Sunday, July 6, 2025
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell
2 Kings 5:1-14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man 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.” But when Elisha the man 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 him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 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.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 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. But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, 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’?” So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
What’s your secret? Not the kind that you might reveal in a parlor game or at a cocktail party. I mean – what’s your secret? What’s the one thing that you don’t want anyone else to know? Is it a treasure or a curse? And if it’s a curse, as most secrets are, have you ever wondered what it might be like to be free of it?
Silence keeps most of our secrets, but not all of them. Some are more difficult to conceal. They’re visible if we’re not careful. And so we smooth our wrinkles with fancy products. We wear slimming devices to give us the illusion of fitness. We hide scars and blemishes with clothing and make-up. And it can be expensive to keep those kinds of secrets. As Dolly Parton once quipped about her so-called eternal youth: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!” Indeed, it does, Dolly.
Once upon a time there was a man with a secret. He was a high-powered Aram or Syrian general named Naaman. General Naaman commanded the army that had defeated Israel. And 2 Kings reports, rather surprisingly, that God actually favored the Syrian General Naaman over God’s own people.
Naaman was a well-placed mover and shaker in the ancient world. But despite his success and wealth and power, he had leprosy.
Now when the Bible speaks of leprosy, it’s often a general reference to any kind of skin disease – not just Hansen’s Disease but things like psoriasis or eczema or skin cancer. And skin diseases of all types were highly feared in the biblical world because everyone believed they were contagious. So having a skin disease put you on the outside.
Maybe Naaman’s leprosy was in a place where he could hide it under his clothing or armor. But the folks in his household knew what he had, because they had seen him in various stages of undress. And those in the know included the little Jewish slave girl who had been kidnapped away from her family during a raid and had been given to Naaman’s wife. Somehow, this little girl knew the secret. But she also knew of a prophet back home named Elisha. And she knew that if Elisha prayed for Naaman, his leprosy would be healed. So, being a kind soul, she told her mistress, Mrs. Naaman, all about it. And Mrs. Naaman told her husband all about it.
I imagine that at first, he resisted the idea. I mean, who wants to go to your enemy for help? But in the end, Naaman’s secret made him desperate enough to do anything. He asked his king to write a letter to the king of Israel describing his desire to meet the famous Prophet Elisha.
When the king of Israel got the letter from the king of Syria, he thought it was a trick. He thought he was being set up to meet an impossible demand as a way to humiliate Israel all over again. But it wasn’t a trick. And the prophet insisted that he would help this foreign general. So Naaman set out and took gifts for the prophet: one-thousand pounds of silver, six thousand gold coins, and ten sets of the most beautiful garments you’ve ever seen.
The great general arrived at the house of the prophet. And, of course, he expected to be treated for the great man that he was. But Elisha didn’t even come out to say hello. Instead, he sent out a messenger to tell Naaman to go and wash himself seven times in the muddy and unimpressive Jordan River.
Well, this was all just too much! Not only had General Naaman gone to his enemies for help; not only had he been met by a messenger and not the prophet himself, but now he had been told to strip down and humble himself and wash in this sorry excuse of a river. He was furious and began to storm off. But just before he left, his own servants intervened: “Sir, you would do much more than this to be cured. All you have to do is go wash yourself. What do you have to lose?”
Well, that did make sense. And so Naaman relented and walked down to the river. He removed his clothing piece by piece, revealing his secret. And then he walked into that muddy water and dipped himself seven times; a biblical number that always implies “completeness” or “wholeness.” And each time he came up out of that water, his skin looked better until, at last, he was fully restored. And his terrible secret, exposed to the light, completely lost its power over him.
This story is notable for all kinds of reasons, but one of the most striking is its bold challenge of the prevailing social order. Jesus even makes a reference to it in Luke chapter 4 as an illustration of how the Gospel upsets the social order. The first are last and the last are first. The powerful are weak and the weak are strong. And the love of God is far broader than the measure of our minds.
It was through the mouth of a female, a child and a slave – a nobody - that God speak truth to power. And instructions for Naaman’s healing were delivered by another nobody – a mere messenger of a prophet. And then it was Naaman’s own servants who implored him not to storm off, but to give grace a chance.
This is a story about how our social stratifications and human pride keep us trapped by our secrets. This is a story about pretending to be perfect as we compete for social acceptance and social climbing. This is a story about the needless pain we bear because of pride. But this is also a story about the Good News of the Gospel, that our salvation is so often found in those things we try to hide. Like Naaman, it is standing naked in the world makes us free.
During my pastorate in Manhattan, I was taken ill. And I was in and out of the hospital several times over a number of weeks. I told the leadership of the church about it, but I had sworn them to secrecy. You see, I didn’t want anyone else in the congregation to know that I was sick. But the people of my church were not idiots. They saw my pale face and my need to sit down during worship. They saw my occasional grimaces of pain. I insisted on keeping up this ridiculous façade up until one day one of my leaders called me out on it. She told me, straight out, that I was being silly by trying to hide it. She told me I needed to trust the community to do for me what I could not do for myself. She told me that there was no shame in being a frail human.
And so, I revealed my secret. I let the congregation care for me and comfort me and worry about me. And I stopped pretending that I was different just because I had a title. And my secret, once exposed to the light, once more dipped into the waters of my baptismal grace, not only lost its power over me, but it served as a bridge between me and the people of that church. It made us more of a community. And in a very real sense of the word, it healed me.
