By Pastor Frank

2 Kings 5:1-14

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Childrens moment

“Healed From Being a Big Deal”

Many of you probably know of Bill Moyers through his television show on PBS entitled, “Bill Moyer’s Journal.”  He has been a journalist and public commentator for many years, and is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church.  From 1965 to 1967 he served as the White House Press Secretary for President Lyndon Johnson.  During his time in the White House, the President often asked him to pray before a meeting or a meal.

Once, just as Moyers began a prayer, the President spoke up and said, “Louder, I can’t hear you.”
Moyers responded, “With all due respect, Mr. President, the prayer is not addressed to you.”

Every once in a while we all need a little humbling. 

Many years later Moyers was on his way to his hometown in Texas.  He landed at the airport and was waiting for his luggage to appear at the baggage claim.   Suddenly, an older woman approached him and excitedly said,  “Oh, goodness, ohhh, my goodness, oh!  I can't tell you how much I enjoy your work, Mr. Kuralt.  But you look different in person than you do on television." 

And Moyers said, "Yes, ma'am.  On television, I'm fatter and balder.  And the woman replied, "Oh, we love you both ways." 

Yes, we all need to be humbled from time to time.  In those moments when we think we’ve got it all, when life couldn’t get better, when we believe we have all the answers, when we feel we’re kind of a big deal, we sometimes need a good dose of humbleness.

In our lesson today we find a person who was, according to all the measurements of his day, a very “big deal.”  Naaman was a military commander and very good at his trade.  In fact, he was the commander of all the armies of the kingdom of Aram which had recently conquered Israel.  He was wealthy, powerful, strong, and brave, and he had connections.  Because of his recent victories he was favored by the King of Aram ear.  Whatever he desired he could have, all he had to do was ask the king.

People looked up to Naaman and admired all that he had done with his life—his victories, his strength, his determination, his wealth—and many people wanted what he had.  But there was one thing they didn’t want—nobody wanted his leprosy.  Naaman, for all his power and might, suffered from a skin ailment that disfigured him and made him ugly in the eyes of society.  Yeah, his wife somehow put up with it, but he often wondered if she would be around if it weren’t for the comfort and security he provided.  After all, there were days that even he couldn’t bear to see himself in the mirror.

The story goes that Naaman’s wife hears through her Israelite slave girl there is a prophet in Samaria who could heal her husband.  When Naaman hears the news he immediately goes to the King of Aram and requests his help with the matter.  This is his chance.  Finally, he has the opportunity to have it all—fame, power, wealth, and a perfect complexion.  The King of Aram writes out a letter to the King of Israel to assist Naaman with this matter.  Armed with this letter, and all the power and threat that comes with it, Naaman sets off for Israel.

Naaman doesn’t come empty handed.  He’s carrying all the money and goods he could carry—ten thousand talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, mounds of expensive and difficult to find cloth.  He knows he’ll have to pay for his cure, but it will be worth it.  It will be worth it not to have people avoid looking at his horrible disfigurement.

The King of Israel upon reading the letter knows that he is in danger, that with the bribes of wealth also comes the promise of disaster if he doesn’t help Naaman.  The prophet Elisha hears of his predicament and sends a message to the king encouraging him to send Naaman to him.

Naaman does as the king says and rides up to the entrance of Elisha’s house on his horses and chariots.  Naaman must think that with this show of power and strength, the prophet/healer will know exactly who his dealing with.  But Elisha doesn’t even come out of his house.  He simply sends out a messenger with instructions for Naaman to wash seven times in the river Jordan and he will be healed.

Now you would think that is an easy thing to do, to get off your horse and wash seven times in a river, but not for a man like Naaman.  He reacts with pride and arrogance.  He can’t believe this foreign prophet doesn’t even come out of his house to greet him.  There has to be more to his cure than just washing in the Jordan, which is nothing more than a muddy crick.  Why couldn’t he wash in the magnificent waters of Damascus?  Certainly that would be more befitting a man of his stature.  He turns and goes away in a rage.

Eventually, through the prompting of his servants, Naaman returns, does as the prophet instructed, and his flesh was restored. 

