Sermon Tone Analysis

Epiphany 6

2 Kings 5:1-14

February 12, 2006

*“Be Clean”*

Introduction: After a day of milking the cows, feeding the hogs, spreading manure, plowing and planting fields of mud and dirt, the farmer usually comes home and, without dong anything else, leisurely sits down in his favorite chair, has dinner and goes to bed.

Right?

No! Most likely they have been trained or trained themselves to clean up, take off their dirty clothes and maybe take a bath, first.

That’s more like it.

After a rousing football or kickball game in the muddy fields of spring, most kids go home, covered from head to foot with mud.

Then they are eagerly welcomed into their homes by their parents who invite them to sit down in their favorite chairs to relax for the night.

Is that how it goes?

No, of course not!

More likely, they are ordered to strip down and march right into the bath.

After which they are welcomed into the house.

Cleanliness is important.

It is so important that many people are constantly chasing after dirt.

It’s like a constant battle that is waged in the homes of people.

Almost weekly a battle rages within my own house.

My wife in particular dresses up for war, broom and mop in one hand, bucket and rag in the other, as she attacks the dirtiest places in the house.

She is always recruiting the rest of the family to help.

Sometimes she succeeds.

But Americans are plagued by this war on dirt.

Think of the wide array of soaps and detergents and cleaning agents that are for sale.

Think of the cost of all that cleanliness.

It is staggering.

Of course the word clean has more than one meaning.

In our gospel lesson and our Old Testament lesson there are men who have the disease of leprosy.

They are contaminated with a terrible skin disease that affects not only their health but every relationship that they have.

Lepers were considered unclean.

Matter of fact they had to stay away from other people and yell, “Unclean, Unclean” if any body got near them.

They were separated from family and friends, they could not work and most of all they could not worship or approach God in the temple.

They were like a hard working dirty farmer or a muddy kid – left outside, left alone, until they were made clean.

Of course a leper couldn’t make himself clean, He had no options and no place to go – except to God.

The Jews rightly understood that God alone was the only one that can make anyone truly clean.

Thus we have the stories of Naaman and the leper healed by Jesus.

In the land that is today known as Lebanon, but was known as Aram in Old Testament days, there was an Aramean army general named Naaman who caught leprosy.

This meant the end of his family life, his military career, and all that went with this high position.

But Naaman had a slave girl whom he had captured in a raid on the nation of Israel.

She spoke to Naaman about a man who could heal his disease and make him clean.

She told him about the prophet named Elisha.

The king of Aram and Naaman were so desperate that the king sent Naaman back to Israel to find the miracle worker.

So Naaman went back to Israel to find Elisha.

Naaman expected the man of God to tell Naaman to do some great thing.

Perhaps he expected to be sent a pilgrimage.

Maybe he expected Elisha to perform an elaborate religious ritual.

Naaman was willing to do anything it would take within his own reasoning mind.

He wanted to be cleansed from the leprosy that made him unclean.

What Naaman got was a major disappointment.

Instead of Elisha, a messenger came out of the house.

"Go take a bath in the Jordan River and you will be healed."

Naaman responded, “The Jordan!

That muddy creek!

You’ve got to be kidding.

Imagine that you go to the doctor because you have cancer.

But instead of getting to see the doctor, the receptionist comes up to you and says, "Take a bath in the duck pond at the city park and you will be cured."

Naaman was furious.

"I traveled hundreds of miles.

I had to bow before an enemy king and risk my neck to come here.

And he sends a slave to tell me to take a bath in the Jordan?

Besides, aren't the rivers back home better than any water in this country?"

One of Naaman's slaves finally talked Naaman into taking the bath.

His argument was simple.

"If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it?

How much more, then, when he tells you, wash and be cleansed?"

Another way of saying that is, "You'd do something great if he told you, so why not do this easy thing?"

Naaman did.

Down to the Jordan he went -- seven dips in the river.

On the seventh dip, the leprosy left.

Obviously, it wasn't the water that cured Naaman.

This wasn't some kind of miracle water.

Six dips in the Jordan River only got Naaman wet.

It was the seventh dip, according to the word of the prophet that did the healing.

It was the water of the Jordan River connected with the Word of God that gave Naaman healing.

Naaman was the commander of a victorious army.

He was in a position of great authority.

He was also a man with a terrible problem.

He was a leper.

Leprosy eats away at the body, consuming it slowly but surely.

It is a loathsome disease and a horrible affliction of the body.

There is something like that disease that consumes all people, body and soul.

It is called sin - a condition that is ours even prior to birth into this world.

King David declared the truth for each one of Adam's descendants: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5).

Sometimes people think that sin is only something we do or fail to do.

But our condition goes much deeper than that.

As a result, we are in need of spiritual cleansing.

Therefore, man petitions the LORD God, "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! ... Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:2&8).

\\             Naaman was in need of physical cleansing since he was a leper.

His condition, if left unchecked and untreated, would result in condemnation and separation and rejection from the people of his community.

He would be left to die alone.

Our spiritual condition, if left unchecked and un-cleansed, would also result in condemnation from the Almighty, rejection by God Himself and eternal death.

The Bible declares "therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned" (Romans 5:12) and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23a).

This is what all people have deserved.

But God, with grace, gives us what we don't deserve.

Consequently the verse which begins with Law, “the wages of death,” ends with the promise of grace, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

\\             Jesus Christ is well acquainted with the diseases that afflict us bodily and the disease of sin that brings death to the human soul.

In our gospel reading Jesus is approached by another leper in need of cleansing, both physically and spiritually.

The man comes with nothing to offer, no bargain to make.

He comes to Jesus because he has heard that Jesus can make a person whole.

He bows down before Jesus, his hands holding nothing but faith.

He says to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”