The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for July 8, 2007

Texts: 2 Kings 5:1-14/Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Title: “Out of Network”

              A friend of mine was traveling out of town when he fell ill.  A late night trip to the emergency room disclosed that he needed immediate surgery to relieve a blockage in his lower intestine.  The procedure was successful, and in a matter of days he was released and on his way back home.

              You and I know that medical care of any sort generates paperwork, particularly when more than one physician and a hospital stay is involved.  Within a month after his surgery a sheaf of paperwork descended on my friend. 

             We have all received the kind of paperwork I am talking about, and frankly it can be a daunting challenge to make heads or tails of it.  Can’t it?  A series of abbreviations and codes and unpronounceable terms to contend with, most of us, most of the time, are left with no alternative but to accept on faith that the procedures being billed for actually took place.

             When the paperwork for his surgery arrived at my friends home the first thing he wanted to know---no surprise here---was how much of his medical care was covered by his insurance plan. 

Those of us who have medical insurance know that there are a lot of insurance products from which to choose. The skyrocketing costs for medical care have seen the emergence of a number of these products. 

             Many of us are members of HMO’s (health maintenance organizations) or PPO’s (preferred provider organizations). These organizations offer special economies to those of us who are enrolled those plans.  The economies are derived through the special arrangements the HMO’s and the PPO’s make with doctors and hospitals who choose to affiliate with their programs.

            My friend was a member of an HMO in his city, but inasmuch as his surgery took place out of his city, the HMO would only cover a percentage of the medical care he received. His billing statement listed line after line of “out of network” charges.

             Ever been “out of network?”  It is not a good place to be unless you have a huge bank account. Most of us are forced to swallow hard when we see the charges our HMO or PPO has not covered even within the network.  Out of network charges are almost impossible to  swallow.

             Being in tight with the king as our friend commander Naaman in our first lesson was, the price of health care wasn’t really an issue.  Problem was, however, that all the king’s money could not buy a cure for his commander’s affliction.  Leprosy is a “chronic infectious disease that attacks the skin, flesh, and nerves.  It is characterized by ulcers, white scaly scabs, and deformities which eventually cause the loss of sensation.”  Left untreated the disease can be fatal.

             Because the disease is highly infectious, the movement of lepers among the uninfected population has, from ancient times, been highly restricted.  You have heard of leper colonies where the diseased have been sequestered.  I understand there was, until quite recently, a sanitarium for lepers right here in Louisiana.  

             Naaman was too valuable to the king to  be locked up in a leper colony. But he would not survive long without a cure.  Incapacity and death were inevitable. 

In those dire straits any of us would have been willing to do what Naaman did.  He acted on a lead, and from the most unlikely source.

            Scripture tells us that there was a servant in Naaman’s household, a young girl taken captive in Israel, who was bold enough to offer her counsel: “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria (the northern kingdom of Israel). He would cure him of his leprosy.” 

            Desperation prompts us to act in ways we wouldn’t conceive of acting under other circumstances.  Naaman, undoubtedly a proud man, wasn’t a man to be swayed by the words of a mere servant to his wife.  But what other options did he have? 

              Though Samaria wasn’t all that distant from the land in which Naaman resided, it was, however, “out of network.” The authority of Naaman’s benefactor, the king, didn’t extend to Samaria.  That fact proved no hindrance to the king, however, because he had sufficient wealth to pay for “out of network” services.

               Accompanied by donkeys loaded with silver, gold, and other valuables, Naaman headed out to Samaria. Recall how the king of Israel greeted the arrival of Naaman?  He was scared to death.  No way he had it within his power to cure leprosy. Speculating that Naaman’s king was using Naaman’s leprosy as a pretext to pick a fight, the king of Israel was at wits end.

               Enter the prophet Elisha on the scene.  The prophets of God were sent to bail out the kings of Israel time and time again.  Many times their counsel went unheeded.  Not this time, however.  The king of Israel was desperate.  If Elisha could do something, anything, to pull his chestnuts out of the fire, the king wasn’t going to get in the way.

