Audio for "Echoes Only Dogs Can Hear" (MP3)
2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Mark 1:40-45
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
In Chaos Theory, there is a concept called “the Butterfly Effect.” The general idea is that minor changes in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome. One of the most common expressions for this is that a butterfly in China can cause a Kansas
We often think of events taking place in direct ways. We often think of the powerful flexing their muscle to get things done in this life. It sure looks that way, especially in an election year when political ads tell us one person changes everything. Some scholars call this a “Great Man” view of history.
Our readings today seem to have great actions taken by great men. I believe we have some great men being swept up in thunderstorms that were born on a butterfly’s wing.
Our reading from 2Kings is one of my personal favorites. What makes this passage so extraordinary to me is that the movers and shakers in this passage aren’t the people you would ordinarily expect to be pushing forward the narrative.
There are some heavy hitters in this passage. One of the biggest names in the social and political realm doesn’t have a proper name; he’s simply referred to as the King of Aram. The commander of his army was a man named Naaman. He was a valiant soldier, a mighty warrior, and the Lord had given victory to Aram through him. We even have mention of Naaman’s wife. As a woman in this ancient world she wouldn’t have had the power and authority of her husband and her king, but in her household she had more than enough power and authority.
As for the Israelites, as we have the unnamed King of Aram we also are introduced to the unnamed King of Israel. As with the King of Aram, the King of Israel is the chief mover and shaker of the nation. Then our reading has a name we are all familiar with from our bible studies, the chief protégé of the great prophet Elijah, Elisha.
Looking at the butterfly effect illustration, these folks are the thunderstorms, and these thunderstorms can produce heavy rains, large hail, damaging winds, and possible tornadoes. These names are big names and powerful people. But as these people are the storms, I find the butterflies far more interesting.
Let’s start at the beginning again, something I did not mention is that Naaman had leprosy. Evidently this ailment wasn’t as big a distraction for the King of Aram as it was for the temple leaders in Jerusalem. While at war, the armies of Aram brought home a young girl from Israel who serves Naaman’s wife. This young girl is the one who suggests her master Naaman see the prophet in Samaria to be rid of his leprosy.
Now that’s some gall. Scripture doesn’t say anyone asked the opinion of this young slave girl. Her people were conquered, that’s how she became a slave, and she’s offering advice to her mistress about matters of state and public health. It’s just not done. This could have been an easy way to write her own death sentence, and she did it. This is our first butterfly flitting its wings on the other side of the world.
Naaman goes to see the King of Israel. Now, no great king’s great general would get an audience with a neighboring king empty handed. Naaman leaves Aram with the blessings of his king, a letter of introduction, six talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The old expression “beware Greeks bearing gifts” is appropriate here. This expression is a reference to the Trojan horse; but in this case a foreign general comes to town having all of the same implications without any of the covert operations.
The King of Israel reads the King of Aram’s letter and sees the general with his entourage, so the first thing that crosses his mind is to cry “Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!” The King of Israel expects the worst, and frankly who can blame him.
So Elisha hears his king has torn his robes in lament expecting Naaman to start taking names any second. Elisha sends a message via courier. Now I say “via courier” because he didn’t have access to either pony express or email. The courier gives him the message, “Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Here again is nobody special moving the action along. It isn’t the army or the King but a simple servant sending the prophet’s message to the big boys.
Naaman makes his way to the house of Elisha to receive the cure. Elisha sends a messenger to say “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
Thank God for obedient messengers. If I had received this command from the prophet my first impulse would be to look him in the eye and say, “You want me to do what?” A messenger, a simple messenger is sent to the renowned general of the King of Aram, a general who won great battles and found favor in the Lord. This little guy is sent to the door to meet the general with his personal detachment to tell him to take a bath. No, wait, he is sent to tell him to take seven baths.
Again, it’s the messengers carrying the messages from their masters. The thunderstorms rumble, but it is the butterflies that carry the messages. Their wings carry the words that carry the message.
Naaman is perturbed. The prophet doesn’t come out. The prophet doesn’t invoke the name of the Lord. The prophet doesn’t even pick a nice river. He’s perturbed. But one of Naaman’s servants appeals to the general’s wiser nature. “If he told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?” If the prophet had told him to perform dramatic acts he would have. Naaman’s servants lead the general to wisdom and to a cure.
There it is, some of the most prominent people in the book of Kings, the movers and shakers who carry out the action; they are the thunderstorms. But if it were not for the servants, slaves, and messengers; the little people, none of this action would have been accomplished. If one of these butterflies had failed to flap its wings the story would not have ended the way it did. If one of the links in the chain of action had been missing then there would have been leprosy and there could have been war.