And that light and those same waters of grace are available to any of you who are tired of hiding your flaws and who long for a new beginning. For from the waters of our baptismal grace; from the waters of the very womb of God, we all rise, healed and made whole.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell
2 Kings 5:1-14
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man 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.” But when Elisha the man 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 him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 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.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 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. But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, 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’?” So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
What’s your secret? Not the kind that you might reveal in a parlor game or at a cocktail party. I mean – what’s your secret? What’s the one thing that you don’t want anyone else to know? Is it a treasure or a curse? And if it’s a curse, as most secrets are, have you ever wondered what it might be like to be free of it?
Silence keeps most of our secrets, but not all of them. Some are more difficult to conceal. They’re visible if we’re not careful. And so we smooth our wrinkles with fancy products. We wear slimming devices to give us the illusion of fitness. We hide scars and blemishes with clothing and make-up. And it can be expensive to keep those kinds of secrets. As Dolly Parton once quipped about her so-called eternal youth: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!” Indeed, it does, Dolly.
Once upon a time there was a man with a secret. He was a high-powered Aram or Syrian general named Naaman. General Naaman commanded the army that had defeated Israel. And 2 Kings reports, rather surprisingly, that God actually favored the Syrian General Naaman over God’s own people.
Naaman was a well-placed mover and shaker in the ancient world. But despite his success and wealth and power, he had leprosy.
Now when the Bible speaks of leprosy, it’s often a general reference to any kind of skin disease – not just Hansen’s Disease but things like psoriasis or eczema or skin cancer. And skin diseases of all types were highly feared in the biblical world because everyone believed they were contagious. So having a skin disease put you on the outside.
Maybe Naaman’s leprosy was in a place where he could hide it under his clothing or armor. But the folks in his household knew what he had, because they had seen him in various stages of undress. And those in the know included the little Jewish slave girl who had been kidnapped away from her family during a raid and had been given to Naaman’s wife. Somehow, this little girl knew the secret. But she also knew of a prophet back home named Elisha. And she knew that if Elisha prayed for Naaman, his leprosy would be healed. So, being a kind soul, she told her mistress, Mrs. Naaman, all about it. And Mrs. Naaman told her husband all about it.
I imagine that at first, he resisted the idea. I mean, who wants to go to your enemy for help? But in the end, Naaman’s secret made him desperate enough to do anything. He asked his king to write a letter to the king of Israel describing his desire to meet the famous Prophet Elisha.
When the king of Israel got the letter from the king of Syria, he thought it was a trick. He thought he was being set up to meet an impossible demand as a way to humiliate Israel all over again. But it wasn’t a trick. And the prophet insisted that he would help this foreign general. So Naaman set out and took gifts for the prophet: one-thousand pounds of silver, six thousand gold coins, and ten sets of the most beautiful garments you’ve ever seen.
The great general arrived at the house of the prophet. And, of course, he expected to be treated for the great man that he was. But Elisha didn’t even come out to say hello. Instead, he sent out a messenger to tell Naaman to go and wash himself seven times in the muddy and unimpressive Jordan River.
Well, this was all just too much! Not only had General Naaman gone to his enemies for help; not only had he been met by a messenger and not the prophet himself, but now he had been told to strip down and humble himself and wash in this sorry excuse of a river. He was furious and began to storm off. But just before he left, his own servants intervened: “Sir, you would do much more than this to be cured. All you have to do is go wash yourself. What do you have to lose?”
Well, that did make sense. And so Naaman relented and walked down to the river. He removed his clothing piece by piece, revealing his secret. And then he walked into that muddy water and dipped himself seven times; a biblical number that always implies “completeness” or “wholeness.” And each time he came up out of that water, his skin looked better until, at last, he was fully restored. And his terrible secret, exposed to the light, completely lost its power over him.
This story is notable for all kinds of reasons, but one of the most striking is its bold challenge of the prevailing social order. Jesus even makes a reference to it in Luke chapter 4 as an illustration of how the Gospel upsets the social order. The first are last and the last are first. The powerful are weak and the weak are strong. And the love of God is far broader than the measure of our minds.
It was through the mouth of a female, a child and a slave – a nobody - that God speak truth to power. And instructions for Naaman’s healing were delivered by another nobody – a mere messenger of a prophet. And then it was Naaman’s own servants who implored him not to storm off, but to give grace a chance.
This is a story about how our social stratifications and human pride keep us trapped by our secrets. This is a story about pretending to be perfect as we compete for social acceptance and social climbing. This is a story about the needless pain we bear because of pride. But this is also a story about the Good News of the Gospel, that our salvation is so often found in those things we try to hide. Like Naaman, it is standing naked in the world makes us free.
During my pastorate in Manhattan, I was taken ill. And I was in and out of the hospital several times over a number of weeks. I told the leadership of the church about it, but I had sworn them to secrecy. You see, I didn’t want anyone else in the congregation to know that I was sick. But the people of my church were not idiots. They saw my pale face and my need to sit down during worship. They saw my occasional grimaces of pain. I insisted on keeping up this ridiculous façade up until one day one of my leaders called me out on it. She told me, straight out, that I was being silly by trying to hide it. She told me I needed to trust the community to do for me what I could not do for myself. She told me that there was no shame in being a frail human.
And so, I revealed my secret. I let the congregation care for me and comfort me and worry about me. And I stopped pretending that I was different just because I had a title. And my secret, once exposed to the light, once more dipped into the waters of my baptismal grace, not only lost its power over me, but it served as a bridge between me and the people of that church. It made us more of a community. And in a very real sense of the word, it healed me.
And that light and those same waters of grace are available to any of you who are tired of hiding your flaws and who long for a new beginning. For from the waters of our baptismal grace; from the waters of the very womb of God, we all rise, healed and made whole.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
RSS Feed