2 Kings 5:1-8
Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. 2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." 4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 "By all means, go," the king of Aram replied. "I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: "With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy." 7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, "Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!" 8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: "Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel."
2 Kings 5:9-12
9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed." 11 But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ’Wash and be cleansed’!" 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
"Great Expectations"
DRAMA
My wife Alyssa is up front in a chair.
START powerpoint (love song???) Beautiful Soul!
o SLIDE - Feb 14th, 2009 [HEART]
o SLIDE - Great expectations of Valentines Day [Alyssa nods appreciatively after each upcoming slide]
- SLIDE - Amazing Dinner
- SLIDE - Romantic Getaway
- SLIDE - Expensive Jewelry
- SLIDE - Emptying the Dishwasher
o SLIDE - The Husband’s Attempts
- The act of giving flowers [Alyssa shakes her head]
- The act of giving chocolates [Alyssa rolls her eyes at the lame attempt]
- The act of a card [Alyssa doesn’t even bother reading it]
- The act of playing the Guitar [Alyssa covers her ears]
- The act of giving your heart [Alyssa finally accepts the gift]
o They take hands, the husband begs a kiss and gets one!
o END DRAMA
Well, congratulations on surviving... er... I mean, celebrating another Valentines Day. Tell you what, I would like to see how many of you ladies out there could see a small tiny part of yourself in the first part of that drama? Go ahead and raise your hand. Now guys, how many of you see just a tiny... tiny part of yourself in the second part of that drama. I saw a couple of wives elbows there. Does anyone else see a problem here?
Valentines day is a day filled with great expectations, and it is hard to live up to those expectations. Women hope that the lug of a man who hasn’t bothered to put the toilet seat up for the past 355 days of the year, who’s left his socks on the floor, who has gone straight to the couch after supper, who hasn’t hugged, kissed, or said I love you in ages, will on this one day... just ONE day step up to the plate and show his love!
And sometimes, definitely not always, but sometimes those great expectations can blind us... we hope and expect one thing, but when we get something else, we reject it because it’s not what we had hoped... not what we had wanted. In the example of our drama, every single attempt by me was a way in which I was saying I love you. Alyssa may not have heard it, but it doesn’t change the fact that "I love you" was being said. It really is too bad... all the "I love you’s" we miss every day because we aren’t listening... or we simply expect the "I love you" to come in a different form. In our drama, Alyssa had built up her dream day, and I wasn’t living up to it... and we both almost missed the boat. When things get built up that big... there is no possible way anyone can live up to those standards; either by our own failings, and sometimes by no failing of our own.
There is a story about a new couple in love. They were in a long distance relationship and the girl at the last minute demanded that the man jump on the next plane to get to her in time for Valentines day. The man was terrified of flying and had never been on a plane before, so this was something of a test of his love. Well, he did it¡K he booked the plane and with trembling hands got on the plane.
He was on a charter flight in a 3 engine Lockheed TriStar. They were about half-way into his flight when their pilot’s voice came over the intercom, "This is your captain speaking. Ladies and gentlemen I feel I ought to let you know that one of our three engines has failed. There is, of course, no need for alarm. This plane is entirely airworthy flying on two engines but I regret to say we will be one hour late in arriving in New York."
One half hour later, inevitably, with that desperate calm that is reserved by air pilots and astronauts for conditions of extreme emergency, the pilot of the TriStar spoke again: "This is your captain speaking. I regret that we have lost the second of our engines. But I would like to reassure you that we have every expectation of making a normal and safe landing at JFK Airport. We shall, however, be three hours late in arriving. If any of you would like to take this time to make some calls the cell phone restriction has been lifted for the remainder of the flight."
At this, the man called his girlfriend and said "My dear, I’m so sorry, I can’t keep my promise... we have lost two engines and we will be getting in three hours late, but that’s not the worst part... I’m afraid that if we loose this third engine I may be up here all night."
Disappointment can come in all shapes and sizes... it doesn’t have to be a Valentine disappointment either. Think about all the different things in your life that you have built up to such a large proportion that... no matter how great it actually was... it could never meet your expectations. A birthday party, a concert, a Thanksgiving dinner, a family Christmas, an anniversary, a welcome home, I mean seriously... it’s easy enough for us to fill in this blank with sometime in our life where we have built something up so big, that it could never live up to the hype.
In the case of our scripture this morning, the hype and the great expectation surrounded the healing of Naaman. Imagine... the long suffering Naaman, traveling across the continent to finally be healed of his terrible disease. He traveled in pomp and circumstance with an entire compliment of soldiers by his side. When he arrived at the miracle workers camp, he is prepared for something great, something magical... something life changing.
Instead, Elisha doesn’t even come out to see him. He sends a messenger with a message, "Dip yourself seven times in our backwaters here and you’ll be fine." Naaman is outraged. (He) went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ’Wash and be cleansed’!" 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.¡¨
Naaman had certain expectations about what his healing should have looked like, and he ALMOST missed the blessing the Lord had for him because he didn’t respect the way in which it came to him. In our drama, Alyssa ALMOST missed the blessing of my love for her because she didn’t respect the way in which it came to her. The lesson for us in today’s scripture is a simple one... don’t let expectations blind you to the blessings that God is offering in your life.
You may have built something up in your mind and are praying for God to help you out with it. I challenge you to examine the ways that God may already be helping you. Our God is an awesome God who loves us and tries to bring us goodness and hope, but sometimes we are our own worst enemy... and we get in the way of the blessings that God is trying to provide for us.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
