…I can’t heal leprosy with a word, but I can love with a word.
Cut out of our 2 Kings reading today is the contents of the letter that make the King of Israel rip his clothes in two. It is a letter from King Aram, along with much, much gold and silver, telling the King of Israel to cure the King of Aram’s servant Naaman. The King of Israel can’t say no, I won’t hear Naaman without provoking a new war. He can’t say yes because he isn’t God and can’t cure people! The poor King sees ruin everywhere he turns. So let’s read how the story turns out… 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c
Last week we read Luke’s recount of Jesus saying sometimes doing the right thing is a thankless job… and today, we see Jesus not get thanked 9 times out of 10. But he still does the right thing. Luke remembers… Luke 17:11-19
“The only healed leper who turns back to praise [God before] Jesus is a Samaritan.
With this designation Luke alludes to a centuries-long story of religious rivalry and ethnic friction. At the same time, he foreshadows the eventual healing of that hostility.
[So] Why the hostility?
The region of Samaria, along with Galilee to the north, had once comprised the northern Israelite tribes who separated from Judah in the 10th century BCE in order to establish a rival monarchy. Two centuries later, these northern tribes were conquered by the Assyrian empire, which transported distant Mesopotamian peoples into the region, resulting in centuries of inter-marriage.
From a Judean perspective, these developments led to a kind of ethnic compromising of the already alienated branches of Jacob’s family tree.
Over time, Samaritans developed their own religious traditions, emphasizing devotion to Torah and affiliation with the sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim near Shechem. [You might recall these as the Bible’s ‘High Places’ which are spoken against.]
In the 2nd century BCE, much of Galilee converted to Judaism, meaning (among other things) that it recognized the Jerusalem temple as the proper place of cultic worship. This left the middle region of Samaria rather isolated between two Jerusalem-affiliated populations.
In 128 BCE, the rivalry turned especially violent when Judeans destroyed the Samaritan sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim.
In Jesus’ day, hostility toward Samaritans was still strong enough that Galilean pilgrims often bypassed Samaria en route to Jerusalem, even though it added considerable time to the journey.” ((Ira Brent Driggers))
THAT is the level of hate Jesus is addressing. 1,000 years of hate. A hate that a few generations ago led to burning and destroying Samaria’s holy place dedicated to God.
We have political tensions from several years of hate.
We have racial tensions from several hundred years of hate.
We have religious tensions from several hundred more years of hate.
Samaria and Judea shared a racial, religious, and political tensions of a thousand years. It is STRONG.
Hate.
It was acceptable to hate Samaritans and expect them to hate in return.
Hate!
Hate them, for they disrespect God and don’t properly love God in the same way we do.
Hate them. Our neighbors. Our cousins. Our blasphemers. Our enemies.
And in comes Jesus. His first home town sermon concludes: none of you accept me, but prophets aren’t accepted in their home towns. God’s healing has come to the outsiders, “There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
We’re told Jesus’ home town was so infuriated with his words that they tried to throw him off a cliff and kill him.
Naaman! That neighbor. That cousin. That blasphemer. That enemy.
Naaman wasn’t Jewish. He didn’t follow the One True God. He was a commander in the enemy’s army. He kept slaves – little children – stolen from us. The girl in the story is called a little, little girl in the original translation. How young was she? As young as one of our toddlers? Stolen. Trafficked. Enslaved.
And THIS is the man the prophet heals with the power of God.
What horrific people is Jesus aiming to heal? Which one of those we hate?
Samaritans in today’s story.
Who is it in your story?
Who do you hate?
Maybe someone too much like yourself. The Judeans hated Samarians even though they both followed the Torah, both called Abraham father… but humans often hate those who are just like us in all ways… but one or two. The mirror they hold up that shows us, but a tiny bit different, is WAY worse than someone we can dismiss as purely alien to us.
I speak generically, but we Christians variously have issues with other Christians. Mega-churches. Or conservative little churches. Prosperity gospel churches. Catholic churches. Churches welcoming the leadership of openly gay or lesbian pastors. Churches welcoming the leadership of men or women with more than one spouse.
We all have a kind of Christian we think is not Christian and they make us angry claiming our title to Christ.
Who do you hate?
Maybe you hate other political parties or specific politicians of late. People like Naaman who harm the weak. People like the King of Aram who issue threats tied to money. Politicians like the Samaritans who split our unified nation into parts and pieces.
Who do you hate?
… Now why doesn’t God hate them, too?
Luke’s memories of Jesus have Jesus insisting, again and again, that all the commandments of God. All the laws. All the prophets’ words. All of holy scripture can be summarized as, “Love God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.”
That is the most important commandment.
And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
These are universal commandments. These don’t name a specific way to worship God. They don’t name where you can, or cannot, pray. These universal commandments don’t set up rules for when and where you may love another.
Samaria is our neighboring country, says Jesus. We must love them.
Mexico is our neighboring country. We must love them.
Whomever it is you are hating… they are our neighbor. We must love them.
And that act of loving one another – when we have many, many, VALID reasons to hate each other – is following God’s commandment. It is … loving God.
In both of today’s readings, people with skin conditions come to prophets to be healed. In both readings, the prophet heals them without big fanfare and a production of it. In both readings, the healed person is from the enemy people of the prophet. In both readings, the healing HEALS that enemy relationship.
Naaman goes back to Elijah praising God.
The Samaritan goes back to Jesus praising God.
The enemy has become a friend. The enemy is healed PHYSICALLY, but also, the relationship has been healed. Through love of God, we can love one another. And that brings healing.
Now, I can’t heal leprosy with a word, I dunno about you.
But I can love with a word.
There’s sometimes I really want to curse out someone. I can choose, then, to speak tenderly.
There are times I get wound up fretting what someone might be scheming against me; or recounting the ways they have wronged me… I can choose to continue, or I can choose to resist by prayer.
Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. Pray blessings upon them.
This isn’t because our prayer is likely to change them. Their relationship with God and others is their responsibility. But that prayer helps change us.
Helps us find ONE good thing about our enemy that reminds us our enemy is ALSO a child – a beloved – child of God.
Because God is in all of us, no one is wholly evil.
That isn’t to say any of us are 100% good, either. We’re born into sinful systems and we fall to and commit sins ourselves.
No, we’re all a mix. A mix of good and bad.
And that is what lets us remember one another are human. And someone’s enemy is someone else’s mommy, daddy, sister, brother, wife, husband, cousin, or friend.
Jesus healed friends and enemies. He spoke well. And although it usually didn’t result in healed relationships, 1 time out of 10, it did.
Those are pretty good odds, honestly. I’ll take them.
This is my challenge for you this week:
Pray goodness for someone you dislike. Pray for God to show you where they are good. And let that prayer remind you that no one is outside of God’s love and lacking some ounce of good.
You never have to like them. But you are asked to show them love in the name of God.
Through love of God, because God’s central nature is loving relationships, God chose to love us WHILE WE, too, WERE YET STRANGERS. Yet enemies.
Speaking for myself – I don’t have the power to love my enemies. I don’t have the will to wish God to bless those I hate. I don’t have the strength to smile and speak fine words to those who spit on me, who threaten my family, who rip up my country.
But I know God has this power.
And I know God lives within me.
Therefore, when my power fails, God’s remains. Who is more powerful than God? Surely not me! Not my hate! God’s love is stronger.
And so I lean on God.
I invite you to do the same. God lives within you. The Spirit of God moves you, whispering to you, advocating the two great commandments – the commandments of Love. Jesus models it for us. Models how love turns enemies into friends.
Pray good for yourself. Good for your friends. And good for your enemies.
Amen.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 