An Open Table where Love knows no borders

Go in Peace

A sermon on 2 Kings 5: 1-14 & Galatians 6: 1-16 by Ian Cook

Do this! Do that! Don’t go there! Don’t compromise! Follow my path! Don’t drink! Don’t swear! You’ve got it wrong! Relationships within and outside the church are full of advice; usually well meant though not always helpful. Sometimes advice has a hidden underlying agenda because things are not always as they seem.

In two of the readings tonight 2 Kings 5 and Galatians 6 we are presented with two seemingly contradictory approaches to the way we should handle giving and receiving instruction and advice. To do this however I need to tweak one of the readings we have shared. In 2 Kings 5 we had a rattling good story- but we did not have all the story – yes there is more following Naaman’s joyful healing:

Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant.” “As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it,” Elisha replied; and despite Naaman’s urging, he still refused. Naaman said: “If you will not accept, please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD. But I trust the LORD will forgive your servant this: when my master enters the temple of Rimmon to worship there, then I, too, as his adjutant, must bow down in the temple of Rimmon. May the LORD forgive your servant this.” “Go in peace,” Elisha said to him. (2 Kings 5:15-19 NIV)

By any standards 2 Kings is a ripping good yarn, but still there is more – there are the steak knives – an epilogue which I did not read. It has its own surprising twist…. but you can read that at home as it is not directly relevant to tonight’s message. We shall return to Elisha and Naaman shortly but first to Paul writing to Galatian Christians.

Up front let me say that I often have difficulty with Paul’s writings – I find his arguments tedious and convoluted. It’s not that I think him wrong, just laboured and boring c/fthe gospels which are far more engrossing. Not tonight’s reading however. This is Paul with fire in his belly entreating the Galatian Christians with “You’ve got it all wrong!” The gospel is not about following certain practices, behaving in a particular way or looking good to others _ it’s all about the cross of Jesus! Jesus came to set us free from the bondage ofimposed restrictions of behaviour; not to trap us within them. There is a world of difference between a style of living which I choose as an appropriate to my faith, and a style of living which I have been told underpins my faith and is fundamental to my faith.

Galatia is a Roman provence in Asia minor, inhabited by Gauls – that is not by Jews. It would seem that some Jews had been teaching the young Galatian Christians that that to be Christian you must follow Jewish culture and practice (after all Jesus was a Jew). We have aptly come to call them “Judaizers”. Within their teaching framework circumcision is a logical necessity to being Christian. Jesus was a Jew-so become Jewish then follow Jesus.

I have thought a lot about circumcision recently because at work we have just completed making two chairs to be used in a Caulfield Synagogue for the rite of circumcision. Today the same traditions of family and religious festivals underpin Jewish faith and culture as they did 2000 years ago. I can well appreciate a reticence to let go of the importance of tradition and practice to those Jews who had embraced Christianity in Paul’s time. Temple practice could do nothing but distort the simplicity of Jesus message.

Judaizers, then, had their own cultural interpretations to overlay upon Jesus message. Paul’s complaint however is not just that they are wrong, but that they have twisted Jesus message for their own advantage. Things are not always as they seem. Christians are being recruited for the glorification of the recruiter rather than the glory of God. These Judaizers are reminiscent of some high profile American evangelists who ultimately were spectacularly undone by their own publicity. They are also reminiscent of many Christians and even Lucy Van Pelt. Do you remember Lucy of Peanuts fame -but more shortly.

For Paul it is about the message more than the messenger. The gospel is reduced to its simplest element: Jesus died for you. Nothing else ultimately matters. Circumcision is both unnecessary and more importantly – it is irrelevant, and so says Paul is every other distortion to the simplicity of the gospel message that Jesus died for you. Following Jesus is not about doing this, doing that or acting in one manner or another.

Naaman is commanding General in the army of the king ofAram. He has leprosy, (presumably recently acquired) or he would not be in the army let alone have reached the rank of general. Neither would the king “rest on his arm” in the temple. On advice from the Israeli slave/servant of his wife he is advised to go to the prophet of Samaria for healing. Like the wise men he goes instead for the King of Israel. He is loaded with gifts and a letter from his king. The king’s consternation is comical, but fortunately things are not always as they seem.

