• II Kings 5: 1-14

(For a precis, see the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany Year B)

• Psalm 30

The psalmist rises from  utter despair– “the pit,” “Sheol”– to mountaintop confidence due to the Lord’s help.

OR

• Isaiah 66: 10-14

The Book of Isaiah includes dire judgements as well as bouts of sheer joy.  Here the text invites readers to “Rejoice” because of the prospects of a restored, prosperous, secure Jerusalem.  Vivid images and metaphors convey the Lord’s restorative work: a woman’s breast swelling with milk; a river that carries busy commerce; an indulgent mother doting on her infant.  The text assures: “your bodies shall flourish like the grass….”

• Psalm 66: 1-8

The psalmist sees the Lord at work in the “awesome” deeds of creation; in the defining miracle when the chosen walked “through the torrent on dry land;” and in the fate of other nations.

• Galatians 6: (1-6), 7-16

Paul applies his gospel to controversies vexing the churches in Galatia.  He advises his readers to deal with backsliders in “a spirit of gentleness,” minding your own failures, too, for the sake of the community of believers.  Then he leaps to a more general point: “let us work for the good of all, especially those of the family of faith.”  He then tackles a persistent controversy that threatened to split the churches: the status of of circumcised (Jews) and of the uncircumcised (non-Jews) in the church.  Paul makes an unequivocal judgment– neither status matters; only “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” matters!  “…[F]or neither circumcision nor circumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!”

• Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20

Luke seems to have adapted and expanded a story similar to Matthew’s story of the sending of the Twelve (9: 37 – 10: 16).  In Luke’s narrative, opposition to Jesus is becoming more intense and more confrontational wherever he goes.  Luke conveys a feeling that time is running out as Jesus and those gathered around him get closer to Jerusalem.  Luke writes that Jesus commissioned seventy to go “on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.”  He warns them they will be “like lambs into the midst of wolves.”  He instructs them to travel lightly and not dally with routine pleasantries.  They are to stay where they are welcomed in peace and quickly move on where they are not welcomed.  Then he gives them the purpose of their mission: “Cure the sick” and announce ‘The Kingdom  of God has come near you’.”  Tell those who are not welcoming to them and their message also that God’s reign has just come near to them.  Here Luke includes a critical saying: Anyone who hears you hears me; anyone who rejects you rejects me as well as the One who sent me!  Only Luke includes the detail that the seventy returned and reported on their successes; “Lord, even demons are subject to us in your name.”  But Jesus admonishes them not to gloat over their new found powers but to take greater satisfaction that their work advances God’s work: “your names are written in heaven, he tells them.

Especially Luke’s no nonsense account of the way Jesus commissioned his followers to go ahead of him and prepare people for his arrival emphasizes concrete results over any other priorities.  He gives them one specific task: “cure the sick.”  Paul rips into the churches in Galatia who are arguing only in the ways only church people can argue over seemingly preeminent, dire questions.  The only thing that really matters, however, Paul writes, is “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and the only thing you should be concentrated on is to “work for the good of all.”  The story of Namaan is archetypal.  Here is an accomplished, sophisticated, successful, well-connected man who understands the way the world works and has used it to his advantage.  When a simple worker in his household tells him how he can finally get cured of the one condition over which he has had no control all his life, he initially goes about it in the ways that have always worked so successfully in the past, but fail him now.  Finally, he follows the  simple directions of God’s humble servant, Elisha, and is cured.  The usual levers of power are not successful, but a simple, direct act of  faith is!  Today’s readings and gospel elevate specific actions and certain results over every other consideration.

Religion in Western Modernity has been problematized by the ideologies of philosophies, sociologies, sciences and politics.  Huge battles have been waged over what were presumed to be ultimate theological questions by believers and even by non-believers!  Churches became obsessed with these battles within their own communities, with other Christian communities and with secular forces.  To which, we can easily imagine, Paul would say– none of that finally matters!

Ludwig Wittgenstien’s life’s work included nothing less than a thorough, total re-examination of the foundations of Western ways of thinking.  He wrote that we have become seduced (“bewitched”) by the elixir of words and concepts so much that we in the West privilege abstractions over reality, words over specific individuals, specific things and specific actions; the metaphysical over the actual.  In his short, rich study Theology After Wittgenstein, Fergus Kerr summarizes: “What is primary and foundational, according to Wittgenstein, is … neither ideas nor beliefs nor any other class of mere events, but human beings in a multiplicity of transactions with one another.” (p. 119)  Wittgenstein himself writes in Culture and Value: “The point is that sound doctrine need not take hold of you; you can follow it as you would a doctor’s prescription– But here you need something to move you and turn you in a new direction.”  (We hear the words of Paul echoing: none of the other stuff matters, “a new creation is everything.”)  Wittgenstein is not saying that “doctrine” does not matter, it’s just not to let it become an obsession that obliterates real, actual results in real, specif people we know and can name, including ourselves.  Doctrine is helpful, but it is not a substitute for action that gets the results biblical narratives always prioritize– healing, relief, justice, care.

In today’s gospel, Jesus gave one, simple directive: “Cure the sick.”  Ignore everything else and when you are at work accomplishing God’s work, inform any you encounter that they have just seen God’s work in the world up close and personal.  Paul brushes aside every controversy, including one that threatened to tear the church apart,  and elevates the “cross of Christ” and “a new creation” above every other distraction.  Having tried all the usual ways of the world that had worked so well thus far in his life, Namaan finally followed the simple instructions of God’s messenger, fulfilling one simple act of faith, and was healed!  Actions/results matter most, because that is when and where “the Kingdom is near.”