Good Day Ahead

Englewood/Rust UMC
July 4, 2010
2 Kings 5:1-14
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Pentecost 7
Year C
First Sermon

I think it’s been cancelled now, but at the beginning of the year there was this show that came on ABC – I think it was called Flashback, or something like that. I never really got into the show, but I do remember the line from one of the commercials that has always stuck in my mind. In it a little girl of about six years old woke up in her bed crying. Her mother stood over her and asked – baby what is the matter. She said, mommy I had a bad dream. The mother asked, so baby – what was your dream. She said momma I dreamed that there were no more good days. There are only bad days ahead.
The scene sticks in my head , and I thought there is a sermon in that statement – I immediately thought this little girl was having my bad dream - my nightmare. The nightmare of no more good days. Things are never going to get better for me. You don’t pay bills and the bills pile up, you pay the bills and the bills still pile up. You work as hard as you can, tirelessly every day and there is still someone telling you that it is not enough. You try and things still don’t change, you don’t try and things don’t change. What is the use – there are no more good days. There was a time in my life when I felt that I was moving forward, getting ahead, happy enjoying life. But that was a long time ago – not today.
But you know – I also think that I am forgetting a very important lesson about my faith in Christ.
Namaan must have felt that way when he set out to isreal looking for a cure. There were no good days ahead. We get that way when we feel we have been robbed of the life that we know and understand.
Namaan was the general of the greatest army in the world at the time. The bible says that God gave victory to the army of Aram through Namaan. He was used to people bowing to him and giving him whatever he wanted. He was used to special priviledges, used to invitations from important people, used to being with the rich and famous of his day.
But he lost all of that the day he got a disease – what he thought to be a skin disease. He didn’t know what it was, but he was not taking any chances.
He thought he had leprosy – a skin disease that made all of his friend keep their distance. But really it was something deeper.
Physical symptoms are always a sign of something deeper. Every illness that we have has a physical component, a mental and emotional component and a spiritual component. Physical illness is our bodies way of getting our attention to warn us that something needs to change in our lives and in our spirits.
The second symptom of his deeper illness, of his need for a cure, was in his stuff. In order to take this journey of healing he needed to take 10 changes of clothes, horseloads of jewelry, food and other gifts. He was convinced that his stuff was going to find a cure.
No wonder when he did get to the prophet Elisha, the prophet didn’t even bother to greet him. He just sent a message to bathe in the river.
Elisha knew that Namaan’s complaint was not his problem. Remember physical symptoms are always a sign of a deeper spiritual issue.
Namaan didn’t need to be cured of his leprosy, he needed to be cured of his pride.
Pride that his stuff could bring him healing. Pride that his life was all about him – who he was and what he had. Pride that just because he was important that he was not supposed to suffer.
Elisha didn’t want to have anything to do with his stuff.
Pride stands in the way of us seeing how God works in our lives. Humililty opens the door to see how God is working in spite of ourselves, our ego and our pride. Let me repeat that – pride stands in the way of us seeing how God works in our lives, humility opens the door to see how God is working in spite of ourselves.
You see this is not a story about Namaan and his high horse, his illness, his unwillingness to listen, his arrogance that just because he has a problem someone is supposed to take care of him.

This is really a story about the miracle of everyday life and everyday people. It is a story about a slave girl who knew of a prophet who could really cure Naaman. It is about a servant who told him the put his pride aside and do what Elisha said, it is about a down to earth prophet – who had spiritual eyes to see what was really going on.
God works through our faith not our pride, we just have to be aware enough to know the difference.
We also have to know that everything that we need in life is contained in the peace of Christ. Peace means justice, wellbeing, wholeness, and joy.
Jesus sends his disciples out into the world 2 by 2 charging them to give peace to the world. He tells them to take nothing for the journey – in other words leave you stuff at home. Peace is not in our stuff, it is in our love for God.
Just like a car needs gas, a spirit needs the spirit of Christ. When the spirit is not connected to God – we are empty. The peace of Christ for a Christian is everything. It is our healing, our teaching, our guiding light, it is our light in a dark spot, our joy in times of trouble, our hope when nothing else works. Most importantly it is our message to the rest of the world that we are all God’s children and everything is going to be okay.
The peace of Christ is the fuel our spirits use, the food our souls feed on – we can’t be happy apart from the spirit of Christ. Christ can’t give us happiness and peace apart from himself – it’s just not possible. Those are not my words – but the words of the famous Christian author C.S. Lewis.
Furthermore, an unhappy, unpeaceful, hopeless Christian is a poor reflection not only on Christ’s church but on God.
Either they are not practicing their faith properly, or their faith is useless.
Unhappy Christians are the world’s biggest argument for staying away from church, and for believing that either God is useless for even that there is no God.
The presence of joy is a sign that Christ is alive in ourselves, our hearts and the world.
When Jesus send his disciples out 2by2, he told them to pass the peace, travel light, heal the sick, and to return with joy. Scripture says – I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, over come the power of evil and nothing will harm you.

Jesus didn’t say the journey would be easy, as a matter of fact he says the exact opposite. But he did say that nothing will harm you and that you will have joy.
Billy Graham tells the story of visiting a carribean island. He was invited to have lunch with one of the wealthiest men in the world. The man was 75 years old – and he seemed close to tears the whole time. I am the most miserable man in the world. He point to his yacht and said that he could go wherever he wanted. He could do whatever he wanted, he could have whatever he wanted – I have all I want to make me happy – but none of it mattered. Nothing gave his life meaning, nothing made him happy. The grahams talked to him and tried to lead him to Christ – to help him understand that true happiness was in the presence of Christ in his life.
Later that day they had dinner with a pastor – 75 also, he too had lost his wife and spent his free time taking care of his sick sisters. But in the midst of it all – he was happy and full of Christ. He loved witnessing to the love of Christ. I don’t have a dime to my name he said, but I am the happiest man on the island. When the Grahams left his house – Billy asked his wife – which one of these men was richer?

We got some tough times ahead – and life really might not get better. There is rejection, failure, and pain in the future – we can be sure of that.
But there are also good days ahead. Personally I praise God that I don’t have to life in the nightmare belief that there are no more good days.
I can celebrate because the glory of God is not in what I do for God- it is in the testimony of what God does for me.
My peace is not in my self, its in Christ. My message to the world is not in my stuff, or lack there of – it is in the witness that I am for God. My joy is in my journey – journey to pass the peace of Christ to everyone I meet. My happiness is not just in what I say – it is in who I am for the Lord. And who the Lord is for me. Let us pray….