Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:
Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!
Healing you, me, and the world.
I know this sounds a bit far-fetched, but the Bible doesn’t think so. Page after page is filled with stories of people who are ultimately persuaded that they and the world can be healed, with God’s help. Like our story last Sunday of Naaman, the great commander of the Aramaean army who was healed of a skin ailment. Let’s start there.
What did Naaman do to be healed? Not much really. He got angry. He felt entitled. He thought he could buy his way to healing. Then he listened to his wife who listened to a slave girl who talked about the power of God through the Prophet Elisha. And just as Elijah said, Naaman was healed on the seventh dip. How, again? And what about those first six dips? Here are some ideas, dip by dip . . .
The first dip: We need a vision of what life looks like when healing comes. Imagine our best life. Imagine God’s creation healed. Imagine big, then go bigger.
The second dip: It is a journey. You can’t stay put. You gotta move with your feet and your thinking. Naaman, this “great man” with power and money, was angry he had to go all the way to the River Jordan. How far are we willing to go?
The third dip: Many have a part in Naaman’s healing. Like the slave girl, other servants of Naaman, and his wife, and the horses who brought him to Elisha. This story is filled with people who are part of the healing whether they know it or not. Whether we know it or not. Who’s part of your story?
The fourth dip: Someone throw me a towel. I’m getting out. It’s never going to happen. It’s the dark night of the soul. Every great person and every great cause has had such a night, this fourth dip, when we’re absolutely sure there is no way forward. No way.
The fifth dip: We stay in. Not sure why, really. Why listen to a slave girl, a person on the margins? A nobody. Cast aside. Never listened to. Yet, this very person we hardly notice makes healing possible, doing something the powerful and wealthy could not. Who are the cast aside people today who facilitate healing, should we decide to listen to them?
The sixth dip: Keep hope alive. We’re almost there though it may not look like it. Maybe I did something wrong? Doubts creep in. Who am I to be healed when so many others are not? And, honestly, do I want to be healed?
The seventh dip: Naaman is healed. His skin ailment is gone. His life has changed. A new man. Great story. But it doesn’t always happen this way. We may not recognize healing. Perhaps we end up being healed in a different way. Or not. After all this time in the water we might be disappointed. So this seventh dip is a mystery and a gift, yours to experience and ponder.
These seven dips are not the only way to healing. In the Gospels Jesus employs many and diverse ways. But when all is said and done, you still may be wondering if healing is even possible today, personally, nationally, globally? If so, I know who to ask.
He’s the guy over there just coming out of the Jordan.
Grace and peace,
Harry