{"id":19459,"date":"2025-07-06T07:38:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T07:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/?p=19459"},"modified":"2025-07-06T07:40:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T07:40:50","slug":"sermon-20205-07-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stjameschurchabinger.org\/?p=19459","title":{"rendered":"Sermon 20205-07-06"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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6th July 2025<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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2 Kings 5: 1-14, Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20<\/strong><\/p>

Today we have had as our first reading one of my favourite stories from the Old Testament\u00a0 \u00a0because in part it has so many insights into human behaviour and ultimately about trust in God. \u00a0Naaman, undoubtedly an important man, commander of the king of Aram\u2019s army, was struck down by that oh so dreaded disease leprosy. Fortunately for Naaman his wife\u2019s little slave girl captured by an enemy raid into Israel was able to tell him of a man, a prophet who lived in Samaria who could cure him.\u00a0 And surely as any of us would have done Naaman leapt at this possibility of being cured and having obtained permission from the king to go into Israel set off\u00a0\u00a0 loaded down with mouth- watering amounts of gold and silver and what one assumes were precious garments presuming that any cure was going to cost him. His arrival in Israel caused panicky \u00a0consternation as it was wrongly assumed that the king of Aran\u2019s letter requesting the Israeli king to heal Naaman of his leprosy \u00a0was simply an excuse to provoke a quarrel and launch another war against Israel since the Israeli king was all too well aware of his utter \u00a0powerlessness to effect any sort of \u00a0a cure for leprosy\u00a0 as commanded \u00a0in that royal letter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Fortunately, before an eruption of violence broke out Elisha the prophet sent a message to the Israeli king to send Naaman to him. A message which I\u2019m sure brought huge sighs of relief from the king and his courtiers knowing it was now someone else\u2019s problem to solve and they needn\u2019t call up the army.<\/p>

So off Naaman sets to Elisha\u2019s house undoubtedly expecting a highly respectful and courteous welcome\u00a0 in view of his considerable\u00a0 status but to his chagrin no such welcome, no \u2019Oh you must be tired after your journey do come in and I\u2019ll make you some coffee\u2019 \u00a0but just some lowly servant comes out with Elisha\u2019s instruction to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How insulting, how rude, and he didn\u2019t come all this way to wash in some poxy Israeli river thank you very much.. It is not hard I think for us to recognise how put out how angry Naaman was as we so often expect it is almost our right to receive deferential treatment from others especially if we are in a position to hand over exorbitant amounts of money<\/p>

Thankfully Naaman was blessed with some far more perceptive servants than he was himself and they wisely pointed out that had he been asked to do something really hard, something difficult and challenging to cure his leprosy and not something so seemingly simple as washing in the Jordan, however poxy a river it might seem, he would have done it without a murmur. And Naaman at last showed proper understanding and humility in recognising and learning that what God asked of him was not being paid with earthly riches but with the incalculable value of trust. Trust that sometimes the simplest seeming thing God requires of us is the best thing we can do. Trust that the waters of the Jordan were indeed blessed with God\u2019s healing power and thus, possibly still a little doubtfully, took that seven- fold dip in the Jordan and emerged to what must have been almost ecstatic joy when he saw his flesh restored like the flesh of a young boy. Emerged with not just his leprosy sores washed clean away but with any doubts in the supreme power and might of Elisha\u2019s God also washed clean away. Emerged knowing the wisdom of these words from Proverbs: \u2018Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.\u2019<\/p>

And this idea of as it were choosing the simple things, choosing a simple way of life and trusting that it is God\u2019s way is mirrored in our gospel reading when Jesus sends out the disciples to spread the good news in his name. Sends them out with the instructions: \u2018Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals\u2019 which I think all of us would find incredibly hard to do. What no money, no change of clothing, no spare shoes but just go as we are? I can imagine our response to such instructions being akin to Naaman\u2019s when told to bathe in the Jordan namely what a ridiculous instruction What no credit cards, no smart \u00a0phone and no suitcases? Ridiculous! \u00a0\u00a0Fortunately, the disciples like Naaman accepted that this was the simple unburdened way God wanted them to follow and were able to trust that He would care for them and provide for their needs just as Naaman ultimately trusted in those simple directions given to him by Elisha in God\u2019s name. \u00a0And in doing God\u2019s will and trusting Christ\u2019s instructions they too like Naaman were given the blessing of knowing real joy.<\/p>

Trusting in God is what we are all called to do, trusting implicitly and unquestionably in his ceaseless love and care for us. And here the words of Teresa of Avila are so wise in reinforcing the idea that trust is essential in a Christian life: \u2018I believe the Lord helps those who set out to do great things for his sake and never fails those who trust in him alone, who depend on him for all their needs. This does not mean I am excused from helping myself, only that in trusting him I will be freed from anxiety.\u2019 Can we have the humility that ultimately Naaman showed, that the disciples showed that equipped with that trust we can indeed follow in God\u2019s way and fulfil his wishes for us. Can we trust in Teresa of Avila\u2019s reassuring words that God never fails those who trust in him alone, who depend on him to meet all their needs. \u00a0Naaman learned that Elisha\u2019s God did not require the gifts of wealth but the gift of trust to meet his need to be cured. The disciples learned that to travel with trust alone was indeed of far greater importance than having money or spare clothes and shoes as they set out to meet their need to respond to their calling to go out and act in Christ\u2019s name \u00a0<\/p>

Can all of us I pray learn from the example of Naaman, learn from the example of the disciples and full of trust like theirs knowing that our needs will be met by God echo the words of Psalm 28.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\tBlessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings. The Lord is my strength and my shield: in him my heart trusts: so I am helped, my heart leaps with joy, and with my song I give thanks to him.\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Revd Virginia Smith \/ 6th August 2025<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6th July 2025 2 Kings 5: 1-14, Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 Today we have had as our first reading one of my favourite stories from the Old Testament\u00a0 \u00a0because in part it has so many insights into human behaviour and ultimately about trust in God. \u00a0Naaman, undoubtedly an important man, commander of the king of … <\/p>\n

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