It’s Just That Simple

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assumptions, cure, Kings, lesson, Naaman, simpler, solution, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There’s a great lesson in today’s first reading (2 KGS 5:1-15) about Naaman, the Syrian army commander who was “highly esteemed and respected” by his master, the king of Aram. At issue was the fact that Naaman was a leper and that his wife’s Israeli slave girl suggested that he could be cured by Elisha, the prophet in Samaria. The king of Aram was all for the idea and sent Naaman with all sorts of expensive gifts to the king of Israel with a letter containing the request that Naaman be cured.

Two assumptions were made in the story that could have derailed the process.

1. The king of Israel assumed that the king of Aram was asking him (not the prophet Elisha) for the actual cure and that his motive was to instigate a “quarrel” (ostensibly a political challenge) so he became enraged.
2. When told what he had to do to be cured (to wash seven times in the Jordan River), Naaman became enraged because he assumed that the task was too simple and that the water in his own country should have been just as healing as that in Israel.

Thank goodness for the servants and the prophet who talked sense to the angry ones and facilitated the cure, the lesson being a familiar one: “Never assume…or jump to conclusions because the solution might be simpler than you could ever imagine.

 

 

 

 

 

Incredible Things

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creativity, cure, history, incredible, Jesus, Luke, progress, reality show, reflection, repurposed, reverence, simple ways, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I often wonder what the next “reality show” on television will be. Whether it’s “Texas Flippers” or the latest tiny house being built, the networks seem to be birthing new iterations of demolition and rebuilding every day. In contrast to the seeming lack of desire to save anything in a house that might be “repurposed: – e.g. kitchen cabinets that might be “dated” but still in good shape – there is one, albeit very different, show that was playing when I walked into the living room yesterday. I think it’s called “Barn Builders.”

The team of a half-dozen strong, bearded, Southern-speaking, friendly workers is led by a man named Mark, whose reverence for history is impossible to miss. There’s lots to learn from this show about how barns were built long ago, what woods and other materials were used and why anyone would be interested in them today. Each episode features either the careful deconstruction of a barn whose wood is to be repurposed or the renovation of a structure to its faded glory of long ago. Often the team uses the implements of the era when renovating – like the flat axe I saw yesterday. Time and energy ran out on that one though, as they were working on a 40-foot tree that was to become a strengthening beam in the renewed structure of an 1839 tavern. The chain saw came out and did the job in record time. All involved were not only grateful for time and effort saved but amazed at the creativity that has brought us so much progress over the last two centuries. Most important was the esteem for early farmers who had worked so hard to build their homes and their lives.

There were two prompts for the above reflection. First, what may seem a stretch but is really true, was the last line of this morning’s gospel after Jesus had cured a paralyzed man. They said, “We have seen incredible things today.” (LK 5:26) Secondly, there is the reverence for history that is evident not only in the actual project of the Barn Builders episode but also in the vignettes sprinkled throughout the hour where Mark tours other properties or gives brief lessons about historical building processes. The premise of this show truly does remind me that we continue to see incredible progress but also that we need to remember our history that is so rich in seemingly simple ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Good Balance

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breathing in God, cure, deserted place, God, Jesus, leper, Luke, miracle, pray, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, withdraw

Today’s gospel is Luke’s version of Jesus curing a leper (LK 5:12-16). The language of the request/answer seems rather stilted to me (L. “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” J. “I do will it. Be clean.”) I’m not sure where I once read a translation that had it more colloquial, but more like the Jesus I envision. Not a huge difference but listen to the shift in feeling: L. “If you want to, you can make me clean.” J. Of course I want to, be clean!” It certainly helped me to think that Jesus put a lot of energy and welcome into his ministry.

That’s a bit of a sideline to my point this morning but does have something to do with it. There’s a lot going on in this section of chapter 5, actually just in the last verse after all is completed with the former leper. As one might imagine after such a healing, “word spread about Jesus all the more and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments.” It’s the line after that, the last one in the section, that speaks loudest to me. It says that in the midst these days of such intense activity somehow Jesus would escape and “withdraw to deserted places to pray.” That’s probably the only reason he could keep up the pace. More importantly it’s how he kept his relationship with God intact. Sometimes some of us are up before dawn, out the door without breakfast, on the road to work while listening to the news and moving from activity to activity until way past sunset and dinner, falling into bed exhausted. I suppose that can’t be helped in some cases – or, for some, in most cases. So how can we find a deserted place to which we might flee in the midst of those days? I’m thinking that coming awake to the fact that even our breath can be an internal “deserted place” when we need to withdraw and remember God is the best idea.

Today is not as frenetic for me as the day described above. I have two appointments this morning, one this afternoon and a few errands in between, but I think as I move about I’ll try the tactic of breathing in God to make the world go away and steady myself for the next thing – to restore my balance and remember why I do what I do.

It’s the Simple Things

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cure, Elisha, expectations, God, Kings, miracle, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s story from the Second Book of Kings in the Hebrew Scriptures (Ch 5: 1-15) teaches a great lesson that even Jesus used when he was talking about prophets not being accepted (LK 4). It concerns Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, a leper, who is advised to seek healing for his leprosy in Israel. When Elisha tells Naaman to go and wash seven times in the Jordan in order to be cleansed, Naaman becomes incensed because the directive is something so simple. He was expecting something extraordinary, like a cure on the spot when the prophet invoked his God. Luckily he had wise servants who said to him, “If the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it?” They suggested he do what Elisha had directed and so he did and was healed.

Some of us keep waiting for a great experience of God’s presence to us – a miracle, a theophany, a way for us to know without a doubt that God is with us, on our side, as it were, so we can live the rest of our lives in peace and unshakeable faith. In living this way, we can easily miss the daily moments of grace that reveal God. My Christmas cactus has just put out the most glorious blossom that reminds me of the beauty of God’s creation no matter what the calendar says when it continues to be bone-chillingly cold and windy outside. We had a Taizé service for the Sophia Center last night with only 7 people which was profound for its music and for its silence, bringing God as close to us as any wildly celebrative Church service could ever do.

It’s all a question of expectations. If we expect God every day and keep our “expectant self” on tiptoe in the waiting we will lose our need for the extraordinary and be satisfied with the simple things God asks of us and gives to us in each moment of presence, each and every day of our lives.