"CLEARASIL FOR THE SOUL" By The Rev. Gary Miller II Kings 5:1-14 Please pray with me. Gracious and loving God, as we enter this time of meditation, may you take the imperfect words of my mouth, the meditations of each of our hearts, directing them to a perfect understanding of your love, your care and your presence with us. We pray this all in Christ’s name, Amen. Grace and peace be to each, to all, from God our Creator and the Lord Jesus Christ. My dear friends… In beginning worship today and in our meditation time together, I have a question to ask of the congregation. Is there anyone in attendance at worship this morning that is 91 years of age? Is there anyone here? (Applause). Now normally we don’t sing Happy Birthday in worship, but I think when you get to be 91 years of age, the least you can expect is your community of faith to wish you a happy birthday. Congregation sings with a big “Amen” at the end from the choir. (Note: This was sung to Helen Ripple, mother of our moderator, Ezra Ripple, on her 91st birthday!) My first parish, as a senior minister, was in Algonquin, Illinois. Algonquin, Illinois is 42 miles northwest of the core city of Chicago. They had a little green sign that you passed coming in along Algonquin Road into Algonquin. It said “3632 residents.” We had three young children. All three of our boys went to school in Algonquin, and Beth and I moved to this kind of rural environment where, when we went to watch a high school football game, the cows were just on the other side of the field. And we remember fondly the first snowfall in Algonquin following our arrival. We walked down the middle of Main Street together … and there was no traffic at all. None. We walked down the center line of the highway, talking and kicking at that freshly fallen snow. We spent a lot of time walking in Algonquin. Oh, by the way, it was not a big deal being the senior minister there. There was only one minister there, but they liked to call their minister the senior minister. So I was. One afternoon while walking down the main street of Algonquin, and there was only one main street in Algonquin, I had a letter in my hand I was intending to mail. I had forgotten to put it in the basket, so when the mail carrier came by, it didn’t get picked up. So I was going to take care of that letter myself. I started to walk down the main street of Algonquin, and thought I’d make some conversation … meet somebody new. You know, you never know where there’s a prospective church member to be located. This young boy was walking toward me and I said to him, “Can you tell me where the post office is?” And he gave me directions to the post office. And then I said, “Tell me, do you go to church anywhere?” He said, “No.” I said, “That church over there … that’s my church, and I’d love to have you come to my church and I’d like to teach you about God and how God loves you, and how God is present with you. So why don’t you come to my church so I can tell you all about God?” That little guy looked at me and said, “Mister, you don’t even know where the post office is!” Well, this morning, friends, I’m still not sure where the post office is, and I’m not sure, in light of the two healing texts from our scriptures, where God is exactly either. It has been that kind of week. To talk about healing while one of the things you know most keenly and accurately about your life’s journey is the heartache in the loss of good friends and the pain of separation through the act of dying, it is, at best, difficult! It says I’ve got to locate the post office and I have to locate God because this is about healing. Humph. Where is that thing? I never had one of these (a tube of Clearasil). When I was growing up, I always wanted one, because in high school it seemed that everybody had a tube of this stuff except me. My mother said I should be grateful. It was the red hair and the freckles. That’s why you don’t have those zits on your face. But I wanted my own tube of Clearasil, so that I could be one of the group. And now that I have my own tube of Clearasil, as I was looking at it this morning, it caused me some consternation … “fewer pimples in just days or your money back … clears up your pimples fast … goes to the root of the pimple to help dry and clear up existing pimples and blackheads. When using this product, avoid contact with your eyes, lips and your mouth. Avoid contact with hair or dyed fabrics, including carpet and clothing.” Did they think you were going to put this on and get down on the carpet and rub your face on it? Enough about those directions! One of the scripture lessons this morning, friends, is about a Clearasil for our soul. Naaman was a great man, says the scripture. He had achieved many victories for his king. He was well loved by the king, and he loved his power. And when the skin condition came upon him, he wanted to use his power, his connections, to effect some healing of his life, healing of the skin. And he took the “power” train as far as he could take it. He even had a letter of introduction from his old king. You take this to the King of Israel. Boy, this will get you in good. You go talk to him, and from one of those Prophets over there; you’re going to get a healing. As a matter of fact, it tells us he took ten suits of clothing. He was not only going to be powerful but well dressed when he received his healing. He went and when the king was confronted by the letter in the presence of Naaman he tears his clothing; he is absolutely fear-stricken that Naaman would ask him to intervene in this way. And no one seems to know how to effect a healing for Naaman except the young servant girl, a servant who has probably been enslaved during one of his military successes. Finally, Naaman finds his way to the Prophet Elijah, but Elijah himself doesn’t even come to talk to him. He sends out another servant and tells him to go and wash in that dirty old Jordan River. “No, no … I’d much prefer the rivers in Damascus. Those are clean rivers. If I have to do something as silly as this, why can’t it be in Damascus, certainly not the River Jordan.” And again he is reminded … you go to that river, you wash yourself seven times, and you will experience healing. In all of his great power, he is reminded that he only will find healing if he is prepared to humble himself, do something which is seemingly beneath his stature. Now can we transfer that to the story in Mark? The leper who comes to Jesus … reminding ourselves that lepers are encouraged to dress in torn clothes, their face always to be covered, their heads to be bare, yet they would cry out wherever they went, “Unclean. Unclean.” Lepers were subjected to their own funeral service before they died. Lepers were given a slit in the side of the church assemblage so they could peak through or squint at the act of corporate worship for God’s people. Lepers, as the New Testament describes for us, are completely surrounded by acts of humbling humility. Out of the midst of that humble existence, this man comes to Jesus, and Jesus touched him, and there was healing. And then that sly old fox, Jesus, remember what he said? “Don’t you tell anybody.” Remember having said that to some of your own children when they’ve made a marvelous discovery? You said, “Don’t you tell.” How quickly can I spread the message of God’s humble and healing power? But how do I reconcile that with two lives specifically who desperately waited upon healing, yet at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning, Heather passed from this life into God’s eternity? And at 1:00 a.m. this morning Ann Byers passed from this life … both of them struggling desperately for healing, both of them praying for healing … yet both of their physical lives to come to an end. I need some Clearasil for my soul. I need some clarity about where healing is and what it is. And I want to tell you that Heather Congdon was healed … not her body, but her spirit and soul were healing prior to her departure from this life. She said to me, and Dougie, you were there to hear it, “It is not dying that I fear. It is getting from here to there.” Ann Byers, in similar words, said, “My focus is on how I get from here to there.” And when that focus was clarified, they both were healed and their spirits were whole. And they were confident that God was effecting healing in their lives. It was when they crossed that line and were ensconced, encompassed and surrounded by that air of humility in the humbling presence of God. Naaman had all the power in the world, and Naaman wanted to use his power to effect an immediate healing. I want you to think about that, and think about the situation in our world today, with bold, quick action, with our power being observant against other persons of the world. Will there come a healing to the world’s people? Or will there come healing when we, as a people, say, "We need to get from here to there” and there is peace? How do we get from here to there as a humble people, not a powerful people, but finding power in our humility? It’s a tough thing to talk about peace, isn’t it? We all want peace. We all want healing in our world. Yet the stories we read this morning are that the healing we seek does not come from our displays of grandeur and power. Our healing comes in our trusting that God will effect some Clearasil for our souls and our hearts, and we will be able to get from here to there. It’s some Clearasil for all of our souls, the corporate soul of this nation, for the soul of those who seek to follow Jesus who is the Christ. Let us, all of us, endeavor, and pray for Clearasil for our souls so that we might be changed … and that we, indeed, might find everlasting peace. Ministering to you all in Christ’s name,
Amen and Alleluia!
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