Simple Instructions
“He
drew a circle that shut me out-
3.
Take a walk every day.
Scripture
reading: 2 Kings 5:1–14
Naaman
was insulted. He had leprosy, a dreaded skin disease, and he had
come from Syria to Israel - a long distance to get cured,. He had
received the blessing of his king to make the journey, he had brought
gifts with him that were worth a huge fortune: thirty thousand pieces
of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine
clothes. He had gone to the King of Israel to be cured, the king of
Israel sent him to the prophet Elisha, and when at last he had come
to the home of the prophet Elisha, Elisha didn't invite him in to the
house, Elisha didn't even come out of his house to greet him or to
examine his skin or to treat him for his terrible illness. Elisha
simply sent out a servant to deliver instruction. The instructions
were simple, he told Naaman to “Go and wash yourself seven times in
the Jordan River, and you will be completely cured of your disease.”
That
was an insult to think that such simple instructions could be the
cure for his disease. He was an important person, willing to pay
vast sums of money for his cure. He deserved better treatment than
such simple instructions. Elisha should at least see him in person,
pray to the Lord his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and
cure me! It is too simple, “go wash in a river” and not just any
river, in the nasty dirty Jordan river. If I could be cured by
dipping in a river I could have stayed home and dipped myself in the
Abana and Pharpar rivers. They are much prettier and much cleaner
than the Jordan river, or any river in Israel.
Now
Naaman's servant had better sense than Naaman did. Isn't it the
truth than often the servant his more sense than the master, the
employee often has more sense than the employer, the poor and
disenfranchised people have better sense than the rich and the
powerful. It was a slave, a little Israelite girl, a captive of war
who knew that there was a prohet in Israel who could cure all manner
of diseases. If it hadn't been for this slave girl Naaman would have
never come to Israel. Now Naaman's servant tries to talk some sense
into his master who was being too proud and stuborn to follow
Elisha's simple instructions. Look, the servant said, if the prophet
told you to do some dangerous or difficult thing to achieve your cure
you would do it wouldn't you? Why then can't you just do the simple
thing the prophet told you to do, and be cured of your leprosy.
Thankfully Naaman listened to his servant and did go and dip himself
seven times in the Jordan and he was cured of his leprosy.
Medicine
has advanced a long way since the days of Elisha, but it remains the
case that sometimes the best path to health and healing is to follow
some simple instructions. When we moved to Florida we stayed in the
Manse while we were looking for a house to purchase. We noted that
our neighbor, Betty Williams was a walker. Early in the morning
before the sun got too hot to be outside comfortably and again in the
evening when it began to cool down just before sunset she came out of
her house and took off walking at a fast pace. No dog to walk, just
Betty taking off down the street. Now I would never guess a woman's
age, but let us say that Betty had retired several years before we
met her. She told us why she walked regularly, it was a matter of
following her doctor's simple instructions. She had been having some
sort of heart problems and was under the care of a cardiologist, and
he gave her simple instructions for better health, he told her to
walk a mile twice a day and eat less. As far as I know that might
have been the only treatment he gave her, and it worked. She had
taken her car and measured exactly how far a mile was and she walked
the same course twice a day, every day.
Now
some people would reject such simple instructions. I mean modern
medicine has so many tools to diagnose and treat illness; most people
expect their doctor to use them all. Don't I need a cat scan or a
MRI? Do you think I need angioplasty or a stent in my heart? What
about open heart surgery? Aren't you even going to prescribe any
medication? Not Betty, she was a person with a lot of good sense,
she figured the doctor has spent all those years in school and knew
what he was doing, so she did exactly what he told her to do. She
walked exactly one mile twice a day and ate less food than she had
been eating, and before you know it she lost weight and was in
excellent health. Like Naaman the key to her health lay in following
simple instructions. She didn't argue with the doctor, and she
didn't follow instructions for a few months and then decide she
didn't need any more exercise, she went out her door and walked her
measured mile twice a day and ate enough less to loose the extra
pounds.
A
lot of people think that following Jesus is a complicated matter.
Through out the ages the Christian faith has split into various
factions over the most trivial things. The Catholics and Orthodox
Churches split over whether the spirit proceeds from the father or if
the spirit proceeds from the father and the son. There are two
divisions of the Church of God, one believes in instrumental music
for worship and the other division says that the New Testament
doesn't mention organs or guitars or pianos, or tamborines people who
follow Jesus should sing without accompanyment. The Presbyterian
Church has split apart again and again, and is still fracturing into
various denominations over whether ministers must be seminary
educated, over whether women can preach in the pulpit, and now over
whether homosexuals can be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons.
