"Little and Mighty", a sermon.

“Little and Mighty”
2 Kings 5:1-14
Mark 10:35-45
Chapel
The Nile Theological College
Spring Semester, 2012
Rev. Debbie Blane

Two Bible passages. Two stories of men who want to be the “top dog”.
Jesus’ response to them? If you want to be the “top dog” you have to take
your place in line with everyone else.

There is no such thing as top dog in Jesus’ world. Jesus wasn’t top dog either. He was a servant. And he told us that is what we, as leader’s in the church, are supposed to be too. Servants.

As I re-read the passage in 2 Kings I noted with interest that the Arameans, in one of their raids, had taken a young girl captive. The young girl who was to be the catalyst for change in this story. I thought to myself, “hmmm, that sounds a lot like South Sudan. Children being kidnapped in raids.”

The Bible always speaks to us in our own times.

The passage begins with a description of Namaan. He was a great warrior. One of the problems with Namaan, as we will find later in the story, is that he does not interpret his greatness in the same way that God does.

If he was in charge of the raids, and it sounds like he was, then this means he was also giving approval for kidnapping of young children. This was not good news for the children or for their families. It was only a benefit for the people who received free child labor in their homes and businesses.

We can create a story here out of the information we are given in the Biblical text. So I am doing to do that...create a story that puts flesh and blood and bone on the minimalist report that the Scripture gives us about this event.

A young girl had been kidnapped on one of the raids led by Namaan who was the Commander of the army of the King of Aram. She had been brought to the home of the Commander himself, Namaan, and his wife. She served Namaan’s wife.

She had been brought up in a home where she had learned to speak the truth and had learned to listen carefully to what was talked about around her. In spite of being a foreigner in a foreign land she was a young girl with a heart of love. She cared about people and wanted the best for them even when those very people had taken her far away from her own home and land and from her mother and father and sisters and brothers.

One day she was folding linens with her mistress and her mistress mentioned that she was so very sad that her husband Namaan had leprosy. Her mistress said that she wished there was a way that Namaan could be cured so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen in public any longer.

The young girl remembered a man who she had heard about when she was at home in her own land of Israel. She didn’t know his name but she did know that he was a prophet and that he lived in Samaria. And she knew that he had a reputation for healing people. Perhaps he could heal her mistresses’ husband.....

She spoke up and told her mistress that if only her lord was with this prophet that he might be able to heal his leprosy.

We can imagine what happened next. Perhaps the mistress began crying with joy at the thought that her husband might have a chance to be cured. Perhaps she thanked her young helper. Perhaps she ran down the hall to find Namaan and share the good news with him, “The young girl who you brought to me from the land of Israel knows of a prophet who might be able to heal you Namaan!”

Perhaps Namaan jumped right up from the work he was doing in his office, polishing his fine boots and horses’ saddle, and ran to the king, hoping beyond hope that this word could indeed be true! Could he, a great Commander, truly be healed of the leprosy that had plagued him for so long? After all, a man so great as he deserved to be cured of this horrible skin condition! Who was more worthy of this than Namaan himself, a mighty Commander of a mighty army? Scripture doesn’t tell us if he thanked the young girl for this suggestion or not....as so many of the woman in Scripture once she has made a life changing suggestion her role is over.

Namaan ran to the King of Aram and told him what the young girl from Israel had told his wife. There might be a cure! The King was probably very relieved because the leprosy probably caused Namaan to have to take more sick days than the King wanted him to!

So the King sent Namaan off to Israel to the King of Israel. The King of Aram was going through the proper diplomatic channels and dealing with the head of state who could then deal with the prophet. The prophet was way down the line of authority.

The King sent Namaan with a letter of introduction and very special gifts and no doubt explained how very valuable Namaan was to him because he was such as important Commander of his army.

The King of Israel was not terribly happy to receive Namaan, the gifts and the letter. “Grrrr!” he said! How did I get put into the middle of this mess?

Fortunately Elisha, the man of God, heard that the King of Israel was ripping his clothes up because he had been upset by this visitor. Elisha sent a message to the King of Israel. “Let the man come to me so that he can find out that there is a prophet in this land.”

