Kingdom Building
July 2, 2019
Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-14
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’ But Naaman became angry and went away, 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? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?’ He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, ‘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”?’ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. –2 Kings 5:9-14
It seems that what we now call privilege existed at least as far back as the 12th century BC. A man named Naaman coming to be healed from leprosy is insulted because the healer sent a messenger with the means of healing rather than coming himself. The man even thought his rivers were better than the Jordan! The problem with privilege is that it is so much a part of our very being we cannot discern that it exists. We cannot purge ourselves of privilege if we cannot see it. We cannot be one in Christ if we cannot rid ourselves of thinking we are intrinsically better than some of God’s other children.
The sad thing about privilege is that ultimately no one can live up to being better than anyone else and it leads to the need to set up artificial measures of worth that are meaningless, but that we incorporate them into our personas and our culture. Bullies are probably the best example of this.
God’s love is all we need and all anyone needs to be a person of worth and it is ours unconditionally. For those us who know and accept that we are called to share that good news with those who may not know God’s love.
Prayer:
Open my eyes that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready, my God, Thy will to see;
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit Divine!* Amen
*First verse and chorus of Open my Eyes by Clara H. Scott https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/807
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.