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2 Kings 5:1-14 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Mark 1:40-45 The Winter Olympics started this weekend, and I fully admit to being an addict. I know its going to drive Lynde crazy, but for the next two weeks, I fully intend to spend every waking moment at home with the TV on watching obscure sports that I’ve barely ever heard of, things like luge, curling, biathalon, and hockey. I love watching the Olympics because here you have a collection of the biggest, baddest athletes on the face of the earth, all gathered in one place, all working as hard as they can, and all trying to achieve the same prize – a gold medal. The Post-Dispatch did an article this past week comparing the Winter games to the Summer games and the reasons for watching each. It said that everyone watches the Summer games to see the best athletes in the world dress in skintight clothes and see who can go the fastest or be the strongest. On the contrary, they said that the reason to watch the Winter games is different. We watch the Winter games so that we can see the best athletes in the world go as fast as they can and then crash or fall. Unfortunately, the Winter games tend to be more about disaster than achievement. But it makes for great TV. In our OT story this morning, we see someone who crashes hard. Naaman is one of the world’s biggest and baddest soldiers. He is a great general of a powerful army and has won a lot of battles. He is wealthy and powerful, yet like an Olympic ski jumper, the higher you go, the harder you fall. Naaman is struck with leprosy and instantly his life is ruined. Initially, like we often do, Naaman thought he could fix it on his own. He tried to buy his way out of it. Yet when he heard how God would save him, he rejected it because it was too easy. He didn’t have the faith that God was asking for. Through the words of an unnamed servant, Naaman eventually came to his senses. This rich and powerful man realized that he needed to have faith in God, not in himself. When he realized that he couldn’t make it on his own, he was healed. Our gospel lesson is about someone else who crashed and fell. This unnamed leper wasn’t as high and mighty as Naaman, but he was struck with the same issues. As many of our youth will find out next weekend, just because you’re not an Olympic skier, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when you crash. This man, like so many people today, had been suffering a great deal. Instead of having faith in himself, he came begging and threw himself at the feet of Jesus, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” This leper, this outcast, is the definition of faith for us. Having faith is recognizing that you can’t make it on your own. Having faith is turning to the only one who can save you. Having faith means having complete trust and confidence in someone other than yourself. This leper had faith and he was rewarded. Jesus reached out and touch this faithful man, “I do choose. Be made clean.” We live in an interesting time and place. On the one hand, we Americans are all Naamans. We are rich and powerful and we have faith in ourselves. Scientists continue to try to play God by creating life in petri dishes and inventing new and more destructive bombs. By the world’s standards, we live in huge houses with huge yards, and our pantries are stocked with more food than we could eat in a month. We have become so comfortable that we have started to think that we can make it on our own. Our own St. Charles county governments try to exclude people who aren’t like us. St. Peter’s has a minimum house size law, excluding people who don’t make as much money as we do. Winghaven residents are trying to block the building of a residence home for disabled people because they say it will ruin the aesthetics of their neighborhood by being two stories tall. In reality, they are trying to exclude the disabled and mentally handicapped from their midst. Both of these examples send the clear message that we don’t need people who aren’t like us. We can do just fine on our own, thanks. Now, on the other hand, I think that there is also a growing feeling in our country that we are missing something important. I think subconsciously there is a growing realization that maybe we can’t make it on our own, that we need some help in our world and in our lives. I sense a certain spiritual longing when I look at pop culture today. Spiritual themes keep popping up in popular shows like Lost and Law & Order. I get the sense that there are lots of people out there asking important questions about the meaning of life, yet they don’t know where to turn. The band U2 wrote a song about this that resonated with so many people that it won the song of the year at the Grammy’s a few days ago. The song is called, “Sometimes you can’t make it on your own.” Before I play just a portion of the song, I’d like to share with you the story of the entire album because it also won a Grammy, for best album of the year. The album is called, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” and Bono, the lead singer of U2, says that the album was put together very deliberately to share a message. The first song is called Vertigo and it talks about the chaos in life and being overwhelmed with all the junk that life throws at us. This was the first song released on the album and it immediately struck a chord with society. There are tons of people out there who are simply overwhelmed with the chaos of life. Can anyone relate? The second song, called Miracle Drug is about trying to find the one thing in life that will heal everything. The third song is what I’d like to play the first part of for you now. It’s told mostly from God’s point of view and it’s called “Sometimes you can’t make it on your own”: Tough, you think you’ve got the stuff You’re telling me and anyone You’re hard enough You don’t have to put up a fight You don’t have to always be right Let me take some of the punches For you tonight Listen to me now I need to let you know You don’t have to go it alone And its you when I look in the mirror And its you when I don’t pick up the phone Sometimes you can’t make it on your own With the realization that you can’t make it on your own, the next few songs on the album are increasingly desperate and searching for something or someone to turn to, epitomized by the song, “City of Blinding Lights.” This song talks about all the different places we turn to find answers, yet they are all confusing and blinding and we keep turning to the wrong things. This song also won a Grammy award for the best rock song of the year. The album then takes on a begging or pleading theme, with a song called, “Crumbs from your table,” which is just begging for something, anything from God to help us in our desperation. This would be the theme song of the leper in our gospel lesson, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” The next two songs on the album talk of getting closer and closer to the truth, which is consistent with our gospel lesson. When we approach God in total faith and as helpless people, we begin to see the truth of who we are and who God is. The final song on the album is perhaps the most powerful. After this journey and struggle of faith which we all go through, which the album walks us through, which millions of Americans are facing today, which Naaman traveled, which the leper was confronted with, after this struggle of desperation and faith, we are left with no where else to go. The final song of the album is called, “Yahweh.” This is who people are searching for. Yahweh, God, is the only one who can heal us, who can make us whole. Yahweh is the only one who can save us. Yahweh is the only one who can dismantle an atomic bomb. And through Jesus Christ, Yahweh says to us, “I do choose. Be made whole.” You see, we all have friends, brothers, sisters, coworkers, and neighbors who are being overwhelmed with life. They are starting to realize that they can’t make it on their own, yet they don’t know where to turn. Maybe some of you are feeling these same desperate feelings. At some point, even if we think we have it all, like Naaman, we will come to realize that we can’t make it on our own. God has designed us in such a way that we need him, whether we realize it or not. Olympians are tough people, some of the toughest and most disciplined people on the planet, yet not a single one of them does what they do on their own. They all have coaches, trainers, sponsors, agents, and fans, and yet they all crash and fall from time to time. God doesn’t expect us to do it on our own either. He knows we’re all going to crash and fall at some point. It’s okay to say that we can’t make it on our own. In fact, that is exactly what God wants us to say. Thankfully, our God is in the business of healing and making people whole and he wants us to have faith in him. Through Jesus, we see that God desires to save us. He reaches out to us, he touches us where it hurts, and he heals us. You don’t have to go it alone. He asks only that we come to him in faith and trust him.
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