What was it that kept Naaman from doing something seemingly so simple to be cured of his ailment?  Nothing more than arrogance and pride.  In order to be made whole again, Naaman had to humble himself, he had to submit himself to a foreign prophet, he had to literally get down off his high horse, go down into the water of the Jordan and immerse himself in those foreign waters.  He was healed of his leprosy, but perhaps more importantly he was healed of being a “big deal!”

Arrogance and pride bring tragic results don’t they?  We’ve recently seen this played out in the national news.  A brilliant, competent general gets fired because he failed to let go of his arrogance and pride.  How easy it would have been for he and his aides not to have said the damaging words they did.  Were his actions a lack of judgment, an aberration, a momentary slip?  Yes, all those, but, most importantly they were arrogant and prideful.  As a result he lost his job—I guess we don’t know if he was healed of being a big deal.

As difficult as it has been for us to see the devastation in our gulf waters due to the continuing oil spill from a well mismanaged by BP, as hard as it has been to see the oil continue to gush into the waters of that region, as horrifying as it has been to see the damaging effect on wildlife and on the lives of so many who depend on those resources for their jobs, it was incredulous to hear the chief executive of that company say how BP was doing all it could for the “little people.”  A misjudgment, a slip of the tongue, a result of stress, no doubt, but there is also present in that statement a good deal of arrogance and pride, not just on the part of the CEO but on the part of the company.  He lost his job too, I guess we don’t know if he was healed of being a big deal, or if BP execs will continue to think and act in the same manner.
But this doesn’t just happen to generals and chief operating officers, it happens to us too.  We sometimes find that arrogance or pride gets in the way of grasping the healing that we need.  I recently discovered this as I tried to talk my father, who recently turned 87.  I asked him not to drive out to my wedding in October, but rather to fly.  I offered to buy the tickets for he and my mom.  It would be my gift to them since they have done so much for me.  It seems like a simple thing to do—fly for 2 hours rather than taking two days on dangerous roads with just you and your spouse who is suffering from Alzheimers.  But he wouldn’t hear of it.  I know part of the reason he wanted to drive was to save me money, he thought it was too expensive.  But part of the reason he kept refusing the offer was simple pride. 

I kept at him all weekend and even in my Father’s Day card to him I wrote, “Please make my Father’s Day and allow us to buy your airline tickets!”  I was pulling out all the stops! 

He finally relented and agreed to have us buy the tickets.  Afterward, I could tell he was relieved, he even commented to a friend, “Yes, it will be a big relief.  We won’t have to drive all that way and we can just enjoy the week together.”

I’m glad my father humbled himself and received the healing he needed, that we all needed.

I wonder if Naaman’s story might also be good for us to reflect upon as a nation as we gather here today on Independence Day.  Every seven years July 4th falls on a Sunday, and it provides an opportunity for us to think about how our faith does and does not connect with our citizenship. 

Like Naaman, we are part of a nation that is very powerful, perhaps the most powerful and wealthy nation that has ever existed.  We were founded on the ideal of freedom and the belief that we’re all created as equals by God.    We’ve tried to live up to those beliefs, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing.
But Naaman’s story also reminds us that we are at our best, our most noblest as a nation when we are willing to humble ourselves.  In fact, it is often only through that act of humbling ourselves, and admitting that we don’t have all the answers, when we let go of our pride that sometimes the solutions and the healing we’re seeking present themselves.  Sometimes in submitting, in lowering ourselves, in letting go of the notion that we are a “big deal,” we find our best selves as individuals and as a nation.

I wish you a joyful, blessed, and safe holiday today and tomorrow.  Some of us will be with family or friends, some of us will shoot off fireworks or be annoyed at them, some of us will eat, and eat, and eat.  Some of us will just try to relax a bit.  Whatever you do I encourage you to do two things.  First, give thanks for all those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom and who continue to do so today.  We may not always agree with the policies of various administrations, but we do enjoy a freedom that is not present in much of our world.  Say a prayer for men and women who are in the midst of wars today, knowing that they are separated from their families.

Second, I ask you to pray that our country, our leaders, each of us will remember, like Naaman, to be humble, to let go of our pride, to push away the arrogance that tries to creep into us, to recognize that we have made mistakes, to always seek to be about reconciliation with those who have hurt us, so that we never think of ourselves as a “big deal.”