Introduction
a.
We
are going to examine two characters today.
Together they give us clues about the meaning of life and help us answer
a key question:
2. How can I be a true worshipper?
a.
We
operate with the Purpose Statement “To Encounter God and Grow in Him.
b. Many of us may find ourselves
questioning how real our experience of God can be.
c.
How
helpful are buildings, songs, forms of worship?
How do they connect with real life?
d. As we look at the lives of Naaman and
the ten lepers, we discover that:
3. It all starts with desperate need.
a.
Naaman
was a powerful, favoured warrior, in the kingdom of Aram (today’s Syria), but
his life was in tatters.
b. A skin disease that was then feared
and incurable put you on the edge. You
could not take part in regular society and life.
c.
The
ten lepers would have been forced to leave family and friends and live in the
wilderness, on the edge of society.
d. They may have been a disparate bunch
of Jews and Samaritans, people who would normally have stayed clear of each
other, but who had banded together for mutual support and protection.
e. Although this may not have been exact
condition that text books defined as leprosy today, their disease made them the
most pitiable of outcasts. They were
truly desperate.
4. Our need is met by God’s mercy.
a.
The
servant girl belonging to Naaman’s wife tells of a God who can save.
b. The king of Syria assumes that the
channel will be through the king of Israel.
c.
Elisha
announces that there is indeed a prophet in Israel.
d. The ten lepers meet Jesus!
e. He was walking along the border
between Samaria and Galilee: he meets people on the edge. Are we sometimes too comfortable?
f.
The
lepers do the right thing: they stand at a distance.
g.
They
cry out to Jesus for mercy, for favour, eleison.
h. Jesus tells them to obey the Old
Testament Law and show themselves to the priests, so that they can be declared
clean.
i.
All
ten of them did what they were told. I
wonder what they were thinking?
5. Our response
a.
At
different times we may each respond in different ways to God’s love.
b. Naaman is perhaps obedient and
hopeful as he travels to Israel in search of cleansing.
i.
His
first thought is that God’s cleansing will come to him in a way that matches up
to his high opinion of himself. It will
be the king of Israel that God uses, or he will be commanded to undertake some
valiant quest.
ii.
The
reality of encountering God seems to be a bit beneath him, and his first
response is to go off in a huff.
iii.
He
seems to have been a lovable man, though, because he has servants who plead
with him, and he submits. He baptises
himself the required seven times in the river Jordan, and emerges – cleansed!
iv.
His
response is to declare that Jahweh is the true God, and later in the chapter we
discover that he has become a worshipper.
c.
All
ten lepers set off to find a priest, in obedience to Jesus’ command. On the way they discover that they have been
cleansed.
i.
One,
and only one, of them turns back. In
doing this he seems to be disobeying!
ii.
He
throws himself at Jesus’ feet and thanks him – he eucharizes him.
iii.
Jesus
notices that this is a Samaritan, a foreigner (like Naaman was), one on the
edge.
iv.
The
fact that he thanks Jesus for God’s cleansing seems to put the seal on it. “Rise and go, your faith has saved you.” A thankful heart is what unites us with God –
it makes us into true worshippers.
d. We hear no more about the other nine,
except that Jesus wonders about them.
i.
They
have been separated from wives, children, and parents. In their joy and delight, have they very
understandably forgotten everything else, grabbed their certificates and gone
home?
ii.
They
presumable went to the temple to worship, but Jesus obviously feels they should
have come to him.
iii.
There
are so many benefits to being a part of the church community. We get friendship and support, we receive
teaching and guidance, we can experience delight at the beauty of a building or
a piece of music.
iv.
All
of this is good, but can leave us missing out the most vital thing, to truly
have a heart’s encounter with God.
e. What see in both Naaman and the
unnamed but thankful Samaritan leper is a heart that has been deeply
touched. They have truly and encountered
God, and they have been changed.
f.
In
baptism, God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light. To follow Christ means dying to sin and
rising to new life with him.
g.
Naaman
immersed himself in the Jordan, and that was a symbol of him being immersed in
God’s love and cleansing power.
h. The cleansed leper immersed himself
in a river of thankfulness for the new start in life that Jesus was giving him.
i.
We
are called to immerse ourselves in God’s grace and mercy.
i.
Let
us give thanks to the Lord our God.
j.
All It is right to give thanks and praise.
k.
Today
we rejoice with Catherine as she is immersed in God’s love during this baptism
service, and together we join in a thanksgiving, a eucharist, we share in a
public act of sharing in God’s presence through the symbols of broken bread and
shared wine.
Discussion Starters
1. How much do you know about leprosy
and how affected people were treated in ancient times?
2. A quote from New Wine this year: “When we hear of miracles in overseas
countries, I do not think that they have more faith than us, but that they are
more desperate than us in prayer.” What
do you think of this?
3. If asked to define what worship is,
how would you answer? What examples
would you give?
4. What do you think about the place of
foreigners or those “on the edge” in these stories? How would you answer the opinion that we are
sometimes too comfortable with the familiar and safe inside our church
buildings?
5. Have you any specific suggestions
about things that hinder your worship that we could see about changing? Or are there any things that we could do more
of as they are a blessing to you?
No comments:
Post a Comment