Last Wednesday, while we were in Louisiana, Christopher introduced us to his new favorite television program. It even has surpassed wrestling in his mind, thanks be to God. Unfortunately, when he comes back home it will probably switch back. We don’t get the Learning Channel on the cable and that is the channel with "Junkyard Wars."
It really is a good show. The one we watched was the "world championship." There were two teams of four, one from the United States and one from England. Each show the teams are given an assignment to build something from what is available in the junkyard. They give them all the tools they need and so many hours to complete the assignment. In this assignment the teams were told to build a car crusher. When complete, the team that could smash their car to the smallest height would be the winner. During the building stage on this particular show, the captain of the English team looked across the fence that separated the two teams and said, "It will never work." He was wrong. Not only did the American’s giant sledgehammer work it won the contest.
Of course what the British captain was trying to do was taunt and intimidate. His words are all too familiar to many. Throughout history there have been those who have blessed our lives with great inventions. I think it is probably equally true that there have been those who stood on the sidelines watching the work and thinking, or maybe even saying, "that can’t be done." I don’t know what it is about us that makes us think that something can’t be done, but all too often our imaginations are stagnant.
When the Wright Brothers were working on the airplane, when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and Henry Ford invented the automobile there were those that stood back watching, saying, "that can’t be done."
In the time I have spent studying history, I have learned that Alexander Graham Bell was no different. When Bell developed improvements in the telegraph, creating the harmonic telegraph, many said that his work was a waste of time, effort, and money. It can’t be done. When he improved the telegraph to the point that it could carry multiple code messages on a single wire, others were saying, "it can’t be done." Even though the National Science Foundation gave him a grant that funded most of his research, there were still those that said, "Transmitting voices over wire, it can’t be done." When everything was complete, there were still those saying, "it can’t be done."
And, where would we be without Mr. Bell’s invention. The single invention of the telephone and the research Bell did in the ways that sound travels eventually resulted in the inventions of the radio and television. Without the invention of the telephone we would not have the internet, fax machines, and of course calls from telemarketers interrupting our evening meals.
Though at times in my life, I get very frustrated with the telephone, I don’t know where we would be without that little invention. It is truly amazing to me that I can pick that thing up and talk to my next door neighbor, someone across town, across the state, even someone on the other side of the country. For the last two years we have been talking to Wayne on the other side of the world.
While I recognize the importance of the telephone, I must admit to you that I would be one of those who would have been standing back and watching Mr. Bell saying, "It can’t be done." I know I would be one because on two different occasions in my life, I thought something could not be done and then I was proven wrong, both related, in their own way to the telephone. There were probably more, these two where what jumped out in my mind.
When I was a Cub Scout we had to do an age old experiment with two cans tied together by a piece of string. When the string is tight, it carries the sound waves from one can to the other, making a simple telephone. When we started doing the experiment, I thought there was no way that could possibly work. I can’t remember if I said anything or not. I was amazed when I found out that I was wrong.
The second time was when I was in the Navy. They started talking about sound powered phones. They are vital on Navy ships because should something happen to the ship, and it lost power, there would be no way to make the phones work and therefore communication from one place on the ship to another would stop. I just didn’t see in my mind anyway that this could possibly work. It does work, however, though I still couldn’t begin to tell you how.
I don’t know what it is, but there is just something about many of us that doesn’t want or perhaps cannot comprehend how something will work that some creative genius has dreamed up. All we can see is the problems and pitfalls, the creative folks around us see the solution. It may take a while for it to get there, but they can see it in their mind before it ever becomes a reality.
All too often, even when we are told to do something, given explicit instructions about how to do it, we just don’t see how it is going to work. It may be something very difficult, or something very simple. It is kind of like those cans and the string that connected them. I knew a telephone worked, though I might not understand how, it was complicated. How could something as simple as two tin cans and a piece of string carry my voice from one place to another?
What perhaps is at the root of it all is an attitude of the heart that doesn’t let many of us see the solution when all we can focus on is the problem. We can’t see the big picture because there are so many details in the way. I think also that many of us have a tendency to make things more difficult than they have to be.
In our lesson this morning we have the story of Elisha and Naaman. Naaman was a great and powerful man. He had the king’s ear. He also had leprosy. During Biblical times, leprosy was the most feared of all diseases. It was actually a term used for many different highly contagious skin diseases. Because of having this disease, Naaman was probably on the verge of having to give up his position in the military. It would not have been because of fear of giving the disease to his enemies, but fear of infection with his own army.
Of all people a slave girl captured from Israel has the answer to Naaman’s problem if he will only listen to her and eventually to the man she sends him to see. Go she says and see the prophet.
