Loving God, we long for the healing that can only come from you. Continue to pour out your healing and life-giving power upon your people, leading us to wholeness, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Everybody needs healing in some way, shape or form.  Some suffer from obvious, physical ailments.  Some suffer from mental distress or disease.  Some have broken hearts and carry around a weight of grief with them.  Some suffer from the effects of sin in their lives.  Some are alienated from God or from other people.  God knows this need that all of us have for healing, and it is for this very reason that Jesus came.

    Today, in our readings, we hear about two other people who had this same need for healing.  One of them is strong and important and rich, and one of them is an outcast with no name.  One of them is a Gentile, and one of them is Jewish.  One of them is proud and one of them is humble.  One of them is skeptical, and one of them has faith.  Yet both of them are healed by the power of the living God.

    In Naaman’s case, it is pretty much a comedy of errors, and he almost misses out on the opportunity for healing that is right there in front of him.  As seems to be typical of the way that God operates, those with political power in the story don’t seem to have a clue about things, and those who are servants and slaves seem to have wisdom and discernment.  In fact, Naaman might not have even looked for healing if it wasn’t for an Israelite slave girl who was serving his wife at the time!

    One of the things that we don’t know is exactly what disease Naaman had.  It would not have been leprosy as we know it today, but could have been any number of skin diseases that are described in Leviticus (13-14).  Whatever his condition, it was serious enough that he would travel to Samaria to seek healing.

    In the first part of the story, it is the kings who seem to stand in the way of healing and who almost start a war with one another over Naaman.  Then, in the second part of the story, it is Naaman’s own pride that gets in the way.  In the first place, he is miffed because Elisha doesn’t come to meet him in person and sends a messenger instead.  Then we find out that Naaman expected a spectacular and immediate cure.  In the end, it takes some of his servants talking him into it to get Naaman to actually go and do what the prophet had said to do.

    It would have taken some effort, and a little bit of humility, and maybe even a bit of faith for Naaman to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, but in the end, he does it.  And in the part of the story that we don’t hear today, Naaman returns to Elisha to give thanks and vows to worship the God of Israel from that point on.

    In Naaman’s case, it is really the faith of others that leads him into healing.  He has a hard time with humility and with asking for help.  Yet, as the story makes clear, the power of God for healing is not limited to insiders and to Israelites.  God’s promise to Abraham is still swirling around in the background – that promise that through Abraham and his descendants, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.  In this case, that promise is extended to Naaman the Syrian.  Much later, through Jesus, that promise would extend to all nations.

    Of course, in the brief gospel that we heard today, the power of God for healing is poured out on an Israelite.  While it is the same type of skin disease and the same power of God to heal, that is where the similarities end.  As a Jew, the leper who came to Jesus would have been living as an outcast, unable to have contact with anybody except other lepers.  At the same time, he comes to Jesus in faith and humility.  He kneels before Jesus, believing that Jesus can heal him if he chooses to do so.

    For us, living in a different culture, it might be easy to miss how amazing it is that Jesus actually reaches out and touches the man.  Can you even imagine having a disease where nobody is allowed to touch you, and you’re not allowed to touch them?  Nobody could touch this man without becoming ritually unclean.  And yet, here’s Jesus, who not only reaches out to touch him, but who cleanses him of his leprosy at the same time.  Instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the man becomes clean.

    I’d like to invite you today to put yourself in the place of this leper in the gospel.  It is a means of meditating on the Scriptures that is sometimes called Ignatian – where you imagine yourself there in the gospel story.  And so, imagine yourself bringing your need for healing - whatever it may be - to Jesus, and kneeling down before him, and saying to him, “Lord, if you choose, you can heal me.”  Imagine Jesus reaching out and touching you, and saying to you, “I do choose.  Be healed.”

    Another type of meditation that worked for Martin Luther is to imagine God pouring out on you the healing, cleansing, saving waters of baptism.  Luther liked to remind himself every time he washed that he was baptized – he belonged to God.  It is baptism that washes and cleanses and heals, and it is baptism that makes us part of the communion of saints which we remember today.

    While God’s power to heal does continue to be poured out, there are always times when it seems as though our prayers are going unanswered.  Not every prayer results in immediate and miraculous healing, and not every prayer is answered in the way that we would like it to be.  In fact, there are probably times when it seems as though God is ignoring us.  Those are the times that are a real challenge to our faith.

    Yet, God has promised to hear and to answer all those who come in prayer and in faith in the name of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes we are blessed by being able to see how and when our prayers have been answered.  At other times, we’re not too sure what God has in mind.  What we do know is that it is God’s nature to heal.  We also know that we are often not able to see what God is able to see.  And so, sometimes the healing that we seek takes place in ways that are different from what we wanted to see.

    And so, whatever your need, look to the living God.  Come to the one who has made you his own in baptism and who has given you the gift of life.  Come to the one who loves you so much that he gave his life for yours, and who died in order that you might live.  For God’s desire is to heal and to forgive and to bless.  And God waits with open arms, ready to say, “I do choose.  Be healed.”  Amen.

All Saints Sunday (NL 1)                            2 Kings 5:1-14
November 2, 2014                                Matthew 8:2-3
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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