              When you resign yourself to absorbing the lost time and the cost of going out of network, you expect compensation in kind.  The person who incurs the costs of a trip to the Mayo Clinic or M. D. Anderson does so with elevated expectations.  That person expects to receive services and other considerations not available at home.

             Dirty with the grime of travel, donkeys saddled with a small fortune in gold, silver, and other valuables, Naaman presented himself to the prophet Elisha with certain expectations in place. His expectations were deflated in short order.

             Suppose you were in his place. You incurred the expense of making the trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota only to have an office assistant, not a resident, not an intern, but an office assistant of the specialist you were planning to see, come out, hand you a couple of pills, and send you on your way. Indignant at the brush off, you wouldn’t stand for that kind of treatment.  Not for a minute.

            Naaman, victorious commander, accustomed to having his way, reacted to his snub from Elisha as any of us would. Elisha sent a servant out with a message: “Wash in the Jordan seven times?”  Naaman: “Forget about it. I didn’t come to Israel to wash in a river, not when I could wash in purer waters back home.”   Dissuaded by his servants from returning home forthwith, he washed himself in the Jordan, emerging from those waters cured.

             Naaman traveled out of network to be healed by the God of Israel.  Yet the one who gave us the record of the great commander’s cure in 1 Kings was intent on making another more important point, that being that Israel’s God reigns as the sovereign head of all nations, Lord of all people.

                That lesson was a lesson the people of Israel never really learned. God’s chosen people, who through their disobedience constantly broke covenant with God, couldn’t bring themselves to believe that God would uphold the covenant. It was a matter of trust, and they really couldn’t bring themselves to trust God.

              God attempted to demonstrate through Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, and a whole host of prophets that Israel was his people, his network for reaching out to the world, but the Israelites chose to live out of network instead.      

                 However, God in each generation preserves for himself a faithful remnant to maintain his network. A little Israelite servant girl taken captive on a raid remembered her God and sent the great Naaman to God’s prophet Elisha to be healed.

              Held captive in the household of foreigners who maintained their own religious practices and worshiped their own gods, we do not know the obstacles she must of overcome in maintaining her faith, but maintain her faith she did.  And when the time came she acted from her faith.

                It is upon the foundation of faithfulness laid by generations of people like the servant girl in our lesson that the church was built.  We are only worshiping here today because this person here and that person over there knew enough about God, and cared enough about God, to expand his network.

                  That network of relationship and faithfulness is terribly important. As the Gospel of Matthew reports, when the risen Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection he charged them to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  The Church hasn’t always honored that commission as its first order priority, but be assured that this church exists only insofar as the commission WAS perceived somewhere along the line to be a priority worth acting upon.  The network of faith Jesus created would expand from the disciples, and Jesus’ other followers, outward into the Mediterranean Basin and beyond.

                In our baptisms we are received into the network, received into the household of faith that honors Jesus Christ as its head. In the communion we will share together

Christ’s unswerving commitment to that network of faith is demonstrated, the bread symbolizing his broken body, the cup, his blood shed for us. Christ promised to be with us when we gather at the table, taking his place at the table’s head.

              We worship a God who chose to come to us in human flesh, who willingly surrendered his life that we might be released from bondage to sin.  We worship a God who is working still, yet often we carry on as if God is out of network. Not here present and presiding at the head of the table, not here present to hear our prayers, not here present to hear our confession, not here present to help us carry our burdens. 

              The idea of an out of network God, transcendent, high and lifted up stationed out of human experience, is many times easier for us to accept than God immanent, here with us now.  Out of network puts us in control, reaching out to God and reminding God when and on what terms we want relationship.

              With what God are you in relationship? Is your God out of network, a God to whom you show a glimpse of your life on Sunday morning, not to be invited back by you until next Sunday or when some crisis descends?

              With what God are you in relationship?  A God expected to stand fast and remain on call until needed?

              With what God are you in relationship?  Is it the compliant God too polite to scold and make inconvenient demands?

              With what God are you in relationship?  Is it a God who uses guilt and threat to keep you in line?   

              With what God are you in relationship?  Is it the God who requires no more from you than you be “spiritual,” whatever that means. 

              With what God are you in relationship?  The better question might be, to whom do you pray, and what, if anything, do you expect in praying?

              To whom do you pray, and what, if anything, do you expect in praying? There is God who is self-disclosing, a God who created all that is, and in loving us formed a nation through whom his will was discovered.  He gave that nation commandments, prophets, covenants, all the things required for a rich and fulfilling life.

              Somewhere along the line the people got the notion that God was out of network, remote, a God to accept or reject as convenience dictated.  The people had it wrong, the out of network God was a God of their own creating.  The true God of Israel was the God whom the servant girl worshiped, a God to whom she pointed in full confidence that her God would act.

              With what God are you in relationship?  Could it be the God of Israel, the father of our Lord Jesus, who through the Holy Spirit is present with us now?  Or is your God out of network, consigned by you to some regal seat in the heavens, a God who minds his manners, too polite to come calling until invited? If that is your God, or resembles your God, I urge you to get better acquainted with God’s word, be more regular in worship and prayer. God wants us to know him for who he is.

PRAYER

              O God, we assemble once again on the Sabbath, the seventh day, the day upon which you rested.  We have come to voice our thanksgiving and praise.  Even as we worship we blend our voices with those of past generations who have offered thanksgiving and praise in this space.  In solidarity with them, like them children of the covenant, O God, we would honor you not merely in voice, but we pray that all we do in deed may be consistent with your holy will. 

             Wounds suffered in the storm continue heal, and restoration of our buildings moves forward. O God, we are grateful for your sustaining presence throughout these long, challenging months.  We lift up the many partners across the church who continue to pray for us and offer financial and other means of support. We give thanks for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the efforts of other agencies of the national church that are committed to our restoration and welfare. The witness of the church reminds us that we, O God, are the body of Christ, and that when one part of the body suffers, all suffer.  Even as we have received, O Lord, may the grace extended to us in so many forms, prompt our compassion and generosity for others.

                  O God, as immigration bills continue to be debated in Congress we pray for those who have entered our nation illegally, and live each day facing the very real prospect of deportation. Leaving home and kin behind, they have left familiar surrounding where few opportunities exist, to seek opportunity in this land. O Christ, for whom each child of God’s creating is brother and sister, may your example be reflected in our actions toward the least in your kingdom.  May our disposition to erect walls and create barriers, O God, give way before the greater claims you make on us as disciples of Christ.

                     The tragic fallout from human folly continues to mount as wars blight our world.  Abide, dear God, with those forced to endure the suffering and heartache that war entails.  The tally of the widowed, orphaned, maimed, and killed mounts with no end in sight, even as the sons and daughters of this land step into the fray. Lord, in your mercy, help us find the peace which has proven to be so illusive. Grant courage and wisdom to those willing  to undertake new initiatives for peace and reconciliation.     

                  Even, O lord, as we so recently celebrated the gift of independence, we honor the memory of the women and men who have fought and died to secure and preserve it. We pray for those in our day who are sworn to uphold the Constitution, those serving in the three branches of government. Even as partisan battles are waged we pray that the men and women charged to maintain the nation’s domestic and foreign affairs may act consistent with the nation’s founding principles.  For many generations a beacon of hope to immigrants from throughout the world, may our nation continue to fulfill the dreams of those yearning to live free.

                  O God, you know us far better than we know ourselves. No thought we maintain, no ambition we harbor, is concealed from you.  Have mercy on us for the words and actions through which we deny you to the world.  May our lives be reflect your glory, our ambitions grounded on the solid rock of Christ our living Savior. Embolden us to accept the call to take your name out of network, O God, to live our lives in such a manner that those who have not experienced your truth and freedom may be given access to your altar. For Christ’s sake, and in his name we pray…