With his king’s permission Naaman goes to see Elisha. When he gets there Elisha sends out a messenger to talk to the great military man. He never sets his eyes on Naaman. It would be kind of like having the flu and going to the doctor and only seeing the receptionist. We would probably not be very happy about the situation.
The prescription for Naaman’s problem, go and wash in the Jordan seven times and the leprosy would be gone. You can tell that he isn’t really very happy about all of this. Just to get to see Elisha Naaman had to cross two rivers that he at least thinks are better and more impressive than the Jordan. That really makes him angry. And, he turns to leave. Clearly this is not a happy man.
Next his servants enter the picture with a bit of logic. They ask him, "if the prophet had told you to do something difficult would you not have gone out and done it?"
I can see Naaman, this angry man, in my mind going down to the Jordan and the whole way saying to himself, "This will never work. I am only going down their to show my servants how ridiculous this is." When he gets to the river he drops himself down into the water. When he raises back up again he looks at the spots on his skin. Nothing. There is no change in the disease. He grumbles to himself and dips down for the second time once again with the words, "this will never work." When he comes back up again, still there is no change. For a third and a fourth time he dips down into the Jordan and nothing changes. Now he is more than just grumbling. He is more than a little mad. He is down right furious. In my imagination of the story I see him shouting out something to the effect of "This is a waste of time. I am getting out of here and heading home." But the servants remind him, "The prophet said you must dip yourself seven times." Furious as he is, he stays in the Jordan. He dips a fifth time and still nothing. Hurriedly he drops down for a sixth time with a grunt and still nothing happens. "See," Naaman says, "This isn’t going to work" and he dips into the water for the seventh time. As he is coming up out of the water he starts walking to the bank at the same time, still grumbling, knowing in his mind that this wasn’t going to work.
Then, he looks down at his arms. The spots are gone. He gets out of the water and looks at his legs. The spots are gone. He looks at his torso, he has his servant look over him. A miracle has happened. Naaman is clean once again. The leprosy was gone.
What a wonderful thing God’s grace is. Here this man was on the verge of being an outcast of society. He managed to find his way to God’s cleansing and wholeness first through an Israelite slave girl, then through a prophet, a man of God, and finally through his own servants. He found God through these ordinary people and because he found God, he found healing. God worked through them and God worked through the waters of the Jordan.
Further, God overcame a great deal. God overcame this man’s self-importance. God overcame his pride. God overcame his anger. God overcame his doubt. It seems to me that God worked hard to bring grace and healing and wholeness to this man’s life.
God will do the same in our lives. God’s grace is present for us. God is at work in our lives. What is key for us is to allow ourselves to be open to that grace and it comes in many different ways. Sometimes that grace comes to us in big ways and at other times in simple ways. Sometimes it comes to us in ways we expect and at other times in ways that far exceed our expectations.
I think that what is key for us is to realize that there is no problem so big that God cannot solve it. Often our problems are complex. But I think that sometimes we make them harder than they really are. We want the difficult solution to the problem. We don’t see how dipping ourselves in the Jordan could possibly solve anything. It wasn’t much more than a muddy creek bed. It is a great deal like those Navy sound powered phones or even the tin cans and the string. How can they work? Where is the power? Naaman was looking for the power in the water when the power was really in God and what God was telling him to do. We may not see God at work in the problems of our lives, but God is still there ready to give us healing and wholeness and grace.
There wasn’t anything hard or complex or difficult about what God was asking Naaman to do. What God wanted him to do really boils down to one word, trust. God wanted Naaman to trust him. God wants the same from us.
Some years ago I ran across a sign that said something very simple. "Don’t feel totally, personally, irrevocably responsible for everything. That is my job. Love God." I see that in much the same way. We have to trust God and let God work in our lives.
I am not an inventor. All too often I say, "that will never work." My lack of imagination will not allow me to see it. I can’t even begin to tell you how a phone works or even why it works. I do know that it works. I trust if you will that when I pick up the receiver I will hear a dial tone and after pressing a few buttons, it will ring and hopefully someone will answer on the other end.
Sometimes I am even like Naaman. I look at the problems in my life and want to figure out how best to handle them. I look for solutions in the great rivers when God is telling me to dip myself in the Jordan. Sometimes I may not like what God is telling me, I may even get down right upset and angry about it. But, I know, perhaps from the words of others who reason with me or perhaps from looking at reason based on my own experience that God is present and at work in my life.
If we trust in God, if we strive to find God’s grace in our lives, we will find God’s power even in the most unexpected places. And, with God’s power at work in our lives, there is no problem we cannot solve. Remember the words of Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
