| New Book now Available Here is an anthology of over 1100 brief prayers and thought-starters, for each day of the year, with almost 400 original prayers by Bruce Prewer. Included is both a subject index and an index of authors-- an ecumenical collection of about 300 different sources. |
 |
| Title: Brief Prayers for Busy People. Author: Bruce D Prewer ISBN 978-1-62880-090-6 Available from Australian Church Resources, web site www.acresources.com.au email service@acresources.com.au or by order from your local book shop or online on amazon. |
Sunday 6
Mark 1: 40-45....
(Sermon: “Hands on
Stuff”)
1 Corinthians 9:24-27....
2 Kings 5: 1-14.
(Sermon: “A mighty
man.......but")
Psalm 30
PREPARATION FOR
WORSHIP
The serene peace and the deep joy of the Lord Jesus be with you all.
And also with you.
God has turned our sorrow into dancing,
stripped away our gloom and clothed us with gladness.
Sing praises, all you
who love God,
give thanks to the name that is Most Holy.
OR
I will celebrate your love, O God,
for you have lifted me up
and not allowed my fears and sins to mock me.
Sing your best praises
to the Lord, people of faith,
and give thanks to God’s holy name.
God is not distant from any one of us,
waking or sleeping we are in his hands.
Sing your best praises
to the Lord, people of faith,
and give thanks to God’s holy name.
We have seen the true glory of God
in the shining face of Jesus Christ.
Sing your best praises
to the Lord, people of faith,
and give thanks to God’s holy name.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Most Holy Friend, you have designed us for your house and our hearts are orphans until they find their home in you.
With patient grace, gather your children to yourself again today, that with relief and wonder we may approach you with eagerness, adore you with love, and serve you with joyful faith.
Through Christ Jesus our divine Brother.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
Let us pray for the saving grace of Christ in our lives.
Holy Lover of humanity, please alert us to our strengths and weaknesses. Give us the ability to know ourselves truly, that we may rightly affirm our achievements, and repent our failures.
Please save us from the evil of pretence:
¾from that pretence which, in bondage to a craven humility, does not permit us to celebrate the good things you have in fact achieved in and through us;
¾from the pretence which, fostered by an pernicious pride, will not allow us to look our sins in the face or turn to you for redemption.
¾from the pretence that by our own cleverness or hard work we can make amends for all our failings and sins.
Deliver us from all falsity.
Please give us a profound spiritual honesty, forgive us those sins which honesty reveals, heal our distorted souls, and restore to us the joy of your salvation.
Through the saving grace of your Holy Son.
Amen!
FORGIVENESS
It is written: “God has turned our sorrow into dancing and our gloom into gladness.” And again it is written that the Lord Jesus said: “I have come that you might have life, and have it in full abundance.” Sisters and brothers, I ask you here and now to embrace this new happiness of Christ, where forgiveness reigns and hope breaks through every barrier.
The peace of Christ be always with you!
And also with you!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
Forgive us, loving God, for thinking
that some kids are worthy of our kindness
but ignoring others as if they are a waste of space.
So that we can become a lot more like Jesus
who ate his lunch with no-hopers
and placed his hands on diseased lepers,
please put more of his Spirit in our hearts and minds.
Then perhaps we can change our ways
and become the sort of people who make
this mean world a much better place.
Amen!
PSALM 30
I rejoice in resurrection now,
in a God who lifts me up.
Fallen, I cry out for help,
and you are there for me.
You heal my ebbing spirit,
and raise me up from decay.
For the full text see “More Australian Prayers” page 67
Ó
Open Book Publishers. .
LEPERS, JESUS AND US
Mark 1:40-45
Just another leper,
the better left unseen,
“Surely it is their own fault
for not keeping clean.”
***
Just another aids case
now hidden well away,
“They must have brought it on themselves
promiscuous or gay.”
***
Just another boat person
sponging on me and you,
“They’ve only got themselves to blame
by trying to jump the queue.”
***
Just another drug addict
shooting up behind the shed,
“Don’t waste your pity on such trash
they’re better off dead.”
***
Just one determined Jesus
coming through our lands,
welcoming all the unclean mob
with warm, saving hands.
