Archive
RSS Feed
DonateJuly 8, 2007 |
See also: [Year C Archive] |
2 Kings 5:1-14
Palm 30
Galatians 6:7-16
Luke 10:1-10, 16-20
The healing of Naaman presents a countercultural vision of the pathway to wholeness. In a world in which persons seek clearly-articulated techniques that guarantee healing (for example, new age approaches such as that of Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life orthe best-selling book The Secret that proclaims that we can get what we want for ourselves by practicing spiritual affirmations, or the contrasting Pentecostal “name it and claim it” healing and prosperity theologies.), this narrative asserts that healing can occur anywhere, by any practice, through any mediator, and at any pace. In this healing story, an unlikely person seeks healing, the powerful Naaman, who is afflicted by some form of leprosy. Naaman finds a path to healing from an unexpected source, a Hebraic slave girl, who testifies to the power of her God. Naaman encounters an unexpected healer, Elisha, a Hebrew, who points the general to an unexpected healing modality, a dip in nearby and rather undistinguished Jordan River.
Naaman is initially angry at the prophet for suggesting such a simple healing. But, once again, the general receives counsel form an unexpected source, his servants who remind him that “if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?”
Surely, this healing encounter is a challenge to all who see healing as primarily dramatic in nature. God seeks healing in every circumstance and virtually any encounter can be a source of personal transformation, embracing body, mind, spirit, and relationships. God’s aim at healing is both intimate and universal. When we say “yes” to Christ’s question, “do you want to be healed?” a lively and expanding world of healing possibilities opens up for us. Most of these are, like the Jordan River, right in front of us. While there are countless healing pathways, some of which are dramatic and involve intricate medical or spiritual technologies, God has placed pathways toward healing in our immune and cardiovascular systems, in our emotional lives, in the power of the mind and spirit, and in our relationships.
In a world in which persons often separate “religion” from “spirituality,” the calling of the church is to become a temple of wholeness and hospitality, promoting healing through preaching and worship, justice-seeking, and hospitality as well as through an openness to healing prayer, laying on of hands, and complementary medicine. (For more on the theology, spirituality, and practice of healing from an ecumenical and progressive perspective, see Bruce Epperly, God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus; Bruce Epperly, Healing Worship: Purpose and Practice; and Bruce and Katherine Epperly, Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus.)
Psalm 30 portrays a prayerful “call and response,” in which the supplicant seeks God’s wholeness in a time of despair and dejection. The Psalmist lives in the hope that God will transform his mourning into dancing. The interplay of call and response in the divine-human relationship awakens us to new life and possibility for transformation. Opening ourselves to God through protest and pain as well as petition and praise enables God to be more directly present in our lives as we move from “disorientation” to “new orientation.” (Brueggemann)
Galatians invites the reader to open to God’s “new creation.” Tradition and ritual serve an important purpose in the process of sanctification and wholeness. Yet, ritual becomes a medium of God’s healing and transformation when we are willing to go beyond the ritual itself to experience the One whose love gives birth to the structures of faith. Our rituals are always secondary in the spiritual path to God’s aim for creative transformation.
Luke’s gospel portrays Jesus’ followers going out into the world with no safety net. Jesus’ followers are to be persons on the move, alive to the present moment in all of its possibilities, positive and negative. In all things, what is needed is a new creation, that is, novelty and dynamism to match the world which is evolving, and novelty and dynamism that inspires us to go beyond the world as it is to the world that God imagines for us. Satan cannot match the creativity of those who are faithful to the future that God envisages for this good earth and its inhabitants. Our names are “written in heaven” for God will never forsake us, but will provide possibilities for growth and healing every step of the way.
Bruce Epperly is Professor of Practical Theology and Director of Continuing Education at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of twelve books, including God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus (Westminster/John Knox) Healing Worship: Purpose and Practice (Pilgrim), and Walking in Light: A Jewish-Christian Vision of Healing and Wholeness (Chalice). These books are available from Flux Books.
If you found this lectionary helpful, please consider contributing to Process & Faith by making a donation or becoming a member.