A Change of Heart, July 4, 2010

2nd Kings 5
Luke 10:1-20
Our Call to Confession and Assurance of Pardon this morning were written to fit together. 2nd Chronicles 7:14 describes:
“If my people, the people called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal the land.”
Reflecting upon this, the Chaplain of the Senate, wrote “This land cannot be righteous, until her people are in right relationship. We know that the world cannot be changed, until the hearts of men and women are changed, and our hearts need to be changed.”

Charles Dickens, in addition to writing of Scrooge and the Christmas Carol, wrote of the era of the French Revolution in “A Tale of Two Cities”, beginning the setting in 1775, describing the period as both “The best of times and the worst of times. The age of wisdom and the age of foolishness, the epoch of belief and the epoch of incredulity, the season of Light and the age of Darkness, the spring of Hope and the winter of despair, with everything before us, and nothing, in short claimed Dickens, the period was so far like the present period, some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil in the superlative.”

Increasingly, we are a polarized people, right/ left, rich/ poor, who each castigate the other Liberal/Conservative.
Over the years, I had read this passage from Luke, that they were sent out by twos, as means of companionship and witness, to each hold the other accountable that we not simply see things from our own perspective. Yet, I begin to wonder, if what Jesus did was to send out pairs in opposition. Not that the two agreed and were right where those they visited were wrong; but rather that the seventy were sent to talk together on the journey, to see one another as human beings and friends.

We are each born to specific moments in history. I was fortunate, that growing up under the shadow of the Viet Nam War, when the time came for enlistment, there was no longer a draft. And yet, as a pastor, having never been in a war-zone, I was uncertain how to minister to and identify with those who have. So when the opportunity came, I went to Sudan not to put your life at risk, but to witness first hand what war does to people. Life is different, when everyone has access to a machine gun or a machette, regardless whether children or adult. One night, a Military Commander took his machette and drew a line from my throat down my body, saying “What I really wish I could do, would be to cut you open, to put our children in you, to send to America, because it is the only hope for them. But you do not do such things to a friend.” Such are the realities of living in war.

We can argue and disagree about politics, about social issues, about war, but the painful reality of our times, is that our family members, our children are experiencing something that changes people, killing their humanity. When you go from being loved and cared for in your parents' home, and for two years you have to be skeptical of children that they are not planting bombs in your path, when for years you have to live with killing, how does one come home and pick up life?

In all of Scripture, I cannot recall a passage more picked apart, with individual phrases used, while ignoring the whole. “I send you out as sheep among the wolves”, be careful. When you come to a strangers' home and they receive you greet them “Peace be with you.” And yet, what this passage describes is the community of faith being sent out into the world in mission, in evangelism, to share the good news. We have come a long ways. There was a time in which in American Churches we dared not say the E Word meaning “Evangelism” because it had been given over to the 7th Day Adventists. A time in which mission, was accepted as charitable gifts to all those 1000 different causes. As a church, we have begun to claim relationship with individuals from different places by one another's Christian name, and to have concern for them. The larger experience of mission has allowed us to witness miracles, times when we were certain there was a dead end, no possible way forward, loved ones with cancers whose disease went into remission, and God did provide. But the idea of sharing our faith, of evangelizing one another to most of us is frightening. We do not want to be that neighbor, who is pigeon-holed as The Church Lady.

However, there is a far more subtle and real example of evangelism, provided in the story of the Prophet Elisha and Naaman the Commander of the Syrian Army. Someday, there is going to be a children's play of Namaan and Elisha, this is just too good a story to ignore.
Here is Naaman, a Warrior so powerful he has led the Syrian Army against Israel and been victorious. Yet, this soldier, beloved of Kings and Powerful at War, has a fateful flaw, he is afflicted with leprosy, a skin disease making him socially unacceptable. As powerful as Naaman is, his wife has a servant so insignificant, she is not even named. This servant risks sharing with Namaan that in Samaria there is a great prophet of the true God, who could heal him.

Like this foreign people, we live in a consumer driven society, expecting that everything in life costs and that power grants access to those with influence. Namaan goes with letters of introduction from his king and fabulous gifts, to pay for the cure he desires. Imagine you are the President of the United States, and a feared Military leader from a foreign nation comes demanding that you fix him. You are the ruler of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, can you not cure a disease? The King of Israel tears his clothes recognizing the place he is in, but Elisha the prophet invites the afflicted to come. Now if you go to the doctor with terrible disorder you have lived with for years, a disorder that has made you unclean and socially unacceptable, you expect CAT Scans and MRIs, you expect at the very least to be examined and seen by this prophet. Throughout the Bible, the most common illustration is of the face of God, to be seen by God, or in the case of Moses to desire to see where God is going. To be seen is to be validated, to be recognized as being a human being, to be witnessed. But Elisha does not come out of his home. Elisha sends word to Namaan to go bathe in the River Jordan seven times. Namaan is outraged and insulted, not only did the prophet not come out to see him, in essence he said “Go soak your head!” Namaan is a patriotic Syrian, who believes his home, and his rivers and lakes just as beautiful as this Jordan. But what Elisha saying, has nothing to do with which river, or with needing a bath this is a precursor to Baptism! Do something sacred, something holy, something spiritual, to recognize that you are no longer unclean but are a Gift of God. And eventually Namaan does, and miraculously he is.

In turn, for having been cured, Namaan desires to pay for what his treatment, and Elisha says no, you cannot buy communion, you cannot pay for faith, this is a free gift of God's grace and love. However, Elisha's servant whose name is Gehazi is an opportunist, who says “If my master does not want the money, I'll take what this foreigner has to offer.” And he does, and he takes the leprosy as well.

We said before, that as a Church we have come a long ways. There was a time in which we sent children off to Camp and High School students off to College with scholarships but without commissioning. Increasingly, I believe one of the most important elements of baptism, is that on behalf of the church throughout the world, we lift up our voices stating we claim this child as a gift of God's grace. Baptism is our commissioning as believers.
In this passage of Luke, those who are commissioned are told to follow 10 instructions.
1. The harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. Do not compete with one another, there is plenty for all to do!
2. Pray
3. I send you out as sheep among wolves, recognize the world can be a dangerous place.
4. carry nothing with you but be present in the circumstance
5. Greet those who welcome you sharing “Peace be with you”
6. Receive what is given you thankfully and without misgivings.
7. Realize just how serious the way we treat one another affects all creation
8. Repent, accept one another with humility and sincerity.
9. realize you are sent in the name of the Lord
10.Do not rejoice in putting others down, but that you are part of the kingdom of heaven.