Ó B D Prewer 2002
COLLECT
Make us, loving God, true apprentices in the art of Christ. May we have sufficient faith to touch the untouchable and love the unlovable, and to do so with such respect that we may humbly learn from them more of your lessons. In the name of Christ Jesus our sure Teacher.
Amen!
SERMON: LONG VERSION:
HANDS-ON STUFF
Mark 1: 40-45
And a leper came up to
Jesus, kneeling and imploring him. “If you want to, you can
make me clean.”
Feeling deep
compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him, saying: “I do want to.
Be clean.
And
immediately the leprosy left him, and he was clean of the disease.
Jesus was a hands-on person.
Among the lowliest of the low, with the outcastes of society, you will find Jesus at work. The quintessential Christ is there for those who need him most.
In the ancient land of Israel there no group was more outcaste than the lepers. Leprosy has been known and feared by people for thousands of years. Its power to disfigure and deform and kill made it notorious in most communities. Even today about 500,000 new cases of the bacillus mycobacterium leprae are notified each year, most of these are found among the poorest of poor people.
In Jesus’ day there was no treatment. Because of the fear of contagion, lepers were banned from all contact with other people. It was a case of strictly hands-off. They lived in dispirited bands, begging at a distance for food to be left out for them. Whenever others came near, lepers were obliged to wail: “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn them away from danger. It is hard to imagine a more miserable and hopeless group of outcastes. They were the living who were treated as if dead. In that sense they were the living dead.
To make matters worse, they were commonly reckoned to be justly suffering for their sins. Leprosy was thought to be caused by evil, a disease from hell. The righteous people, who were lucky enough to be healthy, despised the unhealthy as sinners getting their just reward. Lepers were seen as sinners who were abandoned by God to the powers of corruption.
ENTER JESUS OF NAZARETH
Enter the Man from Nazareth. Here was a Person who refused to allow his behaviour to be distorted by fear and superstition. When one leper, made bold by the compassion he had witnessed from afar, dared to come up to Jesus, kneel and beg for help, Jesus was there for him. He did not step back with disgust, but stepped forward and did an amazing thing. “Jesus stretched out his hands and touched him.”
Yes, Jesus actually touched the unclean creature. Touched the fellow with the contagious disease. Touched the untouchable.
Can we even begin to comprehend what it meant for the unclean to be touched by a clean man? To be treated as something worthwhile? To be accepted in spite of the loathsome disease? To receive the touch of this Jesus in whom God was gloriously at work?
I doubt whether most of us, who are used to sharing kisses and hugs, or at least exchanging a friendly handshake, can appreciate the awesome power of that moment when Jesus placed his hands on the leper. The healing that happened was not only physical but also social and spiritual. The leper’s very humanity was being restored.
Jesus confirmed this total restoration by sending the
ex-leper off to fulfil the social and religious obligations. “Go and show yourself to a priest, make the
offerings commanded by Moses, that the people may witness the proof of your
healing.”
TODAY’S OUTCASTES
This story should speak powerfully to all those who today are deprived of love and respect. Those who are denied loving human touch. Or those who so despise themselves that they deny themselves the blessing of human touch.
In a that film (In the Gloaming) sensitively directed by the late Christopher Reeve, a young man suffering from Aids comes back home to die. His mother gladly welcomes him, and his father tries to do so, though very awkwardly. But touch is not happening. The employed nurse, watching the mother hovering over her sleeping son, encourages her to touch him: “It’s okay. You can touch him.” At first she strokes his hair while he sleeps, then graduates to greater physical care for her son. At the end he is able to die with his head on her shoulder. But the father never gets over his inhibitions; he never touches his dying son.
This moving film underscores the way we find it hard, in certain circumstances, to lovingly touch even those of our own household. And of course it holds up a mirror to our continuing unease in the presence of aids. Is aids the contemporary equivalent of ancient leprosy?
I find discomforting the relative reticence of the church regarding the victims of aids. It is common in many congregations for people to give enthusiastic support to the work of Leprosy Mission. But where is a similar enthusiasm for those who are afflicted with aids? Have these unfortunate people been allotted the same status as the lepers in Jesus’ day? And do congregations as a general rule (all generalisations are suspect of course!) express scant concern for them because, maybe, many of us secretly think they deserve what they get? Do we covertly believe that AIDS is the disease from hell visited on those who are worse sinners than we are?
