Sunday, October 10, 2021
A Fisher’s Shack
God’s Home
Also on This Shore.
On Yours?
2 Kings 5:17
Then Naaman said, ‘If not, please let two mule-loads of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will no longer offer burnt-offering or sacrifice to any god except the Lord.’
Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Words of Grace For Today
Naaman is a great Aramean warrior … who has leprosy. A slave girl taken from Israel in a raid advises Naaman’s wife that the prophet in Israel can cure him, so the Aramean king sends Naaman with great treasure to beg the king of Israel to cure him. The king is distressed and cries, ‘Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.’
Elisha hears of this and sends word to Naaman to come and be cured. Naaman comes, Elisha directs him to bathe in the Jordan seven times, and Naaman erupts in a rage at how senseless this is, and how the Jordan is no better than the rivers at home. His servants intervene and ask him if Elisha’s directions were more difficult, would he not follow them. Since they are so simple, why not follow Elisha’s prescription. Naaman relents, bathes in the Jordan, and is cured. He returns to give the great treasure he carries to the prophet of God, but Elisha will accept no gift.
Naaman responds with his insistence of two mule-loads of earth, a promise to not worship other gods (except when he brings his master to worship his master’s god).
Repeatedly in scriptures the references are earthy, mundane, even scatological.
What is clear is that God does not ask of us anything other than or less than a sacrifice of our own hearts, minds and bodies in response to all that God does for us. Bringing great treasure does nothing to win God’s approval or thank God for God’s great deeds. For what more can God for us than to cure us of our diseases for which we are cast out of the community by God’s own people? It is often said by elderly people, if we have our health, that is everything. It is not actually true, but it does reflect how health does determine the baseline of our physical lives, which does determine much about the parameters of our physical lives. The truth is that our spiritual health determines everything about the parameters of our lives, no matter our physical limitations.
No matter how great we think we are, no matter how wealthy we think we’ve become, no matter how much comfort we live in, the value of life is measured only by God’s presence with us. Everything else is at most secondarily significant and most is barely worth considering, except as a means to share God’s Grace with others.
We reach high. We reach far and wide for the greatness that will make life, all in vain.
A young fisher lived with his beloved wife in a humble fisher’s shack near the shore. The day she found out she was pregnant her husband caught the largest fish he’d ever seen or heard of. He celebrated because it would feed them for months. Then the fish spoke and offered to fulfill the fisher’s wish if he were set free. The fisher loved his wife and knew she wanted a true house for a home, and he made his wish. He arrived on shore to see their shack gone and in it’s place stood a marvellous house.
As the pregnancy progressed his wife became more and more demanding, never satisfied with her marvellous house. She wanted a queen’s castle and to rule the country. The fisher caught the magical fish again and freed him for his wish fulfilled. He arrived on shore to see their house gone and in it’s place stood a huge castle.
It was not long and his wife was again not satisfied with her castle and ruling the country. She wanted to be pope and live in the Vatican. The fisher caught the magical fish again and freed him for his wish fulfilled. He arrived on shore to see their castle gone and in it’s place stood the Vatican including St. Peter’s Cathedral.
Late in the eighth month of her pregnancy the fisher’s wife became more and more unsatisfied being pope, and she demanded that she become God and live in God’s own home in the heavens of eternal glory. The fisher caught the magical fish again and freed him for his wish fulfilled. He arrived on shore to see the Vatican gone and in it’s place stood their humble fisher’s shack. There indeed God lived … and twins, a girl and a boy, were born the next morning. (free retelling of Fisher’s Wife)
No matter how high, far or wide we reach, God sends us higher, and we inevitably fall, fall free, fall as trapeze artists with no safety net to catch us.
Doch, when we inevitably stumble into free-fall, since we know God alone saves us, we can remain calm and still, fully trusting that God will catch us, sometimes with something as simple as bathing seven times in the Jordan, and bring us home to God’s humble ‘fisher’s shack.’