Wash and be clean

Scripture Lessons: Galatians 6: 7-16 and 2 Kings 5: 1-14, OT page 336 Sermon title: “Wash and be clean” Preached on July 3, 2016 You’ve probably heard of Wilt Chamberlain. According to some he was the greatest basketball player of all time having once scored 100 points by himself in a single game. That’s the most anyone has ever scored in a professional basketball game, probably the most anyone will ever score in a professional basketball game – but what’s so interesting about this game is that in this game in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1962 Wilt Chamberlain made nearly all of his foul shots. Now why did he make nearly all of his foul shots in this game when he typically made less than half of them? It’s because for this season and only this season Chamberlain shot his foul shots underhanded. Today, every basketball player shoots foul shots with their hands right up here at their forehead, but back in the 60’s there were still a few players who would occasionally shoot underhanded using a technique that I grew up calling the granny shot, but here’s the thing that I never knew before – from the foul line that night in Hersey, Pennsylvania Chamberlain made 28 out of 30 of his foul shots when he normally made 12 or 13 out of 30, and that night in Hersey, Pennsylvania he made so many more than usual because that night he shot all his foul shots underhanded. Now if Wilt Chamberlain, all 7 feet, 275 pound of Wilt Chamberlain, could dramatically increase his ability to make foul shots by using the underhand technique, why would he ever shoot foul shots any other way? According to Chamberlain himself, it was because he thought shooting underhanded made him look like ridiculous. In fact, in his autobiography Chamberlain wrote, “I felt silly, like a sissy, shooting underhanded. I know I was wrong. I know some of the best foul shooters in history shot that way. Even now, the best one in the NBA, Rick Barry, shoots underhanded. I just couldn't do it.” Now there are two kinds of people in this world – people who understand why Wilt Chamberlain went back to shooting foul shots the way that he did and people who think he is crazy to care so much about what other people thought, and if you think about it for a minute you’ll realize how most people are because no one – and I mean no one who is today playing men’s or women’s professional basketball is shooting their foul shots granny style. The question for this morning is: which kind of person was Naaman? Our 2nd Scripture Lesson describes a miraculous healing, and it begins with important details about the person who has been healed. Right there at the beginning we read: “Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy.” I don’t know what it would have been like to be a mighty warrior, a mighty warrior who was even a commander of an army, but I have read a little bit here and there and so I’ve gotten the idea that to command an army you have to be thinking about whether or not people respect you. There’s a great biography by Ron Chernow on George Washington, and on the day before the 4th of July it’s good to be thinking of President George Washington who was right there at the helm of the Continental Army in our country’s war for independence. Before he was president he was a general and so he commanded armies of both soldiers and farmers who were aspiring soldiers but who were often shocked by the realities of war, so on more than one occasion General Washington acted so harshly as to execute deserters. It sounds as though doing so is a necessity of war. To be a general can mean living as a harsh man with harsh rules and stable hierarchies of those who give orders and those who take orders and to keep those hierarchies intact – to retain the ability to give orders that people are afraid not to obey – you have to think a little bit about your appearance – you have to be wary of what other people think. Certainly that was true in the southern part of South America where the equivalent to George Washington was a man named Jose de San Martin. He commanded the army who fought for independence from Spain. Among his notable sayings was: “I only want lions in my regiment,” which goes a long way to give you the idea about what qualities General San Martin valued, so I imagine that if he gave an order you were expected to follow that order. That was the case when General San Martin commanded one of his men to guard the battery where all gunpowder was stored and to keep anyone from entering who still had spurs on their boots fearing that the spurs might spark and ignite the explosives. This order was easy enough for the man to follow until General San Martin wanted to enter the battery himself with spurs still on his boots, for when the man on guard duty refused his entry, honoring the General’s command, this man risked his life because like so many generals, San Martin was one who liked to give the orders but did not appreciate being the one to follow the orders. Imagine then, how it felt to Naaman, commander of the army of Aram, that when he came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of the Prophet Elisha’s house, “Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” Imagine the scene: It had been a proper procession with troops on horse-back and troops in chariots, and the great commander, the giver of orders, a severe man who demanded respect and couldn’t stand to look silly in front of his troops, is left waiting outside the house of a prophet he’s never met because Elisha the Prophet won’t even pay him the honor of a proper greeting. You can imagine that as they rode through towns and villages on their way to this prophet’s house that the crowds would assemble, the children would chase them or be gathered into the safety of their mother’s arms, and either the leaders of those towns would bow in respect or they would tear their clothes out of fear just as the King of Israel did, never having seen a display of force like the great Commander Naaman and his troops – but then they stop at the house of the Prophet Elisha, the dust settles, the general dismounts, but did the prophet Elisha even come out to see about the commotion? Did he even think about paying his respect to the one who made so many others shake in their boots? Instead, Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” A general can’t be disrespected this way, and I don’t mean that to say that a general doesn’t appreciate being disrespected this way – I mean a general can’t be disrespected this way because once a general has been disrespected the whole hierarchy of power is threatened. If the prophet doesn’t come out of his house to grovel at the feet of Naaman, then who’s to say that the troops won’t start to wonder about sleeping in a little bit each morning. Who’s to say that they won’t try the same technique of sending a messenger rather than showing up to face the commander himself at the morning meeting. Who’s to say that his power and authority won’t be threatened because once this man has been disrespected by the foreign prophet and the prophet got away with it others will try him too. So understandably, “Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “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! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” And I guess not, because sometimes the cure requires surrender. Sometimes the cure even requires humiliation. Sometimes the cure requires that you stop worrying so much about what everyone else thinks and I know that’s true – I know people worry about appearances - because what every cancer patient wants to know before they start radiation is: “Will I lose my hair?” There are some scary medical words – stoke, blockage, high blood pressure – but ask me if I spend more time worrying about my cholesterol or my male pattern baldness? And no one who is getting up in years wants their children to take away their driver’s license because wrapped up in the ability to drive is pride – and some will say it’s freedom that they don’t want to lose, but I say freedom is the ability to choose being made clean over appearing to have it all together. Now I’m not trying to call anyone vain this morning – I’m trying to call everyone vain this morning myself especially – and I believe that vanity is a problem because sometimes it’s vanity that keeps basketball players from being better basketball players, commanders of armies from being cured from their leprosy, sick people from getting better, aging people from aging gracefully, and sinners from being forgiven. Do you know how the Pope answered when a reporter asked him to describe himself? He said, “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.” Now how many people do you know who would ever describe themselves this way? If the great preacher William Sloane Coffin is right in saying that “faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation” than it might be safe to conclude that Naaman’s struggle to get into the water of the Jordan River isn’t much like the leap of faith where you walk on water for in this case Naaman’s struggle is more like the struggle of every young man who doesn’t want to get out on the dance floor, every adult who’s weary of being seen in a bathing suit, and every parent who’s filtered through her high school yearbook before she let her children see how she used to dress because no one wants to risk looking silly, even if by looking silly – revealing our humanity, means finally being healed. So let me ask you this – would you wash and be clean? Would you step into the water, casting aside the fear that everyone is watching, so that you might be made clean? Would you tempt the prophet, trust in his words just enough to try it, or would you rather maintain that sense of self and decency and decorum because the right kind of people don’t go bathing in front of their troops? Would you be made clean – out of desperation – more interested in being healed than what everyone else thinks – more concerned with being free than being liked – more ready to trust God than trust yourself to the opinions of other people – because the water is right here and the call is just the same – would you accept the gift of this water of baptism? It is no coincidence that Naaman is healed in the same river that Jesus was baptized in, and it is no coincidence that what is required of Naaman is the same thing that is required of us all – that to become clean we must be ready to do what it takes regardless of who is watching. That to become clean we trust our sense of self, not to our own ability to be strong or inspire respect, not to be presentable and dignified, not to our own skill at maintaining a good reputation and gaining the admiration of others, but to trust the God who created us to tell us who we are. What Naaman had to believe was that he was more than who his army thought he was. That he was more than who he thought he was. And that he was more than who he thought his army thought he was. I’ve been putting a lot of thought into what independence really means on this day before the 4th of July – and I believe that Naaman gained independence from the same forces that we fall victim to when he bathed in the waters of the Jordan, because just like us he cared what they thought, but also like us, he had the chance to become free. Our funeral liturgy makes the same claim saying that “Our baptism is complete in death,” when we are so truly dependent, not on our own works or strength or skill, not on the respect that we are able to gain or the orders we are able to give, but in death our only hope comes from the one who created us, redeemed us, and makes us clean. May it be for you as it was for the Apostle Paul who wrote with his own hand: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world – with all its pride, expectations, rumors, and shame – has been crucified to me, and I to the world – for what they say and what they think – it’s all nothing. But a new creation – that is everything.” Amen.