If some of you think these questions are unnecessary ones, I put it again a stronger form. Why do we still show concern for lepers, who number in the world about 2 million, while largely ignoring the 50 million cases of aids? Don’t these sufferers also deserve the healing touch of the man from Nazareth?
Please do not jump to the conclusion that I have anything against caring for lepers, who are still mainly found amongst the most deprived of our sisters and brothers. (I am grateful for the long-standing compassion and commitment of Christians to these sufferers.) Rather I am pursuing what I suspect is a murky region in church thinking about aids. One which deserves some prayerful introspection and some active redress.
WIDER QUESTIONS
I leave that question with you and proceed to ask a wider one: Who are the other people to whom we deny touch? By this I don’t only mean lack of physical touch, but rather the lack of fellowship and respect. To whom do we deny affirmation? Who are those from whom we withhold compassion? Those whom we are content to treat as the non-persons?
What about asylum seekers? That stream of people fleeing from persecution and who risk everything by embarking on leaky fishing vessels to hopefully make it to Australian shores? Are they numbered among the untouchables?
It is disturbing that the majority of our citizens appear to approve the present government policy of holding them in remote prison compounds for up to 2 years before their cases are processed. It is more disturbing that some of the people in Christian congregations also support this harsh policy towards asylum seekers. Have we totally lost touch with the core of our faith? Have we forgotten the nature of the Lord whose name we proudly bear?
A similar readiness to consign some groups of people to the ranks of the untouchables pertains in the matter of drug addicts. Are drug addicts worth our attention? Or are they like lepers in Jesus’ day, better kept out of sight and ignored? Think of the uproar that greeted the recent proposal by one of our churches to establish a medically supervised injection centre.
This centre was proposed, not with the belief that it would cure any addict but that they may have a better life expectancy, and thereby have some hope for a cure in the future. The outcry was vehement from those who believe it is better that drug addicts should die than that the church should be seen to be compromised in this tragic area of human misery. Many Christians seem to think it should be our prime aim to keep our hands clean.
Some would go further. In all seriousness, one righteous gentleman protested to me that it would be better to immediately round up all the addicts and have them medically executed. “No drug addicts, no sub-culture to tempt new groups of young people into the degradation,” he argued. No addicts, no drug dealers. Swiftly clean our streets of the problem once and for all.”
In some ways, that man’s “solution” was at least more honest than those who simply decide to ignore the issue. Looking the other way, keeping Christians hands clean, seems to me to be a gross denial of the way of Christ. Our Lord is one who made friends with tax gatherers and sinners, who placed his hands on lepers, who allowed a prostitute to wash his feet with her tears. He did not worry about how compromised he might be in the eyes of the righteous. He simply reached out to people with love.
IN OUR FAMILIES
So far I have mentioned three groups of “untouchables”. Those who suffer from aids, asylum seekers, and drug addicts. Now I want to look closer to home. In our families. In our churches.
It is not uncommon for some of the untouchables to be among our own family members. Some members are easy to understand and respect, some are not. Some give us numerous grounds for affirmation and praise, some do not. Some are the smiling attention seekers, some shrink into the background. Some make themselves seem indispensable, some are given the role of family scapegoat. Some are readily huggable, some are prickly at the very time when they most need a hug. Will you please ask yourself right now: Who in your family circle is most in need of your loving touch at the present time?
Maybe a similar question should be asked about your fellow members in this church. It is easy for us to take note of, and care for, and show great compassion for, those church members who are most approachable and lovable. But what about the reserved or shy, the thin skinned and the awkward, the depressed and the handicapped, the over-talkative or the self opinionated, the socially inept and the bluntly spoken ones? Who is in need of our reaching out to them at this present time?
DO WE WANT TO HELP?
Return to where we began: Among the lowliest of the low, with the outcastes of society, you will find Jesus at work. Hands-on. The quintessential Christ is there for those who need him most.
Among the rules that the indefatigable John Wesley (so determined in his devotion to Christ) laid down for those who joined his Methodist Society as helpers, was this one. “Go not to those who need you, but to those who need you most.”
The leper who came to Jesus understood one thing very well. There would be no healing unless Jesus wanted to heal the leper. If we don’t want to touch other lives, if we don’t want to be healing agents of Jesus among the untouchables of society, or for the hard-to-love folk in our family or church, then nothing good is ever going to happen for those who need us the most.
Who are those who this day most need a little bit of grace from us? Who needs a listening ear, an empathetic nod, an encouraging smile, the affirmation of our voice, the touch of our hand, a friend in their aloneness, and comrade in their fight for justice? And (here is the crunch!) who among us really wants to reach out their hand with compassion?
Among the lowliest of the low, with the outcastes of society, you will find Jesus at work. The loving Christ wants to help those who need him most. He wants to be there, in and through people like us.
See the scene once more: The leper, kneeling in front of Jesus: “Jesus of Nazareth, if you really want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus, reaching out his hand and touching him: “I really want to. Be clean.”
SERMON: SHORTER VERSION:
HANDS-ON STUFF
Mark 1: 40-45
And a leper came up to
Jesus, kneeling and imploring him. “If you want to, you can
make me clean.”
Feeling deep
compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him, saying: “I do want to.
Be clean.
And
immediately the leprosy left him, and he was clean of the disease.
In the ancient land of Israel, as in some lands today, there no group was more outcaste than the lepers. In Jesus’ day there was no treatment. They lived in dispirited, outcast bands, begging at a distance for food to be left out for them. Whenever others came near, lepers were compelled to wail: “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn them off. It is hard to imagine a more miserable and hopeless group of outcastes. They were the living who were treated as if dead. In that sense they were the living dead.
To make matters worse, they were commonly reckoned to be justly suffering for their sins. Leprosy was thought to be caused by evil, a disease from hell. The righteous people, who were lucky enough to be healthy, despised the unhealthy as sinners getting their just reward. Lepers were seen as sinners who were abandoned by God to the powers of corruption.
ENTER JESUS OF NAZARETH
Enter the Man from Nazareth. Here was a Person who refused to allow his behaviour to be distorted by fear and superstition.
When one leper, made bold by the compassion he had witnessed from afar, dared to come up to Jesus, kneel and beg for help, Jesus was there for him. He did not step back with disgust, but stepped forward and did an amazing thing. “Jesus stretched out his hands and touched him.”
Yes, Jesus actually touched the unclean creature. Touched the fellow with the contagious disease. Touched the untouchable.
Can we even begin to comprehend what it meant for the unclean to be touched by a clean man? To be treated as something worthwhile? To be accepted in spite of the loathsome disease? To receive the touch of this Jesus in whom God was gloriously at work?
I doubt whether most of us, who are used to sharing kisses and hugs, or at least exchanging a friendly handshake, can appreciate the awesome power of that moment when Jesus placed his hands on the leper. The healing that happened was not only physical but also social and spiritual. The leper’s very humanity was being restored.
Jesus confirmed this total restoration by sending the
ex-leper off to fulfil the social and religious obligations. “Go and show yourself to a priest, make the
offerings commanded by Moses, that the people may witness the proof of your
healing.”
TODAY’S OUTCASTES
This story should speak powerfully to all those who today are deprived of love and respect. Those who are denied loving human touch. Or those who so despise themselves that they deny themselves the blessing of human touch.
In a that film (In the Gloaming) sensitively directed by the late Christopher Reeve, a young man suffering from Aids comes back home to die. His mother gladly welcomes him, and his father tries to do so, though very awkwardly. But touch is not happening. The employed nurse, watching the mother hovering over her sleeping son, encourages her to touch him: “It’s okay. You can touch him.” At first she strokes his hair while he sleeps, then graduates to greater physical care for her son. At the end he is able to die with his head on her shoulder. But the father never gets over his inhibitions; he never touches his dying son.
This moving film underscores the way we find it hard, in certain circumstances, to lovingly touch even those of our own household. And of course it holds up a mirror to our continuing unease in the presence of aids. Is aids the contemporary equivalent of ancient leprosy?
THE UNTOCUABALE MSIN OUR COMMUNITY?
Who are today ‘s untouchables?
Aids?
I find discomforting the relative inactivity of the church regarding the victims of aids. Are these the modern equivalent of the lepers of Jesus’ day? Do we covertly believe that AIDS is the disease from hell visited on those who are worse sinners than we are?
