Lifestyles of the Healed and Whole
1 Cor. 9:24 - 27
Mark 1: 40 – 45
2 Kings 5: 1 - 14
For the next couple of weeks, much of the world’s
attention will be focused on Turin, Italy, for it is time for the
Winter Olympics. Leading up to this, we’ve heard lots about
particular athletes, and how they have prepared themselves for this
ultimate test of athletic prowess. We’ve learned how much they
sacrifice to bring themselves to the peak of performance; how many
hours and years they’ve spent learning their sport, even going into
debt to continue competing. And we’ve learned that in the drive
to achieve perfection, sadly a few have made poor choices about using
drugs to enhance their abilities.
Preparing for the Olympics is an all-consuming
lifestyle. All this effort focused upon various physical
activities—skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, luge, even the hot new
favorite, curling. I’ll watch some events and enjoy them—but at
the same time, a part of me says, “Think what else more permanent could
have been accomplished with all the money poured into the
Olympics.” I think there are probably whole countries in this
world whose gross national income is less than what has been spent on
these two weeks of Olympic glory.
I have a second thought too—the Olympians do set us
an example of how to focus our efforts upon a desired goal. What
if we approached developing our relationship with God with an equal
amount of effort? What if we made God our all-consuming
passion? How about setting our life priority as pouring our
energies into becoming healed and whole as God intends for us to
be?
That was the line of thought triggered when I read
today’s scriptures that bring Paul’s images of athletic contests into
dialog with the stories of the healing of Naaman and the leper.
First, a little bit of background. Paul’s use
of athletic imagery is particularly appropriate when writing to the
people of Corinth, for Corinth played host to the Isthmian Games every
year and had for centuries. They would also have been familiar
with the Olympics—not the modern version, but the original Greek
athletic contests upon which our modern Olympics is based.
Also, did you notice the amount of money Naaman
brought with him in his search for a cure for what ailed him? Ten
talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of
garments. Health care was expensive back then too!
But, despite his willingness to pay the moon for healing, he wasn’t
willing to do the simple tasks asked of him by Elisha. That too
should sound familiar—there are many people today who spend thousands
of dollars on health foods but won’t get out and exercise. I read
a statistic that 87% of Americans own running shoes, but never go
running. Oh, and by the way, we’ve now reached the middle of
February—that key time that reveals whether you kept your New Year's
Resolutions. It’s been six weeks—either your resolutions have
become habit, or they’ve gone by the wayside. If you’re like most
folks, it’s the second—good intentions, but a lack of follow-through.
So let’s look at our situation. The statistics
I’m going to share with you are already 10 years out of date, but they
still make the point I’m after:
The American population has increased over 42
percent since 1960, but violent crime has increased over 500
percent. Eight out of every 10 Americans will be victims of
violent crime at least once in their lifetime. The US homicide
rate for 15 – 24 year olds is seven times higher than Canada’s and 40
times higher than Japan’s. In the last fifty years we’ve seen a
200 percent increase in teenage suicide and a drop of 75 points in
average SAT scores. Severe threats to our personal and national health
include AIDS and HIV which have been joined by drug-resistant
infections and new viruses. [Dr. John Rodden, University of Texas, in
“Vital Speeches, LXIII” September 15, 1997, p. 712]
There has been huge growth in the health care
industry—on the positive side, exciting research is offering more hope
to patients than ever before for a wide variety of diseases and
problems. On the negative side, many people find themselves cut
off from access to needed health care due to lack of insurance, or
refusal of permission for treatment made by those more concerned with
insuring a profitable bottom line. We are also mixing in many
alternative treatments and additives with our regular medical
care—vitamins, herbal extracts, meditation practices, stress
management, acupuncture, and so on—all to enhance our health and keep
us as well-balanced and happy as possible.
So why don’t we feel well? I suspect it is
because we’ve bought into the wrong image of what wellness is.
We’ve been running after that which does not satisfy—as the ancient
text goes. We need to remember Robert McAfee Brown’s warning:
“Success is not a name for God.” We all know the hardest
disease to cure is the one that remains undiagnosed. Unable to
pinpoint what exactly ails us, we stumble around, grasping at any and
all suggestions that comes our way. When struggling to find a
cure, we tend to seek out the flashiest, most expensive, most demanding
course of treatment—convinced that if the road is tough enough and
expensive enough, it must be the most effective.
