18th Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
2 Kings 5:1-11, 13, & 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, God 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 life or death, 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 fight 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 his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!”
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.
Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish woman living in Iran. On September 13th of this year, she was on her way to visit her brother in the capital city of Tehran. While she was with her family at the train station, she was arrested by the morality police, otherwise known as the Guidance Patrol, for incorrectly wearing her hijab, the piece of clothing typically worn to cover a woman’s hair. They had noticed that some of her hair was showing, and they told her brother that she was being taken to a detention center where she would have to take a “briefing class” and would be released an hour later.
In the van, on the way to the detention center, Amini was insulted and beaten. By the time she arrived at the police station, she was beginning to lose her vision, and she fainted. Two hours later, she was taken to Kasra Hospital, where she never woke up from her coma, and eventually died on September 16th.
The government of Iran denies any wrongdoing in this situation, but hours after Amini’s death, the people of Iran began demonstrating outside the hospital, and protests broke out across the country, and in Muslim communities around the world. Women all over the world have been cutting their hair and burning their hijabs in protest, with over 80 million instances of the hashtag #MahsaAmini appearing on Twitter.
In their efforts to quell the protests, Iranian security forces have used pepper spray and live ammunition against the crowds of people, killing dozens, and injuring many more. They have also detained and abused hundreds of women involved with the protests.
Women are treated as second-class citizens in Iran. Men are allowed to have multiple wives, and the legal marriageable age for girls is just 9-years-old. Women aren’t allowed to leave the house or continue their education without their husband’s permission. Women can’t even go to stadiums where men’s sports are being played.
For years, the women living under these conditions have been crying out, asking people to listen to them, to understand their plight. And now that the high-profile case of Mahsa Amini has captured the world’s attention, people are starting to listen.
At first glance, our Hebrew Bible reading today is about a man, a man with a skin disease who is healed by God through the prophet Elisha. Now, there’s a lot to say about this story. Naaman had leprosy, a very visible skin disease. In Elisha’s time, as well as in the time of Jesus, as we saw in our gospel reading today, people with leprosy were ostracized from the rest of society. So, healing someone with leprosy not only made their body whole, but restored their place in society, so that they could be part of the community again.
We could talk about Naaman’s pride, or about how God performs miracles. We could talk about hospitality or how to treat your neighbor. But, what stood out for me in this passage, especially in light of what’s happening in the world today, was how Naaman found out about Elisha in the first place. It was because a young Israelite girl, who Naaman had taken captive and enslaved, who served Naaman’s wife, who spoke up and said, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
This was during a time when women had very few rights compared to men, let alone a young enslaved girl. And yet, this girl’s words are recorded here in this passage for us to read, thousands of years later. Naaman’s wife, another person with limited power, but more power than her servant, listened to this young girl, and amplified her voice, sharing her words with her husband Naaman. And Naaman, a commander in the army of the king of Aram, listened to her and believed her, and asked his king if he could go to this prophet to be healed. The king, hearing about these words from a lowly enslaved Israelite girl, also believed, and sent Naaman to Israel to see Elisha.
All of this could only happen because people listened and believed. How often in our culture today do we hear about people trying to tell us that something is wrong, but no one will listen to them? When minority groups talk about micro-aggressions, discrimination, or flat-out racism, people tell us it’s no big deal, stop being so sensitive, you’re being a snowflake. When those in the LGBT community ask for equal protection under the law, we get called perverts and pedophiles. When a woman reports a sexual assault, 82 out of 100 times, nothing will happen.
We cannot right the wrongs of society if we are not willing to listen. Black, Indigenous, and other people of color are crying out! Queer people are crying out! Women in Iran and all over the world are crying out! We need to listen. We need to amplify their voices, so that they can be heard! We need to listen and believe!
Healing only happens when we listen and believe. Community happens when we listen and believe. Relationship happens when we listen and believe. God is calling us to listen and believe. In a world filled with so many people trying to either preserve the status quo or bring us back to a more bigoted time, we need to remember that we are all human beings. We all want the same things and have the right to the same things. We all want to be free, we all want to love and provide for our families, we all want to feel safe, and sheltered, and fed, and have clean water to drink. Why would we deny those things to other people?
The central message of the Bible is hospitality and community. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. How would you feel if you were trying to tell people about something that was wrong, and no one would listen to you? How would you feel if no one believed you? We have to start listening to and believing each other!
There is a charge in the air, our society is at a fork in the road, and the future very much depends on which path we decide to take. Are we going to be divided, looking out for number one in a dog-eat-dog world? Or, are we going to be a community that supports each other, listens to each other, and takes care of each other? What kind of world do you want to live in? What kind of world do you think God wants for us?
It’s easy for us to listen to each other here, where we all know each other and trust each other. We are all well-practiced at lending a shoulder to cry on and reaching out with a helping hand. But, we need to remember to do that out there. Listen to the disheartened and the downtrodden. Listen to the people crying out in despair. Listen to the person who’s doing mostly okay, but might have some real insight about the world. Listen to your coworkers, your neighbors, your family and friends. Listen and believe. And if you’re in a position to do so, amplify the voices of those who are unable to speak for themselves. Like Naaman’s wife and Naaman himself, amplifying the voice of an enslaved Israelite girl. Because it’s when you listen and believe that miracles can happen. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