Who are the other people to whom we deny touch? By this I don’t only mean lack of physical touch, but rather the lack of fellowship and respect. To whom do we deny affirmation? Who are those from whom we withhold compassion? Those whom we are content to treat as the non-persons?
Asylum seekers?
What about asylum seekers? That stream of people fleeing from persecution and who risk everything by embarking on leaky fishing vessels to hopefully make it to Australian shores? Are they numbered among the untouchables?
It is disturbing that the majority of our citizens appear to approve the present government policy of holding them in remote prison compounds for up to 2 years before their cases are processed. It is more disturbing that some of the people in Christian congregations also support this harsh policy towards asylum seekers. Have we totally lost touch with the core of our faith? Have we forgotten the nature of the Lord whose name we proudly bear?
Drug addicts?
A similar readiness to consign some groups of people to the ranks of the untouchables pertains in the matter of drug addicts. Are drug addicts worth our attention? Or are they like lepers in Jesus’ day, better kept out of sight and ignored? Think of the uproar that greeted the recent proposal by one of our churches to establish a medically supervised injection centre.
This centre was proposed, not with the belief that it would cure any addict but that they may have a better life expectancy, and thereby have some hope for a cure in the future. The outcry was vehement from those who appear to believe it is better that drug addicts should die than that the church should be seen to be compromised. Many Christians seem to think it should be our prime aim to keep our hands clean.
Some would go further. In all seriousness, one righteous gentleman protested to me that it would be better to immediately round up all the addicts and have them medically executed. “No drug addicts, no sub-culture to tempt new groups of young people into the degradation,” he argued. No addicts, no drug dealers. Swiftly clean our streets of the problem once and for all.”
In some ways, that man’s “solution” was at least more honest than those who simply decide to ignore the issue. Looking the other way, keeping Christians hands clean, seems to me to be a gross denial of the way of Christ.
IN OUR FAMILIES
So far I have mentioned three groups of “untouchables”. Those who suffer from aids, asylum seekers, and drug addicts. Now I want to look closer to home. In our families. In our churches.
It is not uncommon for some of the untouchables to be among our own family members. Some members are easy to understand and respect, some are not. Some give us numerous grounds for affirmation and praise, some do not. Some are the smiling attention seekers, some shrink into the background. Some make themselves seem indispensable, some are given the role of family scapegoat. Some are readily huggable, some are prickly at the very time when they most need a hug. Will you please ask yourself right now: Who in your family circle is most in need of your loving touch at the present time?
Maybe a similar question should be asked about your fellow members in this church. It is easy for us to take note of, and care for, and show great compassion for, those church members who are most approachable and lovable. But what about the reserved or shy, the thin skinned and the awkward, the depressed and the handicapped, the over-talkative or the self opinionated, the socially inept and the bluntly spoken ones?
DO WE WANT TO HELP?
Return to where we began: Among the lowliest of the low, with the outcastes of society, you will find Jesus at work. Wanting to help. Hands-on. The quintessential Christ is there for those who need him most.
Here is the crunch: who among us really wants to reach out their hand with compassion?
Want to? Until we really want to, nothing will ever happen.
See the scene once more: The leper, kneeling in front of Jesus: “Jesus of Nazareth, if you really want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus, reaching out his hand and touching him: “I really want to. Be clean.”
SERMON 2: “A
MIGHTY MAN, BUT....”
[Please note: This sermon is repeated in Cycle C, Sunday 14]
2 Kings 5: 1b
“Naaman was a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper.”
That brief sentence from the second Book of Kings says a volume.. but he was a leper.
As great general in the Syrian army, commander in chief, a favourite of the king. BUT Naaman was reduced to becoming a social outcaste. A leper.
We can never overstate the abhorrence that ancient societies held for lepers.
Here, at this point in my sermon preparation, my imagination took over.
I pictured myself going with some friends to visit a restored Naaman in his up-market home in Damascus. I wanted to hear his story from his own lips. Servants received us, and ushered us into the office of this very important ‘man of valour.’
NAAMAN’S STORY
Said Naaman-
“Welcome, visitors from the, er, er, kingdom of …. er..Australia? Please don’t bow down to me, my friends. Don’t be nervous. I beg you, do not keep standing. Be seated while I tell my story.