Namaan is our example for this—he was ready to spend
vast sums of money, and for his money he wanted a cure with all the
flash and flourish he thought was needed. “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!” He was furious at Elisha for not providing the services
he expected.
Naaman was after a cure; Elisha offered him
healing and wholeness. Elisha knew that Naaman needed something
deeper than a physical cure; he needed the simple humility of
faith. Naaman’s journey to become healed and whole required that
he become open to all the possibilities a life of faith might
present. If you look, Naaman did a pretty good job at that—he was
open to the suggestion of a Hebrew slave girl, he was open to seeking
help even in an enemy country, he was open to meeting with the
Israelite king and with the prophet Elisha. He ran up against his
pride and almost blew it at the last moment, but eventually was open to
listening to the wisdom of his advisors: “If the prophet had
commanded you to do something difficult, you would have done it,
right? So why don’t you do this he’s asked you to do, even though
it is something simple?” In following the simple ritual of
washing seven times, Naaman found himself healed and whole once
again—“his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was
clean.”
Leprosy was also the problem faced by the man who
came to ask Jesus’ help. This man had the faith that Jesus could
make him well if he chose. Jesus was perfectly willing to give
him the health he sought, but he asked the man to keep quiet about it
because he knew the negative consequences too much publicity about such
healings would trigger—it made Jesus’ ministry that much more
difficult. Yet I’ve always wondered about the prohibition Jesus
put on this man—there’s really no way to hold back such good
news. Can you imagine being healed of some dreaded disease that
had triggered your isolation from your home, your friends, your family,
so that now you could rejoin your community? I, too, would find
it awfully hard to keep a low profile about the fact I was now healed
and whole.
So how do we develop a faithful lifestyle that will
enhance our health in body, mind and spirit? Let’s go back to
Paul’s instructions. He tells us that it matters how we live our
lives; it matters how we run the race. It matters how you prepare
and train and conduct yourself in all parts of your life. Balance is
important—not overemphasizing one aspect of life to the detriment of
others. Commitment is essential—you can’t just figure that
showing up is all you have to do. Focus is a third component of a
faithful lifestyle—you can’t wander about aimlessly on the surface of
life.
Self-control is a part of a faithful lifestyle—an
intentional, thoughtful evaluation of what you need to do, how to
proceed, what you need to leave behind as you grow.
Self-control allows you to live sensibly, make decisions even when
difficult, delay or defer or even deny gratification, and consistently
observe ethical and moral boundaries.
Living in this manner must be joined with a sense of
purpose—a clarity about who you are, and who God is, and how your life
is a part of God’s work. Without a sense of purpose, without
goals, plans, visions, strategies, you don’t get very far. Or,
you invest yourself in something to great success, but find it
meaningless.
I’ve always been fascinated by Paul’s comment about
boxing—a sport I’ve never been fond of particularly. But when
Paul talks of “beating the air,” we get a vivid picture of a boxer
wildly swinging at an opponent, using up his energy and rarely landing
an effective punch. It is important to conserve our energies for
accomplishing with effectiveness those things that build up, rather
than using our energy up on things that don’t mean much. Paul’s
words might sound like a ringing endorsement for workaholism, but I
would remind you that times of rest and renewal are also a part of a
lifestyle of the healed and whole—without such times of recreation, we
actually quickly lose our ability to be effective in
anything.
Paul’s last words about “punishing my body and
enslaving it” sound a bit over the top—and if we took them literally,
they would be. Yet it is true that living a faithful lifestyle
will probably bring you times of pain. Choices may be made that
will cause conflict and discomfort. Positions may be taken that
will invite rejection or misunderstanding. Decisions may be made
that may incite reactions of dismay and anger. But Paul says you
must stay the course.
To live the life God wants for you, you must keep
your mind and heart open to the movement of God’s Spirit, willing to be
directed, ready to be taught, eager to be healed and made whole.
There is no greater adventure, no more meaningful way to live your
days—and whether or not any specific physical illness or complaint is
cured along the way, you will find that living a life of faith in God
will bring you blessings beyond counting and a wholeness and healing
beyond price. Amen.
5 Real Road (corner of Stockdale & Real)
Bakersfield, CA 93309
Phone: 661-327-1609
FAX: 661-327-4443
Sunday Services & Church School: 10 AM
(Services last about an hour, dress is casual)
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E-mail: firstcong(at)postoffice.igalaxy.net
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