be rejected and pitied. He is then a striking figure from the moment we are introduced to him. It’s easy to flatten out characters in scripture, but they are as complex as we are.

We find that same complexity if we turn to the young girl taken captive from Israel and now serving Naaman’s wife. She has been robbed of her home and her freedom and her name, but she has not lost her voice or her faith or her humanity. It is important that we hold those aspects in tension, admiring her spirit but not forgetting her circumstance. The language we heard in the text is far too polite, and she is in truth a slave and a hostage. I have known the story of Naaman since I was a child, but describing this young girl as an Israeli hostage takes on new resonance in the light of what is happening in the Middle East. It ought to remind us that Israel has a long history of conflict and suffering, and we should mourn for that. But as the story unfolds a picture of grace and healing, it ought also to remind us that there are ways of responding that do not perpetuate or escalate violence.

We have met two of our principal characters, so now let's get into the story. Naaman may have been hiding his condition at work, but he can't hide it at home, and a foreign slave girl would have factored so low in his regard that he probably wouldn't have thought to hide it in front of her anyway. So she sees that he is ill, and she says she knows a man who can heal him. Maybe she thought she could win some favour and make her time in Aram more bearable. Maybe she thought Naaman would take her with him to see the prophet and she would have a chance of escape. Or maybe she simply saw someone suffering and was moved to help.

Naaman seeks permission from the king of Aram and is sent with a letter for the king of Israel, who goes into a bit of a panic thinking this is the prelude to another conflict. Thankfully Elisha steps in and tells the king of Israel to send Naaman to him, which in fairness was what was supposed to happen all along. Sometimes it's better to leave the powers and systems out of it, and just relate to one another as people. So Naaman takes his chariots and pulls up at Elisha's front door. Naaman is a powerful man and he expects to be greeted with respect, but Elisha simply sends a messenger out to tell him to go and bathe in the Jordan river. Naaman is outraged by what he sees as the prophet's extreme rudeness, but this is a necessarily humbling moment. Naaman’s servants point out that if he had been told to do something great, he would have done it without question. It is the simplicity and perhaps the strangeness of the act that seems to offend him, but he needs to understand that for all his military accolades, he is a man like any other.

It is not just humility that Naaman needs but perseverance, because he must bathe in the river seven times. I wonder how you would direct this scene if you were making a film of Naaman's life. Would you have him go in and out of the river seven times? Or stand in the water bobbing up and down so that he submerges himself seven times? Would his skin become a little clearer each time? Or would the healing happen all at once after the seventh time?  It doesn't really matter because what is important is that he has to keep going. Even the things that God has promised can take time. 

When Naaman finally emerges, his skin is like that of a young boy, which I find a really interesting expression for two reasons. First, there is the sense that Naaman has the chance to begin again. He has become like a child and he can choose how he matures from here. And we do see a change in Naaman in the verses that follow this reading, as he declares that he “will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any god but the Lord”. Second, the word for ‘young boy’ can also be translated ‘servant’, so there is perhaps a sense that he now identifies more closely with the slave girl who sent him to Elisha and the servants who told him not to be undone by his own hubris. As we see so often in the gospels, physical healing has also led to a reordering or restoring of relationships, a foreshadowing of the fullness of healing that will come when the kingdom of God is fully established.

I suggested some time ago that there are two questions we can ask of any passage of scripture, and I want to draw our reflection on the heating of Naaman to a close by putting them to you now. The first question is What does this passage tell us about God? For me, this story says that God has little regard for our borders and our categories. Naaman and the slave girl could not be more different in terms of their situation in life, and yet God is at work through both of their stories. The second is What does this passage tell us about us? For me, this story challenges us to ask if we are as willing as Naaman to accept the simplicity and strangeness of God's word. Because if we can live by it with humility and perseverance, wonders can happen. 

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’

“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Sometimes the lectionary readings have a very obvious theme, and sometimes they do not. The readings we have heard this morning are connected by references to healing, but also I think by the importance of humility and perseverance. We saw that they were necessary for Naaman, and they are crucial to the mission Jesus sets out for the seventy-two. They must make themselves the guest, not relying on their own resources, or moving from house to house looking for the most generous hosts, but accepting whatever is put before them. And they must keep going, being willing to be rejected and ready to move on to another place and try again.

This passage also opens up some possibilities that we can take back to our reading of Naaman, because here we see that the work of the gospel has a communal element. Jesus speaks first about entering a house, and then about entering a town, so it seems the seventy-two are not expected to be preaching to the odd person here and there, but to whole households and communities. Accepting the gospel is a deeply personal thing, but it is not something that remains within our person. It transforms relationships and it can reshape whole societies. That is not by accident but design, and so it makes sense that Jesus sends the seventy-two to preach to families and neighbourhoods together. Naaman's healing happens in a foreign land with only his servants for company, but I wonder what happened when he returned home. Was he perhaps like the woman at the well, who witnessed to her neighbours? What transformation happened in Naaman's household and community?

Let's look more closely at the gospel passage now, and the three strands of the mission Jesus gives to the seventy-two. Firstly they are to speak peace. I read a suggestion this week that this was a kind of passcode, a phrase that was known within the early community of believers, and if the disciples received the correct response, they would know this was a safe place. It's like the story that early Christians would scratch a fish shape in the dirt as a kind of test. If the other person added an eye, then they would both know they were Christians, if not then they could pass it off as a random doodle. I don't know what truth there is in this, but it makes little sense to me that the seventy-two would only stay in Christian households, when Jesus said he was sending them to be lambs among wolves. I see the speaking of peace as the offering of a gift, which if accepted and reciprocated could establish a relationship of mutuality and respect, whether there was a shared faith or not. There are people who promote peace in all cultures and religions.

Once the seventy-two have established themselves in a town, they are to heal the sick. It is natural to read this very literally as healing of bodily sickness, given the miraculous healings we see throughout the gospels, and I don't want to deny the possibility of that kind of healing, but I do want to suggest that we might broaden our understanding. There is also healing of relationships and of injustice, healing of shame and of fear. Last week we ended our time together by singing “shalom” as a blessing, and shalom has a sense of wholeness and restoration. I think that is the kind of healing that we are to hope and work for, as was hinted at in the story of Naaman.

Finally, the seventy-two are to preach the kingdom. Specifically, they are to preach that the kingdom has come near even if the people reject it. The kingdom is growing like a mustard seed. It is rising like yeast. It is breaking through into our reality and nothing can stop it, we just have to decide if we want to be a part of it. So for those of us who have accepted this kingdom, who want to join with the mission of the seventy-two, how do we preach it? Jesus didn't give a simple answer, so I'm not sure it's for me to attempt one in the short while I have left this morning. All I will suggest is that if we are to declare that the kingdom of God is near, a good start would be to draw people’s attention to the signs of the kingdom around us, to the justice and joy and generosity that are signs of God at work.

At the end of our passage, Jesus declares that he has seen Satan fall like lightning, and nothing will harm those who preach in his name. I'm not sure if he was being optimistic or poetic, but we know that evil has not been crashed out of existence, and we know that people have been persecuted for the sake of the gospel for two thousand years. The world has certainly changed because of the gospel and those who have shared it, but there is still work to do and at times it will be hard and even dangerous. There is encouragement however in the other New Testament reading from the lectionary for today, as Paul exhorts the Galatians: “Do not let us grow weary in doing good”. Let us take those words to heart, as we reflect for ourselves on how we might speak peace, and heal the sick and preach the kingdom.