Often, often people ask themselves if what they can do would make any difference in the whole wide world. You may be familiar with this nursery rhyme:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.[1]
If one little piece is missing everything falls apart. We are those pieces.
There’s another song, originally a German folk tune from around 1700 but you may be more familiar with the calypso version sung by Harry Belafonte and Odetta or maybe the Sesame Street version; the song is called “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.”[2]
There’s another song, originally a German folk tune from around 1700 but you may be more familiar with the calypso version sung by Harry Belafonte and Odetta or maybe the Sesame Street version; the song is called “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.”[2]
He says there’s a hole in the bucket. She tells him to fix it. He asks her how and she tells him to use straw. This goes on through more and more verses as she tells him he’ll need water to wet the whetstone to sharpen the axe to cut the straw to patch the bottom of the bucket but he can’t. Why not? He can’t get water because there’s a hole in the bucket. When one thing goes wrong, the whole thing falls apart.
In our gospel reading a man with leprosy comes to Jesus. We are still in that first fateful week after Jesus first teaches in the synagogue; right after Jesus calls his first disciples. This meeting takes place not long after Jesus tells the gang that no matter how many people are coming up to Simon and Andrew’s ancestral home, there are others who need him too. They need to go so they can share the Good News with all the people. That is why he came.
So not long after they leave, along the road, they are met by a man with leprosy. “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus tells the man he is willing and he is cleansed.
After the cleansing, Jesus sends the man away at once with a strong warning, “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them.” The storm is rising and people who can portend the signs are already beginning to see this storm in Jesus of Nazareth, the man who is God who exorcises spirits and heals diseases. But this time the butterfly throws a monkey wrench into life its ownself.
He doesn’t go to the temple to show himself to the priest and make the sacrifices Moses prescribed. As Jesus said—appearance at the temple, cleansed, with the appropriate offerings would provide testimony to them—the temple priests—that something was happening in the hinterlands of Judea. Instead, the man goes out and began talking freely, spreading the good news. He makes it so Jesus can’t enter a town openly. He is forced to stay in the wilderness, the desert, what the New International Version calls “lonely places.”
How’s that for one little hitch causing things to go awry?
So here is one of the great “what if” questions of scripture. What if the man had presented himself to the temple priests? John’s gospel gives us an indication on this one. John 9 gives us the story of the man who was blind from birth. Jesus heals the man with a spittle mud pack. When he is taken to the temple by the Pharisees the temple elite are not happy to see him or his opened eyes. In one of the great misunderstandings of scripture, the man asks if the temple folks want to be Christ’s disciples too. With that he is insulted and thrown out.
Looking at our gospel reading and this story from John 9, it may not be a great leap to say that if he had presented himself at the temple, even with the sacrifices Moses commanded, it would have caused a scandal the likes of which the temple was not ready to face. As Jesus said, this was a word to the temple; that healing and cleansing—acts of God—were happening in the wilderness. Instead, the man who used to have leprosy spreads the Good News of God making it impossible for Jesus to leave the countryside.
Little guys can make a big difference. As for the difference it meant to Jesus’ mission on earth; while it changed the trajectory of the spread of the gospel, in the end it meant nothing. We know that Christ’s mission ended the only way it could, on the cross and in the resurrection. In this case, the butterfly wings caused a diversion, but it could never sidetrack our Lord from his goal, the reconciliation of God and humanity.
So there it is, when we feel weak, when we feel that there is nothing we can do, we can. When we feel there is no place for us in the work of God there is. We don’t have to be the Moderator of the General Assembly or the head of something, when we answer our call our butterflies fly and great thunderstorms are moved.
But there is always the question, “What if I stumble, what if I fail?”
Here’s the difference between these two stories: As we read in 2Kings, we can help change the lives of those around us. As we see in Mark, nothing we can do will change God. As the leper did, we may cause a hitch in the git-a-long of the Lord, but we cannot halt the kingdom. This should be reassuring. If we fear what we do can hinder God, we cannot. Like the leper in our reading, we cannot change God’s reconciling work.
There’s a butterfly in China and a Kansas thunderstorm. There are actions and reactions that cause things to happen half-way around the world. Sometimes it’s as dynamic as we read in Kings. More often than not they’re echoes only dogs can hear; and here’s the good news, God hears those echoes. God hears the echoes and by his sacrifice we are restored. Thanks be to God.
[1] This version found at http://www.rhymes.org.uk/for_want_of_a_nail.htm, retrieved February 10, 2012.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There's_a_Hole_in_My_Bucket, retrieved February 10, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment