Epiphany 6
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series IX, Cycle B
Object:
Theme of the Day
God finds surprising ways to heal.
Collect of the Day
A prayer for God's mercy to address our weaknesses, protect us from danger, and restore us to health. This is a testimony to Justification.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 30
* Thanksgiving for healing (or restoration); a Psalm attributed to David.
* Before enduring his trial the Psalmist had felt secure (vv. 6-7). Then with illness he turns to God (vv. 8-10) and God restores health (vv. 11-12).
* Another testimony to a strong doctrine of providence. God's wrath seems subordinate to His love (v. 5).
Sermon Text and Title
"A Way Out of No Way"
2 Kings 5:1-14
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To tell the story of Elisha's healing of the Syrian military leader, a story proclaiming that God can and does deliver us from almost impossible situations. Special attention is given to ways in which God may be leading us out of the health-care problems in our nation.
2. Exegesis
* 1 and 2 Kings were originally one book, providing an account of Israel's history from the death of David through Jehoiachim's release from a Babylonian prison. There is some speculation that these texts are the product of the deuteronomistic reform of Josiah, but later revised after the exile in 587 BC.
* This book recounts the history from the reign of Ahaziah (850-849 BC) to the Assyrian destruction of Samaria (721 BC), as well as the story of Judah through the Babylonian Exile (586 BC).
* Main Sections: (1) Description of the reign of Ahaziah of Israel and Jehoshaphat in Judah until the fall of Samaria (chs. 1-17); (2) The story of Judah from the fall of Israel through the destruction of Jerusalem, ending with the elevation of King Jehoiachim in exile (chs. 18-25).
* Central Themes: Largely follows deuteronomist themes, especially evident in the evaluations made of each king and in comments made on other historical events. These comments include: (1) The Lord is Israel's only God, and so the worship of other gods is forbidden; (2) All the kings of the Northern Kingdom followed the evil example of their predecessor Jereboam, who set up rival sanctuaries outside Jerusalem, even worshiping other gods; (3) Such crimes led to the North's conquest; (4) In Judah, Solomon's willingness to allow worship of other gods was punished by Northern secession; and (5) Although until Hezekiah, these kings allowed irregular worship in sanctuaries outside Jerusalem, and Judah still followed the North's evil ways and was conquered, yet God's promise that David (the one wholly true to God [1 Kings 9:4; 11:4-6]) would have an eternal dynasty remained secure, for He is a long-suffering merciful God, restricted in His presence to just the Temple and the nation of Israel.
* Throughout the book, prophets (esp. Elijah, Elisha, Johah, and Isaiah) rise up to proclaim God's will.
* The pericope tells the story of the curing of the leprosy of Naaman, commander of the Aramite (Syrian) army, which threatened Israel. God uses His prophet Elisha to do the healing that rescues Israel from potential threats, due to Aram's king's expectation that the king of Israel could afford such healing. This expectation had come from a young Israelite girl taken captive by Naaman's army, who told her mistress of Elisha's healings (vv. 2-3).
* The king of Israel's tearing of his clothes (v. 7) was a sign of mourning or distress. He feared that his failure to provide healing for Aram would lead to a Syrian invasion.
* Elisha, unlike his predecessor Elijah, was an ally of royalty and came to aid the king (v. 8).
* Elisha seems to assert his authority (God's authority) over the Syrian by not meeting him but sending an emissary (vv. 9-10).
* The Aramean military leader is put off by Elisha's failure to heal by ritual, as was common practice by other healers (vv. 11-12).
* The story proceeds beyond the assigned lesson with an account of Naaman's confession of faith (vv. 15ff). The problem for him would be how to worship the Lord outside Israel, a problem faced by Judah during the Babylonian Captivity.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text is a proclamation of God's love, manifest in healing. And also that God seems to "make a way out of no way."
* John Wesley reflected on the apparent insult of Naaman as Elisha did not make a personal appearance before the army commander:
Which he [Elisha] did, partly to exercise Naaman's faith and obedience; partly for the honor of his religion, that it might appear he sought not his own glory and profit, but only God's honor and the good of men.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 224)
* Martin Luther addressed the feeling of hopelessness with good news about our not needing to take our feelings of hopelessness too seriously:
To this I reply: I have often said before that feeling and faith are two different things. It is the nature of faith not to feel, to lay aside reason and close the eyes to submit absolutely to the Word and follow it in life and death. Feeling however does not extend beyond that which may be apprehended by reason and the sense, which may be heard, seen, felt, and known by the outward senses. For this cause feeling is opposed to faith and faith is opposed to feeling.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 1/2, p. 244)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Google the latest statistics on those with no health insurance, whose needs are still not being adequately met by the 2010 health care reform legislation.
* See First Lesson of Epiphany 5 on poverty.
* Attention could and should be given to the positions of the various presidential contenders on these issues.
5. Gimmick
Sometimes in life you feel trapped, and there is just no escape. Ask the congregation if they have ever felt that way. It happened in the second half of the ninth century BC to the prophet Elisha.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Tell story of the first lesson in an engaging way. Note first the military power of the Arameans, an ancient Syrian kingdom that fought regularly with the Northern Kingdom of Israel in this era. The Arameans seemed to have held the upper hand over Israel at the time. Naaman, their military commander, had come to know of the prophet Elisha and his power to heal from an Israelite slave girl captured in a raid (vv. 2-3). He was a leper (v. 1). (Note the nature of leprosy in the Gimmick for the Gospel below.)
* Continue to tell the story, noting Naaman's request to the king of Aram that he put pressure on Israel's king (along with some significant gifts) to deliver this healer (vv. 4-6). Israel's king (his name is not given) was greatly distressed, for what if he could not deliver this healer, a real problem for Israel given the Arameans' superior military strength at the time. It looked like an excuse from the side of the Arameans for starting a war (v. 7). Israel was in a jam with no (apparent) way out.
* The king of Israel was right. The Arameans seemed to be looking for an excuse to use their superior military power. No way out. The Hebrews had their backs against the wall. How could an ordinary man like Elisha save the people without an adequate military? What an impossible situation.
* It truly was a case of the back against the wall. Remind the congregation that they may have felt that way too, times when from every rational angle things seemed hopeless.
* The prophet Elisha, favorable to the royal house, learned of the king's great despair (he had torn his clothes, a sign of mourning and distress) and volunteered, allegedly to prove that he was a true prophet (v. 8). In the actual healing, Elisha does not show this great military man Naaman much respect. He did not meet Naaman, but just sent a messenger to give him directions to wash himself seven times in the Jordan (v. 11).
* Eventually the Aramean (after getting over his anger) is healed! Get that, healed! Through Elisha, God healed him. God found a way to save the people of Israel.
* Remind the congregation again of feelings of hopelessness. Suggest some scenarios of utter hopelessness they may have experienced in life -- loss of a loved one, betrayal by a lover, child gone bad, job loss, poverty. Ask if they have not experienced the unfairness of poverty, the fact that some people here in America do not get medical care because they can't afford it. (Note the latest statistics on those still without adequate health insurance under the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.) That's what it's like to have your back against the wall, sort of like the people of Israel did in our story.
* There are at least two practical lessons for dealing with this sort of hopelessness. Start with the less profound one. Bad as things looked for Israel and the king, they did not remain passive. No matter how bad things are, no matter what the odds, don't quit. The great University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant had it right. He once claimed: "You'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it." Bad as things seem, you've probably faced something just as (almost as) bad. So don't get paralyzed.
* Another thing: Note that the king got help from Elisha, who was a friend of the royal house. There's some truth to the old proverb: When your back's up against the wall, you learn who your friends are.
* Move to the second practical lesson about life taught by our lesson, in line with the first lesson in life we've considered (don't lapse into hopelessness or passivity). The African-American church nicely summarizes this insight. It is commonly said in those circles that "God makes a way out of no way." There's a way out of no way. How powerful that a community in America that has suffered more hardships (the evils of slavery and the discrimination that followed) than everybody else knows something of having your back against the wall, knows what it is to have "no way out," could confess such a faith.
* Suggest that the healing undertaken by God when it looked like the Hebrews' failure to provide a miracle to placate Naaman would lead to war clearly illustrates God finding a way out of no way. Who would have thought that a backwater prophet with no military prowess could save the people of Israel?
* Ask the flock if this theme is not apparent again and again in the Bible. Consider the way God found through Moses to liberate those Egyptian slaves (Exodus 2ff): The way the Babylonian Exiles were brought home as a result of the emergence of a new military power, Persia (Ezra). The way a body dead for three days could come to life and deliver salvation (Mark 16).
* This faith is not naive. It fully realizes the odds against such hope. It is a faith that fully realizes how paradoxical, how incredible its claims are. It is a believing against the wisdom of the world. Use the quotation of Martin Luther in Theological Insights.
Søren Kierkegaard has spoken of "the endless yawning difference between God and man" (Training in Christianity, p. 67). Elaborate on how faith (the core beliefs of our faith) opens new fresh insights that the wisdom of the day never recognizes. Even the very idea that God could become an ordinary Jewish peasant illustrates how our faith goes against the grain of the day's wisdom.
* Faith, it seems, then demands healing for everyone, a way out of no way for the most destitute (most worthless) in the eyes of society. As God found a way out of no way for Israel, will He not want to find healing for those who today have no way to get healing, no way to get a meal ensconced in poverty as they are? If you believe this miracle story of the Hebrews' rescue when their back was against the wall, if you believe that faith is against reason and feeling, then how can the American church fail to support health-care reform that mandates inclusion of everyone on an equally generous level and a more generous safety net for the poor?
7. Wrap-Up
Conclude by raising the question of how it is that we can believe against reason, believe that our God makes a way out of no way. Suggest that they may have had that experience already. But it is appropriate to close with a testimony to how God makes a way out of no way from the black community, which coined the phrase. Reverend Al Sharpton said it well: "If God was for me, then it didn't matter if the whole world was against me." Note that when you know you matter to God, things are not so tough, you can handle the hassles, overcome. It is this insight which gives you the energy to act and overcome passivity. The loving, healing God makes the way out of no way for us!
Sermon Text and Title
"Staying in (Spiritual) Shape"
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A sermon exhorting a perspective on Christian living (Sanctification) that takes seriously our responsibility without compromising the freedom of the gospel.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Paul elaborates on his approach to ministry articulated earlier in the chapter (be all things to all people).
* He uses an athletic metaphor, calling us to run a race to win, exercising self-control in all things (vv. 24-25a).
* The difference is that what will be won in this exercise will not be a perishable prize, but an imperishable one (v. 25b).
* Paul speaks of punishing his body and enslaving it, so that after proclaiming this word to others he will not be disqualified (v. 27). This reference to punishing the body is a metaphor for enduring hardships and self-control. The Greek term soma does not just refer to the physical body, but to the entirety of how one lives on this side of the fall into sin (Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, Vol. 1, pp. 193ff).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Sanctification (esp. discipline or commitment in the Christian life) is the focus of attention. Efforts are made to explain the joy and freedom of understanding the Christian life with athletic metaphors.
* Martin Luther notes that just as one must dedicate oneself fully to an athletic event, "Likewise in the Christian contest it is necessary, and in an even higher degree, to renounce everything and to devote oneself only to the contest" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 4/1, p. 95).
* John Calvin notes that our life is like a race course, but we cannot become weary after a short time since the race only ends in death (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XX/1, p. 309).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* 2008 statistics indicate that only 17% of Americans regularly worship (though 69% belong to a congregation).
* Neurobiologists have found that when we are focused on a task bigger than satisfying our own immediate needs, exercising the executive part of the brain (the pre-frontal cortex), it is immersed in the pleasurable brain chemical dopamine (Stefan Klein, The Science of Happiness, pp. 35-37, 56-57, 107).
* Other neurobiological studies indicate that the active flow of dopamine in the front part of the brain as transpires in focused activity contributes to health. It seems that in such circumstances people have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that depresses immune function. In short, your immunity to disease and infection is likely to increase (R.E. Wheeler and R.J. Davidson et al, in Psychophysiologie 30 [1993]: 547-558).
5. Gimmick
Look at the congregation seriously/sternly (like a coach). Admonish the flock: Run the race. Are you in shape?
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Note that Saint Paul said something very similar to the Corinthians in the lesson. Following up on his discussion of doing ministry that was considered in the Bible lesson last week, Paul introduces the athletic metaphor of running a race and punishing the body in order to win the prize. Since the discussion emerges in a broader discussion of Christian living in a pagan society, it seems that Paul's advice is for all Christians.
* This language seems a bit contrary to a focus on God's grace and love, on Christian freedom. It seems to imply we must discipline ourselves to win God's favor. Not if we examine this matter in light of Martin Luther and the most recent cutting-edge science.
* Elaborate on the quote by Luther above in Theological Insights. Note that for Luther the focus is on how the discipline for which Paul calls is just a way of dedicating oneself to God, to making God more important than anything else. As Luther put it elsewhere: "We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things" (The Book of Concord, p. 351).
* In fact, this concentration on God, this sort of discipline, is anything but an arduous task. Not if we understand the joy of sports or other activities in which we are called on to devote our undivided attention.
* Ask the congregation if there are any athletes who loved it, musicians who love music, cooks who love it, or other disciplines like that. Pause. Ask if those activities are hard work. Yes. But is not playing them (stress "play") fun? Stress that the discipline Paul and the coach or teacher call for in athletics, music, and the like is a lot of fun. This is the way Paul wants us to understand the Christian life.
* This fun, joyful character of participating in such activities is a receiving experience, much like we experience grace. People who love sports, music, and the like experience those activities as gifts, like grace. Doing Christianity Paul's way (seeing it as an athletic-like activity) is all about the experience of grace.
* Seems like good advice in view of the statistics on church attendance in America (see Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights above). We need a vision of Christian responsibility that will make living with such discipline fun. We get a lot further with the unchurched that way than with our present strategies of either not calling them to accountability or portraying church involvement as a rather dreary task.
* Turn to the recent neurobiological data to demonstrate why Paul's formula is a freeing, joyful experience. Note the last two points above in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Focusing on God activates the front part of our brains, which when active are bathed in good-feeling brain chemicals (dopamine). Athletics and faith make you feel good. (For the involvement of these dynamics in faith, see Andrew Newberg, Vince Rause, Eugene D'Aquili, Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief.) To run the race of faith is a joyful gift.
7. Wrap-Up
Close a bit like the sermon began: Christian, run the race. Are you in shape? God's grace, God's love, makes it fun!
Sermon Text and Title
"How Jesus' Silence and Style Get the Church Out of the Box"
Mark 1:40-45
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To help the faithful to appreciate that just as Christ was unwilling to allow His contemporaries to define who He was, but shattered social expectations for the sake of the gospel and his own ministry, so the church and its members are inspired to shatter the social and cultural expectations of what should happen in a church, what a church should do, for the sake of Jesus' mission.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* An account of Jesus' healing of a leper. The healing transpires by Jesus touching him (v. 41).
* In typically Markan fashion the event is said to transpire "immediately" (v. 42).
* He urges the maintaining of the secrecy of the healing, but the healed man is told to show himself to the priest and offer the prescribed offering for such cleansing as per Leviticus 14:1ff (v. 44). This action seems to exonerate Jesus from suspicions of pushing the Law of God aside in a revolutionary manner.
* Instead the healed man makes the healing public, so that Jesus could no longer enter town openly. He is regularly approached by others wanting such healing (v. 45).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text focuses on Christology (on who the messiah is and His ministry). Examination will be given to the implications of this countercultural vision of Jesus for Sanctification (living the Christian life) and church life.
* John Calvin provides insight into why Jesus did not want the miracle known (the reason for the messianic secret): "It was that He might have more abundant opportunity and freedom for teaching… He wished that they would all be more attentive to the Word than to signs" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 377).
* Martin Luther suggests that although the person of Jesus as One with the Father is of course a miracle worker, in His office as servant He would not wish to be known as miracle worker (Luther's Works, Vol. 54, pp. 111-112). In other words, Jesus would not allow us to put Him in a box in virtue of His deity.
* One later Reformation-era document, the Formula of Concord, speaks of the role of church orders as matters of indifference that may be changed or maintained insofar as they may build up the church (Book of Concord, p. 637).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Educational theorists frequently define gifted students as those who "think outside the box."
5. Gimmick
Tell the story recounted in the passage. Jesus and His disciples were walking in the countryside, and a leper came to them to be cured. Leprosy was the AIDS of the first century -- a skin infection so contagious that it forced people who had it to leave their families. As long as they had leprosy, such exile was necessary. Moved by pity, Mark says, Jesus healed this man! He took a real risk by actually touching him (vv. 40-42). What followed was kind of strange, at least for Jesus' contemporaries. Pause for a moment to let the story penetrate hearers.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Jesus urges the man to tell no one, but to do what the Jewish law required and to go to the priest in a local synagogue and offer a sacrifice (vv. 43-44). See what Jesus wanted? He did not want to be known primarily as a healer (He wanted to shatter the image most people were getting of Him), but He wanted to do it in a way that still included the religious institution (the "church") of His day.
* Note the point: Jesus was not really recognized by the religious community of His day, because He was not one of them. The church is guilty of that sort of confusion and exclusion today. We insist on limiting the work of God, forgetting He has work for us to do outside the walls of the church.
* To understand more fully how we put the work of God in a box, we need first to understand why Jesus did not want his miracle known, why He preferred silence. We get our answer in part by recognizing that the leper He healed did tell everyone what happened and that as a result Jesus could no longer move freely in town because people came to him from everywhere (presumably to be healed) (v. 45).
* Jesus is the antithesis of Dr. Gregory House in House. Unlike the doctor, he doesn't want his work known. But that could be a function of the fact that he doesn't have Dr. House's hang-ups.
* But the real reason for Jesus' silence is a function of not wanting to be known as a miracle worker. Why? The miracles were getting Him followers. It was what the cultural image of His day expected from a religious leader. But it is not what Jesus wanted for His ministry. Elaborate on Luther's and Calvin's points in Theological Insights above. Jesus was concerned that He would be seen more as a magician than our Savior from sin. He did not want social expectations to put him in a box.
* The church seems to make this very mistake. We conform to outdated modes of congregational life, do what society expects to happen in the church, and that's why we are losing ground. (See relevant statistics in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for Second Lesson.) We act very seriously and piously or are overly informal, we say we are friendly but greet few newcomers (unless they're people like us), we marginalize singles, we make the congregation about meeting needs or about entertainment (add unhelpful behaviors in your parish to the list). We expect people to come to us and don't bring the church to them. And we don't seem to have Jesus' passion for teaching the word (even though we claim such commitments). No, we do what America says we should do or what church-going Americans say they want.
* Note this was not Jesus' style. He would not let society put Him in a box. And note His concentration on being a teacher of God's word is a big part of rebelling against social expectations. He wanted to be known as our Savior, as the risen One.
* The outcome of the resurrection and corresponding gift of the Holy Spirit is most significant at this point. It entails that Christ has overcome, is everywhere. And that means that to be engaged in His ministry could take us anywhere -- another lesson the church needs to learn. The church has its work outside these walls, in ministry to the poor, to the folks on the street, to those in jail. That's how Jesus gets the church outside its [ecclesiastical] box. There are a lot of lepers out there (folks with AIDS who need love, if not healing)!
* Note the order in which Jesus does His ministry. He healed the leper before He preached. Likewise, we need to take care of material needs of those to whom we minister before we preach. Oh, but that is not what Americans expect from the church. We need to get out of the box.
7. Wrap-Up
Close by noting that contemporary educational theorists claim that if you are outside the box in your thinking, you are gifted. Jesus was gifted in working outside the box. Assert that by getting the church outside the box, God wants to gift us. Suggest that you can hear God calling the congregation to new opportunities beyond these walls -- to prisons, to the streets, to whomever Jesus brings that needs healing. We cannot follow his lead on our own strength. But as Jesus cured the leper He can even cure the church, even unclean, stubborn church members like us. As He gave the leper a fresh start, this congregation has a fresh start to get outside the confines of our box.
God finds surprising ways to heal.
Collect of the Day
A prayer for God's mercy to address our weaknesses, protect us from danger, and restore us to health. This is a testimony to Justification.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 30
* Thanksgiving for healing (or restoration); a Psalm attributed to David.
* Before enduring his trial the Psalmist had felt secure (vv. 6-7). Then with illness he turns to God (vv. 8-10) and God restores health (vv. 11-12).
* Another testimony to a strong doctrine of providence. God's wrath seems subordinate to His love (v. 5).
Sermon Text and Title
"A Way Out of No Way"
2 Kings 5:1-14
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To tell the story of Elisha's healing of the Syrian military leader, a story proclaiming that God can and does deliver us from almost impossible situations. Special attention is given to ways in which God may be leading us out of the health-care problems in our nation.
2. Exegesis
* 1 and 2 Kings were originally one book, providing an account of Israel's history from the death of David through Jehoiachim's release from a Babylonian prison. There is some speculation that these texts are the product of the deuteronomistic reform of Josiah, but later revised after the exile in 587 BC.
* This book recounts the history from the reign of Ahaziah (850-849 BC) to the Assyrian destruction of Samaria (721 BC), as well as the story of Judah through the Babylonian Exile (586 BC).
* Main Sections: (1) Description of the reign of Ahaziah of Israel and Jehoshaphat in Judah until the fall of Samaria (chs. 1-17); (2) The story of Judah from the fall of Israel through the destruction of Jerusalem, ending with the elevation of King Jehoiachim in exile (chs. 18-25).
* Central Themes: Largely follows deuteronomist themes, especially evident in the evaluations made of each king and in comments made on other historical events. These comments include: (1) The Lord is Israel's only God, and so the worship of other gods is forbidden; (2) All the kings of the Northern Kingdom followed the evil example of their predecessor Jereboam, who set up rival sanctuaries outside Jerusalem, even worshiping other gods; (3) Such crimes led to the North's conquest; (4) In Judah, Solomon's willingness to allow worship of other gods was punished by Northern secession; and (5) Although until Hezekiah, these kings allowed irregular worship in sanctuaries outside Jerusalem, and Judah still followed the North's evil ways and was conquered, yet God's promise that David (the one wholly true to God [1 Kings 9:4; 11:4-6]) would have an eternal dynasty remained secure, for He is a long-suffering merciful God, restricted in His presence to just the Temple and the nation of Israel.
* Throughout the book, prophets (esp. Elijah, Elisha, Johah, and Isaiah) rise up to proclaim God's will.
* The pericope tells the story of the curing of the leprosy of Naaman, commander of the Aramite (Syrian) army, which threatened Israel. God uses His prophet Elisha to do the healing that rescues Israel from potential threats, due to Aram's king's expectation that the king of Israel could afford such healing. This expectation had come from a young Israelite girl taken captive by Naaman's army, who told her mistress of Elisha's healings (vv. 2-3).
* The king of Israel's tearing of his clothes (v. 7) was a sign of mourning or distress. He feared that his failure to provide healing for Aram would lead to a Syrian invasion.
* Elisha, unlike his predecessor Elijah, was an ally of royalty and came to aid the king (v. 8).
* Elisha seems to assert his authority (God's authority) over the Syrian by not meeting him but sending an emissary (vv. 9-10).
* The Aramean military leader is put off by Elisha's failure to heal by ritual, as was common practice by other healers (vv. 11-12).
* The story proceeds beyond the assigned lesson with an account of Naaman's confession of faith (vv. 15ff). The problem for him would be how to worship the Lord outside Israel, a problem faced by Judah during the Babylonian Captivity.
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text is a proclamation of God's love, manifest in healing. And also that God seems to "make a way out of no way."
* John Wesley reflected on the apparent insult of Naaman as Elisha did not make a personal appearance before the army commander:
Which he [Elisha] did, partly to exercise Naaman's faith and obedience; partly for the honor of his religion, that it might appear he sought not his own glory and profit, but only God's honor and the good of men.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 224)
* Martin Luther addressed the feeling of hopelessness with good news about our not needing to take our feelings of hopelessness too seriously:
To this I reply: I have often said before that feeling and faith are two different things. It is the nature of faith not to feel, to lay aside reason and close the eyes to submit absolutely to the Word and follow it in life and death. Feeling however does not extend beyond that which may be apprehended by reason and the sense, which may be heard, seen, felt, and known by the outward senses. For this cause feeling is opposed to faith and faith is opposed to feeling.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 1/2, p. 244)
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Google the latest statistics on those with no health insurance, whose needs are still not being adequately met by the 2010 health care reform legislation.
* See First Lesson of Epiphany 5 on poverty.
* Attention could and should be given to the positions of the various presidential contenders on these issues.
5. Gimmick
Sometimes in life you feel trapped, and there is just no escape. Ask the congregation if they have ever felt that way. It happened in the second half of the ninth century BC to the prophet Elisha.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Tell story of the first lesson in an engaging way. Note first the military power of the Arameans, an ancient Syrian kingdom that fought regularly with the Northern Kingdom of Israel in this era. The Arameans seemed to have held the upper hand over Israel at the time. Naaman, their military commander, had come to know of the prophet Elisha and his power to heal from an Israelite slave girl captured in a raid (vv. 2-3). He was a leper (v. 1). (Note the nature of leprosy in the Gimmick for the Gospel below.)
* Continue to tell the story, noting Naaman's request to the king of Aram that he put pressure on Israel's king (along with some significant gifts) to deliver this healer (vv. 4-6). Israel's king (his name is not given) was greatly distressed, for what if he could not deliver this healer, a real problem for Israel given the Arameans' superior military strength at the time. It looked like an excuse from the side of the Arameans for starting a war (v. 7). Israel was in a jam with no (apparent) way out.
* The king of Israel was right. The Arameans seemed to be looking for an excuse to use their superior military power. No way out. The Hebrews had their backs against the wall. How could an ordinary man like Elisha save the people without an adequate military? What an impossible situation.
* It truly was a case of the back against the wall. Remind the congregation that they may have felt that way too, times when from every rational angle things seemed hopeless.
* The prophet Elisha, favorable to the royal house, learned of the king's great despair (he had torn his clothes, a sign of mourning and distress) and volunteered, allegedly to prove that he was a true prophet (v. 8). In the actual healing, Elisha does not show this great military man Naaman much respect. He did not meet Naaman, but just sent a messenger to give him directions to wash himself seven times in the Jordan (v. 11).
* Eventually the Aramean (after getting over his anger) is healed! Get that, healed! Through Elisha, God healed him. God found a way to save the people of Israel.
* Remind the congregation again of feelings of hopelessness. Suggest some scenarios of utter hopelessness they may have experienced in life -- loss of a loved one, betrayal by a lover, child gone bad, job loss, poverty. Ask if they have not experienced the unfairness of poverty, the fact that some people here in America do not get medical care because they can't afford it. (Note the latest statistics on those still without adequate health insurance under the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.) That's what it's like to have your back against the wall, sort of like the people of Israel did in our story.
* There are at least two practical lessons for dealing with this sort of hopelessness. Start with the less profound one. Bad as things looked for Israel and the king, they did not remain passive. No matter how bad things are, no matter what the odds, don't quit. The great University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant had it right. He once claimed: "You'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it." Bad as things seem, you've probably faced something just as (almost as) bad. So don't get paralyzed.
* Another thing: Note that the king got help from Elisha, who was a friend of the royal house. There's some truth to the old proverb: When your back's up against the wall, you learn who your friends are.
* Move to the second practical lesson about life taught by our lesson, in line with the first lesson in life we've considered (don't lapse into hopelessness or passivity). The African-American church nicely summarizes this insight. It is commonly said in those circles that "God makes a way out of no way." There's a way out of no way. How powerful that a community in America that has suffered more hardships (the evils of slavery and the discrimination that followed) than everybody else knows something of having your back against the wall, knows what it is to have "no way out," could confess such a faith.
* Suggest that the healing undertaken by God when it looked like the Hebrews' failure to provide a miracle to placate Naaman would lead to war clearly illustrates God finding a way out of no way. Who would have thought that a backwater prophet with no military prowess could save the people of Israel?
* Ask the flock if this theme is not apparent again and again in the Bible. Consider the way God found through Moses to liberate those Egyptian slaves (Exodus 2ff): The way the Babylonian Exiles were brought home as a result of the emergence of a new military power, Persia (Ezra). The way a body dead for three days could come to life and deliver salvation (Mark 16).
* This faith is not naive. It fully realizes the odds against such hope. It is a faith that fully realizes how paradoxical, how incredible its claims are. It is a believing against the wisdom of the world. Use the quotation of Martin Luther in Theological Insights.
Søren Kierkegaard has spoken of "the endless yawning difference between God and man" (Training in Christianity, p. 67). Elaborate on how faith (the core beliefs of our faith) opens new fresh insights that the wisdom of the day never recognizes. Even the very idea that God could become an ordinary Jewish peasant illustrates how our faith goes against the grain of the day's wisdom.
* Faith, it seems, then demands healing for everyone, a way out of no way for the most destitute (most worthless) in the eyes of society. As God found a way out of no way for Israel, will He not want to find healing for those who today have no way to get healing, no way to get a meal ensconced in poverty as they are? If you believe this miracle story of the Hebrews' rescue when their back was against the wall, if you believe that faith is against reason and feeling, then how can the American church fail to support health-care reform that mandates inclusion of everyone on an equally generous level and a more generous safety net for the poor?
7. Wrap-Up
Conclude by raising the question of how it is that we can believe against reason, believe that our God makes a way out of no way. Suggest that they may have had that experience already. But it is appropriate to close with a testimony to how God makes a way out of no way from the black community, which coined the phrase. Reverend Al Sharpton said it well: "If God was for me, then it didn't matter if the whole world was against me." Note that when you know you matter to God, things are not so tough, you can handle the hassles, overcome. It is this insight which gives you the energy to act and overcome passivity. The loving, healing God makes the way out of no way for us!
Sermon Text and Title
"Staying in (Spiritual) Shape"
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
A sermon exhorting a perspective on Christian living (Sanctification) that takes seriously our responsibility without compromising the freedom of the gospel.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* Paul elaborates on his approach to ministry articulated earlier in the chapter (be all things to all people).
* He uses an athletic metaphor, calling us to run a race to win, exercising self-control in all things (vv. 24-25a).
* The difference is that what will be won in this exercise will not be a perishable prize, but an imperishable one (v. 25b).
* Paul speaks of punishing his body and enslaving it, so that after proclaiming this word to others he will not be disqualified (v. 27). This reference to punishing the body is a metaphor for enduring hardships and self-control. The Greek term soma does not just refer to the physical body, but to the entirety of how one lives on this side of the fall into sin (Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, Vol. 1, pp. 193ff).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* Sanctification (esp. discipline or commitment in the Christian life) is the focus of attention. Efforts are made to explain the joy and freedom of understanding the Christian life with athletic metaphors.
* Martin Luther notes that just as one must dedicate oneself fully to an athletic event, "Likewise in the Christian contest it is necessary, and in an even higher degree, to renounce everything and to devote oneself only to the contest" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 4/1, p. 95).
* John Calvin notes that our life is like a race course, but we cannot become weary after a short time since the race only ends in death (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XX/1, p. 309).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* 2008 statistics indicate that only 17% of Americans regularly worship (though 69% belong to a congregation).
* Neurobiologists have found that when we are focused on a task bigger than satisfying our own immediate needs, exercising the executive part of the brain (the pre-frontal cortex), it is immersed in the pleasurable brain chemical dopamine (Stefan Klein, The Science of Happiness, pp. 35-37, 56-57, 107).
* Other neurobiological studies indicate that the active flow of dopamine in the front part of the brain as transpires in focused activity contributes to health. It seems that in such circumstances people have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that depresses immune function. In short, your immunity to disease and infection is likely to increase (R.E. Wheeler and R.J. Davidson et al, in Psychophysiologie 30 [1993]: 547-558).
5. Gimmick
Look at the congregation seriously/sternly (like a coach). Admonish the flock: Run the race. Are you in shape?
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Note that Saint Paul said something very similar to the Corinthians in the lesson. Following up on his discussion of doing ministry that was considered in the Bible lesson last week, Paul introduces the athletic metaphor of running a race and punishing the body in order to win the prize. Since the discussion emerges in a broader discussion of Christian living in a pagan society, it seems that Paul's advice is for all Christians.
* This language seems a bit contrary to a focus on God's grace and love, on Christian freedom. It seems to imply we must discipline ourselves to win God's favor. Not if we examine this matter in light of Martin Luther and the most recent cutting-edge science.
* Elaborate on the quote by Luther above in Theological Insights. Note that for Luther the focus is on how the discipline for which Paul calls is just a way of dedicating oneself to God, to making God more important than anything else. As Luther put it elsewhere: "We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things" (The Book of Concord, p. 351).
* In fact, this concentration on God, this sort of discipline, is anything but an arduous task. Not if we understand the joy of sports or other activities in which we are called on to devote our undivided attention.
* Ask the congregation if there are any athletes who loved it, musicians who love music, cooks who love it, or other disciplines like that. Pause. Ask if those activities are hard work. Yes. But is not playing them (stress "play") fun? Stress that the discipline Paul and the coach or teacher call for in athletics, music, and the like is a lot of fun. This is the way Paul wants us to understand the Christian life.
* This fun, joyful character of participating in such activities is a receiving experience, much like we experience grace. People who love sports, music, and the like experience those activities as gifts, like grace. Doing Christianity Paul's way (seeing it as an athletic-like activity) is all about the experience of grace.
* Seems like good advice in view of the statistics on church attendance in America (see Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights above). We need a vision of Christian responsibility that will make living with such discipline fun. We get a lot further with the unchurched that way than with our present strategies of either not calling them to accountability or portraying church involvement as a rather dreary task.
* Turn to the recent neurobiological data to demonstrate why Paul's formula is a freeing, joyful experience. Note the last two points above in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights. Focusing on God activates the front part of our brains, which when active are bathed in good-feeling brain chemicals (dopamine). Athletics and faith make you feel good. (For the involvement of these dynamics in faith, see Andrew Newberg, Vince Rause, Eugene D'Aquili, Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief.) To run the race of faith is a joyful gift.
7. Wrap-Up
Close a bit like the sermon began: Christian, run the race. Are you in shape? God's grace, God's love, makes it fun!
Sermon Text and Title
"How Jesus' Silence and Style Get the Church Out of the Box"
Mark 1:40-45
1. Theological Aim of the Sermon and Strategy
To help the faithful to appreciate that just as Christ was unwilling to allow His contemporaries to define who He was, but shattered social expectations for the sake of the gospel and his own ministry, so the church and its members are inspired to shatter the social and cultural expectations of what should happen in a church, what a church should do, for the sake of Jesus' mission.
2. Exegesis (see Introduction to Selected Books of the Bible)
* An account of Jesus' healing of a leper. The healing transpires by Jesus touching him (v. 41).
* In typically Markan fashion the event is said to transpire "immediately" (v. 42).
* He urges the maintaining of the secrecy of the healing, but the healed man is told to show himself to the priest and offer the prescribed offering for such cleansing as per Leviticus 14:1ff (v. 44). This action seems to exonerate Jesus from suspicions of pushing the Law of God aside in a revolutionary manner.
* Instead the healed man makes the healing public, so that Jesus could no longer enter town openly. He is regularly approached by others wanting such healing (v. 45).
3. Theological Insights (see Charts of the Major Theological Options)
* The text focuses on Christology (on who the messiah is and His ministry). Examination will be given to the implications of this countercultural vision of Jesus for Sanctification (living the Christian life) and church life.
* John Calvin provides insight into why Jesus did not want the miracle known (the reason for the messianic secret): "It was that He might have more abundant opportunity and freedom for teaching… He wished that they would all be more attentive to the Word than to signs" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI/1, p. 377).
* Martin Luther suggests that although the person of Jesus as One with the Father is of course a miracle worker, in His office as servant He would not wish to be known as miracle worker (Luther's Works, Vol. 54, pp. 111-112). In other words, Jesus would not allow us to put Him in a box in virtue of His deity.
* One later Reformation-era document, the Formula of Concord, speaks of the role of church orders as matters of indifference that may be changed or maintained insofar as they may build up the church (Book of Concord, p. 637).
4. Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights
* Educational theorists frequently define gifted students as those who "think outside the box."
5. Gimmick
Tell the story recounted in the passage. Jesus and His disciples were walking in the countryside, and a leper came to them to be cured. Leprosy was the AIDS of the first century -- a skin infection so contagious that it forced people who had it to leave their families. As long as they had leprosy, such exile was necessary. Moved by pity, Mark says, Jesus healed this man! He took a real risk by actually touching him (vv. 40-42). What followed was kind of strange, at least for Jesus' contemporaries. Pause for a moment to let the story penetrate hearers.
6. Possible Sermon Moves and/or Stories/Examples
* Jesus urges the man to tell no one, but to do what the Jewish law required and to go to the priest in a local synagogue and offer a sacrifice (vv. 43-44). See what Jesus wanted? He did not want to be known primarily as a healer (He wanted to shatter the image most people were getting of Him), but He wanted to do it in a way that still included the religious institution (the "church") of His day.
* Note the point: Jesus was not really recognized by the religious community of His day, because He was not one of them. The church is guilty of that sort of confusion and exclusion today. We insist on limiting the work of God, forgetting He has work for us to do outside the walls of the church.
* To understand more fully how we put the work of God in a box, we need first to understand why Jesus did not want his miracle known, why He preferred silence. We get our answer in part by recognizing that the leper He healed did tell everyone what happened and that as a result Jesus could no longer move freely in town because people came to him from everywhere (presumably to be healed) (v. 45).
* Jesus is the antithesis of Dr. Gregory House in House. Unlike the doctor, he doesn't want his work known. But that could be a function of the fact that he doesn't have Dr. House's hang-ups.
* But the real reason for Jesus' silence is a function of not wanting to be known as a miracle worker. Why? The miracles were getting Him followers. It was what the cultural image of His day expected from a religious leader. But it is not what Jesus wanted for His ministry. Elaborate on Luther's and Calvin's points in Theological Insights above. Jesus was concerned that He would be seen more as a magician than our Savior from sin. He did not want social expectations to put him in a box.
* The church seems to make this very mistake. We conform to outdated modes of congregational life, do what society expects to happen in the church, and that's why we are losing ground. (See relevant statistics in Socio-Economic, Political, Psychological, and Scientific Insights for Second Lesson.) We act very seriously and piously or are overly informal, we say we are friendly but greet few newcomers (unless they're people like us), we marginalize singles, we make the congregation about meeting needs or about entertainment (add unhelpful behaviors in your parish to the list). We expect people to come to us and don't bring the church to them. And we don't seem to have Jesus' passion for teaching the word (even though we claim such commitments). No, we do what America says we should do or what church-going Americans say they want.
* Note this was not Jesus' style. He would not let society put Him in a box. And note His concentration on being a teacher of God's word is a big part of rebelling against social expectations. He wanted to be known as our Savior, as the risen One.
* The outcome of the resurrection and corresponding gift of the Holy Spirit is most significant at this point. It entails that Christ has overcome, is everywhere. And that means that to be engaged in His ministry could take us anywhere -- another lesson the church needs to learn. The church has its work outside these walls, in ministry to the poor, to the folks on the street, to those in jail. That's how Jesus gets the church outside its [ecclesiastical] box. There are a lot of lepers out there (folks with AIDS who need love, if not healing)!
* Note the order in which Jesus does His ministry. He healed the leper before He preached. Likewise, we need to take care of material needs of those to whom we minister before we preach. Oh, but that is not what Americans expect from the church. We need to get out of the box.
7. Wrap-Up
Close by noting that contemporary educational theorists claim that if you are outside the box in your thinking, you are gifted. Jesus was gifted in working outside the box. Assert that by getting the church outside the box, God wants to gift us. Suggest that you can hear God calling the congregation to new opportunities beyond these walls -- to prisons, to the streets, to whomever Jesus brings that needs healing. We cannot follow his lead on our own strength. But as Jesus cured the leper He can even cure the church, even unclean, stubborn church members like us. As He gave the leper a fresh start, this congregation has a fresh start to get outside the confines of our box.
