First Baptist Church on Littleton Common    

Take a Little Walk

Mark 1:40-45

2 Kings 5:1-15

Nate was a success at everything he touched.   He had worked for over twenty years at Hometown Records and was a veteran A & R executive (artist &repertoire) in the music industry.  Nate had made quite the name for himself by discovering and signing some major talent, including the well known Miriam and the Blue Tambourines.  He was highly regarded by the president of the company, and over the years had helped launch many other successful musical careers.  Nate was a relentless and thorough worker, however he also suffered from a medical condition that was physically challenging, and kept him up at night with an endless stream of mental anguish that ran through his mind and prevented him from moments of peace.  

One of the secretaries in the office of Hometown Records had heard about a certain sales representative over at Country Lane Records, who had a reputation as a man of God and who was healer for both body and soul.   She mentioned this to her office manager, who passed it on to Nate.   One day Nate went to see his boss, the President of Hometown Records, to see if he could permission to visit Country Lane Records and visit this man of healing who might be able to help him with his condition.  The President said, “of course you can go. Not only that I will send an email to my counterpart at Country Lane Records, so that he will expect you.   And why don’t you take along with you a couple of cases of CDs from each of our artists, a few of those fancy new MP3 players and some t-shirts from  Miriam’s last tour through  the Red Sea.  I think then that he will grant you time with this sale rep who is a man of God and of healing.”  

When the President of Country Lane Records received the email from the President of Hometown Records, and heard that Nate was coming to see him, he was thrown into a complete thither.  Believing that Nate was going to try to steal away some of his recording artists, the president tore his floral and paisley, long sleeved linen Sunny Side Up Tommy Bahama shirt.  

When Robert Junior, the man of healing, heard that his boss had torn his shirt, he sent him a message:  “Why have you gone and torn that nice shirt?  Send the visitor with the medical condition straight to me, so that he will know that our God is a God of compassion and healing.”    So Nate drove over to Robert Junior’s home and parked outside the door.  However,  Robert Junior didn’t even step outside the house, and instead sent out this message:  “Nate why don’t you take a little walk down to the Nashua River, jump in, wash yourself seven times and your condition will clear right up.  You will be restored and made whole.” 

This message made Nate really angry, and he could feel the disbelief and the frustration of too many sleepless nights welling up inside him.   He yelled out: “You’d think that this ‘supposedly’ great man of God would at least come out to see me, and call on the name of his god, wave his hands and part the river or something.   I could have just stayed home and jumped in the Concord River rather than travel here.”  And with that protest, Nate turned to leave and was about to walk away, when the driver of his limousine spoke up. 

 “Sir, if I may say so, if this man of God had told you to do some big thing, something that was flashy and really difficult - would you have done that?   Why then when God’s message to you is simply to go and wash yourself in the Nashua River, you assume it isn’t good enough or going to work?  Why wouldn’t you do what he requires of you?”

And so Nate rethought his position and took that little walk down to the river.  He jumped in, went under seven times and was cured from his affliction.  Nate returned to the house of Robert Junior, stood before him and said; “now I now that your God is the God of creation, of life and of wholeness, for which I am truly grateful.”

The story of Nate the A&R executive is the story of Naaman the army commander, who had leprosy in 2 Kings 5.    Naaman receives healing after Elisha the prophet tells him to take a little walk and simply dip himself in the Jordan River.  In this story of healing, Naaman is person who is named for us. He is well known, well connected, entitled and a bit arrogant.  When he is directed by the prophet of God to take a little walk, his first response is that God’s directive is not big or flashy enough.  Take a little walk? Dip myself in the local river?  What about the lights, the cameras, the action?   Naaman’s preconceived notions of God, bump up against the reality of trying to understand God who is beyond understanding.   God is the one who is omniscient or all knowing and not we humans.   We all construct an image and an understanding of God that frames our beliefs and influences our practice, but this story reminds us that God is working and very often in ways that we often least expect. 

It seems that we are often like Namaan, waiting for God to do something big, when God is already at work in the midst of the world and very middle of our lives.   Why are we then surprised when seemingly insignificant people, like the servants or the unnamed people in my modern day story, are those who speak up and out and remind us of God’s presence and purpose?  Where has God asked you to walk and what has God asked you to do lately?  Have you missed it because it was small? 

You may not solve the problem of homelessness – but you might be able to help a local shelter.   You can’t save the world, but you can try.  Maybe in your walk with God, you are waiting for some direction or an answer?  Don’t forget to listen for the still small voice that might be part of your everyday life. 

