It Starts at the Bottom

Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany
Lay Preacher: Lori George

Readings:
2 Kings 5:1-14
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Mark 1:40-45



Audio sermon file: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/5D166218-6727-4D1C-8EF2-26878294B67E.mp3


Naaman, Big Man on Campus, is seeking a cure for his leprosy. The messages of where and how come from a slave, a woman … and, later, his servants, the lowly and displaced. The message is to bathe in the Jordan seven times, the ritual of the antibiotic protocol for 10 days. Naaman had yet to learn that there are no shortcuts even for a BMOC. In the end, what we see is that Naaman is truly humbled as he is cured, free of charge. He has to learn the lesson that the lepers in the Gospel seem to know. They make their way through the crowd to reach Jesus. They know that IF it is His will, they WILL be cured.

In her first job interview at 16 years old, Lori looked up on the wall to see a metal plaque proclaiming, “Roll your works upon the Lord. Commit and trust them wholly. He will cause your thoughts to be agreeable with His will.” She got the job.

Well, a recession followed and with it the job. One year later and a new job, a new layoff, and a divorce. And that’s where Lori began to pray … and pray. That’s where, she says, her relationship with God began anew … at the bottom.

Whatever leprosy brings the Army General in you to its feet … in this encounter, you will be humbled. Humbled to face the circumstances that seem to convince us we are not, in the end, in control. These moments, Lori shares, so often come in moments of brokenness, in our depths, when we’re down and out.

And her experiences taught her to really feel what Pastor Johnson calls


“The hardest line in The Lord’s Prayer” … Thy will be done.

Lori ended beautifully with a line-by-line joining of the Lord’s Prayer with her walk through “the bottom” and out the other side. Summarizing it here would not be nearly as good as to listen to the end of this sermon. Click on the audio link and listen to the humbled traveler tell you her story.




What it did for me was remind me to go home and look at a framed photograph I keep on my desk during Lent. It is a photograph of two paper plates on which my daughter wrote her version of the Lord’s Prayer one Sunday in the pew at Mt. Zion when she was about 6 years old.







And that 6 year old still speaks to me through the glass ...
to remind me

“They will be don”