Year C Proper 9 2 Kings 5:1-14 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

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.

Naaman is a strong man, but he is desperately ill, and it is only because he is also a victorious military leader and the fact that his disease has not yet progressed to the debilitating stage, that he has not already been shamed and rejected by those around him and by his society as a whole. In Naaman’s day, there was no cure for leprosy. It was a life sentence that removed the sufferer from the mainstream and made of him or her an outcast and a beggar.

So it is no surprise that Naaman is desperate for a cure. We aren’t told today what, if anything, he may already have tried, but if he cannot solve his problem soon, he will lose his way of life, his family, his position in the army, his standing in society. He will, as he sees it, lose everything. His future is bleak.

But then we learn that, on one of their raids the Arameans had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."

What slave has the audacity to step up and speak this way to her mistress? What courage she must have had, because - who listens to a slave? The chances of her gaining positive attention are slim, and her knowledge of Naaman’s situation might have, under other circumstances, made her a person his family might wish to silence in order to keep the secret of his illness. The very fact that she is heard tells us how desperate is Naaman’s plight.

Naaman is extremely fortunate in that his king, for whom he has won many battles, is sympathetic and eager for his commander to find a cure. Naaman is a very valuable person to the king, someone the king wants to keep in his positon as a military leader. So, thinking not just of Naaman, but also of himself, and his needs, the king sends Naaman, with a small fortune and a letter, off to Samaria seeking healing from the King of Israel.

And we know the story. The King of Israel is horrified, because he thinks this impossible request is a ruse to begin a war. However, thanks to Elisha, who becomes aware of the situation, Naaman ends up where he needs to be. He arrives at the prophet’s door with his horses and chariots and gifts, but the prophet doesn’t come out to meet him. In fact, Elisha sends an underling to say, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” Like the voice of the salve girl, this is another small voice from an unimportant person,

At this point, Naaman’s pride interferes with his desperation. His response is one of anger. “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!” Instead, some underling tells Naaman to go wash in a muddy little river. And then – there is yet another small voice.

Naaman’s servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean'?"

Finally, Naaman listens to the small voices around him. He went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

Jesus appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place where He Himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

The seventy Jesus commissions in today’s Gospel do as they are told. When they return from doing Jesus’ bidding, they get pretty excited about the Power of the Spirit they’ve discovered they have, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!"

Jesus is supportive of their joy, assuring them, “I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.” But adds the caution, “do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.".

We, too, like the seventy, have been told by Jesus that we must be laborers in His harvest. Our problem is that, often with the best intentions, we modern followers of Jesus find we have some difficulty doing as we have been told. Instead of rejoicing, we run into problems.

It seems that almost without fail we come up against two major obstacles. We set out to do the work, but then we draw back from it, because we don’t want to step in and “preach” at people. What good, we reason, would that do? Or, the other way around, we get caught up in being “right”, step in and attempt to apply our own willful solutions to the situation. As the invitations to labour for Jesus never stop coming, we continue to struggle to find a way to respond as Jesus wants us to. What solution are we missing?

Picture this: You are standing in an office, a store, a supermarket – where you have just witnessed some small problem occurring. It isn’t much, but another customer or worker is irate, and a supervisor has come out to reprimand someone and the blame has fallen on a lowly clerk or underling. Everything has escalated and you can see the clerk is about to crumble. This is not Christian behavior. What do you do?

One reaction is to do nothing. It’s not your problem, after all, and you really shouldn’t get involved, even though you may have witnessed the original situation that caused the present scene. Another reaction might be to step up and explain to everyone how uncharitable they are all being, give your interpretation of the original situation, and appeal for calm. You know something needs to be done, but reactions are seldom if ever helpful. Are there any other options?

There is only One with power in this situation to do the work of Christ, only One who rather than reacting can respond in Love. This is when we must listen to the little voice, to the Spirit which dwells within. And suddenly we find, in the uncomfortable situation, there is another option. We can just step forward and put an arm around the crumbling clerk. There is no need to challenge anyone – no need to say a word.

We are the ones filled with the Power of the Spirit, but it will do us and others no good if we constantly override that Power with our own will, our personal noise. We are filled with a great Power, called to spread a great Love, but to do so we must listen to the still, small voice within, listen to the still small voice of God.

Let us pray:

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.