Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
July 3, 2016
9 Proper C
Our family enjoys taking mini-vacations to nearby cities where
we visit museums and enjoy the local cuisine.
By mini, I mean two days and one night, or perhaps two nights. The mid-west offers many opportunities to
visit cities within a short driving distance, and we have been to Cleveland,
Indianapolis, and Cincinnati, as well as some others further afield. When we
went to Cincinnati, we visited the Underground Railroad museum the first
afternoon and the next morning we went to the Creation Museum in Northern
Kentucky. At the entrance to the
Creation Museum, we were greeted by a man handling a snake. The snake was wrapped around his shoulders and
was clearly a friendly snake, but a live snake nonetheless. I was left to wonder whether the snake was a
Genesis Chapter 3 snake, which had power over Adam and Eve, or was it a Luke 10
or Mark 16 snake, over which the disciples would have power? Either way, the clear message was that
believers could handle snakes with no fear for their lives or their souls. However, Don and I had lived in the mountains
of western North Carolina for a couple of years, and every year there were one
or two stories in the local paper about people who took Jesus’ words literally
about the ability of disciples to handle snakes and scorpions. Unfortunately those folks found that they
could not actually tread on snakes and scorpions, and their attempts were met with
dire consequences. If you have ever read
the late comedian Robin Williams’ top 10 reasons to be an Episcopalian, you
know that reason number 10 is no snake handling.
The promise of the ability to tread on snakes and scorpions
has such dramatic flair and miraculous potential that we can easily overlook
what is perhaps the real miracle in the gospel story this morning. On this 4th of July weekend when
we celebrate independence and freedom with fireworks that shoot glorious power
into the air, Jesus sends the 70 out, not independently, but two by two to
recruit more workers for the harvest.
Rather than send them out with everything they need for a successful
mission, Jesus tells them to take nothing with them. Rather than freeing them to be in control of
their accommodations as they travel, Jesus tells them to rely on the
hospitality of others, eating and drinking what is provided. Rather than give the disciples a powerful
argument that proves the truth of the gospel, they are simply to heal the sick
and say “The Kingdom of God has come near.”
By 21st century American standards, the 70 are destined for
failure. But rather than fail, the 70
succeed and return to Jesus with joy. They
go two by two, make themselves vulnerable as they take nothing with them and rely
on the hospitality of others, heal the sick, proclaim that the Kingdom of God
has come near, and they are successful.
Snake handling looks like a minor miracle in comparison.
Simplicity and vulnerability are also at the heart of the
story from 2 Kings this morning. Naaman,
commander of the army of Aram, has leprosy.
A quick trip to Urgent Care is not an option for Naaman. Instead, his cure involves a young Israelite
girl who tells her mistress about the prophet in Samaria. The mistress talks to Naaman who tells the
King of Aram, who gets the King of Israel involved, who sends Naaman to
Elisha. These connections do not
happening via email, much less text message.
These connections likely took weeks or even months to make. Finally Naaman reaches Elisha, who tells the
commander to wash in the Jordan 7 times and he will be healed. Naaman thinks this is ridiculously simple and
is offended. All of these connections,
deep vulnerability to strangers, and this is what he gets? But his servants say to him, in what may be
one of the wisest passages of Scripture “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'?" So Naaman does as Elisha instructed and,
indeed, his skin is healed. The miracle
is one of connections, vulnerability, and simplicity.
Jesus sends the 70 out to draw people into the Kingdom of
God by proclaiming that the Kingdom has come near. If Jesus’ followers are welcomed, they are to
proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come near.
If Jesus’ followers are not welcomed, they are still to proclaim that
the Kingdom of God has come near. The
way we know that the Kingdom of God has come near apparently has nothing to do
with the success of our efforts. The
Kingdom of God has come near when we live as people who are connected to each
other, allow ourselves to be vulnerable to outsiders, and keep the message
simple. Paul tells us in the letter to
the Galatians to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of
Christ. Even as someone quite new here, I
see you bearing one another’s burdens at Christ Church and in the wider
community all the time. I have heard
stories from you about times when your burdens were born by fellow parishioners. When we live as people who are connected to
each other and use our actions bear one another’s burdens, we both show the
world what the Kingdom of God looks like and invite them in. Like Naaman, we sometimes want to make the
work of drawing people into the Kingdom much more complicated than required. We’d like be able to buy a program or get a
complicated set of instructions guaranteed to fill this church with people who
want to make a gospel difference in the world.
We can think that living as people who are connected with each other and
bearing one another’s burdens sounds like a ridiculously simple way to show
people what the Kingdom of God looks like.
Wouldn’t something complicated, like the promise of being able to tread
on snakes, metaphorical or literal, be much more effective way to draw people
to the Kingdom of God? In response, we
hear the servants of Naaman say “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'?"
Amen.
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