Preaching Helps: First Sunday of Advent-Transfiguration of Our Lord, series B

Today's psalm contains the compelling lines, "Weeping may linger in the night, but joy comes in the morning." On a recent trip to a favorite summer vacation area, my wife and I pulled into the parking lot of a diner we had frequented in the past. But as we drove in, we noticed that all that stood before us were the charred remains of the building. On a small handwritten sign in one of the windows were the words, "There may be tears at night, but joy comes in the morning." We were saddened by the thought of the loss sustained by the hospitable cafe owners, but that little sign was a powerful witness to their continuing hope.

If you did not do a service of healing or a rite of individual prayers and the laying on of hands within your worship last week, you may want to do so this week. Marty Haugen's "Healer of our Every Ill" is an especially appropriate hymn (available in the Hymnal Supplement: 1991 from GIA publications). The refrain also echoes Psalm 130:

Healer of our every ill,
light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear
and hope beyond our sorrow.

Pastoral Reflections

Sometimes the power of faith in God is revealed in ways that we are prone to overlook and even resist. Our Hebrew Testament reading tells the story of Naaman, a high-ranking military officer in the army of the Aram who also happens to be a leper. The Jewish slave girl who waits on his wife tells her that there is a prophet back in her homeland who can cure her husband. With letters of introduction from the king, a bunch of nice robes, and a stack of gold, Naaman heads off to find this prophet. When he arrives at the prophet's house, Naaman is insulted that Elisha does not emerge and greet him but instead sends out a messenger who tells the visiting dignitary to go wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman is miffed: "Here I was thinking he would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hands over the spot and cure the leprous part" (v. 11).

Maybe Naaman already had some experience with holy-man types and figured he knew how they were supposed to operate, or maybe he just was used to getting a big response when he showed up in his chariot. The prescription Elisha writes apparently sounds a bit too ordinary, and as rivers go, the Jordan isn't particularly impressive. "At least he could wave his hands around some," Naaman grumbles about the lack of hocus-pocus as he turns to leave. Luckily, his servants intervene with the sound advice that just because it isn't fancy or complicated doesn't mean it might not work, and so Naaman does what Elisha prescribed.

Our lectionary reading doesn't include the part that follows. After Elisha refuses payment from Naaman, his servant Gehazi, showing some initiative, decides to cash in on the action himself. When Elisha finds out, Gehazi ends up with Naaman's leprosy. So we have more than one lesson here: (1) Even if they tell you to do something that sounds way too ordinary, it doesn't mean that God can't do something extraordinary with it; and (2) Never cross a prophet.