Faith Experienced

Pastoral Newsletter, July 1, 2016

– Christina Cosby

This weekend, we gather as Americans to celebrate the land we live in … a land created to ensure freedom and justice for all. Through these celebrations, we may see a favorite game of baseball — an American pastime. Perhaps we will watch a dazzling show of fireworks that light up the night’s sky. We might have a cookout and enjoy hamburgers or hot dogs. Or maybe we will participate in a variety of these favorite pastimes of the land we call home. Even if we choose not to partake in the festivities, we will experience what it means and looks like to be an American — even if it is simply through a trip to the grocery store where the patriotic decorations cannot be overlooked.

We experience this national celebration with traditions that have laid a foundation for American culture. But, what does celebrating our Christian heritage look like? How do we experience our faith in a similar manner to the way we gaze upon Fourth of July fireworks? This question challenges us to rethink how faith is experienced, and this is exactly what our lectionary texts and worship this week focus on.

2 Kings 5:1-14 tells the story of a powerful commander named Naaman who has one thing holding him back. He is a man who overseas the army of Aram (modern day Syria,) but even this great man has limitations — a contagious skin disease. This disease, if he were an Israelite, would deem him unclean, and forced to the outskirts of society. However, his army happens to capture a little girl who knows the great prophet Elisha. This child of faith shares the good news with Naaman, encouraging him to be made whole.

Naaman and the King of Aram gather silver and gold and travel to Israel to find this man of God. Nonetheless, Elisha does not spent any time with Naaman; he simply sends a messenger to greet him. The messenger tells Naaman to go to the Jordan to wash where he will feel his skin become clean. However, the Jordan is a very dirty river, and Naaman becomes enraged at this suggestion. He responds by saying “I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” (v. 11-12)

This illustrates the importance of baptism. This is a tradition overlooked by many in the church because of its simplicity; nonetheless, it is through this simple act of washing with ordinary water that we, too, can feel God’s healing presence in our lives. Similarly, God, in our pericope from 2 Kings 5, is working through the unexpected — a dirty river that offers waters of healing.

Following this encounter, the words of wisdom come from the least powerful, the small captured slave girl. She remarks, “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?’” (v. 13) Subsequently, this remark encourages Naaman to go to the Jordan to wash, in turn returning his skin to the state of a small boy.

This story is one of redemptive power, a power that each of us experienced in our baptisms. Through cleansing waters, we experience God’s grace — grace we cannot enter into by our own doing. God comes to us and makes us clean even before we ask. “Wash and be clean” is also a commandment of Jesus when he himself is baptized, and his request to the disciples to go out and baptize others (Mathew 3:13-17; 28:18-20).

Baptism is such a simple command; nonetheless, a prevalent theme in both the Old Testament and New Testament. It is a powerful experience that allows us to celebrate our faith in extraordinary ways. Just as our nation experiences freedom through baseball, fireworks, and hamburgers; we Christians experience God’s redemptive love through the life-giving and purifying waters that flow freely from God’s hand.

These experiences of faith draw us forward into this week’s psalm. Psalm 30 reminds us that it is not simply our sufferings that tell the stories of our lives. It is the times when God turns our sorrow into song. When we recall, as a people of faith, God’s redemptive loving power, we cannot help but dance. It is this dance that serves as worship to God, worship we cannot express in any other way. So no matter where you are, or the circumstances you find yourself among, get up and sing with joy. Dance for the Lord your God who turns your cries into songs of praise.

Through the stories of the Old Testament and Psalms, we are invited to re-imagine ways in which we experience our walks of faith. Similarly, Galatians 6:1-6, 17-16 continues the conversation surrounding an essential debate for the early Christian church (along with the church today) — How is faith experienced? Paul is having a conversation with the Galatian community in regard to the importance of circumcision versus what it means to be a new creation in Christ. Circumcision was the traditional way the community experienced God. However, Paul is offering a testimony of faith that calls for a new experience, an experience that is outside the law. This is a profound freedom for Paul and the early church. However, there is a new way that faith is experienced and that is through freedom — a freedom that calls followers of Christ to serve in love. The new creation is one focused on relationship with one’s neighbor, and this overrules the written laws.

As we conclude our study of Galatians, it is important to reflect upon what we have learned about and from the mystic Paul. Over the past weeks, we have seen how Paul experienced Christ, and this calls us to ask the question: how do we today experience Christ and our community of faith? What are the ways we join together with our senses (hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, and seeing) to experience that the Lord our God is good? Perhaps the answer is through the sacraments — baptism and Eucharist — which Jesus encourages us to celebrate as a community of faith throughout the gospels.

Nonetheless, experiencing God’s love in tangible ways is not all we are called to do. Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 encourages the seventy/seventy two (a representative number of all of humanity,) along with us, to go forth and share the Good News with others. This going-forth is an expansion of the Kingdom of God. God reaching beyond borders is a continual theme of the Bible. This proving that God’s mercy reaches beyond boundaries, bringing individual uniqueness together in order to create a vibrant community. These boundaries are often what we set in place as means of protection — but God does not simply fit into the boxes we create. God is constantly reaching outside the limits we set forth.

This is done especially when we, as followers of Jesus Christ, go forth to share love — a love that offers an experience of faith. A love that does not force our beliefs on others, but accepts their hospitality. Faith is an experience, and God comes to us in experiences before we even know to ask. (Hints the reminder we receive this week from 2 Kings 5: God loves us, and we can know this through tangible experiences.)

The lectionary passages this week raise the question: How do we experience God in our worship and communal life? The answer the church has given for centuries is through sacraments; those of baptism and Eucharist. These remind us of God’s presence, using ordinary materials, and consecrating them into tangible signs/symbols of God’s goodness. Sacraments remind us of God’s ordinary appearances in our lives that have extraordinary implications.

We hope you will join us this Sunday in worship as we discover together the goodness of God. Through our sermon, we will explore together what it means to be the Church — a covenant community. We invite everyone to join us as we celebrate the Eucharist, when all are invited by our Lord Jesus Christ to taste and see that God is good.