You have come to hear my story; to receive my witness. I will try to make it brief, and I hope you will not go away disappointed. It happened this way.
When I was at the height of my fame and power, I contracted an awful disease. I still find it hard to use the “L” word. Yes I became an unspeakable “L,” a……… leper. The king was surprisingly patient and generous. He hoped to buy me a cure. I was provided with the best medical specialists and given a comfortable but isolated apartment, separate from my family. But neither he nor I really expected to be cured. I was doomed, and I knew it.
No longer was I able to sit with him at his golden table for feasts. No longer did I go with him, arm in arm, to worship in the temple of Rimmon. When he needed to converse with me, the king now had me fetched and made to stand at the far end of his audience chamber. Then, after the audience was over, his slaves would wash and scrub the whole place where I had stood and walked.
Yet through the king’s mercy, I was not suspended from duty. I ran the army from my confined quarters, officers reporting to me at an open window, and receiving my orders for the day. I wondered however, how long this state of affairs could last.
I felt shame and profound loneliness. No citizen came near me. No even my brothers. Only the slaves. They had no choice, bringing bathing water and food and wine, doing my laundry and removing excrement from my billet.
I was angry about my disease. Why me? How could the gods permit such an important person as I am to be afflicted with the unspeakable curse? I fretted and had my servants pay special gifts to the priests to say prayers for me to all of our Syrian deities. Then I instructed my wife and children to make lavish sacrifices on my behalf.
The disease slowly but inexorably spread.
I admit that I became short tempered with my subordinates, and at times cruel to the slaves. I made one fastidious slave (an educated man, he spoke five tongues, from across the seas) bathe my diseased body with his own hands. I smiled cruelly when he grimaced with fear, and later laughed as from my first-floor window I saw him furiously scrubbing himself in the river, I hoped he would catch the curse! Why should he, a mere nobody, be clean from the “L” disease while I a great nobleman was corrupted?
Then one day a glimmer of hope came. A message arrived from my wife, saying that a Jewish slave girl of hers believed there was a great guru in the land of Israel who could heal me.
A slave girl? Curious and remarkable, isn’t it? A slave girl who does not desire to see me suffer but actually seeks my healing? I had led the raiding party that killed her father and brothers and captured the women and children. What sort of a strange people are these Jews, that a captive has some compassion on the likes of me? What kind of religion begets such unexpected graces?
Dear visitors from afar, you may have not have heard that Israel does not believe in our great gods; not in these famous deities who have gloriously proved themselves by giving my king and nation much power and riches. The Hebrews worship some tribal deity they call Yahweh. The very word sounded to me like an asses’ cough! But the great gods forgive me, I was desperate. I would try almost anything. Even the superstitions of the Hebrews. What had I to lose, except my dignity, and that had been sorely eroded.
I asked the king for permission to travel to Israel. He consented. What is more, he sent a letter of authority ahead of me; a missive destined to put fear into any chieftain or holy man in Israel. Once I had made the decision to go, I was prepared to give it my best shot. I assembled a formidable body guard, dressed in full uniform and carrying banners. I ordered servants to load pack mules with gifts of gold, silver and exquisite Syrian clothing. I chose my elite processional chariot and set off for Israel.
An unpleasant journey. But I won’t go into that, except to say that in every caravanserai the fleas were rapacious, and the quality of wine as we neared Israel, became abominable.
The country was even more backward than I remembered from my raids. I sent peace envoys on ahead of me. I found their so called “king” in a poorly designed, ostentatious edifice which he presumed to call a palace. He was terrified at my arrival; actually trembling when my request was made and while the royal letter was read and translated.
Look at it from his point of view. How could he or any man of God in Israel heal leprosy? I think he feared my request was a some kind of a plot; a pretext whereby mighty Syria was determined to pick a quarrel with him to enable conquest and annexation. Silly little man! Who would want their scrubby little land anyway!
The king groaned aloud and ripped his robes. Protested that there were no miracles possible. Why had I come to torment him like this? He whined and fidgeted and wrung his hands. My patience was running out. He gave me comfortable quarters and played for time.
Fortunately for him, news of my arrival, and of the king’s predicament, reached the guru called Elisha. This fellow sent a messenger to the king, saying that Yahweh could heal my disease. The king informed me of this, but stressed that the fellow was a bit of a trouble maker. I think he was glad to get me out of his hair for a while, until he could think up some way of extricated himself from this diplomatic crisis.