We divide over how to interpret the Bible, whether the Church should
be involved in social change, whether the Church should be involved
in politics, whether Christians can drink or smoke or play cards, or
work on Sunday.
The
Jewish faith, the faith of Jesus and his people was no different.
Jews delighted to argue and debate over which of the hundred's of
commandments and ordinances in their scriptures were the most
important. Is it ever permissable to eat unclean food? How strictly
do we need to keep the Sabbath? Were there ever circumstances when
you can work on the Sabbath? You remember many people condemned
Jesus because he healed people on the Sabbath.
The
leaders of the Jewish faith came to Jesus and tried to involve him in
these arguments, hoping to diminish his popular support by making him
answer questions that would alienate one or another faction however
he answered. They asked him which was the first and greatest
commandment and he answered by giving them simple instructions for
right living. He said (Matthew 22:37-39) ‘You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’
Now
there are pretty simple instructions for Christian living, or for
Jewish living, or for right living. Love God and love your neighbor.
What could be simpler than this? On this hangs all the law and the
prophets. If you follow these simple instructions you will be able
to figure our what is really important in all the whole of the
scriptures. It all depends on these two simple directions. But of
course this was two simple for the religious leaders. They couldn't
argue about the loving God part of it, but they asked. But who is
really my neighbor? Your certainly don't mean I have to love someone
simply because he lives in my neighborhood. I have enemies who live
in my neighborhood, you certainly don't mean I should love them. I
mean I do love my family (at least most members of my family) and I
love the people who are my close friends, but there are other people
in my village who aren't even Jews. I certainly don't love the
Romans who Lord it over us. The bum down the street who is always
wanting to borrow my things, who doesn't work hard for a living like
I do, I certainly don't love him. It's not so simple as you say, to
love your neighbor as myself.
So
Jesus told him a story. He said that there was a certain man who was
making a journey and on a lonely stretch of road he was set upon by
theives, who beat him up and robbed him and left him all messed up
and bloody on the side of the road with no wallet or money or
anything. It happened that there were two religious leaders who came
down the same stretch of road and each of them saw the man, but
neither one of them wanted to get involved. They would get bloody
themselves if they did anything to help the poor man, and then they
would be ritually unclean and couldn't lead worship or whatever.
Maybe they thought they better hurry on down the road before they got
set on by the same band of thieves. What ever their reasons they
passed by on the other side of the road and left him lying on the
side of the road, bleeding and dying, helpless and needing help.
Maybe they thought I don't know him, he is not a part of my
congregation, he doesn't live in my neighborhood, he is not my
responsibility.
But
there was a third man who came down the road and had compassion on
the poor fellow who had been beaten and robbed. Do you know what
compassion means, it means you feel with the other person.
Maybe he felt with the poor man on the roadside because he too had
been mistreated at some time, or maybe many times in his life. We
don't really know much about the man who had compassion, except that
he got of his donkey and helped the man, cleaned out his wounds,
bandaged them up to stop the bleeding, and took him to the nearest
village and found an Inn. He paid for the man's stay, since the poor
fellow had been robbed and had nothing, and asked the Innkeeper to
take care of him during his recovery, see that he got fed and
promised to pay the rest of the bill if what he had already given was
not enough.
We
do know more thing about the man who had compassion, Jesus tell us
that he was a Samaritan. If you have done any Bible study you may
remember that the Samaritans and the Jews were enemies of one
another. The Jews regarded the Samaritans as unclean, as pretend
Jews. The Jews said the Samaritans' religion was not pure. They were
people who had intermarried with the heathens when the so called pure
Jews were taken into exile.
Since we don't have
any Samaritans in our community I think Jesus would tell the story
differently if he were to come to Mason Square. When Clarance Jordan
told this story to his white congregation in rural Georgia some 40
years ago he said that the third man, the man who had compassion and
helped the poor man who had been beaten and robbed, the third man to
come down the road was a Negro. I guess if Jesus came here this
morning to tell the same story he might say that this third man was a
homosexual, or maybe a transsexual. Maybe Jesus would say the third
man was a homeless drug addict. Maybe he would say that the man who
had compassion was an undoccumented immigrant. The point is that the
compassionate person was the kind of person who none of Jesus
listeners would have thought of as a neighbor. The Samaritan, the
undoccumented immigrant, was one of those people that we would want
to exclude from the category of neighbor when we hear Jesus say to
love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus finished telling his
story he asked his hearers. Which of these three, do you think, was a
neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He
said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go
and do likewise.”
When
you understand the meaning of Jesus story then we can re-write Jesus
simple instructions and hear him say that the first commandment is to
love God with everything you are and all that you have, and love
everybody.
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