Naaman is probably a very good General, but in matters of life he doesn’t get it:
He takes a letter of introduction from his king – unnecessary.
He takes gifts – not needed.
Advised to go to the prophet, he goes to the king – wrong choice.
Instructed by a servant, he demands the prophet.
Told to wash in the creek he wants a river.
Finally Naaman gets one thing right: He chooses to make the God of Israel his God. Then another inappropriate choice follows Naaman decides to take two loads of Israeli dirt back to Aram He has decided to worship the God of Israel in response to his healing from leprosy. If this God can be found in Israel, then Israelite soil is needed to worship him. So take some Israelite soil to Aram, to worship this Israeli God. There is a symmetry of thought between taking soil to worship a Jewish God, and being circumcised to worship a Jewish God. The premise for both of course is wrong. God is not found in Israel alone, and neither is becoming Jewish a prerequisite to following Jesus. Why then does Elisha not correct Naaman’s misconception about God? Presumably it wasn’t that important. I think we can reasonably conclude that it was more important that Naaman worshipped the God of Israel than the fine detail of its manner. There is a similarity in the differences:

For Elisha concentrating on the detail will distract from the primary goal

For Paul the details are already a distraction and a distortion of the core message. How easily could Elisha have concluded that Naaman should be taught right now the finer points of Jewish theology, to the detriment of an emerging faith. How easily might Paul have decided that bad theology and teaching didn’t really matter, and like Elisha, remained silent and permitted a distortion ofthe Christian faith to become entrenched. Both Elisha and Paul were committed to doing God’s will. Two situations, each with subtle differences produced different but defendable responses.

I have an acquaintance, a committed Christian, who would like to embody what we believe, in an ultimate and binding statement of faith – set for all time. He was more than surprised to find that Baptists don’t have any formalised statement of faith. “How do you know who you are without a defined faith?” he asks. It may seem a little simplistic but we are firstly followers of Jesus. There are however certain characteristics that tend to identify us – characteristics that most Baptists would identify with – but none of these are absolutes. Some characteristics are about belief; others are about style and even architecture. They are identifiers, all well capable ofmodification as time and scholarship change. This is anathema to the fundamentalist who would lock you in to a defined set of beliefs. But both Paul and Elisha are saying: “Get the core matter right and let the rest follow”. For Elisha it is worshipping Yahweh; for Paul it is following the risen Christ. For the Christian these are one and the same.

If Naaman was unaware of the flaw in his thinking regarding soil he now raises the dilemma of a conflict he does understand. He is a general in the army of the king of Aram. Protocol dictates that he must worship with the king in the temple ofthe God Rimmon. Naaman has stated his commitment to the God of Israel. His God is Yahweh, but when he now returns to Aram he must prostrate himself with the king in the temple of Rimmon. What should he do? He cannot worship the God of Israel and the God ofRimmon at the same time.

What advice should Elisha give? Elisha understands both Naamans commitment to Yahweh and his necessity to serving his king. His advice is remarkable: “Go in peace!” I can only draw one conclusion: That you worship God is more important than the manner of how you do it. God knows your heart, go and work it through with God. Things are not always what they seem. Elisha understands that Naaman”s presence in Rimmon’s temple is not what it seems. How often we judge people on what we see without understanding the context of their situation. We give advice based on what we would do, expecting that our solution is universally applicable. It never is. How much harder it is to say “Go in peace” than it is to tell a friend what to do. The first response trusts the judgement of the friend; the second puts an “expert” tag around our neck, and like the Judaizers our response may be more about us than them. In the Peanuts cartoon strip it was Lucy Van Pelt who sat important and puffed up behind a booth offering psychiatric help for 5 cents protected by the inscription “The doctor is in”. Could you be seeing yourself as more important than the advice you offer. “Go in peace” is not easy. Wisdom does not live in a dictionary.

We can be any of the above players. We may be the giver of advice, like Lucy Van Pelt or the Judaizers, ultimately seeking our own advancement, our own gain through the perception of meeting another persons need. Things are not always as they seem. Or our role may be to expose abuse and distortion as Paul did, directing away from distorting complexities and back to the simplicity of the Gospel. Our role may be to have the wisdom of Elisha, remaining silent and trusting a friend to work through their own outcomes. We may be Naaman, receiver of the trust of an Elisha, that we can appropriately work through the competing interests that life thrusts upon us.

Our leprosy has been healed and we know we cannot worship the God of Israel and the God of Rimmon at the same time. The bible is silent on how Naaman solved his dilemma. Did he end up in the temple of Rimmon and remain a follower of Yahweh? Did he end up outide the temple? What was the cost? For us, we start like Naaman by recognising and naming the conflicts that compromise us. Then we can approach the manner with which we deal with them. If our life’s determination is, like Paul, to follow the risen Christ we will surely find a pathway. If we have a friend, like Elisha, who knows when to be silent and trusts our judgement we are doubly blessed.

Jesus directions from Luke 10 are a suitable framework: you don’t need two loads of dirt to weigh you down – travel light. Pray for all people and let God do the judging. The world may be an evil place but you are God’s children and evil has been overcome.

Finally, Elisha’s words are both comforting and a supporting: “Go in peace”. Amen.

0 Comments

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.