I set off in my gold chariot, surrounded by my formidable bodyguard, and went to find this guru known as Elisha. Evidently he was renowned; because natives were able to give us directions along the bush tracks they called roads.
I arrived at his dwelling (little more than a hovel) dressed in my gold braided uniform and surrounded by my glittering soldiers. I wanted to make the biggest impression. My herald sounded the trumpet. Nothing stirred. My herald called out the guru’s name, and my soldiers drummed their shields with their spears. Nothing happened. I was furious! This was no way to treat a favourite of the illustrious king of Syria! I would teach these yokels a lesson they would never forget.
Just then a servant came out, a bow legged fellow dressed in hessian. He bowed down, then informed me that his master said: “Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and you shall be healed.” This was insufferable discourtesy! The guru did not deign to even come outside and greet me, let alone offer me the hospitality of his poor dwelling. No herbs, no ointments, no waving of his hands over me while he chanted prayers. Just a menial servant. Such insolence!
I cried aloud: “Damn you all! Are not the sweet rivers of Amana and Pharpar that flow through Damascus far mightier than your piddling and muddy Jordan? If washing in a river will affect a cure, why can’t I wash back at home?”
Beside myself with rage, I swung my chariot around, whipped the horses and, with my troops, circled the hovel making a mighty dust. All the while I plotted how I could best make the guru suffer for his insolence with maximum pain. But first I wanted him terrified and cringing for mercy.
Still no sign of the holy man. Then another wretch came out and stood by my chariot. “Esteemed Sir” he said, his voice wavering, “with the utmost respect, if the guru had commanded you to make some costly sacrifice, would you not have gladly done it in order to be healed? Why do you then get angry when he simply asked you to go and wash yourself in the Jordan?”
The impudence! A mere servant now dared to advise me; me, the Commander of the armies of almighty Syria! My Syria, whose king only had to sneeze and even Egypt felt a chill! What is it with these Jews? Do they all want to be hung out for the crows to peck their bones? I glared down at the servant and spat in the dust at his feet.
Nevertheless, slowly the sense of what the wretch said filtered through my anger. I was letting my justifiable pride as a Syrian and mighty general cloud my judgment.
I had come here to be healed, hadn’t I? What was the point of slaying these idiots in my rage, but then returning home still a leper? Although I had not seen any image of this god of theirs, this Yahweh thing, maybe he could still heal me. What had I to lose, except my pride?
I gathered my troops around me and said: “Warriors of Syria, listen carefully. Hear me and obey if you want to go in living. I will do as this wretched little Jew asks. But if any of you reports my humiliation when we arrive back in Damascus, you will die, but not swiftly, I promise you.”
“I do not expect to be healed by this quack’s advice. However I will do as he says. But do not even think about feeling pity for me when I come up out of the waters. And never mention this when you get home. Do you understand me?”
“Yes sir!” they quickly chorused.
In silence we rode down to the Jordan. There I stripped and immersed myself in the alien waters seven times, as the guru had asked. As I climbed back out of the waters I heard my men gasp. The leprosy had gone. I was healed. Utterly healed! Yahweh had done the impossible, even for a disbelieving and alien Syrian. I knelt down on the bank of the river and gave thanks to this God who could do wonders.
On returning to the house of the guru, I was much more subdued. This time I was ushered into Elisha’s presence. Before me was a small Jew, clothed in a white robe that looked as if it had seen many summers. There was nothing spectacular about this man. Yet Elisha did have an air of quiet authority, such as I have not seen in all Syria. He rose up and greeted me with a welcoming smile.
More humbly than I had spoken for many years, I said to him: “It is all clear to me now, sir. There is no true God in all the earth except here in Israel.” Then I ordered three of my troops bring in some golden gifts. “With honour to your God I give you this small token of thanks.”
Then Elisha shook his head and said: “By the living God I swear, I will not take payment for what Yahweh has done for you. All thanks belongs to him, not to me his mere servant.”
For a moment I was confused. What strange people are these Hebrews. Never before in my life had I witnessed a man refusing riches. Usually men demand reward before any service is undertaken. I began to realise that this God of theirs had the power not only to change and heal the flesh of a man, but also to change their mind and heart. I had been cleansed of leprosy, but this guru had been cleansed of the desire for wealth. Of the two miracles, this was surely the greater.
O how much I then wished to stay longer in this impoverished country and learn to worship Yahweh. Yet I knew I must return to my King and his service. Then a possibility came to me.
I bowed my head and said to the holy man: “If you will not take my gifts, would you be willing to give me a gift. Can I have enough of the soil of Israel as can be carried by two of my pack mules, so that I can take a little of your land back to Damascus for prayer. For I declare that I will never again worship any God but Yahweh. At the rising of the sun and at its setting, I will kneel down on the soil of Israel and give praise to your God who does such great wonders.”
“
Elisha looked into my eyes, then nodded and smiled: “Your wish is granted,” he said.
I looked down and said: “There is one more favour. When my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon, he often asks me to go with him arm in arm., to bow down in worship there. On my life, I cannot refuse. Will Yahweh pardon his new servant in this matter?”
“Indeed yes.” said the man of God. “Ours is a pardoning God, whose mercy is from everlasting to everlasting on those who trust him. He who has made you whole will continue to do so. Go in peace.”
And I did.
That is my story, visitors from the far land of Australia.”
AFTER THE STORY
Then in my imagination, as it was near sunset, we went with Naaman to his small plot covered with soil from Israel.
There we knelt down with him and gave thanks to the God of wonders who heals the diseased and broken, and grants pardon upon pardon to all who serve him with love. Then I thought I heard a voice saying: “Your sins are forgiven. Now go in peace.”
And we did.
A CREED
Because of Jesus of Nazareth, we believe.
We believe in God, Initiator and Nurturer of all things, in whose Divine likeness we are intended to become;
God not far away but present, not aloof but committed, not insulated but among us sharing both our tears and our laughter.
We believe in a Christ who seeks to include rather than exclude, to save rather than condemn, to heal rather than dispose of the marred and diseased;
God numbered among sinners, bruised for our iniquities, dying for a world that does wish to exchange its pride for repentance and faith.
We believe in the Spirit who fills all things, brooding love-warm over our fledgling hopes, and persisting through darkness and cold;
God determined that new graces will be raised and enabled to soar high in a new age where peace will outgrow alienation and joy outstrip all misery.
We believe in the bonus of belief, not as a just reward for good deeds or as the product of cultivated wisdom,
but as a free gift from the God who is full of encouragement, and who choses to lavish on even the most foolish and erring of people, grace upon grace.
Amen! God of Jesus, we believe!
PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
Let us link our small compassion with the mighty compassion of God, as we pray for other people.
God of unquenchable optimism and untiring compassion, please assist us to live as those whose daily lives touch others with encouragement and healing.
Bless those caring hands who touch the lives of the diseased; caring for lepers and cancer sufferers, those with aids or tuberculosis, and for the victims of Ebola or Golden Staph.
Bless those brave hands who reach out to others in difficult circumstances: the peace-keepers, military stretcher bearers, those who diffuse land mines, Red Cross workers, fire fighters, and prison chaplains.
Bless those positive people who bring light into grey situations: staff in children’s hospitals or psychiatric clinics, social workers, grief counsellors, pastors, surgeons and physiotherapists.
Bless those determined souls who are dedicated to hands-on justice and reconciliation: peace negotiators, arbitrators between workers and management, family court judges and counsellors, members of Amnesty International, and those who foster understanding among religions.
Bless those graceful characters who turn the other cheek, go the second mile, give without seeking any reward, love when no love is returned, persist when other’s good intentions collapse, and who stretch out their hands to lovingly touch those who once most grievously wronged them.
God of unquenchable optimism and untiring compassion, please make us more like Jesus of Nazareth, that the gulf between our prayers and our deeds may narrow, and our touch become more discerning, sensitive and adept in all our dealings with those around us. Through Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Amen!
SENDING OUT
May the God whose touch is all light and grace, fill you with confidence as you go from this house of prayer.
Amen!
May you have a greater belief in yourself and a larger compassion for the mass of humanity that mills around you.
Amen!
May you undertake boring duties with gracious faithfulness, and face new and exciting challenges with measured optimism.
Amen!
And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
will be
with you now and evermore.
Amen!
