|
Healing With Humility Keith McFarren June 1, 2025 2 Kings 5:1-12 Do you remember a guy named Humpty Dumpty? Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; Humpty Dumpty had a great fall… That’s how most of us relate to him…as a poem that was written back in 1810, the one we’ve heard since childhood. The poem about an egg shaped character sitting on the wall talking to Alice in Lewis Carrol’s book Alice Through the Looking Glass written back in 1871. But there is more to Humpty Dumpty than what might know. So, who is this guy and where did he come from? ·The first sighting of a Humpty Dumpty appeared way back in 1698. It was the name given to a mixed drink. The mixture of boiled ale and brandy was called a Humpty Dumpty. ·In 1785 Francis Grose published a collection of contemporary slang words called A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. In it he described a “short, dumpy, hump shouldered person” as being a Humpty Dumpty. ·Humpty Dumpty was also the name of a large cannon that was constructed on the roof of the St. Mary’s church in Colchester, England way back in the 17th century. The story goes that because of the weight of the cannon, the roof of the church gave way and the Humpty Dumpty cannon came tumbling down and broke apart. The story goes that try as they might “all the king’s horse’s and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again” (www. interestingliterature.com/humpty dumpty). So Humpty Dumpty can be whoever you want him to be. He can be a mixed drink; he can be a short, dumpy, hump shouldered person; or Humpty Dumpty can be a cannon that fell through the roof of a church in England. But to me and to most of us…Humpty Dumpty will always be a talking egg sitting on a wall. But you know as well as I do that an egg sitting on a wall isn’t really a good idea. Eggs don’t belong on walls because if it falls off the wall, like the Humpty Dumpty cannon in England, it’s going to break and no matter how hard you try, it’s going to be impossible to put it back together again. But at the same time the idea of an egg falling off a wall can also be used to remind us of a deeper truth about our own human condition…and if we look closely, we’ll find that, if we fall, there is only one thing that can put us back together again and make us whole…and if we want to know what that one thing is we need to take a good look at Naaman. As I was doing the research for my sermon this week, I came across an article in a book that described Naaman, the Army officer in our scripture reading as being a lot like Humpty Dumpty. Naaman was not an ordinary man. He was the commanding officer of the army of Aram, an arch enemy of the Israelites. He was a four star general; a rich, powerful man with soldiers and servants and money at his constant disposal. But unfortunately for Naaman, he had an ordinary man’s disease. That was his problem. Naaman was the commander of the greatest army in the world. A man who, because of his position, demanded respect. and yet he had a common man’s disease. A disease he couldn’t get rid of. It was a disease he didn’t deserve and he was desperate for a cure…so desperate that he tried to assemble all the king’s horses and all the king’s men to see if they could come up with a way to heal him…to put him back together again. But nothing seemed to work. Nothing seemed to work until his wife’s servant, an Israelite slave girl suggested that Naaman go see the Lord’s prophet in Israel. Naaman cringed at the thought because he was a Gentile who hated Israelite prophets; but at the same time, he was out of options…so he bit the bullet and Naaman went to Israel. He took all the king’s horses and all the king’s men along with a whole lot of self-indulged pride with him…along with 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and at least 10 full sets of clothing…all of which would total about $3 million in today’s world. The message Naaman was sending to God’s prophet was clear – heal me, and I’ll make it well worth your time. Heal me and you can quit this thankless job of being a prophet. Heal me and you’ll be set financially for the rest of your life. Like Humpty Dumpty, Naaman had taken a fall. But what was really broken was not his skin…but his pride. Because of who he was, he didn’t deserve an ordinary man’s disease. More so, he believed his status and his power and his money allowed him to have anything he wanted…including a cure for his dreaded disease. He believed that his status and all of his possessions, the silver and the gold and the clothing could be used to fix whatever it was that ailed him. And while God was concerned about the disease of his skin, God was more concerned about the disease that had overtaken his soul. The skin disease that had overtaken his soul caused Naaman to worry more about what the disease would do to his looks and his reputation and his career than anything else. This was a narcissistic man who had built a career based on his charisma. He protected himself from harm by convincing other people just how great he really was, and he wasn’t going to let some common man’s disease ruin his life. Working directly for God, Elisha knew exactly what was going on with Naaman. There was more to it than just a skin disease and if all it had been was a skin disease, Elisha would have probably come out of his home and in a few seconds taken care of the problem. But curing a dose of pride takes more than just some cream rubbed onto the skin or more than just a shot in the arm or in the rear end. When it comes to pride, healing can only take place when the one who is full of pride is willing to give it all up…because pride requires a change of heart. Elisha knew that for Naaman to be 100% totally healed…Naaman would need to change his way of thinking and learn a little bit about humility. If we were to do a word study on the word humility we would find that it comes from the Latin word humus which literally means dirt. Now that doesn’t mean that we should think of ourselves as being nothing but dirt; but it does mean that we all come from the same place. From dust (dirt) you came and from dust (dirt) you shall return. If that phrase sounds familiar that’s because it’s the phrase I use when I place the ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday. It means seeing ourselves as being grounded with all of creation. It means that we’re all the same…rich or poor, black or white, gay or straight, Methodist or Baptist, Republican or Democrat, General or Private, we are all connected to each other… everyone is just as dependent on you as you are on them. Which means you can’t claim to be any better than anyone else, because you depend on others. But at the same time, you are no worse than anyone else because others depend on you. Think of it this way – you are never as bad or as good as you think you are, and you are never as bad or as good as other people might say you are (Magrey R. DeVega, Hope for Hard Times, Nashville, Tennessee; Abingdon Press, 2019, 109). Humility means to see yourself the way that God sees you…as an important individual…but also an equal part of an interconnected web of dependence, with you being no more important than anyone else and no one else being any more important than you are. You depend on others and others depend on you. That’s the lesson Naaman needed to hear. That’s the cure, the true prescription for this disease that ran far deeper than his skin. Before we end up falling like Humpty Dumpty and can’t be put back together again, maybe we need to take a good look at ourselves and see what a good dose of humility could do for us. If you’re in a relationship that’s struggling (maybe with a friend or family member or someone else) maybe the combination of a little humility from you and from the other person could bring about some changes that would promote healing. Maybe a little more humility at work or maybe even here at church could make a difference in the way you treat people and others treat you. Maybe a little more humility would transform your values and the goals that you set for yourself. Maybe a little more humility in the local, state and national political fields could transform the childish yet hateful rhetoric that divides us…and bring us all closer together. Maybe a little more humility between countries and leaders of nations would remind us that we are all interconnected and dependent upon one another and that it is much easier to work together than it is to work against each other. Maybe a little bit of humility between churches and denominations (and the people within those denominations who can’t seem to get along for various reasons) would bring about a healing that would bring us all back together again and help us realize that we’re all here for the same reason…to make disciples for Jesus Christ. If it wasn’t for Jesus, we wouldn’t even know that pride is considered a sin. At his baptism, God proclaimed that “You are my beloved son (Luke 3:22). And following his baptism, and while still full of the Holy Spirit, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days. Command this stone to become a loaf of bread the devil said. Feed the people and they will follow you forever; they will look up to you and idolize you. I’ll give you the glory of all these kingdoms and authority over them all. All the power and glory you will ever need or want will be yours if you worship me.” All he had to do was give in. The devil had it right. Jesus could have had the world on a string and all the power and glory that went with it. He would have been recognized wherever he went and could have been empowered to do things his way. He could have corrected all of God’s mistakes in his creation of the world and of mankind. He could have been everyone’s best buddy and people would have adored and worshiped him for all he could do. And yet, time and time again, Jesus refused the devil because there is no room for pride in the kingdom of God. Luke tells us that at that point, Satan left Jesus and we hear nothing from him until we find Jesus hanging on the cross. “If you’re the King of the Jews, save yourself” the people yelled. If you’re the Son of God, for God’s sake act like it. Use your power and get down. Another opportunity for pride to take over, but Jesus just hung there in humiliation and in weakness and in shame…no better and no worse than you or me. Jesus was face to face with the temptation of pride but refused all that Satan had to offer because there is no room for pride in the kingdom of God. Martin Buber, in his book, Good and Evil, maybe sums it up best by writing, “The struggle with evil must begin within one’s own soul” (Martin Buber, Good and Evil, Two Interpretations, New York, New York; Scribner, 1953, 64). If you aren’t attempting to follow the ways of Jesus, then you’re probably not paying a whole lot of attention to what I’m saying today because the last thing you would probably worry about is your sense of pride. But be aware of what King Solomon wrote near the end of his life when he was trying to figure out where he went wrong: “Pride comes before disaster, and arrogance before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). For those of us who are trying our very best to follow Jesus, our self-imposed, deceitful pride is the first sin that we need to confess…because our pride is keeping us from seeing the real situation around us…our pride causes our life to be nothing more than one big inflated lie filled with arrogance, and conceit and self-infatuation. Naaman was a man who lived for power, pride, and money, and yet power and pride and money have never once saved a man’s soul. He gave it all up and realized that the only way for him to be healed was to surrender his entire life to God. He gave up his need for control; he set aside his need for power, he swallowed his pride and did exactly what the man of God told him to do – jump in the river seven times – and after the seventh time he came out clean and free. Clean and free not just of the skin condition that had bothered him, but his soul was clean and free because his pride and his arrogance and his addiction to power were gone. True humility is the gift of seeing yourself the way God sees you. And it was the gift of humility that healed Naaman’s soul. Like Humpty Dumpty, Naaman fell and he fell hard, but with a change of heart and some help from God all the king’s horses and all the king’s men finally put Naaman together again. |
Bethel United Methodist Church
|
|