Namaan went to Elisha’s gate. Namaan had his entire retinue with him. He had his horses and chariots. Can you tell that Namaan was letting people know how important he was and how rich he was? He was not a modest man either in how much money he had or in how he behaved. He was an important man and he was letting Elisha know that.

Elisha sent another message. This time it was to Namaan. “Go and wash yourself in the Jordan seven times. You will be healed.”

So, did Namaan go do this? Did he run to Jordan and wash himself seven times and rejoice in his healing?

Certainly not. Namaan was an important man. Namaan was the Commander of the King of Aran’s army. Namaan had horses and chariots. He expected Elisha to recognize all of this and treat him differently than he would treat other people. He expected Elisha to acknowledge just how important Namaan was. And Elisha didn’t.

Namaan threw a fit. “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 leprosy!”

Namaan was special. Namaan was important. And Elisha didn’t acknowledge that. To Elisha, Namaan was no better and no worse, no more important than all of the rest of God’s children.

Furthermore, Namaan didn’t want to bathe in the Jordan. There were other rivers which were much more exotic. He wanted to go to one of them. He was special. Namaan turned away in a rage.

Lucky for Namaan that he had servants who were not as egotistical as he was. They could see that Namaan was not going to be cured if he continued acting like a two year old. So they reasoned with him. “If it was something difficult that Elisha asked you to do, would you not do it?” Yes, of course he would have. Something befitting his stature in life.

Instead, Elisha was treating him as Elisha would have treated any child. Simply.

Eventually Namaan went down to the Jordan river, bathed seven times, and was healed.

Do you suppose that this healing of his leprosy helped to heal him of his arrogance? In the part of this story, which we are not reading, it appears that this episode did perhaps heal him of his arrogance. It does not however tell us if he ever went back to the young girl who served his wife and thanked her. But because Elisha did not respond to Namaan’s temper tantrums and treated him like a normal person, Namaan’s arrogance was healed too.

When we turn to our passage in Mark we can see a similar story. Two of Jesus’ disciples seemed to believe that they were better than the other ten disciples and they wanted a special place for themselves at the right and the left of Jesus when he became a great military ruler.

If Namaan had lived in the time of Jesus instead of the time of Elisha, he might have heard different words than “go to the Jordan and bathe seven times and you will be healed.” He might have heard: “...whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Whether it was the wisdom of Elisha or the words of eternal life of Jesus, Namaan would have heard that he was no better than anyone else. That to be a great Commander of an army meant to be a servant of the people who worked under him. It did not mean to be pompous and to expect special treatment.

Do you know who I think is the greatest of all (besides Jesus of course!) in these two stories from our Scripture?

I think it is the nameless young girl who was taken captive in a raid by the Aramean army from her native land of Israel. She did not have to speak up about Elisha, but she did. She chose to be a servant in the truest sense of the word. Though she was the lowest person in the household, a servant and a female, she thought to care for the person who was the most powerful. She could have chosen to continue to watch him suffer. But she did not. She spoke words of life to his wife who spoke them to Namaan.

I believe that this young girl was the embodiment of Jesus’ words that the last shall be first. May she be an example to all of us of the unselfishness of servanthood. Though little she was mighty. She did not aspire to greatness and yet she was great because she truly served. More than her chores and duties to her mistress she served out of her knowledge that came from her home land, knowledge that no one else would have had. And because of this a young girl who had been ripped away from her people became good news to Namaan. And when Namaan was healed physically it appears in the rest of the story that he was healed emotionally and spiritually too. And who knows who else was healed because he was healed because she had spoken words of life.

This is redemption. God takes situations that are meant for evil and turns them into good.

Do you see yourself in this story? Which of the characters are you? The servant girl, Namaan’s wife, Namaan, The King of Aram or the King of Israel, Elisha or one of Namaan’s servants who encouraged him to learn to be humble? Whoever you are in the story you can know that God works in ALL of us. Redemption is a gift that knows no gender, class or racial boundaries. God can redeem the most humble -- and even the most arrogant!
Alleluia!
Amen!