There are a few things I’ve done around here that still make me smile. You might think of the services we had online during the COVID lockdown, or the Extra-ordinary time on leap day, or even the pride celebrations. But one of the things that makes me smile is a magnet I installed to hold open the Social Hall door.
We had issues with putting the hook in place to keep it open, and releasing the hook afterwards, so I put a metal plate on the door and a magnet on the way. If you open the door all the way, the magnet holds it open. But it takes only a little push to close the door again.
Every time I open or close that door, that little change make me happy.
Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.
In our reading today from the Hebrew scriptures, Naaman suffers with a skin condition. In some translations, it says he has leprosy. It doesn’t stop him from being a great warrior and the commander of Aram’s army.
And a girl from Israel who had been taken captive by the Arameans suggests to her mistress, who just happens to be Naaman’s wife, that Naaman’s skin condition might be healed by the prophet in Israel.
When we’re talking about the Kingdom of Israel, we’re not talking about Israel as we know it today. Israel and Judah have split into two nations, and the Israel in this passage is the northern kingdom.
Bear in mind that the Aram and Israel are at war at this point.
The king of Aram sends Naaman to Israel with a letter, ten sets of garments, ten silver talents, which would be 748 pounds of silver worth $403,697 today, and six thousand shekels of gold, weighing 145.20 pounds, worth seven million dollars today.
The kingdom of Aram knew how to do government-subsidized healthcare for the military.
The king of Israel, with all his power, cannot heal Naaman’s skin condition.
But the prophet Elisha says he can heal Naaman. And he tells Naaman to wash in the Jordan river seven times.
Now imagine you have a skin condition. No doctors in the area can treat it. You hear of someone in Los Angeles who can help, and your employer sends you to LA with $7,403,697 to get healed.
Let’s say you drive down. It takes a few days. And the person who can heal you tells you to wash the afflicted skin the the LA River seven times.
A multi-day journey and seven and a half million dollars to go wash in a river seven times.
We have rivers here. Where’s this healer’s power? Why couldn’t he have miraculously cleaned this? And why come all this way to just wash in a river?
Here’s where I might say something about baptism washing away sin, but I won’t.
Sometimes we come to church with ideas that there will be miraculous healing, that someone – perhaps the pastor – will
“call on the name of the LORD his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease”
– 2 Kings 5:11 NRSVue
Sometimes we have to do something. Even a small thing. And when it’s a small thing, we might be troubled by the smallness of the thing we do.
Naaman was willing to travel with 900 pounds of precious metal to be healed, but the task of washing in the river seemed too small a task for the mighty warrior.
Naaman’s servants asked
“if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it?”
– 2 Kings 5:13
Sometimes it seems the thing we’re asked to do is too small, too simple, too easy. But even small acts can have huge impacts.
Washing dishes on Sunday makes a huge impact over time as we put less paper and plastic waste into landfills. Filling in as accompanist when the music director is away is a big and important help. Greeting people at the door, reading scripture, bringing snacks for social hour, being an usher… there are so many little tasks that add up to who we are as a church.
Naaman eventually washes in the Jordan and is healed. The task was small, but the outcome was large.
One could be the CEO of a company with an annual revenue of billions of dollars.
(If any of them are here, we need to talk.)
But even a CEO has to do the simple things to live.
There are many little things we can do that make a difference. My challenge this week to all of us is to notice when there is a small thing we can do.
Do we feel the task is beneath us?
Or do we just do the small thing?
Nothing is too difficult for God.
Nothing should be too easy for us.
Amen.
Let’s sing NCH 478 I’ve Got Peace like a River
* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.
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