THE SPECTACULAR ORDINARY

Dr. Richard J. Henderson February 16, 2003

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Mark 1: 40-45
II Kings 5: 1-14

Introduction

On June 19, 1999 Brian Smith drove his light blue Dodge van down Route 5, a two-lane highway in rural Maine. (Not our Brian Smith, but someone with his name). As he sped down Route 5, Mr. Smith's rotweiler, Bullet, jumped up from the rear section of the van into the back seat. Mr. Smith had some fresh meat in a cooler on the back seat and the dog couldn't resist the smell.

Mr. Smith turned to push the dog away, but the meat was too tempting, and the dog wouldn't leave. As he drove over the crest of a hill, Brian Smith tried to pull the dog away from the fresh cut meat. Distracted from his driving, Smith never noticed a man walking along the side of the road, just on the other side of the hill.

By now Smith was on the shoulder of the road. He hit the walker head on. The man walking along the road that day was world-famous writer, Stephen King, out for his daily four-mile hike. King was thrown fourteen feet into the air. When he landed he had broken his legs in five places. He had split his knee and fractured his hip. His spine was chipped in eight places, and he had severe lacerations on the scalp.

Over the next several months Stephen King went through a series of operations. It took months for him to be able to walk, and even longer for his body to heal as completely as it could. King writes that his life was saved by Dr. David Brown, the masterful surgeon who put his body back together with pins and screws, and Tabitha, his wife of more than thirty years. These two people, more than any others were responsible for saving his life.

I

The surgeon saved his life, of course, through his great skill and learning, but how did his wife save his life? We know how. Any of us who have experienced the on-going love and care of another person know how Tabitha saved his life. She was there to encourage him when he didn't think he could go on any longer. She held his head and kissed him after he came out of the anesthetic. She made his favorite foods at home and brought them into the hospital. She sat beside his bed in the hospital for weeks at a time. She made him laugh when all he really wanted to do was cry.

We know the way in which she saved his life. She did it through everyday caring, routine helping, the spectacular ordinary.

II

God works in our lives through those kinds of commonplace miracles. Yes, sometimes God acts in dramatic earth-shaking events, but more often God acts in routine, everyday caring. Frequently God acts through ordinary people and ordinary events.

III

For example, take a look at the story of Naaman, an important commander in the Syrian army. He is a great leader in his country - a powerful military man - but he is suffering from leprosy. He wants to be cured.

The amazing thing is that he will be healed, but not by the important, the spectacular or the powerful. Naaman gets healed by the insignificant and the lowly. Naaman's wife's servant girl - a young woman whom he has captured in one of his raids on Israel - suggests to him that he go to a prophet in Israel who can heal him.

This doesn't fit with Naaman's idea of how you get things done, so instead he goes to his own king and asks for a letter of recommendation. Then he takes that letter, along with half an army, complete with chariots, to visit the king of Israel. He takes along ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments for the king. Why fool around with some middleman, go straight to the top?

Except the king can't cure him. He has all the power, authority, and money, but he can't cure a man with leprosy. The prophet Elisha hears of this and he sends a messenger to the king to say, "Send him to me, I can heal him."

Good news! Naaman hurries off to see Elisha and waits at his door. Elisha doesn't come out himself, but sends one of his messengers to say, "Go wash in the Jordan River seven times and you will be healed."

Naaman is insulted! Wade in some dirty river and that's supposed to help me. We have a lot nicer rivers in Syria if I want to wash. Naaman leaves in anger. Finally another unimportant person talks to Naaman and says, "If Elisha had asked you to do something really difficult, you would have done it, wouldn't you? So, why not do this, which is pretty simple? Maybe it will help. It can't hurt.

So, Naaman swallows his dignity and returns to the Jordan River. This important, dignified soldier wades out into the murky waters of the Jordan, his toes squishing in the mud below. How humiliating it is to come to this ordinary river! But as he washes seven times, he is healed. His skin is restored like the flesh of a young boy.

IV

Naaman tried all the flashy, spectacular ways of getting healed, and no one could help him. He got the help that really mattered from a servant girl, a messenger, his own aid, and a prophet. All the kings, letters, gold, armies and chariots let him down. He was saved by ordinary people and a very common series of muddy baths in the river. God so often works through the ordinary

Conclusion

Yes, there is the parting of the Red Sea, but most of time God works through ordinary people showing exceptional love. God works through a poor nun who picks up dying people from the streets of Calcutta so they have a chance to die with dignity in a bed, with loving care. God works through the ordinary young cleaning woman who boards a bus and refuses to give up her seat. God works through the person who sits holding your hand when you are waiting to hear the results of the biopsy.

God works through ordinary people showing the love of God in their lives.

That's what God did 2000 years ago. That's what he can do today.

Amen.

©Richard J. Henderson 2003