“God Does Work in Mysterious Ways”

II Kings 5:1-14

I Corinthians 1:25: For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

[prayer]

Some time ago I shared the following hymn title with you, “Little Is Much if God Is in It.” And little is much if God is in it. As Paul stated in his first letter to the Corinthians, God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and his weakness is stronger than human strength. God often uses unassuming and underestimated people or institutions to accomplish his will.

Today’s Old Testament text tells us a story about a great and mighty general named Naaman. He is a renowned warrior and leader. His military victories are many. Verse one even tells us that the Lord himself had enabled him to win great victories from the nation of Syria.

He is famous. He is powerful. He mixes and mingles with the highest of the high and mightiest of the mighty in Damascus, the capital city of Syria. He even rubs elbows on a frequent basis with the king. He is on top of the world and well nigh invincible.

Or so he thinks until his sense of invincibility is shattered not by some military foe or humanly designed weapon, but by a microbe. Naaman has contracted the loathsome, disfiguring, debilitating, and untreatable disease the Bible names as leprosy. Neither anything he has nor nothing he can do can save him. He is doomed.

But then his wife tells him of a possible cure. From whom did she hear about it? Some famous physician? Some wise, magi-like, figure? No. She heard about it from a humble, unassuming Israelite slave girl. This girl, probably not very wise in the ways of the world, knew about a prophet from Samaria named Elisha. This poor, powerless handmaiden of Naaman’s wife was aware of a source of healing power.

Naaman doesn’t hesitate. He goes to tell the king of this possible source of healing. The king tells him to go for it. He sends him to Israel with a letter of introduction and a fortune in gold, silver, and garments. Being of the high and mighty sort Naaman takes the letter from his king straight to the king of Israel. He assumes that the source of his healing will be found in the king's palace.

He has assumed wrongly, and in doing so put Israel’s king in a bind. The king doesn’t want to turn away this great general. More than that he doesn’t want to offend his fellow king. This general had already proved himself capable of whipping Israel’s generals on the battlefield. Israel’s king was probably beholden to his fellow king. He was in no position to say no. In fact he thinks Naaman’s request is a set up that will give him an excuse for war. So he gets all bent out of shape.

Soon thereafter the word of the king’s distress gets to Elisha, and he tells the king to send Naaman to him. So off Naaman rides in search of Elisha. Then Naaman gets his feelings hurt. He is offended because this no-name prophet doesn’t come out personally to greet him, but instead sends him a message telling him what he needs to do.

Naaman doesn’t like the message either. Go wash in that muddy little excuse for a river called the Jordan! Back home in Damascus there were some real rivers! Certainly they had to possess more healing powers than did this Israelite excuse for a body of water. There’s no way he’s going to bathe in that muddy mess! Furthermore, his healing could not be that simple. Didn’t it require some kind of grand exorcism or something similar?

But once again he is saved from his own arrogance by some unassuming folks. His servants urge him to follow Elisha’s instructions. And he does – he goes and bathes in the Jordan’s muddy waters. And guess what? He’s healed. The verses following this morning’s text describe how Naaman goes back to Elisha to thank him and offer him all the goodies he’d brought with him from Damascus. Elisha turns them down. He serves God not mammon.

From where does the knowledge of a possible source of healing come? A slave girl. Who is the instrument of Naaman’s healing? Not the mighty king but a humble prophet. Who finally talks him into going into the Jordan? Some more servant-types. Where his is healing accomplished? In that humble muddy stream we know as the River Jordan. Throughout the story, little was much because God was in it. God’s foolishness and weakness accomplished what human wisdom and strength could not.

This morning’s New Testament lesson from Luke deals with Jesus sending seventy of his disciples ahead of him on a preaching and healing mission. These are ordinary people whom he sends out with no worldly resources. They are to trust in God’s provision. They are to preach, teach, and heal in Jesus’ name and by Jesus’ spiritual authority. They are not to force themselves on anyone. Beyond that which God would provide them they had no power whatsoever. They had to believe that little was much if God was in it, that God’s foolishness and weakness could accomplish what human wisdom and strength could not, and that God would be at work for them in ways they could not understand. They had to trust in a mystery beyond human comprehension.

And so do we. Just as it was with Naaman, there is for us no protection from life’s sometimes-harsh realities to be found in wealth, status, or position. The rich and famous get sick and die just like the poor and unknown. Even the highest and mightiest among us are not immune to tragedy and pain. Their marriages crumble. Their fortunes are sometimes lost to bad decisions and unfavorable economic conditions. Their children run off to the land of prodigality. They experience crippling injuries. They’re prone to grief, sadness, and depression. None of their worldly comforts can ultimately protect them from human realities or their own sinfulness. Nobody is totally insulated from disaster by his or her wealth or power.

That’s a hard truth to hold onto in a modern American culture that worships wealth and celebrity: a culture that all too often equates right with might, measures human worthiness on a golden scale, values glitz and glitter more than it does enduring substance, loudly promotes the idea that bigger is better, and quite literally thrives on the notion that the one who dies with the most toys wins. Many in our land value hubris and arrogance more highly than they do humility. Ethics and morality often take a back seat to profitability. Those who govern us are elected more on the basis of good looks and showmanship than they are wisdom and ability. Style really has replaced substance in our land.

And often in the church. All too often modern American Christians trust a good PR campaign more than they do the power of humble prayer. Churches try to attract new members on the basis of what goodies they can offer them rather than calling them to a sacrificial discipleship in which they will be servants of Christ and one another. Some pastors and church leaders are hesitant to speak in terms of sacrificial giving or living. Quite often more emphasis is put on future crowns of glory than is placed on the crosses folks might be called to pick up and carry in the here and now. A cheap grace that emphasizes the privileges of membership is promoted more than the responsibilities of discipleship. Instead of countering the prevailing culture the church often sells out to it.

And in the process what gets forgotten? The biblical truth that little is much if God is in it. The Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians reminding them - and us - that the foolishness and weakness of God are much more powerful than are human wisdom and strength. Our call to be in the world without being of the world. The church’s call to stand in the world as an intentional and visible counter-cultural witness.

Naaman’s wealth, power, and privilege could not save him. His healing was not found in the advice and ministrations of the high and mighty. His healing came about because he was willing to swallow his pride, get down off his high horse, and listen to the advice of servants. It came about because he followed the instructions of some seemingly uppity prophet to wash himself in a body of water that was short on splendor.

Whatever wealth, power, and privilege that we might have cannot save us. Our only salvation is found in one Jesus of Nazareth: the stable-born child of a peasant girl, the God incarnate in human form, the humble teacher who had no real home, the king who died on a cross, the Suffering Servant who faithfully and humbly took upon himself the sins of us all. His life and ministry were not defined by glitz and glitter. Even his resurrection was accomplished in the still of the night. There was no accompanying pomp and circumstance.

Little is much if God is in it. In quite mysterious ways God does use what the world believes to be foolish and weak to accomplish his purposes. Even the salvation of the world. Amen.