Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Aubra Love—“Easy Does It”
Plymouth Congregational UCC, Washington, DC
October 9, 2022
SCRIPTURES: (author modifications for the hearer)
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c and Luke 17:11-19
5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with the king, because by Naaman GOD had given victory to Aram. Naaman, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. 5:2 Now the Arameans on one of their raids, under Naaman’s command, had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife.
5:3 The young girl said to Naaman’s wife, "If only our keeper, Naaman, were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure Naaman of leprosy”…5:7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this foreign ruler sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me." 5:8 But when Elisha the prophet of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let the leper come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel." 5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of the Prophet Elisha's house. 5:10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." 5:11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me the prophet would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!
5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage.
5:13 But Naaman’s servants approached and said to him, "Father of the king’s army, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all the prophet said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean'?" 5:14 So Naaman reluctantly went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the prophet of God; Naaman’s flesh was restored like the flesh of a baby, and he was clean of his ailment. 5:15c Then he returned to the prophet of God, with his whole company; Naaman came and stood before the prophet and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel."
Luke 17:11-19
17:11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.
17:12 As Jesus entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance,
17:13 they called out, saying, "Jesus, Awesome Ruler, have mercy on us!"
17:14 When Jesus saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as the ten lepers went, they were made clean.
17:15 Then one of the lepers, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.
17:16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.
17:17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten of you made clean? But the other nine, where are they?
17:18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
17:19 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Focus Text: 2 Kings 5:13 “But his servants approached and said to him, “Father of the king’s army, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash and be clean’?”
The Lectionary Gospel text is Luke 17:11-19. Focus text: Luke 17:8 “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
GREETING AND INTRODUCTION:
First giving honor to God who reigns as the head of my life, I want to thank you for the invitation to bring a Word, this morning. To Deacon Evelyn Goodwin, Rev. Kenneth King, all of the Diaconate, Present, Past and Future Moderators, all leaders and laity and all who serve this great church, members and friends of Plymouth Congregational UCC in our nation’s capital. Faithful keepers of the culture and to our ancestral great cloud of witnesses. And to the legacy, the foundational work and the indomitable spirit of Pastor Emeritus, the Rev. Graylan Haglar. O, Let the Spirit of the Lord rise among us, today. For God has done great things! Oh, yes! We are here to bless God’s holy name.
By a show of hands, how many of you lost someone to Covid over this pandemic period? Let me see by show of hands. Yes, I lost two cousins, who were close to my age. Thank you. Put your hands down, now. God, in your tender mercies, tend the hearts of your people. Please, Jesus.
You have heard the reading of the Word. As it is taking root in your hearts, right now, we want to turn our attention to the Old Testament text found in Chapter 5 of the Book of 2nd Kings. It is the story of Brother Naaman. You’ve heard about him. He was the commander of the Syrian army, a great man, highly esteemed, a pillar among his people. Naaman was even highly favored by the King because he was a mighty warrior. But he was human and vulnerable to disease. And he contracted the deadly disease of leprosy before there was a known cure, or even a measure of prevention.
He had a lot to lose...Naaman. Naaman’s wife was consorting with her personal assistant who happened to be a young woman whom Naaman had stolen from her homeland, as a spoil of war…they together were plotting on how to get Naaman’s healing before word got out about it. Brother Naaman had loved ones advocating on his behalf. He had a constituency of admirers. Naaman was connected!!! He had the King on speed dial and they were Facebook friends, all that. But Naaman was in a conundrum!
OPENING PRAYER:
Come on, Plymouth, let’s talk to God in a moment of prayer! Would you pray with me, now? O God, our Sovereign God, who sits high and looks low. Our Gentle Redeemer, your word is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path. We thank you for the privilege to assemble ourselves together in the community of God, with no other purpose than to lift up your holy name and to give you praise.
Because you’ve been so good. You been better to us than we’ve been to ourselves. Because you looked way down the road to keep us from dangers seen and unseen. You caused trouble to pass on by us and granted us the grace to be in your service one more Sunday morning. For this, we just come to say, “Thank you!”