The Gospel lesson is the story of another man with leprosy – but this is a man with no name.   He is unknown, humble, a social outcast and insignificant to the world around him.   However he is not unknown or unnoticed by Jesus, who sees him and is filled with compassion.  This unnamed man got down on his knees and pleads with Jesus; “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Jesus is first filled with compassion and acts on that compassion by reaching out and touching the man saying, “I am willing. Be clean.”   The man is cured, cannot contain his joy, and goes forth making his presence and his healing known throughout the city, despite Jesus’ instructions to the contrary. 

In this story we see Jesus at work in the places and with people whom the world most often passes by and never notices.   About a month ago, I went down to Harvard Square and I walked around it pretty slowly a couple of times.   I tried to look beyond the rush of people who were hurrying to get here or there.   I tried to look and see what Jesus might see, and I saw the homeless men and women.  People were walking around them and trying not to meet their eyes or hear their begging or pleading.  My eyes traveled from the small group of homeless men huddled together against the wall of the Coop, to the bright green bank of eight ATM’s just across the street, filled with money for those who needed a little more.  I did witness small acts of compassion going on underneath the surface of that busy intersection, as an occasional person stopped to give money or have a conversation with those living on the streets.    

God works in often unnoticed ways – God’s work and God’s ways are not the ways of the world.   It wasn’t in Biblical times - why would it be any different now? 

Jesus was not the TV preacher of his time.   He went about doing God’s business, trying to remain under the radar without all the flash, the publicity and the promotion and he wasn’t trying to fill stadiums and sell books.   Jesus did not operate under the “bigger is better” principle.  He did not want the healed man to go out and tell anyone what happened to him.  He instructed the man to be obedient to the customary law, which was to go the priest and make a sacrifice and give thanks.  But this voiceless, unnamed man had lived outside the city for far too long and he was not only healed, but he found his voice and went into the city to share the news of his transformation as best he understood it. 

 As best he understood what happened to him.  But as a result of the hoopla, “Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but he stayed outside in lonely places.  Yet people still come to him from everywhere.”

Bigger, louder, flashier is not at all the way of the Gospel and the stories of scripture, but our preconceived notions about God and faith today are all wrapped up with the cultural expectation that success has to do with numbers.  When we walk with God and have a teacher and companion in Jesus, we supposed to see and act differently.  We are to see first with eyes of compassion in our faith journey. 

What do we see with the eyes of faith?   

• What do we think of when we read about Alex Rodriguez?  Any compassion there? 

• What do we think of when we see stories of the mother who had octuplets, bringing the total number of her children to fourteen?  Any compassion there?

• What do we think of when we see parents who are having trouble dealing with their children? Any compassion there?

• What do we think of when we see or hear about people who are struggling with mental illness, or depression, or anxiety?  It is not a visible disease.  Any compassion there?

Or do we make them outcasts somehow?  Do we treat any group of people as “leprous” in our eyes?  Do we? 

Who do we look at with eyes of evaluation, or judgment, or condemnation?  Who do we laugh at behind closed doors – not a hearty and wholesome laughter – but laughter that comes at the expense of others? 

Jesus looked at this unnamed social outcast with eyes of compassion and then acted from that compassion when he reached out and touched him.  Everyone longs to be touched and healed.  We all long to be on the receiving end of a loving and holy touch.   We have just celebrated the Hallmark holiday Valentine’s Day – but there are people in our lives or around our lives who haven’t felt a loving and warm embrace for far too long.  Sharing an appropriate and genuine hug with someone – a hug that comes from a heart of compassion – is not a small thing.  

There is a British rock star named Cliff Richard, who used to live the wild life before he became a Christian and went on a mission trip to Sudan and Bangladesh in the 1970s.  He tells a story in his book, Which One’s Cliff, about his visit there and says:  "the first morning, I must have washed my hands a dozen times. Whenever we stopped, I made a beeline for the communal tap or the well; I didn't want to touch anything, least of all the people. Everyone in those camps, even the babies, was covered in sores and scabs.

"I was bending down to one little mite, mainly for the photographer's benefit, and trying hard not to have too close a contact, when someone accidentally stood on the child's fingers. He screamed out, and as a reflex, I grabbed hold of him, forgetting all about his dirt and his sores. I remember now that warm little body clinging to me, and the crying instantly stopped. In that moment, I knew I had an enormous amount to learn about practical Christian loving, but at least I'd started." [1]

Jesus has invited us to take a little walk with him.   I know that I can’t even imagine my journey in life without him, for he has been a tremendous teacher and friend.  He is ever and always teaching me about radical love and care for one another.  May our week ahead be an ever closer walk with him, and may we always be guided in both word and deed by those same eyes of compassion and care.

Amen

Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard