God Among the “Others”

 For this final month of regular preaching, I have focused on God who crosses borders, God who reaches outside the lines we tend to draw between ourselves and those we consider others. We have explored a God who refuses to be defined, a God who is always, always, more expansive than our attempts to describe. We have looked at God who opens doors and unbinds chains for people of all walks of life. 

Our God is more than we can define and imagine. Our God is not limited by the boundaries we create. Our God loves us...and those who are not like us.

For my final sermon this week, I reworked a theme I have looked at before: God offering grace to those we consider others. While Jesus is known for centering the marginalized (the othered) in many of his stories -- women, Samaritans, the poor, the hungry, the sick and "unclean" -- God didn't start reaching out to "others" only when Jesus came along. Our story today from 2 Kings shows us that God has long lifted up those we might wish to exclude (see 2 Kings 5:1-14).

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Beyond Borders and Expectations

Today we turn to the Hebrew scriptures to hear another healing story involving a foreigner (see 2 Kings 5:1-19). But this time, it is not only a foreigner but a general from a nation that has been actively hostile to Israel. But this does not stop God from healing.

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As we consider our text this morning, you may have noticed a few familiar things going on that are similar to our story last week where Jesus healed the ten men suffering from a skin disease, commonly translated as leprosy. In that story, after realizing they were healed, one of the men, a Samaritan and foreigner, returned to give thanks to Jesus, praising God as he did.

In today’s story from the Hebrew scriptures, we have another foreigner who is central to the storyline. Naaman is described as a great man and a highly regarded general from the kingdom of Aram. We learn that God has just given this man a victory in battle. He is a mighty warrior for his king, but he has a skin disease. This is the same skin condition that the ten men we heard about last week suffered from. And in this time it would normally lead to the same results - being cast out and marked as unclean.

No matter that Naaman was a mighty warrior. No matter that he is a general in the king’s army. No matter that he is highly regarded. This skin condition, once it is widely known, will cause him to become an outcast as surely as any other.