Lord, somebody, here, needs a Word today. Somebody, Lord God, needs to know you’re real and still in the blessing business. O God, won’t you grant your woman-servant in the vineyard a mouth that speaks a revelation that opens the hearts of the hearers. Speak, Lord, through me. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Have thine own way, Lord. Draw, set free, make whole. In the sweet name that is like no other name…Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
The Message:
Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Then he went on to say, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Am I right about it? Is that what Jesus said? My yoke is eeeeasy. And my burden is light.
Many of us can relate to this story of Naaman, with all of his accomplishments, his respected credentials, his company of friends and favor. But, in a lot of ways our lives are only as strong as our immune systems and our faith in the Almighty. We have been reminded of this time and time again over these past pandemic years.
|
We have accepted as truth that the refusal to observe Covid protocols and vaccine hesitancy are leading to unnecessary hospitalizations and needless deaths.
|
||||||
We have been barraged with messages to mask, to distance, to wash our hands for 25 seconds. My grandbaby told me to sing the full song of Happy Birthday, twice, to be sure of how long I need to wash my hands.
My Conference Minister told me to say the full Lord’s Prayer, twice, to know the proper time to spend washing my hands. And he couldn’t help but add, “It will help your prayer life, too.” It’s been a hard few years, y’all, for everybody.
I don’t know about you, but I got discouraged early with trying to get in on the vaccine appointments. Look like, all the people I knew, of European descent had all gotten vaccinated before I could even get in the cue.
I’m just talkin’ bout what I’m talkin’ bout!
I lamented about the rollout of vaccines being at the pharmacy instead of accessible at the community health departments. You know, I’m old enough to remember the polio vaccines at the neighborhood health department with a drop of pink vaccine liquid on a sugar cube…Uh-huh, at the health department ‘round the corner, where my neighbors worked.
In 2020, I couldn’t see my grandbaby because there was no vaccine for children, and I am immunocompromised. By the time we figured out some of these things, I started hearing that it was time to get a booster…and then another…and another booster. Omicron, bivalent…all these subvariants…
When I talked to folks, they were saying things like, “Y’all done forgot what Grandma told us. We can’t just be going out and letting people put anything in our bodies. That stuff is too new.”
The Philadelphia Apology
Just a few days ago, I read that Philadelphia was apologizing for experiments conducted on incarcerated Black men confined to the city’s Holmesburg Prison, which is now shut down. This particular apology was for the experimentation which exposed Black men, as subjects of the study, to herpes, skin blistering chemicals, radioactive isotopes, and poisonous chemicals used during the Vietnam war. City officials said they were apologizing for the historical impact and trauma that was inflicted in the City’s practices of medical racism over the generations – right up to this present day.
Our country is in a struggle of reckoning with its past. According to one CNN article, “The United States has a long and storied history of medical malpractice and unethical experiments against Black folk, which has led to widespread medical mistrust within our communities of color.”
The HeLa Cells
I was reminded of stories about Henrietta Lacks, who went to Johns Hopkins Hospital of Baltimore to give birth because it was the only hospital in the area that would admit a Black woman and deliver a Black baby, at that time. That’s in the DMV. Yeah, it is. This was a long time ago.
During Ms. Lack’s post-partum care, it was discovered that she had cervical cancer. Researchers biopsied two samples from her cervix without her permission or knowledge. One sample turned out to be healthy tissue and the other had cancerous cells.
Without Henrietta Lacks’ knowledge or consent these tissue samples were given to a physician and to cancer researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital. These famous cancerous cells became known as the HeLa, that’s short for Henrietta Lacks; the HeLa immortal cell line to be used in furthering biomedical research. Several biotech and pharmaceutical companies continue to make billions of dollars in profits from these cells, but none of these corporations have shared remuneration with the Lacks’ working class family.
It's hard enough for Black people to trust that we will get quality healthcare services when we seek it with good insurance and a reputable provider network. Let alone going up to some CVS, with no supervising physician or medical professionals present. You see the connection? Could it be that easy to prevent Covid hospitalizations and deaths?
The Tuskegee Study
Then we are reminded of the four-decade-long Tuskegee Syphilis Study. You may remember the movie about it “Ms. Evers’ Boys.”
Formally known as The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.” Informally referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment or Tuskegee Syphilis Study, this study was conducted between the years of 1932 and 1972 by the United States public health agencies…on almost 400 Black men who were diagnosed as having syphilis. The point of “the study” was to observe the effects of syphilis when the disease is left untreated. These brothers were given placebos while being used as subjects for medical research.
The men were not informed of the experimental nature of the project and were told that they were receiving medical care, and more than 100 died as a result. At the conclusion of the project, after these untimely deaths, we learned that the disease was completely treatable.
So, we don’t want no new stuff that’s supposed to boost our immunity, supposed to be prevention from disease. Supposed to help us! We don’t want none of that. This is a perfectly normal response to abnormal conditions! I totally get it, People of God.
You see where we going with this? We resist believing that this highly accessible vaccine can prevent a deadly virus; frequently because of the long and painful history of medical malpractice, and bio-research undertaken without our consent. Some of us are grappling with the question, “Could something that is free and accessible really be helpful to us. Could it be that easy, church?
Naaman’s decision
Naaman was having some of these conflicts about belief, confidence and trust that dipping himself in the Jordan would be of any benefit to him. It could even be harmful to him.
It is written that in the counsel of his trusted menservants, Naaman made a quality decision to engage his faith and take that chance. His crew advised him that if the Prophet Elisha had told him something difficult would save his life, Naaman would be all over it.
Naaman had packed ten of his best suits. Good thing, he wasn’t on Southwest Airlines with all that excess luggage. He had come with a nice piece of change in case he had to bribe somebody. He was anticipating a strategic grand affair, at the compound of Israel’s king, perhaps.
But something as simple as dipping himself seven times in the common river in Israel, in the River Jordan…without ritual or pomp and circumstance…a simple, accessible procedure?
Could Brother Naaman not consider that our God had given him this uncomplicated way to treat his infirmity and safeguard his health? Naaman ultimately submitted to the regimen, and as a result, he received skin as flawless as a baby’s.
Could it be that easy, y’all?
The Gospel Text
Every now and then, something may be easy. In our Gospel text. In the Gospel, when we enter the text, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and passing through Samaria and Galilee, where ten folks with leprosy are found standing at a distance, crying, “Jesus, Awesome Ruler, have mercy on us!”
They had all kinds of policies governing the segregation of lepers in public places and facilities. These lepers were not allowed to approach Jesus, or anyone else for that matter, so they kept their distance and cried out mercy.
So, check this out, Jesus didn’t have to physically touch them or even speak a blessing over them. Jesus just yelled back through the more than six feet of social distancing, “Go let your pastor see that you are no longer afflicted!” Basically, y’all go on back to church.
Jesus instructed them to head out and show themselves to the priest who would validate and affirm that they were cleansed. This account would have the hearer to know that the healing happens in the journey. While you are on the move, your health is being manifested, in the name of Jesus. By the time, they got to where they were instructed to go, all would be well! Jesus said, “Go show yourselves to the Priest, who will verify your restoration.”
And one of these faithful persons experienced enough of this miraculous cleansing to be compelled to turn around and run back to Jesus, praising God with a loud voice and a spirit of gratitude and humility!
And that one person was a Samaritan, from the despised and foreign peoples, in that land! And Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine that I blessed?” How come only the Samaritan is overcome with praise?
The Celebration*
(in the spirit of the distinguished father of Black Preaching, the late Rev. Henry Mitchell, as taught at the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta GA. May peace rest upon his soul.)
Could it really be that easy, People of God? Sometimes, every now and again, a persecuted people will receive an unexpected blessing.
When they’ve been told that they have to be twice as good to get half as far. Sometimes, the People of God, even a persecuted people will have their needs met. It may not come often, oh but if you wait Jesus, if you wait on Jesus, he’ll stop by every, every now and then…with a dispensation of healing blessings and prevention. Saying, “My yoke is eeea-sy. Burdens are light. Easy does it, Beloved. Easy does it.
Benediction:
May God grant you a love so full that your spirit is ablaze,
A faith that invites all of your doubts,
A circle of faithful community to caress your whole heart,
As our souls rejoice in the praise of our Sovereign!
May it be so. May it be so. May it be so, People of God.
